Fort expects to list on the BSE in the first quarter of next year

Fort, the cyber security company of the Bittnet Group, concluded a private placement through which it collected from investors about 1.67 million lei, according to a Bittnet report published yesterday on the website of the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB).

Fort implements solutions and services to protect customers' digital assets and defend against cyber threats.

The placement took place between November 20 and December 5, following the market operation resulting in a valuation of the company of 51 million lei, according to the BVB report.

"Analyzing the subscription orders from the perspective of meeting the criteria for admission to trading on the AeRO-SMT market, the Board of Directors of Fort decided to successfully close the placement at the price of 50 lei per share. Thus, the subscriptions of 34 investors were accepted and it was decided to increase the company's capital by the amount of 1.67 million lei, divided into 3,352.7 lei share capital and 1.67 million lei issue premium. Following the placement, the market valuation of Fort is 51 million lei, and the holding of Bittnet is valued at approximately 30.6 million lei, compared to the valuation of the asset in the issuer's accounting of 12 million lei. This difference in value will not be reflected in any way in the issuer's accounting," the report states.

According to the document, in the following period, Fort will continue the listing process by registering the capital increase at the Trade Registry. The intermediary of the private placement was Tradeville, which will also assist Fort in the process of admission to trading on the AeRO-SMT market of the Bucharest Stock Exchange, a process expected to be completed in the first quarter of next year.

Fort is the company around which the cyber security pillar of the Bittnet Group is organized, being led by Vladimir Ghiţă.

For the first nine months of the year, revenues from contracts with Fort's customers amounted to 12.1 million lei, 16% above those in the January-September 2022 period, while the cost of sales was 7.8 million lei , up 21%. Sales/distribution expenses amounted to 0.53 million lei, 125% more than in the first three quarters of last year, while administrative expenses were 1.44 million lei, up 8.5%.

Operating profit amounted to almost 2.3 million lei, 4.2% below that of the first nine months of last year, of 2.4 million lei, according to Bittnet's latest quarterly report.