Sterne Stackhouse Inc. Earns $1.32 Million in 1st Quarter, 2004
March 23rd, 2004 - Calgary, Canada -- Sterne Stackhouse Inc. ("SSI") (SSX:TSX) today announced its unaudited financial results for the 1st Quarter, ended January 31st, 2004. Complete financial results can be found in SSI's online Investor Relations section available at www.sternestackhouse.com.
CEO'S REPORT TO SHAREHOLDERS
As in past years, there is only a matter of days between our 2003 Annual Report and the reporting of 1st Quarter, 2004. Consequently, it would be redundant to repeat all of the information again, and shareholders are referred to the CEO's Message to Shareholders in the 2003 Annual Report, as a current representation of where the Company is today.
Although it was truly a landmark deal for the Company, it has already been well documented that SSI successfully accelerated the closing of the sale of the Canadian Petro-LAB software to Qbyte/IBM Canada, on December 18th, 2003. As a result, the Company received a cash payment of $1,591,000, which is reflected in this quarterly report.
Apart from our continuing research and development activity reflected on SSI's new web-site, the other matter of significance is the Company's concentration and energy expended on successfully developing effective distribution channels for the Company's considerable stores of robust software. A good example of this is our rapidly evolving relationship with Aspen Technology, Inc., which was featured in our 2003 Annual Report, as follows:
Aspen Technology, Inc.
Since the summer of 2003, we have been working diligently with Aspen Technology, Inc. (AspenTech). There have been no dramatic developments to report on, until now. Trite as it is to say, the building of good, solid relationships is often done in many "baby-steps". Cultures have to be compatible, and the only way to find that out is to actually work together.
Working with AspenTech became more practical and compelling since AspenTech acquired a strong, Calgary-based company, Hyprotech, Ltd., in 2002. Hyprotech, more than 25 years old, was exceedingly successful specializing in oil and gas software and services on an international basis. For more information about AspenTech's acquisition of Hyprotech, Ltd. and AspenTech's world-wide annual revenues, which in fiscal 2003 exceeded $320 Million USD, please refer to www.aspentech.com.
The consolidated Calgary offices of AspenTech/Hyprotech are only three blocks from ours, creating easy, mutual access to each other's personnel. AspenTech develops in a Microsoft .Net environment, and we are continuing to port our Labrador tools to .Net, in addition to our existing Labrador JAVA versions.
As AspenTech trades on the NASDAQ
Exchange (AZPN:NASDAQ), and information dissemination is governed accordingly,
the following information has been prepared by AspenTech for release in the 2003
Annual Report:
"AspenTech Partnership with Labrador Technologies"
"Aspen Technology has established a new partnership with Labrador Technologies, a division of Sterne Stackhouse Inc., to provide enhanced capabilities for AspenTech's production asset management solution for the oil & gas industry. Under the partnership agreement, Labrador's Well-LAB production and well test data-flow system will be available as an add-on module for the Aspen AssetBuilder modeling software.
Well-LAB will enable companies using Aspen AssetBuilder to access a wide range of commercial and proprietary oil & gas production data sources to feed its integrated asset simulation models. It automates the process of connecting to real-time production and well test databases that exist within, or external to, an organization. The Well-LAB module is currently in beta test."
Financial Summary
Complete financial results can be found in the SSI Investor Relations section of www.sternestackhouse.com.
| Three Months Ended | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 31 2004 | January 31 2003 | ||||
| Revenue | $ | - | $ | 383,497 | |
| Expenses | 330,854 | 481,788 | |||
| Loss from Operations | (330,854) | (98,291) |
|||
| Other income: Gain on sale of Petro-LAB | 1,653,849 | - | |||
| Net income (loss) | 1,322,995 | (98,291) |
|||
| Net income (loss) per share | 0.16 | (0.01) | Outstanding shares | 8,249,685 | 8,549,685 |
About SSI
Since,
1981, Sterne Stackhouse Inc. has been building connections between companies and
the data they invest in. SSI develops data retrieval, reporting, and
analysis, software, specializing in Data-Flow Management (DFM)
solutions, primarily for the Oil and Gas industry.
Labrador
Technologies, a division of SSI, has the ability to retrieve and deliver data to
the right place, at the right time. Whether delivering data to a Labrador
application, a third-party application, an enterprise service bus, or a portal,
Labrador Technologies gets the job done efficiently.
Labrador
Technologies' DFM software and services help software vendors, data vendors,
and company developers deliver data to their target audiences by 'plugging'
users in, and eliminating the need for expensive and ongoing manual
intervention.
SSI (www.sternestackhouse.com) trades on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX.V) under the ticker symbol SSX.
For more information contact:
Darryl Stackhouse
President & CFO
Sterne Stackhouse Inc.
403.263.6325
Labrador is a registered trademark of Sterne Stackhouse Inc. in Canada and the United States and/or other countries, and Petro-LAB is a registered trademark of IBM Canada.
This release may contain forward-looking statements with risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results to differ materially from those intended or anticipated by the Company. The Toronto Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. NOT FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA