Administrators appointed to Pisces

Pisces Group, a provider of mortgage comparison and lodgement software to mortgage brokers, appointed Robert Moodie of Rodgers Reidy Chartered Accountants as administrator on Monday.

John Hewson, chair of the board of Pisces, told The Australian the group had been placed in administration while the group was awaiting the completion of two "significant deals".

"Basically the situation is that they've been negotiating on two significant deals and they just need more time to complete that negotiation," Hewson told the newspaper. "That is why one of the companies was put into administration."

Pisces has other operational businesses outside of the mortgage sector, according to profile information at its website, including marketing and messaging firm Newsnet and business technology integrator Starcom.

Financial statements for 2008, and signed by directors in October, suggest that the mortgage business was not adversely affected by Australia's version of the credit shock so the trading problems may relate to non-mortgage activities.

The company reported a loss of $13.5 million in the year to June 2008.

A write-down or impairments of $9.7 million on investments, which appears to relate to the firm's own technology platforms, explains most of this loss. Pisces also incurred restructuring costs of $1.3 million.

The group also incurred operating losses of more than $1 million with higher costs across the board.
Pisces reported revenue of $8.8 million in 2008 according to the financial statements, down from $10.1 million in 2007. Interestingly, an early 2008 media release said the group turned over $15.3 million in the year to June 2007.