Santander sticks by ThinkSmart
ThinkSmart, a listed point of sales computer and office equipment financer, continues with its international expansion plan by yesterday announcing a foray into Italy.Customer contracts for the 16 Italian stores will be funded by Banco Santander, with whom ThinkSmart trades in Spain.ThinkSmart has relationships in Australia including Dick Smiths, JB HiFi and Officeworks, covering around 550 outlets.In the United Kingdom ThinkSmart markets point of sale finance at PC World, with 160 outlets, and in Spain through PC City with 36 outlets.ThinkSmart also has a contract with the United States' chain store Office Depot, to offer point of sales funding across nearly 1200 North American stores. The Home Depot rollout will begin with stage one operating in 21 Florida stores in the June 2008 quarter, with stage two targeted to expand to 132 Florida stores.Stage three is targeted to complete expansion to every Home Depot store by quarter one 2009, with funding secured in a two-year agreement with a non-disclosed top 20 US bank.The company marginally outperformed full year prospectus forecasts in February reporting a $5.1 million net profit after tax, though only after ignoring amortisation and last year's listing costs. Britain accounts for approximately 46 per cent of volume and Spain 13 per cent, with Australia 41 per cent. The average transaction value for Australia was five per cent below forecast, the United Kingdom two per cent below and Spain nine per cent below.No revenue estimates from Italy are included in ThinkSmart's prospectus for its listing last year.