Norkom celebrated its first year on the Dublin and London stock exchanges by posting a 38% revenue surge to 25m after gaining 17 new clients in the same period, including Western Union, Credit Agricole and Experian. The group saw its profit margin grow from 60% to 65% and diluted earnings per share increased 43% to 0.0408 (4.08c).

Norkom has amassed net assets worth 31.9m compared to 10m at the time of its IPO last June, and with almost 30m cash now in the bank, is Norkom looking at acquisitions to consolidate its marginal market leadership in the financial crime software space ahead of competitors such as Mantas and Fortent?

"We have an active program looking at possible acquisitions, " said chief executive Paul Kerley. "There's no immediate transaction coming through but we do have the war chest to do so . . .or leverage other funds."

A new report issued by OpRisk & Compliance magazine last week ranked Norkom as the top antimoney laundering software firm in Europe with 18.7% market share, nearly 10% more than second-placed Sungard. Norkom said the Third EU Money Laundering Directive and other riskbased regulations were driving demand for its Customer Due Diligence (CDD) product, while escalating operational losses due to financial crime were boosting sales of its Enterprise Investigation Management (EID) software.

Norkom saw 35% revenue growth in North America, 50% in Europe, and 15% percent in the Asia-Pacific region after it set up an office in Sydney there earlier this year.

The group employs 210 staff, with 135 based in Ireland and Britain. Staff numbers have grown by more than 50% over the financial year and most hirings were sales staff to facilitate Norkom's direct sales model.