SSH Communications Security as an investment target

Stocks
,
537

"Based on the authorization to acquire own shares, a maximum of 2,000,000 of the company’s own shares may be acquired using funds belonging to the company’s unrestricted equity. Own shares may also be acquired otherwise than in proportion to the shares held by the shareholders (directed acquisition).

The purchase price of the shares shall be at most the highest price paid for the company’s share in public trading at the time of acquisition.

The Board of Directors proposes that the authorization to acquire own shares be used, among other things, to develop the company’s capital structure, to finance and execute corporate acquisitions and other arrangements, to implement the company’s share-based incentive schemes, or otherwise to be held by the company, re-transferred, or cancelled. The acquisition of shares reduces the company’s distributable unrestricted equity.

Decisions on the acquisition of own shares may not be made such that the aggregate amount of own shares held or pledged by the company or its subsidiaries exceeds one-tenth of all shares. The Board of Directors decides on all other matters related to the acquisition of shares."
Apparently, the company intends to boost trading activity.

538

I have become familiar with them as an arb hunter in dual-listed stocks (e.g., Nexstim when it was still listed in Stockholm, they played between the two), but they have apparently been better known in the role of a market maker, as you mentioned?
If they were acting as a market maker, there should be a stock exchange release regarding the commencement of market making.

1 Like
539

Also been an underwriter for share issues in several cases.

1 Like
541

This same authorization is found in every general meeting of every company.

2 Likes
542

Ok, thanks – you confirmed that no market making agreement is in place.

Doesn’t fit arbitrage or a rights issue guarantee either.

Either way – we’re not talking about a committed shareholder here, and that’s just pocket change. Probably some minor positioning involved since none of the aforementioned options fit this case.

545
2 Likes
547

Lago has also served short sellers by lending them shares, but this is unlikely to be the case here given the small amounts involved. Not that SSH couldn’t attract some interest as a short target when the valuation is high and growth isn’t really taking off, even though there is quite a lot of buzz at times.

2 Likes
548

I’ve been wondering about something lately regarding the largest owners and, in connection to that, my own misconception about Timo Syrjälä’s ownership, since I had previously missed (or forgotten) that Juha Mikkonen’s holding was twice as large as I had calculated, which then caused a shortfall in Syrjälä’s ownership: Syrjälä flagged (via Acme) on June 21, 2016, that his ownership stake had exceeded the 5% disclosure threshold, but he hasn’t flagged the stake falling below 5%, and I’ve been left wondering about it. No one on the KL side was interested, and probably no one here either, but it just happens to puzzle me.
Syrjälä owns over 300k in his own name, and there are 1.2M shares left in the register when you subtract the holdings of Accendo and Mikkonen’s sons, meaning it remains well below the required 2,040,652. I assume they can’t be hidden anywhere else anymore?

Should I send a message to Rami about this… it’s not a major violation, but those flagging notifications should be handled properly… I don’t have Syrjälä’s contact information.

549

SSH Communications Security reorganizes its organization to accelerate efficiency and growth

3 Likes
550

That was an informative and promising summary of the early part of the year and the outlook ahead from Raulas. The organizational change seems like a logical solution that also creates significant added value for the customer. It remains to be seen whether Raulas will be appointed as the permanent CEO. Based on a few interviews, he seems like a very strong candidate.

https://www.redeye.se/research/997672/ssh-communications-security-interview-with-interim-ceo-rami-raulas (Requires free registration/login)

1 Like
551

New appointment for a growing business area.

1 Like
552

Statutory negotiations based on the previously announced organizational restructuring. If the reductions are implemented in full (15 people), we are talking about a fairly significant measure. It’s in the magnitude of 10% of the entire workforce. The annual cost impact is likely somewhere around EUR 1.5 million.

Raulas seems to be handling the acting CEO duties with a very firm grip. Waiting for appointment news…

5 Likes
553

I sent a message to Rami and now the owner listing has been corrected, so I can sleep soundly from now on :sleeping_face:

SSH largest owners @ 2024-04-26

8 Likes
554

The new Board member, Tuomo Louhivuori, bought about 10,000 shares :clap:

10 Likes
556

https://www.verkkouutiset.fi/a/aika-synkka-tilanne-vain-murto-osa-kriittisen-infrastruktuurin-toimijoista-varautunut-uuteen-uhkaan/#70da507a

4 Likes
557

SSH awarded ISO 27001 certification for Information Security Management Systems

SSH Communications Security Corp. | Press Release | June 20, 2024, at 10:00:00 EEST

Leading cybersecurity solution provider SSH Communications Security (SSH) announced today that it has achieved ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification, the international standard for information security management systems (ISMS).

ISO/IEC 27001:2022 is the world’s most widely used information security standard, developed and published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). The certification was granted by DNV Oy, an independent assurance and risk management expert. The certification covers SSH’s offices in Helsinki, New York, and Singapore.

“The ISO/IEC 27001 standard specifies the detailed requirements for establishing, implementing, maintaining, monitoring, and improving an organization’s information security management system. SSH’s pursuit of ISO/IEC certification reflects the company’s commitment to proactively managing and protecting data and assets, as well as ensuring compliance with legal requirements related to information security. Receiving the certificate is a testament to meeting these requirements,” says Markus Ilmonen, Lead Auditor at DNV Business Assurance Finland Oy Ab.

SSH was well-prepared for the process, having implemented many of the practices required for certification even before the formal process began. The company’s customer base includes numerous Fortune 500 companies that trust SSH’s products and expertise to secure critical data transfer, communications, and access management.

“Our solutions have already been approved for the demanding Traficom TL II and TL IV security classifications. In addition, the information security level of our operations has been verified in accordance with the Facility Security Clearance (FSC) and its underlying framework, and personnel working on client projects have undergone security clearances. ISO/IEC 27001:2022 is an important addition to the quality and reliability of our operations as part of our mission to be the ‘Defense Forces of National Security,’” says interim CEO Rami Raulas. “I am very pleased that we have now also received the official seal of approval for our information security management system,” he continues.

“Best of all, SSH’s own product portfolio played a key role in passing the rigorous audit,” Raulas states. “Our offering includes the PrivX Zero Trust Suite access management solution for critical assets, the Secure Collaboration Suite 2024, which encrypts instant messages, rooms, video calls, and emails, as well as solutions enabling quantum-safe data transfers,” Raulas continues.

5 Likes
558

SSH Communications Security Oyj | Press Release | 02.07.2024 at 10:30:00 EEST

SSH Communications Security announces that its quantum-secure NQX data encryption version 2.2.9 has received national certification for security level TL III (Confidential). The three-year certification was granted by Traficom’s NCSA function, which is the official approver of encryption products in Finland.

NQX meets the needs of national security authorities and other organizations as they transfer vast amounts of data between data centers, industrial environments, branch offices, and networks quantum-securely. Unlike many competing products, NQX is capable of supporting high data transfer speeds even when establishing quantum-secure connections.

Thanks to its crypto-agility, the solution is easy to update to both the latest quantum-secure and classical algorithms, as the product supports them side by side. Due to its scalability, NQX can be used to establish large-scale connections between multiple networks or factories while managing them centrally. The product’s internal key management and certificate-based authentication ensure that all encryption-related elements remain in the organization’s own hands.

“We must prepare for the threat posed by quantum computers now. In the USA, quantum security is already the letter of the law; in the EU and Asia, authorities have published their own recommendations on the subject, and now in Finland, Traficom is urging a transition to quantum-secure encryption algorithms,” says interim CEO Rami Raulas.

“We led the development of quantum-secure software and operations in the award-winning PQC Finland project as early as four years ago. We are part of the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Post-Quantum Cryptography Building Block Consortium, which develops quantum-secure solutions in the United States and elsewhere. The level of our information security has been verified according to a facility security clearance, and we are an ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certified company. Furthermore, SSH and the Finnish state have a joint venture – Kyberleijona Oy – which ensures that national encryption technology remains in Finland. Earning the TL III security classification is a significant addition to our capabilities, as our mission is to be the ‘defense forces of national security’,” Raulas continues.

5 Likes
559

Version 3.0 of SSH’s Quantum-Secure NQX Encryptor is More Efficient, Scalable, and Secure than Before

SSH Communications Security Plc | Press Release | July 8, 2024, at 10:00:00 EEST

SSH Communications Security announces that its quantum-secure NQX data encryption solution has been updated to version 3.0. The new version offers even higher performance, supports the latest quantum-secure cryptographic algorithms, and enables customers to manage large numbers of connections between networks, data centers, and factories.

The NQX software meets the needs of national security authorities and other organizations as they transfer vast amounts of data between data centers, industrial environments, offices, and networks in a quantum-secure manner. Unlike many competing products, NQX is capable of supporting high data transfer speeds even when establishing quantum-secure connections.

“Data protected with classical encryption methods is constantly being harvested to be decrypted later once a capable quantum computer becomes a reality,” says SSH’s interim CEO Rami Raulas. “With the NQX solution, even unencrypted data can be protected by a quantum-secure tunnel, keeping it safe from current and future decryption attempts. The solution allows data to be transferred at deeper layers of the network topology, e.g., the Data Link Layer (Layer 2) and the Network Layer (Layer 3). This way, the information travels secured over the open internet, leaving no trace on public servers or nodes. Furthermore, the encryption keys remain in the organization’s own hands,” Raulas states.

Suvi Lampila, SSH Fellow and member of the NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography Building Block consortium, explains further: “NQX’s hybrid key exchange is implemented so that customers can easily choose the options for establishing quantum-secure connections that suit their needs. Protecting encryption keys with the FrodoKEM PQC key exchange algorithm is a more conservative option recommended in Central Europe. Kyber, on the other hand, is a faster algorithm that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has selected as the future ML-KEM standard in the United States.”

The key features of NQX 3.0 are:

  • Protects cryptographic key exchange in a quantum-secure manner, supporting the latest PQC key exchange algorithms, FrodoKEM and Kyber.

  • The product’s crypto-agility ensures that customers will continue to have easy access to the latest PQC algorithms as they evolve.

  • A hybrid operational model ensures that classical and quantum-secure algorithms work both side-by-side and together.

  • 100Gbps-level Ethernet support for establishing data transfer connections between data centers.

  • A revamped management system enhances the operation of even complex network topologies.

You can find more information about NQX here.

5 Likes
560

Revenue grew by 4.1%, EBITDA was 0.5 million
April–June 2024:
· Revenue was EUR 5.1 million (4.9 million)
· EBITDA was EUR 0.5 million (EUR 0.1 million)
· Operating loss was EUR -0.5 million (EUR -0.7 million)
· Net loss was EUR -0.6 million (EUR -0.9 million)
· Earnings per share were EUR -0.06 (EUR -0.03)
January–June 2024:
· Revenue was EUR 10.1 million (9.6 million)
· EBITDA was EUR 0.7 million (EUR 0.3 million)
· Operating loss was EUR -1.2 million (EUR -1.4 million)
· Net loss was EUR -1.4 million (EUR -1.8 million)
· Earnings per share were EUR -0.08 (EUR -0.06)

Cash flow from operations was EUR 0.2 million (EUR 0.5 million). The company’s equity ratio was 49.1% (51.6%), and liquid assets were EUR 2.1 million (EUR 2.6 million).

7 Likes
561
7 Likes