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Stockreporter Updates Strong Buy Recommendation and Confirms Year 2000 $12 Target Price for Winners Internet Network, Inc. (WINR) http://woi4.e-7.com/english/co/winr/first.html
Stockreporter > WINR > 02/15/2000
Stockreporter Updates Strong Buy Recommendation and Confirms Year 2000 $12 Target Price for Winners Internet Network, Inc. (WINR) ST. AUGUSTINE, FL: Winners Internet Network, Inc. (OTC BB: WINR), a dynamic e-commerce integrator (www.winr.net), today received an updated strong buy recommendation confirming a $12 year 2000 price target from Stockreporter, a leading European financial Internet publication at www.stockreporter.de. Stockreporter said this provides strong profit opportunities from the current $5.00 WINR share price.
Stockreporter issued the WINR update in response to significant developments that strengthen the Company’s near- and long-term prospects. These include the expansion of its service offering into Internet banking and brokering. This latest news comes through official approval for the firm’s share participation in a license (expected in the second quarter of this year) for the new European-focused Cyberbank – in which WINR will take a majority ownership position.
"While investors who followed our initial recommendation of Winners Internet Network profited substantially, even greater investment returns are possible in the next few months as WINR leverages its unique online financial transaction software across the e-commerce, B2B and Internet banking/brokering sectors," said Torsten Prochnow. "The Company is positioned with virtually no direct competition in the European Internet banking and brokering industry since WINR offers an unparalleled level of encryption, privacy and security for online financial transactions.

"We expect the Company to dramatically increase revenues and earnings this year through strategic acquisitions and the widespread proliferation of its Internet banking and brokering services," Prochnow added. "Stockreporter also anticipates that the WINR share price will rise at an accelerated rate in response to growing investor awareness – with an application filed for a German listing and another for Nasdaq expected to be filed in the next few months. We remain very bullish on Winners Internet Network and advise investors to aggressively increase their holdings in the Company."

UPDATE
Since Stockreporter issued a buy recommendation on the profitable e-commerce integrator and online financial processing firm Winners Internet Network, Inc. (WINR), the stock doubled from roughly $2.50 per share to the $5.00 range. Rapid appreciation of the stock price followed early February announcements regarding strategic acquisitions and alliances, significant new product releases and the filing for a secondary listing in Germany to attract greater awareness from European investors.

WINR’s most recent announcement of approval regarding share participation in a license for a European Internet bank is creating a flux of new interest from investors in Europe and the U.S. The Internet bank provides even more tremendous value to investors since it is a spin-off candidate for an IPO in early 2001.

Internet banking and brokering are the fastest growing segments in the financial industry, prompting investors to value major U.S. players with a multi-billion dollar market capitalization (Charles Schwab at $31.4 billion and Ameritrade at $2.8 billion). The European sector is especially exciting since it is in the early stages with roughly 10 million online banking customers and an enormous annual growth rate. WINR is capitalizing upon this business opportunity by teaming with European marketing experts to ensure that the firm captures a dominant industry share.

To obtain a benchmark for valuing WINR’s European Internet banking and brokering goals we take a quick look at the German market, which has roughly 25 percent of Europe’s online banking customers. In this sector, leading Internet banks are also valued with a multi-billion dollar market capitalization (ConSors AG - $3.9 billion, Direct Anlage Bank AG - $2.3 billion and Entrium Direct Bankers AG - $1.1 billion). Since Winners Internet Network has a current market cap of roughly $77.5 million, the launch and successful development of its Cyberbank operations with a focus on all of Europe should result in the firm being valued more in line with its German peers. This indicates there should be tremendous upside pressure on the stock price over the long-term.

Stockreporter believes that a valuation of WINR more in line with its German peers is realistic in the next few years given the Company’s unique situation that positions the firm for virtually no direct competition in the European Internet banking/brokering sector. This stand-alone position within the market is provided by Winners Internet Network’s distinct and long lasting advantages, which are based on its proprietary technology, the world’s highest encryption levels and its location in Liechtenstein (the world’s most expeditious, secure and confidential center for processing of financial transactions).

With a European investor road show scheduled this quarter, Stockreporter anticipates that WINR will attract considerable near-term interest from institutional investors throughout Europe. Winners Internet Network is already bolstering growing European awareness with several other recent developments that confirm the Company’s ability to capitalize upon new profit opportunities. These include a contract with the most successful media enterprise in Switzerland as well as the strategic partnership with and purchase into one of Europe’s few profitable Internet service providers.

By acquiring 19 percent of the shares outstanding of SupraNet AG (www.supra.net), WINR gained access to substantial new revenue and earnings channels as well as a number of significant competitive advantages, including:

The world’s highest encryption technology (SSM), which is expected to emerge as the encryption standard for secure B2B communications and financial transactions.
The ability to provide host services, leased lines and expanded Internet and communication services to merchants, customers and financial institutions.
The ability to provide businesses with physical location of their e-commerce servers in Liechtenstein, where the government guarantees the privacy of transactions.
The joint development of www.encryption-plus.com, which will be launched in the second quarter of 2000 and is expected to be the #1 site for privacy and encryption.
These advantages are complemented by the Company’s acquisition of the e-commerce "-Plus" Network, which includes Cyberbank-plus, Commodities-plus, Mortgages-plus, Loans-plus, MutualFunds-plus, eShop-plus and more than 30 other registered domains. The Network benefits from WINR’s processing and encryption package, which includes SSM as well as the Company’s e-swipe™ technology that provides seamless connection between online customers, merchants and financial institutions.
Overall, WINR shares represent an exciting opportunity for investors to achieve tremendous short- and long-term profits. With all of the pieces now in place for the firm to expand its business across the e-commerce, B2B and Internet banking/brokering sectors, Stockreporter believes that the Company is embarking upon a new period of accelerated growth. We anticipate strong upside pressure on the stock price to result from growing European investor awareness due to the recent application for a listing in Germany. As the Company also prepares to file for a listing on Nasdaq in the next few months, Stockreporter expects that institutional investors in the U.S. will already begin to recognize the firm’s unique market positioning and dynamic growth prospects.

EVALUATION

Stockreporter is very bullish on Winners Internet Network and sees dynamic profit opportunities for investors, especially at the stock’s current undervalued trading levels of roughly $5.00 per share. The strong price appreciation since our initial recommendation just one month ago illustrates the dramatic attraction to this high-growth firm. We believe the case for future share price appreciation is strengthened by WINR’s ability to translate its technical advantages into concrete growth across industry sectors.

Stockreporter anticipates exceptional top- and bottom-line growth from the Company, and we believe that recent developments confirm our earlier estimates for year 2000 expansion and our $12 share price target at a conservative PER of 40. We also note that the firm’s aggressive short- and near-term expansion plans may prompt us to upgrade our initial estimates and share price targets later this year. Stockreporter expects that dramatically expanded investor awareness of WINR could result in the stock trading closer to the average 70 PER of its peers on Nasdaq, where we expect the Company could be listed in the next few months.

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