Security First Stock Soars After $10M Investment

Security First Network Bank's share price hit a 52-week high of $18.875 last week on word of a $10 million investment in its Security First Technologies subsidiary.

The news came a week after two major contract announcements-that Citibank and NationsBank's military banking division would use the software and data processing service of S1, as the Internet banking technologies unit is known.

In the week ended June 26, Security First jumped $2.75, to $12.625.

In the more recent disclosure, Atlanta-based Security First said a "major financial services entity" would invest $10 million in preferred stock of Security First Technologies Corp., which is due to be spun out as a new holding company in August.

That would complete a reorganization set in motion in March when Royal Bank of Canada agreed to buy Security First Network Bank. The software and services business would be housed in the new company, its stock trading under the symbol SONE.

Royal Bank agreed to buy Security First Network Bank's $54 million of assets for $13 million. The Canadian bank also licensed S1 software for $6 million and invested $1 million in the technology venture, placing it in the company of Citicorp, Huntington Bancshares, NationsBank Corp., Principal Financial Group, Synovus Financial Corp., and Wachovia Corp.

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