Proginet sets stock move to Nasdaq board

GARDEN CITY - After more than five years on the Canadian Venture stock exchange, Proginet Corp., a software company, is on the verge of trading on Nasdaq's OTC bulletin board. It's a move company executives hope will elevate it from the realm of penny stocks.

Proginet's registration statement

James Kelly, senior vice president and co-founder of Proginet, said the move to U.S. trading is long overdue.

"It is hard or tedious for U.S. citizens to purchase stocks on the Canadian exchange," Kelly

said. "Trading on Nasdaq is the big news for our stockholders. We are based here, so we should trade here."

Company officials said the markets for its specialties, data movement software and systems management, is about $1.5 billion and $6 billion respectively, markets of which Proginet holds less than 1 percent share.

Proginet, which has a market capitalization of $17 million, has more than 13 million shares on the Canadian exchange trading on Wednesday for 50 cents per share (73 cents Canadian). The planned Nasdaq move will double the share values, Kelly expects.

Bonnie D. Graham, Proginet's spokeswoman, said the company will continue trading on the Canadian exchange to allow greater market exposure for the firm. The company hasn't decided whether to maintain its PRG.U ticker symbol.

Founded in 1986, Proginet develops software applications that allow for the movement of data from one system to multiple ones while maintaining security of the documents transmitted.

The company, with 45 employees, targets Fortune 200 companies that use IBM mainframes including IBM itself, Lockheed Martin Corp., Boeing, AT&T, Prudential, Sallie Mae and the SEC.

Computer Associates is its main Long Island competitor.