Datacentrix, which has R202.5 million in the bank and no operational debt, is looking to acquisitions to bolster its business solutions offering and build critical mass in its managed services unit.
The group ended the year to February with revenue at R2.3 billion, a 19% gain, while headline earnings per share grew 15%, to 45.6c. Its biggest unit - technology - improved revenue from R1.4 billion to R1.6 billion, while managed services, its second-largest division, grew from R414.7 million to R518.2 million.
Business solutions gained on the top line, from R129.6 million to R164.4 million, but went backwards in terms of profitability. Its operational profit was hampered by challenges with delivery to a client, which have now been resolved.
CEO Ahmed Mahomed says Datacentrix's future plans are to optimise its current investments and grow market share. He points out that the business is growing faster than the industry, which is currently around 6.5% year-on-year.
In addition, Datacentrix aims to monetise its cloud offerings, into which it has been investing, and add critical mass to managed solutions and grow business solutions through deals, says Mahomed.
The launch of its cloud services offering, while impacting profitability negatively in the short-term, is an area of growth that cannot be ignored, says Mahomed. He adds the business solutions unit is on the hunt for entities in the business intelligence and analytics space as building it organically will take too long.
Datacentrix will also drive efficiencies to cut down on operating costs, which grew 10% during the year after it made a few smaller acquisitions, says Mahomed. Stripping those out, costs gained around 7%, he notes.
Managed solutions, which accounted for 8% of revenue six years ago, now contributes half of the company's top line, says Mahomed. He says this unit will seek deals that will help it build mass and take it into new sectors.
The technology unit houses services such as unified communications, networking, data centre capabilities, end-user computing and security solutions. Mahomed says the division has benefited from organic growth investment areas such as security, data centre solutions and networking.
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