Johannesburg, 20 Apr 2006
IT services and solutions provider, Datacentrix, has announced positive annual financial results for the year ended 28 February 2006, recording a landmark R1 billion in revenue.
Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) are up 14% to R88.7 million, headline earnings per share (HEPS) increased 11% to 28.7c per share and basic earnings per share (EPS) grew 19% to 25.5c per share. Cash on hand is R165.6 million.
According to Datacentrix chairman, Gary Morolo, the successful strategy of organic rather than acquisitive growth has resulted in strong cash reserves and has allowed the company to explore means of improving returns to shareholders.
"Accordingly, the dividend policy has been changed from three times HEPS cover to two times cover. In addition, the board has decided to approve the payment of a special dividend to be paid concurrently with the normal dividend," Morolo says. This translates into a total dividend payout of 30c per share.
"The strong performance demonstrates that the measures put in place after the disappointing half-year results were successful," adds Morolo. "Business surged substantially during the second half of 2005 compared to the first half of the year."
The turnaround involved the resolution of specific operational issues, including a more focused sales approach, realigning investment in people and skills in line with current marketplace opportunities, and bringing Datacentrix`s enterprise resource planning (ERP) projects under tighter control.
"The company had some significant wins within the ERP, outsourcing and workflow segments, which will be reflected at a later stage. Datacentrix continued to make strong inroads into the government segment as well as the enterprise systems and storage arena and is confident of continued growth in these sectors. Additionally, our coastal regions, Cape Town and Durban, performed exceedingly well," Morolo says.
Datacentrix continues to enjoy a favourable `A` rating from independent research and rating agency, EmpowerDex, for its black economic empowerment credentials.
"Management is confident that Datacentrix is firmly entrenched in an up curve and we look forward to continued growth in line with the trends of the past few years," he concludes.
Datacentrix is currently trading under a cautionary due to ongoing negotiations, which potentially could have an effect on the shareholding structure and the price of the company`s securities.
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