Subscribe

Datacentrix celebrates 10 years as a listed company with solid annual results


Johannesburg, 16 Apr 2008

Datacentrix Holdings Limited has announced positive results for the financial year ended 29 February 2008 for the tenth consecutive year. Revenue of R1.35 billion was achieved.

Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) is up 26% to R157.1 million, headline earnings per share (HEPS) increased 29% to 52c per share and basic earnings per share (EPS) grew 30% to 52c per share. Cash on hand is R221.9 million at 29 February 2008.

Over the past 10 years, Datacentrix has transformed from a small Pretoria IT hardware company into a national IT infrastructure, solutions and services provider with 10-year annual compound growth in revenue of 31% to over R1 billion, profit after tax growth of 27% to over R100 million and cash holdings in excess of R200 million.

According to Datacentrix chairman, Gary Morolo, the company has not missed a beat over the past year. "Thanks to our carefully planned succession strategy, Datacentrix's new management team, headed up by newly appointed CEO, Ahmed Mahomed, has ensured that the fundamentals and prospects of the company remains positive.

"Now in its tenth year as a listed company, we are delighted to note that Datacentrix has survived in the same form in which it originally listed, something that cannot be said of many of its peers who came to the market during the listing boom of the late 1990s.

"Datacentrix's basic business philosophy of being financially conservative, focusing on business basics and organic growth as well as concentrating on satisfying current customer needs has served it well over the past 10 years and we see very little reason to change this winning formula," Morolo states.

"The company has a board with a strong governance ethos, something that has greatly contributed to Datacentrix's admirable business ethic and unblemished corporate reputation. The board has recently been strengthened with the appointment of Dudu Nyamane as an independent, non-executive director. She brings a wealth of experience in human capital management in the IT industry."

Datacentrix has seen great success within the targeted growth areas of selective outsourcing, managed print services and security as well as the Johannesburg market. This success is expected to continue.

In addition, the past year has seen Datacentrix being awarded a number of prestigious vendor partner awards, demonstrating its strong market position as a cost-effective partner of choice for the supply, installation and ongoing maintenance of IT infrastructure. These accolades include HP's "channel partner of the year" for both the Imaging and Printing and Technology Solutions groups and "the highest consistent growth for the Storage Works Division" awards.

"Datacentrix intends to maintain its steady, focused approach and performance. We value consistency and plan to continuously add to shareholder value. In terms of its current surplus of cash at hand, the company is actively addressing its capital structure in order to attend to this in the most efficient manner," says Morolo.

A final dividend of 15c per share has been proposed in line with the current dividend policy to bring the annual dividend to 26c per share.

Editorial contacts

Nicola Knight
PR Connections
(083) 269 2227
datacentrix@pr.co.za
Gary Morolo
Datacentrix Holdings
(082) 551 5595
gmorolo@datacentrix.co.za