Johannesburg, 07 Oct 2009
Datacentrix Holdings Limited has announced its interim financial results for the six months ended 31 August 2009. Both headline earnings per share (heps) and earnings per share (eps) remained unchanged at 26.8 cents.
Operating performance (ebitda) increased by 8% to R79.7 million. Cash generated from operations was a robust R80.5 million, with cash on hand of R240 million and no interest-bearing debt. Tangible net asset value per share increased by 6% from 175 cents to 187 cents per share. "Management is encouraged by the group's overall performance during the past six months," states Ahmed Mahomed, Datacentrix CEO.
"Given prevailing economic conditions, we have maintained our footing and most businesses have shown healthy growth in the six months under review. This is credited to our ability to retain existing clients, signing of new business and new clients, and a strategy of broadening our portfolio. Strategic growth areas have shown robust performance and we will continue to judiciously invest in these growth areas that are closely aligned to our core focus."
Furthermore, says Mahomed, the Datacentrix Managed Services Division has shown significant growth in most of its businesses, including Managed Print Services, Outsourcing and Resourcing. "Our Managed Print Services and Outsourcing revenue has seen healthy growth and we are pleased with the Outsourcing business unit's recent appointment by a leading telco as the maintenance partner for its desktops and service desk environment. We are also happy to report the renewal of a significant outsourcing contract that had come to term, reaffirming the group's execution capability."
The Business Solutions Division is seeing growth from its existing ERP clients seeking improved capabilities from current systems. Datacentrix's business process management (BPM) clients, Vodacom and Medihelp, recently received awards at ITWeb's inaugural BPM Excellence awards ceremony. The enterprise content management business has had a robust performance and continues to improve its contribution to the group's results.
In terms of partnerships, Datacentrix has solidified its position as an HP partner sporting the highest level of accreditation in various specialisations. It retained its status as an IBM Premier Partner and Microsoft Gold Certified Partner.
The group has made a strategic investment in resources over the last year or more, particularly in the data-centre and managed services capability. "In fact," says Mahomed, "approximately 130 new staff will be employed for the outsource contract with the aforementioned telco company; in addition we needed to ensure that our recently opened Eastern Cape presence has access to the resources it requires and this will result in the expansion of our complement to around to 1 000 employees. Over 300 of the total resource pool will be based at client sites."
The group's senior management team was bolstered with the promotion of Kenny Nkosi to the position of MD for the government business with effect from 1 September 2009. "He brings a wealth of experience and we have full confidence in his ability to take us to the next level in this sector," continues Mahomed.
The current economic turmoil afforded Datacentrix the opportunity to strengthen its management team further through the recruitment of senior management skills who became available within the marketplace. The group is committed to investing in its management and execution capabilities and to enhancing its competitive position to capture opportunities in the markets. "While there has been much talk of 'green shoots', the macroeconomic environment remains challenging and uncertain, resulting in limited visibility of future trading conditions. We, however, expect to maintain market share in an unmistakably tough environment," concludes Mahomed.
Share