Dimension Data Holdings - Unaudited interim results six months ended 31 March 2007

Dimension Data Holdings, a leading global IT services provider, today announced its results for the six months ended 31 March 2007.

The results have been prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards.

Robust revenue growth - up by 22.2% to $1.8 billion. Growth driven by Network Integration up 20.5.% (2) and Converged Communications up 63.8% (2). Services revenue up 20.6% (2). Gross margin 20.9% (H1 2006: 20.6%). Operating profit (1) up 50.4% to $55 million (H1 2006: $36.6 million). Operating margin (1) up by 0.6% to 3.1%. Effective tax rate (1) 28.5% (H1 2006: 35.5%). Earnings per share (1) up by 100% to 1.8 cents (H1 2006: 0.9 cents).

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For Dimension Data, the first half of FY2007 has been a period of outstanding progress across the business. The group generated tremendous improvements in financial performance driven by 22.2% revenue growth, operating profit acceleration of 50.4% to $55.1 million and 100% earnings per share expansion to 1.8 cents.

Group cash and cash equivalent, net of bank overdrafts were $351.7 million (FY2006: $341.7), which reflects an improvement in working capital management in the period.

In addition to its excellent financial performance, Dimension Data made great strides in executing on its core operational strategies focused on profitable growth, client experience, operational excellence, and people and culture.

Notes: (1) Before exceptional items. (2) Before adjusting for inter-company revenue eliminations and adjusting for the impact of currency movements.

Commenting on the results, Dimension Data CEO, Brett Dawson, said the first half of FY2007 was a period of outstanding progress across the business, with strong growth in all its key financial metrics, notably a doubling of earnings per share.

"The Group's committed and highly skilled employees are at the centre of our success. Our performance is directly related to their excellent execution each and every day. The commitment of our employees differentiates us in the market," added Dawson.

During the six months under review, the group benefited from its clients' continued drive to gain operational efficiencies and save costs out of their IT infrastructures. Clients are standardising on Internet Protocol (IP)-based infrastructures to streamline their overall IT environment.

"We continued to benefit from client adoption of a converged network infrastructure. Client migration of separate voice and data IT infrastructures onto a single, IP-based converged network that supports voice, data, and video, underpinned robust performances in our network integration (+20.5%), converged communications (63.8%) and security (+15.8%) lines of business. These represent around 60% of our group revenues and continue to experience strong expansion," said Dawson.

Services revenue growth gained momentum during the period, increasing by 20.6% over H12006.

Dawson comments: "These results are an endorsement of our strategy of providing clients with a full life cycle of services around their technology requirements."

Africa achieved excellent revenue growth of 48% and an operating profit growth of 40.1%. This strong performance was driven by public sector client wins, expansion outside South Africa and high demand from African telecommunications Service Providers.

In the regional lines of business, a 74.5% growth in Plessey was exceptional, with demand for its pan-African mobile infrastructure services, while Internet Solutions grew by 26.9%.

Demand for the group's African businesses remains extremely favourable and the group will continue to invest in expanding its presence on the continent. Meanwhile, the South African business continues to make inroads into the public sector, supported by our Black Economic Empowerment partnership.

Allan Cawood, CEO, Dimension Data Africa & Middle East, commented: "In the last six months we have performed well across all our lines of business and are delivering on our strategy, producing excellent growth in revenue and operating profit. We have made significant investments in driving our Internet Solutions strategy to take advantage of the growing opportunities in the telecommunications sector, and we are also seeing good opportunities in the public sector. Our solutions and services offerings position us well to take advantage of these opportunities.

"Our employees' commitment and drive ensure we continue to be a leader in the African ICT sector. Our operational successes and financial growth have been possible thanks to our dedicated and exceptional employees," said Cawood.

Turning to the future Dawson said: "The strategy of the past few years of investing in both our lines of business and services is delivering results. We intend to continue to invest to ensure we capture the market opportunity early on and thereafter build returns through scale and efficiency gains as markets move to maturity. We will continue to invest in our service offerings and the systems and processes that deliver value to our clients, to improve our operational excellence and drive standardisation."

Dawson said while the group's growth strategy remains primarily organic, it will expand its footprint to secure future growth from important new markets.

"During the period, we focused on building out our strong position in emerging markets with acquisitions in the Czech Republic and Namibia. We also expanded our presence into Canada and increased our capabilities in Mexico. Subsequent to period end we extended our minority stake in our Brazilian operation to 50.1% and entered into a joint venture with SCS in Japan.

"Significant market trends are playing to our advantage. Realising the potential of the group is a multi-year effort by all our employees. We are confident of our potential to continue to deliver long-term value to our shareholders."