Business solutions provider EOH, which has reported a strong performance for the six months to end-January, says it has been unaffected by the tough IT environment.
<B>Salient figures</B>
EOH results for the six months to 31 January 2002
Figures for the year-earlier period in parentheses:
Revenue: R55.73m (R40.35m)
Profit from operations before goodwill: R7.85m (R6.75m)
Taxation: R1.51m (R1.51m)
Net profit: R6.01m (R5m)
Cash generated from trading operations: R9.45m (R13.88m)
Chairman and CEO Asher Bohbot says the group is operating in a high-growth arena, adding that enterprise resource planning (ERP) is still growing, and extended ERP - packages added after ERP systems are installed - is a major revenue growth area.
The company, which operates in three clusters of strategic business units organised around outsourcing, strategy and business systems, established and developed various new business units during the six months.
It also acquired the rights to represent three additional software applications within its core business activities.
Bohbot says EOH is "growing aggressively, but also responsibly". Although the company is always looking to make selective acquisitions, "we would not touch anything that will not benefit us up front".
The Indian Ocean islands form a significant part of the group`s growth strategy. The Mauritian operation has expanded to about 70 people, and Bohbot says this will provide a base for expansion into the rest of the region.
Business development director Rob Sporen says the Australian operation is self-funding.
"We are not taking hard-earned South African rands and spending them over there," he says. "It may take five to six years for the Australian business to grow to resemble EOH in SA, but then so be it. We would rather that it grows slowly than cost us."
The period also saw the company rebrand itself, changing to EOH from Enterprise Outsourcing Holdings.
"It became necessary to rebrand ourselves, since the Enterprise Outsourcing Holdings name did not sufficiently reflect the aspirations of the company in becoming the lifelong IT partner to our clients," says Bohbot.
"Clients adopted the EOH acronym from the outset, and market research confirmed that it would be more appropriate to brand the company in future as EOH only."
The EOH share price was unchanged at 110c on the JSE late this morning.
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