Faritec plans to launch new operations and acquire existing businesses as part of its growth strategy for the next few years.
The group yesterday reported its financial results for the year to June, recording earnings of 2.6c a share, compared with a prior-year loss of 8.6c a share. This was on revenue of R434.21 million, which was 31.6% higher than that of the previous year.
Tomlinson says the focus in the current financial year will be on continuing growth and containing costs.
"At the same time, growth plans require a focus on new business or acquisitions," he adds. "Acquisitions have been identified and we are approaching companies at executive level."
He says the group is targeting opportunities in the consulting space, where it intends to start up its own operation, and in the applications space.
Faritec`s target customers have been mainly in the telecoms, financial services and government, but Tomlinson says the group is also investigating other markets.
The group is also conducting a brand awareness campaign aimed at realigning the Faritec brand over the next two years.
However, Faritec is also taking steps to limit the effects of some of the problems that emerged in the past financial year.
The group invested in multimedia messaging service company Gizmoz 18 months ago, but with the advent of newer technology such as 3G, the group has taken a conservative view and written off the licence.
E-bis, the African distributorship, is suffering from low margins and an unfavourable rand/dollar exchange rate. "We are looking at discarding it to other players wanting to distribute into Africa," Tomlinson says.
Farimed is an application service provider medical scheme administration and managed healthcare system offering. Its largest customer, African Life, is being acquired by Sanlam. Asked whether Faritec would close the Farimed business if it lost the African life business, Tomlinson replied that it would.
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