Gijima, which is progressing with its turnaround strategy, is targeting Africa and state-owned entities in a bid to boost its revenue.
The company yesterday released its interim results and said revenue came in at R741.3 million in the six months to December, compared to the prior period's R911.2 million. However, a year ago it reported a net loss of R106.2 million from continuing operations, which has now been trimmed to R24.8 million.
Overall, its basic loss per share came in at 19.84c, compared with 222.31c for the six months to December 2012. The group says in a statement to shareholders that this shows its turnaround strategy is showing "traction".
Gijima has completed the first six months of its turnaround strategy and has, so far, achieved savings of R200 million a year without "exceeding the industry norm in terms of staff turnover". The group announced the need to turn around yet again last September after a torrid year.
CEO Eileen Wilton says the company is "very happy" with the results, considering it is only six months into its shift. She says Gijima is working "really hard" to grow its top line, although it is not 100% in control of revenue streams as the market continues to be challenging.
New spaces
Wilton notes Gijima's first priority has been to focus on securing contract renewals and it has, over the past year, signed such deals worth R1.6 billion, some of which include increased scope. She adds the group has hired a new sales director, and will be looking to Africa and state-owned entities (SOE) for more deals.
Gijima, which has never been strong in the SOE arena, aims to bring in 30% of its revenue from the overall public sector. This figure is currently at 35%.
Wilton says the listed company is also looking to take the offerings it has in SA into Africa to expand on its African business, which is focused on Namibia and current customer demand in the Southern African Development Community.
During the first half, its Namibian operation disappointed, falling short of budget and the comparative period's performance for both revenue and profitability, due to pending empowerment changes in legislation, which saw it lose out on deals.
Wilton says the company hopes to have solved this dilemma and it should only have a short-term impact.
Gijima is also working on building new verticals, although Wilton cannot currently provide more details as the offerings are "under the radar" at the moment. She thinks the company has developed the right strategy to grow revenue and says 2015 will be "quite a different year".
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