Global Technology (Glotec) is celebrating solid financial results and two separately listed entities on the JSE, as well as heaving a sigh of relief at news that colleagues at the Temenos office in the World Trade Centre (WTC) are safe and operations continue from a remote location.
Glotec CEO Ray Leonard says the company decided to go ahead with today`s announcement of its year-end results and restructure despite the pandemonium that was experienced by the company as it watched in dismay as the twin towers at the World Trade Centre in New York collapsed on Tuesday.
A staff complement of 60 at the Temenos offices were all accounted for by 7pm Eastern Time on the day of the incident, having escaped from the 54th and 84th floors of the first of the towers to be hit by the hijacked planes.
Leonard says the New York operation was a branch office, and no contracts or development were conducted on the premises.
"A good Samaritan client of Temenos has come to the company`s rescue and has housed the staff in their disaster recovery centre. The offices will be fully operational later today," says Leonard.
Looking forward, he says Glotec has a sales pipeline for the six months of R500 million unweighted, or R150 million weighted. In addition, the firm already has R55 million in contracted revenue.
Leonard believes this business will give it some sort of security as world markets try make some sense of the chaos they are experiencing, and future IT spend remains unclear.
"If the industry takes a downturn, we have enough business to take through until March next year. Added to this is the fact that we are a cash-generating company and are not overly exposed to equipment, so it will be easy enough for us to change our foothold if we feel the need," he says.
Commenting on the restructuring, Leonard explains that Glotec will split into two separate JSE-listed entities. Glotec A will house the group`s operations including those in Australia and Africa. Glotec B will house its interests in Temenos which has a Swiss bourse listing.
Leonard believes the second will be well received by the investor community, as it will offer a 100% rand hedge share.
With this in mind, Glotec has changed its year-end to fit in with Temenos`, so while this is a 12-month reporting period, technically the results will be viewed as interims.
Glotec reported solid growth for the period with a 41% increase in revenue to R364 million for the 12 months to 30 June 2001.
A headline earning of R47 million was reported, an increase of 116% from the same period last year, and headline earnings per share increased by 40% to 12.3c.
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