Ifca starts to stabilise

Johannesburg, 07 Sept 2009

Despite revenue being lower than the previous year, Ifca Technologies' actions to stabilise the company are starting to pay off, it says.

The company reported revenue down in the six months to June, from R5 million to R1.3 million. However, it narrowed its loss from R3.27 million to R817 332. The headline loss per share was also narrowed, from 3.27c to 0.82c.

Ifca says the previous period had seen it experience a “series of negative events”. These included the loss of a major customer after it sold its loan book, various senior management changes and loss of key staff.

The technology company says this resulted in problems with customer service levels. In the second half of 2008, Jack Yong, one of the founders of the controlling shareholder, Ifca MSC Berhad, in Malaysia, and a director of Ifca, took over as acting CEO of the company. Steps to rationalise the business were also undertaken.

As a result, says the company, earnings in the first half of the year are an improvement as it is now focused on its core software solutions business. It has also reduced its cost structure and resolved customer service issues, and new orders are coming in.

Working at profitability

“Despite the improvement in earnings, the company has not yet returned to profitability and the main objective for the company in the second half of the financial year is to secure new sales and to restore profitability,” it states.

It has taken several steps to turn the business around. At the beginning of the year, it appointed Jeffrey Christopher as CEO. Christopher led Ifca's operations in the Philippines, turning the business around from a loss-making operation five years ago.

The company says negotiations with Kutana Investments as an empowerment partner to acquire 26% have been concluded. In addition, new .Net software, designed in Malaysia, will be available to clients in Africa. The new software is set to compete with all the major enterprise resource planning business solutions software products in SA.

After .Net is launched locally, the company will aggressively sell the product into Africa and a new sales strategy for its products has been set into motion.