JSE-listed Spescom reported a 207% increase in headline earnings per share for the year to September and the group says it is well on the way to achieving more than 50% of revenue offshore.
Revenues for the year are reported at R489 million, compared with R370 million for the same period in 2000, and headline earnings are R17.7 million, translating into 32c per share. This represents a 207% increase on the previous year.
The group now has fully operational businesses in both the US and UK, and executive chairman Tony Farah says the group is well on the way to achieving more than 50% of its revenue from offshore operations and to reduce its reliance on the local market.
"Nine percent of revenues are devoted to product and technology development. We are continually upgrading and launching new products onto local and international markets resulting in OEM and distribution agreements with value-added resellers overseas. This is expected to boost future foreign currency earnings," says Farah.
"Spescom`s proprietary eB software suite is already making significant market impact. In the telecommunications arena we are very much a leader in our field and remain one of the top 10 providers in the country."
Earlier this month, the group called for local IT companies to stop blaming poor performance on the 11 September attacks, saying they should rather view it as an opportunity.
"During this period we have experienced the predicted global economic downturn with the IT sector particularly taking a hard knock. This can be explained to a degree by the exaggerated hype surrounding the industry and it can now be said to be in the midst of a levelling out process.
"The players left standing will unquestionably be the market differentiators in terms of product offering. Spescom is uniquely positioned in its core activity areas, with an exceptional team of people, world-leading proprietary technologies, plus strong alliances with global market leaders like Cisco."
Spescom was recently awarded Cisco`s New World Partner for the Eastern EMEA region as well as being the first company to be certified in voice access, IP telephony and wireless LAN under the new partner programme.
The group reported an operating profit of R27.6 million and finished the year with cash and cash equivalents of R46.9 million.
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