JSE-listed information technology group Datacentrix was moving to aggressively pursue acquisitions and bolt-on divisions to close its portfolio gap, CEO Ahmed Mahomed said on Tuesday.
The group, which had significantly progressed its years-long organic growth strategy, now aimed to round off its portfolio with acquisitions surrounding applications, such as enterprise resource planning, namely SAP and Oracle, and software integration, as well as business process outsourcing.
However, the group would not “jump on the acquisition bandwagon”, Mahomed commented, but would assess and consider acquisitions in line with its strategy to position the company as an integrated, cohesive services and solutions provider.
The company maintained numerous discussions with several undisclosed parties and had some opportunities under evaluation, but no deal or acquisition had been set as yet.
The current organic growth strategy phase had been largely completed and implementation had progressed satisfactorily, positioning the company to pursue acquisitions more aggressively.
The group had widened its business units with a change in contributions. In 2008, the infrastructure, managed services and business solutions units contributed 81%, 8% and 11% respectively.
By 2013, the infrastructure unit was contributing only 37%, while the managed services and business solutions units had increased their contributions to 40% and 23% respectively.
Datacentrix’s infrastructure division had achieved a 2.4% rise in revenue during the year ended February 2013, reaching R1.37-billion, from the R1.34-billion recorded the year before, but had experienced a 38.2% fall in earnings. Earnings declined to R26.9-million during the year under review, from the R43.6-million recorded in the year to February 2012.
The managed services unit achieved a 25.7% rise in revenue, from R329.9-million in 2013, to R414.6-million in 2012, with earnings climbing from R27.7-million in the prior year, to R29.1-million in the year under review.
Business solutions achieved earnings of R16.6-million in the year to February – a 4.3% rise on the R15.9-million in the prior year. Revenue for this unit jumped 52.6%, from R84.9-million in the 2012 financial year to R129.5-million during the twelve months to February 2013.
Datacentrix also recently injected R45-million into the purchase of Nokusa Engineering Informatics and integrated it into its enterprise information management business unit, under the Business Solutions division.