Cloud demand sees Empired results surge

The Perth-based company today published its unaudited financial report for the financial year ending 2014, recording AU$67 million in revenue, up from the previous year's AU$48 million.

Empired also reported AU$7.1 million in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA), an increase of 98 percent from the previous year's results, and a 119 percent boost for the year's net profit before tax to AU$4.3 million.

The company's managing director Russell Baskerville said that the year's growth was the combined result of recent acquisitions and organic growth, particularly in the cloud, big data, business analytics, mobile, social, and security.

"Both organically and acquisitively we have ensured that our services have matured and are aligned to global growth mega trends," said Baskerville. "We are well placed to secure market share in high demand services around cloud, big data/business analytics, mobile, social and security."

"The market is clearly evolving with many organisations challenging traditional business models to deliver more for less, whilst continuing to capitalise on new growth opportunities. We are confident Empired is well placed to assist our clients with these challenges," he said.

2014 has been a year of substantial growth and eastward expansion for the company, with the acquisition in May of Sydney-based IT consulting services firm eSavvy for AU$2.2 million — doubling the size of the company's Sydney office.

At the time, Baskerville claimed the acquisition would position Empired as the largest Microsoft Dynamics CRM partner in Australia — with 40 certified Microsoft CRM consultants, including 18 staff from eSavvy.

In October last year, Empired paid AU$15 million for Microsoft Enterprise Content Management service provider OBS, expecting to generate up to AU$32 million in revenue for the financial year ending 2014 — this estimate was in line with the earnings recorded in the yearly financial report.

"Both organically and acquisitively we have ensured that our services have matured and are aligned to global growth mega trends," said Baskerville. "Our acquisitions have performed well, they have met all financial performance expectations and have aligned positively into our broader culture. We are confident that these transactions have built upon our strong base and provide a broader national platform to leverage in the coming years."

The company has signed a number of significant contracts over the past 12 months, including a AU$50 million deal with a "major resources company".

"We are also very proud of our organic growth success where we secured AU$96m of services across two major contracts," said Baskerville. "The ability to reference these and the increased profile these have delivered provides an exceptional opportunity to continue our success in securing these large contracts."

The Board has flagged its intention to declare a fully franked dividend in line with the release of its full year audited accounts. At the time of writing, Empired's shares were valued at AU$0.70, up from a six month low of AU$0.52 at the end of March.