ASG sees golden future

Perth-based IT services firm ASG today said it was confident it would win major contracts in the near future and had opportunities in both the government and corporate spheres.

The firm in late April picked up a four-year, approximately AU$30 million managed services deal for IT infrastructure with the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government.

That win came on the back of a number of smaller contracts, predominantly with government departments, but also in the private sector with large groups such as Virgin Blue.

ASG also has substantial contracts with Qantas and telco Hutchison.

ASG chief executive Geoff Lewis said the group had announced over AU$100 million of new deals in the first half of 2008 and expected earnings (before tax, depreciation and amortisation) to increase 43.6 per cent to AU$16 million for the year to 30 June.

The firm continued to bid for a number of major contracts and was "confident of further success in coming months," Lewis said.

ASG is one of a number of local medium-sized IT services firms that have been snapping at the heels of multinationals such as IBM, CSC, Hewlett-Packard, Accenture and EDS in recent years.

Other challengers include UXC, SMS Management and Technology and Oakton. The companies have benefited from large organisations' increasing desire to break up their IT outsourcing contracts into smaller parcels that can be handled by the smaller firms.