Southeast Asia pushes Datacraft's earnings to a three-year high

SINGAPORE--Strong revenue growth throughout Southeast Asia has led to systems integrator Datacraft Asia posting its strongest earnings in three years, according to its CEO Bill Padfield.

At a briefing on the company's financial results for the year ended Sep. 30, Padfield announced that Datacraft's revenue grew 26 percent year-on-year to US$456 million. After-tax profit jumped by 133 percent, from US$5.2 million in 2004 to US$12.2 million in 2005, he added.

Datacraft recorded fourth-quarter revenue of US$123 million--a 29-percent growth over the same period last year. Profit after tax increased from US$1.8 million to US$3.6 million.

Hardware revenues grew 32 percent over 2004, while the services business grew by 16 percent. Datacraft's solutions business also posted strong growth, accounting for 33 percent of total revenue, up from 19 percent in 2004.

In terms of revenue growth by region, Padfield noted that Southeast Asia improved 37 percent over the previous year. The region contributes nearly one-third, or 32 percent, of the total revenue, up from 28 percent last year.

India and Korea also performed well, according to Padfield. While China has not yet become profitable, he said he was optimistic of a turnaround within the next 12 months.

Padfield revealed that Datacraft's Japanese operations encountered challenges during the past year, but he did not give further details.

"The [Japanese] market has not exactly been the most exciting marketplace we've seen in the last 12 months but we're in Japan for the long haul," he said.