Posts 90% Revenue Growth to Underpin new Strategic Direction
Document date: Tue 27 Aug 2002 Published: Tue 27 Aug 2002 09:47:20 Document No: 148118 Document part: A Market Flag: Y Classification: Preliminary Final Report EGLOBAL INTERNATIONAL LIMITED 2002-08-27 ASX-SIGNAL-G
HOMEX - Brisbane
+++++++++++++++++++++++++ Australian technology company eGlobal International Limited has today (Tuesday August 27, 2002) announced a 91% increase in revenues from sales and services to $17 million.
The increase in revenues represents a significant improvement on the company's 2000-2001 financial year revenues of $9 million. eGlobal's profit before tax for the 2001-2002 financial year was $898,000.
eGlobal Chairman Jim Goldburg said the result was most pleasing considering the tough trading conditions in the technology sector over the past 12 months and the costs incurred in cleaning up the former Coms21 business and the eBet Limited 'in specie' share distribution. He said the aforementioned costs were one-off costs and, therefore would not be incurred by the company in the following year.
"Although the past year has presented very challenging market conditions, we have emerged as a much stronger company with a clear focus on the increasingly important and fast-growing sectors such as internet security and smart card technologies," he said.
"Most importantly we have also undertaken some significant product development and restructuring that will place the company in a very strong position, with these new emerging technologies being sold into significant overseas markets in the years ahead. The doubling of our revenues reflects the continued expansion of our blue-chip corporate and government client base, which is supported by our commitment to achieving cost savings throughout the business. With a clear vision for expanding our presence in Asia and North America, we are confident of continued sales growth and improved performance in the current financial year."
In an important step towards its evolution into a global technology group, eGlobal recently announced plans to acquire the Chinese business operations of its associated Hong Kong company eGlobal International Holdings Limited via the acquisition of eGlobal (Hong Kong) Ltd subject to the completion of due diligence and eGlobal shareholder approval.
The acquisition will mean, among other advantages, that all revenue from Chinese smart-card projects will now flow back to eGlobal in Australia.
During the past year, eGlobal has also established a strategic foothold in North America through the formation of a joint venture company, InsureNet America Inc, to supply an innovative new smart-card-based motor vehicle registration insurance system to American states.
eGlobal Managing Director Gordon Chalmers said China and North America presented enormous growth opportunities for eGlobal. He said eGlobal's tailored smart-card and internet security solutions were perfectly suited to both markets and considerable energies had been expended during the last six months to prepare a new range of leading edge solutions for these markets.
"China and North America both have huge populations and the need for managed information security and identification systems is paramount," he said.
"In the aftermath of last year's terrorists attacks, there has been an increased consciousness amongst government and corporate bodies around the world of the personal and organisational security benefits provided by smart-cards and improved internet security. Our market-leading.internet security, mobile communication solutions and smart-card technologies are ideally positioned to meet these growing global needs.
"As indicated during recent announcements, the company has been undertaking some exciting leading-edge hardware and software product development over the last six months. While this has cost the company significant investment, it is now clear that this been the correct path to follow and indeed some exciting opportunities to commercialise these new products are currently being tendered. These are the first steps in some significant re-alignment of the eGlobal business. Historically the company has been very reliant on project-generated revenues from our professional service divisions.
"The current restructuring is all about moving strongly into markets where our newly developed technologies offer recurring annuity incomes. These income streams are based on clients' use of eGlobal intellectual property and hardware products or their use of eGlobal developed applications, which are hosted in our Data Centre. We are in a number of discussions about technology product representation in the region and also looking at a number of companies to partner and other options so as to more rapidly grow the business."
Another significant milestone for eGlobal in the past year was the distribution of the company's 40,000,000 shares in gaming group eBet Limited.
Mr Goldburg said the successful eBet distribution signaled a fresh, new beginning for eGlobal as a publicly-listed company in its own right. He said eGlobal had since been able to focus all of its energies and resources into establishing a clear market position in the provision of internet security, enterprise application integration and smart-card solutions.
"We now offer a total solution package in information technology security for corporate and government clients," he said.
"The worldwide market for information security solutions is estimated at approximately US$16 billion and is projected to grow by 25 per cent per annum to approximately US$31 billion by 2005. The Australian market is approximately $900 million and is also forecasted to grow by 25 per cent per annum to $1.8 billion by 2005.
"Very few Australian companies can offer the complete set of services offered by eGlobal, which differentiates its offer by having a strong team of application software developers to supply a complete technology solution stack."
ABOUT eGLOBAL
Visit http://www.eglobal.net for further information.
Further Information: eGlobal International Limited (ASX CODE:EGI) Gordon Chalmers 0438 812614 Jim Goldburg 0407 289758 Alan Smith
EGI Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held