Systems Limited posts profit of Rs205.6 million in 1HCY15

IT company sees revenues increase by 28% to Rs1.2b

KARACHI:

Systems Limited announced that it has posted an after-tax profit of Rs205.6 million or Rs1.9 per share in the first half of 2015, up 17% compared to Rs176 million or Rs1.6 per share in the corresponding period of the previous year.

The Lahore-based Information Technology (IT) company saw its revenues for the period increase by 28% to Rs1.2 billion compared to Rs897.8 million in the corresponding period of 2014.

Listed on the Karachi bourse recently, Systems Limited is not actively covered by market analysts. However, the stock market reaction indicates the results were better than what was expected.

The share gained close to 5%, closing at Rs74.4 compared to Rs70.9 at the end of trading on Friday. More than 3.6 million shares were traded on Monday, marking the highest volume for the stock this month.

“Systems is a growing IT company and getting a lot of contracts. It is not surprising to see the stock rally after the result,” said Zeeshan Afzal, who is Head of Research at Taurus Securities.



In a notice sent to the KSE in July, the company announced it won four contracts worth $1.5 million from the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government for computerisation of land records.

Incorporated in 1977, Systems Limited is an IT company that has been providing computing strategies and solutions, such as business process outsourcing (BPO) to the government and private organisations, says its website. The company has accomplished over 600 projects completed in the US, Pakistan, Middle East and Africa, it says. It was listed in the KSE in December, 2014.

However, the company’s quarterly profit dropped by 6.8% to Rs103 million or Rs0.94 per share in Mar-June period, compared to Rs110.3 million or Rs1 per share in the same quarter of 2014.

“The cost of sales increased due to expansion and capacity building in local and Middle East region,” the company said in its Director’s Review. Operating costs increased because the company started business in new markets and engaged in building new competency centres, which would allow the company to sustain future growth, it said.

The company has started operations in Australia where it has already signed up a contract with a large retail chain.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 1^st, 2015.

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