1H FY21 – growth across all key metrics:
Commenting on the 1H FY21 result, Data#3 Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director Laurence Baynham said: “We are pleased with the first half performance, delivering another record result despite the challenging environment and changing market conditions. Once again, this result clearly demonstrates the inherent strength and relevance of our solution offerings in an evolving market. It is also reassuring that approximately 62% of our total revenue is recurring, derived from contracts with government and large corporate customers, fulfilling their essential IT requirements.”
Total revenue was up 19.2% to $856.7 million, and included $346.1 million of public cloud-based revenues, up 37.4%.
Total gross profit increased by 1.2% to $89.7 million, and total gross margin decreased from 12.3% to 10.5% reflecting a shift in sales mix, with very strong growth in Software Licensing & public cloud revenues.
Staff costs increased by 2.5% to $66.7 million, solely reflecting headcount growth. Operating expenses decreased by 18.4% to $9.7 million, with a large reduction in travel costs as a result of the pandemic, rent savings from the decommissioning of the Data#3 Cloud platform and a concerted effort to contain costs generally.
Net profit before tax increased by 10.2% to $13.9 million, and net profit after tax (excluding minority interests) increased by 7.9% to $9.4 million. Earnings per share also increased by 7.9% to 6.09 cents.
Reflecting the company’s financial performance and strong balance sheet, Data#3’s directors declared an interim fully franked dividend of 5.50 cents per share, a 7.8% increase on the prior corresponding period. This represents a payout ratio of 90.3%. The record and payment dates for the interim dividend are 17 March 2021 and 31 March 2021, respectively.
Data#3’s Chairman Richard Anderson said: “The results reflect the ongoing successful implementation of the company’s strategies over a number of years, and the company’s resilience to the challenges of the current environment.”
Mr Baynham added: “We continue to see growth in the Australian IT market, and believe we are well positioned to capitalise on that opportunity as we continue to develop and offer solutions for our customers’ changing requirements. The solid first half performance and pipeline of opportunities for the second half give us confidence that we will achieve our full year financial objective, being to deliver sustainable earnings growth.”
Approved for distribution by the Data#3 Limited board.
For additional information contact:
[one_half]Laurence Baynham
Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director
Tel: 1300 23 28 23
Mob: 0413 155 150
Email: laurence_baynham@data3.com.au[/one_half]
[one_half_last]Brem Hill
Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary
Tel: 1300 23 28 23
Mob: 0411 887 182
Email: brem_hill@data3.com.au[/one_half_last]
