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Uninterrupted demand for its cloud services helped data specialist PBT book record revenue in its year to end-March, though it did see some clients delay large-scale projects.
Revenue increased by almost 12% to R1.1 billion and its profit rose 7% to R98.5 million to end-March. It expects the robust demand for its services will continue.
Valued at over R820 million on the JSE, PBT provides end-to-end data services and solutions offerings including analytics and engineering. It generates more than 90% of its revenue in SA, while also operating in the UK and Australia. The bulk of its revenue comes from JSE-listed clients, notably financial services firms pursuing digital migration.
"Cross-skilling and investment in cloud-related training and technologies were uninterrupted and should position the company well for the future in our clients’ ongoing quest to move from on premise to the cloud," it said in its annual results.
However, project delays relating to data and analytics have had a negative impact on the business with some projects being delayed by as much as 12 months.
While most of PBT Group’s client engagements were extended for 12-month periods, client rate increases were very tight, it added.
PBT, however, booked both record revenues and core profit, and increased its total dividend for the year by just under 2% to 58c, about a R60.8 million.
During the year it also returned just over R220 million, or R2.10 per share, to shareholders through special distributions, and R10 million in the form of share repurchases.
Since the start of 2019, the group said is has returned R400.5 million to shareholders through distributions and share repurchases, while its market value has increased from about R250 million.
"Combining the increase in market capitalisation and the cash returns, our total shareholder return over the past five years stands at 40% per annum," it said.
Shares in PBT were unchanged in late morning trade on Friday, having fallen just over 7% in the past year, but having more than sextupled in the past five. Click here for details of its shares.
