Unisys New Zealand has posted an after-tax profit of $6.08 million for its 2007 financial year, up from $2.12 million the previous year.
Unusually, hardware revenue was substantially up, from $8.14 million the previous year to $13.53 million, while services revenue fell from $101.55 million to $99.34 million.
The jump in hardware revenue was due to a mainframe upgrade, says managing director Brett Hodgson. He won’t name the customer but says the sale was responsible for 60-70% of that revenue stream, plus contributing to associated services.
The drop in services revenue had earlier been signalled through the loss to Gen-i of Unisys’ ACC business.
“The result is extremely good,” Hodgson says. “We’ve continued to develop our services business, and the loss of one client has been minimised dramatically.”
Employment costs fell more than $3 million, to $44.04 million. Hodgson says this was achieved by using the company’s global capability to deliver some 24x7 services. “The net cost to us has been substantially lower.”
In 2006, Unisys made provision of $1.16 million for what is termed an onerous contract. While not identifying the customer, clearly it relates to the Public Access to Legislation project, originally scheduled for completion in 2003 but not completed until 2007. Most of that amount is understood to relate to the costs of delivering to specification.
The company paid a dividend of $30 million to Unisys Holding Corporation, and a supplementary dividend of $4.5 million.
“We’re extremely pleased with the results,” Hodgson says. “We’re in a strong position going forward.”