The remaining two Contract 398 system bids and the bulk tender for the supply of personal computers throughout the airport will be awarded next month, driving the total value of these contracts up to between $700 million and $1 billion.

The EDS-led consortium will have to be ready by October 1997 when flight trials begin at the new airport. Chek Lap Kok is set to begin operation in April 1998.

EDS will have to ensure that its systems will be compatible with the systems awarded under Contract 399, the $2 billion Master Systems Integration contract awarded last May to Hughes Asia Pacific.

EDS, along with the Dragon Consortium led by ICL, were the two other finalists for the huge MSI contract.

The MSI project designs and installs almost all of the systems and equipment in the buildings and air traffic control systems at Chek Lap Kok The awarding of the project was twice-delayed, which cost each of the bidders millions of dollars per month of delay.

In other EDS news, the company reported record earnings of more than US$12 billion for 1995.

EDS earned $12.4 billion in operating revenues for the year ended December 31, 1995, compared with just under $10 billion for 1994 - an increase of 24.7 per cent.

EDS said it signed a record $10.1 billion in new business in 1995.

Net income rose 14.2 per cent to $939 million last year.

The 33-year-old company, founded by former US presidential hopeful Ross Perot, has traditionally earned much of its money from supplying its former parent company, American car maker General Motors.

But EDS is shifting away from its dependence upon GM. Operating revenue from non-GM business grew 33 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year, higher than the 24 per cent growth overall.

The fourth quarter of last year saw EDS sign two major outsourcing contracts.

In Britain, EDS entered into a strategic partnership with the Rolls-Royce Aerospace Group expected to produce revenues of more than $900 million over 10 years.

EDS will focus its aerospace and defence industry expertise on a wide range of business transformation initiatives.

The state of South Australia awarded to EDS the largest information technology (IT) contract ever in the Asia-Pacific region, though the exact value of the contract was not announced.

EDS will provide IT services to more than 140 agencies and sub-agencies of the South Australian Government. According to EDS, that agreement is the first time that a government has outsourced its entire IT infrastructure to a private company.

EDS recently agreed to a five-year plan with American CPU chipmaker Cyrix to manufacture PCs using Cyrix's chips and brand name.

The PCs will be made in an existing EDS plant in Texas and will use Cyrix 686 chips, which are equivalent to Intel's Pentium chips. The PCs will start appearing next month.

In Hong Kong last year, EDS also expanded its relationship with Xerox by signing a nine-year agreement to provide Rank Xerox Hong Kong with information management services.