Networking and e-business services firm Datacraft Asia has cautiously forecast earnings growth of 30 per cent to 35 per cent this financial year along with a rise in its Hong Kong sales - despite a worldwide slump for technology firms.
'Given the mix of opportunities and risk we believe we can grow earnings by 30 per cent to 35 per cent in the current year,' said chief executive Ron Cattell yesterday, a day after the firm unveiled its annual results.
'We are expecting definite positive growth in Hong Kong,' he said.
The Singapore-listed company reported a rise in profit for the year to June 30 to US$44.2 million after tax and minorities, or 9.7 US cents a share. That is 40 per cent higher than the previous year's US$31.5 million, or 7.3 US cents a share.
Revenues increased to US$567.3 million, up 36 per cent from the previous year's US$417.7 million. The company, a unit of technology group Dimension Data of South Africa, links networks and offers services in about a dozen Asia-Pacific countries.
Mr Cattell said Datacraft executives could not predict how long the global downturn for the technology industry would last, nor how severely it would affect Asia. 'Clearly we have to be very cautious about the market situation,' he said. 'Do I have a better crystal ball than anyone else's? I don't think so.'