Empired maintains revenue, profit growth with contract wins

Perth-headquartered managed services provider Empired has maintained steady growth as its New Zealand business stabilises.

Revenue for the six months ended 31 December was $88.6 million, up 4 percent from $85 million the same period last year, while net profit after tax was $2.2 million, up 50 percent from $1.5 million.

Its Australian business raked in $60 million in revenues, up 7 percent from the first half of FY2018.

The company’s New Zealand business on the other hand saw its revenue stabilise at $29 million for the period, down 2 percent from last year. Empired expects the business to return to growth in the 2020 financial year.

The results were supported by contract wins across the Tasman, including a multimillion dollar contract with the NZ government, as well as its expansion strategy in Australia’s east coast.

“We are delighted to again deliver a solid financial performance whilst continuing to deliver on key strategic initiatives,” Empired managing director Russell Baskerville said.

“We are confident that our strategy firmly positions Empired as a leader in the Australian and New Zealand digital services market and that this will underpin future growth.”

Baskerville added that Empired was positioned to bid on more than $300 million in digital transformation contracts over the next 12 months through its managed services investments. In addition, its Cohesion ECM Service saw a 65 percent increase in SaaS users to more than 11,000.

Looking ahead, Empired expects double digit earnings growth in both the 2019 and 2020 financial years due to growth in multi-year contracts, growth in services revenue and recovery in the New Zealand business.