Saturday, October 12, 2002
The following are the highlights of the Conference Call of
Hughes Software Systems (HSS) held on October 11, 2002
Talking about the company`s near term prospects, Arun Kumar
said, `We have already implemented several measures to diversify
revenues and have made cost structure more commensurate with
revenues. Our strategy to aggressively grow existing relationships
in the OEM/TSP segments is showing results. We expect the
strategy of diversifying into new verticals to show the desired
results in the medium- to long-term. The broadened offerings
will help us de-risk business and reduce dependence on the
telecom vertical.'
It expects continued challenges in the telecom vertical,
especially for our products business. The product business
will remain volatile. The current environment is foggy and
it expects revenue growth of 10% sequentially in the third
quarter ending December, 2002. But no guidance on profitability
front.
No quantitative guidance for FY 2002-03
The company has added 11 new customers for products and two
new customers for services.
The product business during the second quarter grew sequentially
by 7%.
The company has denied rumors about the company bagging a
big order from Reliance Infocomm.
BPO foray will turn operational during the current quarter
(Q3 FY 2002-03). Revenue contribution will come from Q4.
The company has earmarked around $2 million for the BPO project,
to be invested in the first six months. It has signed its
first contract with the DirecWay Product Line, of Hughes Network
Systems, for providing technical help desk.
After its disastrous performance for the first quarter ended
Jun. 2002, HSS has posted a relatively better show in the
second quarter ended Sep. 2002. It improved its margins due
to cost cutting measures and met the market expectations.
However, it is the new capitalisation policy which helped
it post 31% rise in profits before tax (PBT) during the quarter.
The company continued to be cash flow positive, and there
was a significant improvement in client quality. It also added
13 new customers during the quarter including 11 for Products
and 2 for services. Acterna, ETRI, Innoace ,
Intracom, Laboratory for Technical Services and Spirent were
added to the customer list.
Although the sequential performance looks encouraging with
10% growth in sales and 89% growth in PAT, it should be noted
that the first quarter performance was very disappointing
for HSS. Hence, the performance for this quarter is more or
less a pull back from the last quarter.
Last updated : February 2, 2004
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