Ansys Limited, the specialised rail and defence engineering & electronics company, has increased its turnover for the first half of the year to end August to R56 million – up by 36% compared to first half 2008.
At the same time, gross profit for the period virtually doubled to R25 million, the company said this morning.
Although that effort was insufficient to return the group to profitability for the period, the interim loss was slashed to one
cent a share – compared with the loss of 4.7 cents a share at the end of August 2008.
CEO Alan Holloway predicts that with new orders flowing in from new and existing clients, the group should return to profitability once again for the full year ended February 2010.
“Following the award of significant contracts and the growth in defence orders, the company expects an improvement in its performance for the second half of the year, leading to a return to profitability for the whole year.”
Holloway says Ansys has won orders worth more than R150 million to date.
The contracts include projects such as expanding the Transnet Wayside Reader contract; mine rope testing for the mining industry and additional locomotive communication systems contracts for Transnet Freight Rail.
Defence-related work include optical contracts for customers in Africa, China and Turkey.
According to Holloway, although the delays in awarding contracts which impacted the group in the previous period still persist, the situation is improving through customer diversification and a more even flow of revenue is now anticipated by the group.
