ASX-listed IT services provider, Oakton (ASX: OKN), has rounded out a horror financial year posting a 48.8 per cent drop in profit to $14.3 million.
Revenues were also down by 3.8 per cent to $194 million but debt was reduced to $23 million, while operating cash flow is at $20.4 million.
Over the full year the company reduced its headcount by 150 people in Australia to 1150, but increased its India-based resources by an additional 10 to 110. Redundancies and non-recurring overheads cost the company $4 million over the year while project write downs in the first half of the financial year also cost $4 million.
The 21-year old company noted in its statements to the ASX that while the economic downturn was not the first it had experienced, it was “the most severe and pervasive, occurring more rapidly than any other we have experienced”.
However, Oakton is maintaining a positive outlook saying it now has costs under control and revenues of pre-crisis levels along with opportunity in its strong markets of government, financial services and utilities.
In February the company reported a half-year drop of 48.7 per cent with both results being attributed to reduced Federal Government demand and the impacts of the global financial crisis.
In a statement to the ASX, managing director and CEO, Neil Wilson said the April to June period key indicators had returned to levels of prior years.
“We continue to optimise the cost structures of the business and are confident of further margin improvement into FY2010,” he said in the statement. “It is pleasing to report that we have built a strong level of committed revenue and a solid pipeline of potential revenue as we enter FY2010.”
Oakton also expects to eliminate its debt by the end of the 2010 financial year.
