John Quirk (Kordia Group)
State-owned technology company Kordia Group has reported a net loss of $149,000 for the year ended 30 June 2019, down from a $5.7 million profit in 2018.
As reported in April, the ban on Huawei and other Chinese telco equipment makers affected Kordia's results across the ditch.
The group posted revenue of $203.4 million in 2019, down from $217.2 million in 2018, and EBITDA down from $27 million to $16.7 million.
"While the group’s New Zealand business units performed exceptionally well, the Australian business unit struggled in a highly volatile and disruptive Australian telecommunications market," chair John Quirk wrote in the company's annual report.
"This was largely due to Australia’s Chinese vendor ban which resulted in delays to several projects and significantly affected the Group’s overall performance."
The group grew in many other areas, with the networks and cyber divisions experiencing particularly strong growth over the past year, Quirk reported.
"As cyber threats continue to skyrocket, so too does demand for expert advice and support – something Kordia’s independent cyber security division, Aura Information Security, has been extremely well placed to leverage.
"Aura continues to carve out a solid reputation as the ‘go to’ provider in the cyber security market. As a result, the company has experienced rapid growth with revenue up 36 per cent on the previous year."
CEO Scott Bartlett, currently on leave due to illness, said that growth looked set to continue.
"While rapid growth often brings challenges to business, for the team at Aura it has simply inspired them to continue to do more of what they’re doing – that is, being a trusted advisor to customers and continuing to stay at the cutting edge of research and developments in information security," he wrote.
"Testament to this is the fact the team took out the Best Security Company award for the second year running at the iSANZ Awards, and that several members of our team were invited to present their research at security conferences all over the world."
The networks division also performed strongly in the corporate sector, with the introduction of new technology solutions including unified security management, SD-WAN and SIP for Microsoft Teams.
"The New Zealand solutions division successfully completed several large-scale projects over the past year, including a comprehensive upgrade of the Radio 2AP AM broadcast transmission infrastructure in Apia, Samoa, on behalf of ABC International Development.
"With 5G rollout gaining momentum, the New Zealand solutions team was involved in the design, planning and implementation of several significant 5G in-building coverage (IBC) projects," Quiks wrote.
"We expect this activity to increase over the coming years."
During the second half of the year, the Australian solutions team secured two significant 5G projects, which Kordia sees as a "positive indication that 5G investment is reigniting, albeit with a different set of underlying technology providers."
Kordia’s media business continued to place a big focus on innovation and disruption in broadcasting.
The completion of Kordia’s new state-of-the-art digital playout facility – and home of Parliament TV – the Kordia Media Hub, and the introduction of Kordia Pop Up TV, all rounded off another eventful and successful year for this business, Quirk reported.
"We are now seeing positive signs that this period of market disruption is coming to a close, and the group is confident the Australian Solutions business is well poised to leverage its strong reputation, expertise and long-standing relationships with major telco carriers to maximise on future opportunities."
