Japan information technology firm Obic Co. (TSE:4684) will likely log a group pretax profit of more than 14 billion yen (US$152.6 million) for the nine months through December, a five per cent increase over the year-earlier period thanks in large part to its system support services.
The business systems builder remains on track to post a record-high operating profit for the full fiscal year ending in March.
Overall sales for the three quarters likely slipped five per cent to roughly 34 billion yen. Because of the poor business climate, companies have not been purchasing new equipment and Obic’s sales of servers and other machinery have declined by hundreds of millions of yen.
But that same poor climate has bolstered Obic’s business of system support services because small and midsize companies need maintenance and operating support to stretch out the life of their existing equipment. As a result, sales in Obic’s system support services business are expected to reach nine billion yen for the April-December period, an increase of 300 million yen on the year.
Group operating profit is seen rising two per cent to 11.4 billion yen for the three quarters, helped by cost-cutting efforts, including a reduction in outsourcing expenses by bringing more software development in-house.
Source : http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/2751405/
