ECS records steady revenue growth

KUALA LUMPUR: ECS ICT Bhd (ECS) posted a revenue of RM551.6 million for the fourth quarter of the financial year 2016 (4QFY16), an 11 per cent increase compared to RM496.5 million recorded in the previous year’s corresponding quarter (4QFY15).

This was mainly due to the contribution of higher sales from the group’s ICT Distribution segment from PCs, notebooks and smartphones of RM431.0 million in 4QFY16 as compared to RM379.7 million in 4QFY15.

ECS also registered higher profit before tax (PBT) of RM16.7 million for the quarter under review, an increase of 21.6 per cent as compared to RM13.7 million recorded in 4QFY15.

ECS chief executive officer Soong Jan Hsung shared, “While the overall revenue was slightly lower in FY16 as compared to FY15, due to the exceptional pre-GST sales in FY15 and cautious consumer spending in this year’s slow market, our 4QFY16 performance saw improvement attributed to increased sales of mobility devices and enterprise system spending.”

Soong added, “The outlook for ECS looking ahead remains challenging due to the current soft economic environment. The weak ringgit against the US dollar has resulted in price increase on all ICT products, in addition to corporate users reducing their ICT spending.

“Nevertheless, the International Data Corporation (IDC) has forecasted a 6.2 per cent growth on the ICT products that the Group is distributing in Malaysia for 2017.

“Therefore, we remain optimistic given our strategies in place to first, grow our market share on PC, notebooks and smartphones while exploring new opportunities on Internet of Things (IoT) as well as investing in the latest technology trends to focus on Hyper-Converged Infrastructure and Cyber Security products for our Enterprise Systems segment.”