The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Chams

  • Chams grows turnover by 83% in Q3

    Chams Plc has continued to improve its operations and profitability as latest earnings report showed appreciable improvements in the information and communication technology company’s fundamentals.

    Key extracts of Chams Plc for the third quarter ended September 30, 2014 showed that group turnover rose by 83 per cent while the company further deepened its bottom-line with 227.6 per cent growth in gross profit. Against the loss in the previous year, the group sustained its positive net earnings position.

    Group turnover stood at N1.94 billion by September 2014 as against N1.06 billion recorded in comparable period of 2013. Gross profit tripled from N3348.5 million in third quarter 2013 to N1.14 billion in third quarter 2014.

    Against the pre and post-tax loss of N614.63 million in third quarter 2013, the group recorded pre and post-tax profit of N86.84 million.

    The third quarter report sustained the positive outlook that has shown strong recovery for the transactional technology group. In the first half ended June 30, 2014, Chams had shown a major leap in its growth momentum  as turnover rose to N1.415 billion in first half of 2014 as against N509.44 million in corresponding period of 2013. Gross profit had also increased from N371.69 million to N598.34 million. Against operating loss of N243.28 million in first half of 2013, operating profit stood at N100.69 million in first half of 2014. Profits before and after tax stood at N34.76 million in first half of 2014 compared with loss of N276.21 million in comparable period of 2013.

    The interim reports appeared to underline increasing profitability of the company’s operations. Audited report and accounts of Chams for the year ended December 31, 2013 had shown that turnover rose by 21.3 per cent from N2.84 billion in 2012 to N3.44 billion in 2013. Profit after tax rose by 115.3 per cent to N188.5 million as against N87.5 million in the previous year. The company’s net bottom-line was boosted by tax gain of N81.54 million. Total assets grew by 22.9 per cent to N10.7 billion compared to N8.7 billion. Shareholders’ funds improved from N4.5 billion to N4.7 billion.

    In his recent review, group managing director, Chams Plc, Demola Aladekomo, said the performance of the company confirmed that the various initiatives that had been put in place have started bearing fruit.

    “To consolidate on our performance in the last financial year and maintain our profitability is quite commendable and we are confident that things can only become better for us. More gratifying is the fact that we have sustained our topline growth trajectory, an indication that we have continued to increase our market share and remain competitive. We have entered into some partnership agreements that will have positive impact on our performance in the coming years,” Aladekomo said.

    According to him, the priorities of the company in 2014 include completion of the ongoing restructuring across the group and dedication of its energy towards delivering value to all stakeholders;  upgrading of its card personalisation bureau to EMV-certified standard and fostering strategic alliance with its partners based in South Africa and Israel.

    He added that the company would also strive to launch new card products and solutions into the market; sustain growth in its market share; achieve a profit growth of 300 per cent while continuing to engage the investment community and keep them abreast of developments in the company.

    In the 2014, Chams will also drive the implementation of the Bank Verification Number project initiated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Bankers’ Committee. It is implementing the one-year project in partnership with Dermalog Identification Systems, a leading global company in the field of bio-payment. Chams and its technical partner, Dermalog, will work for five years on the Bank Biometric Matching Solution Project, which is expected to create 1000 new jobs for young professionals.

    Apart from its benefits to the national economy, which is bridging the formal and informal economy, the Bankers Biometric Matching Solution project and the increasing uptake of identity management products and services by private and public enterprises are expected to usher Chams into a new era of strength, financial stability, improved cash flow and profitability beyond the 2014 financial year.

     

  • Chams grows turnover by 178% in first half

    Chams Plc consolidated its performance in the first half with 178 per cent increase in gross income and a positive bottom-line.

    Interim report and accounts of Chams for the half-year ended June 30, 2014 showed a major leap in the growth momentum of the information and communication technology company. Turnover rose to N1.415 billion in first half of 2014 as against N509.44 million in corresponding period of 2013. Gross profit also increased from N371.69 million to N598.34 million.

    The company sustained its positive bottom-line. Against operating loss of N243.28 million in first half of 2013, operating profit stood at N100.69 million in first half of 2014. Profits before and after tax stood at N34.76 million in first half of 2014 compared with loss of N276.21 million in comparable period of 2013.

    The interim report appeared to underline increasing profitability of the company’s operations. Audited report and accounts of Chams for the year ended December 31, 2013 had shown that turnover rose by 21.3 per cent from N2.84 billion in 2012 to N3.44 billion in 2013. Profit after tax rose by 115.3 per cent to N188.5 million as against N87.5 million in the previous year. The company’s net bottom-line was boosted by tax gain of N81.54 million. Total assets grew by 22.9 per cent to N10.7 billion compared to N8.7 billion. Shareholders’ funds improved from N4.5 billion to N4.7 billion.

    In his recent review, Group Managing Director, Chams Plc, Demola Aladekomo, said the performance of the company confirmed that the various initiatives that had been put in place have started bearing fruit.

    “To consolidate on our performance in the last financial year and maintain our profitability is quite commendable and we are confident that things can only become better for us. More gratifying is the fact that we have sustained our topline growth trajectory, an indication that we have continued to increase our market share and remain competitive. We have entered into some partnership agreements that will have positive impact on our performance in the coming years,” Aladekomo said.

    According to him, the priorities of the company in 2014 include completion of the ongoing restructuring across the group and dedication of its energy towards delivering value to all stakeholders;  upgrading of its card personalization bureau to EMV-certified standard and fostering strategic alliance with its partners based in South Africa and Israel.

    He added that the company would also strive to launch new card products and solutions into the market; sustain growth in its market share; achieve a profit growth of 300 per cent while continuing to engage the investment community and keep them abreast of developments in the company.

    This year, Chams will also drive the implementation of the Bank Verification Number project initiated by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Bankers’ Committee. It is implementing the one-year project in partnership with Dermalog Identification Systems, a leading global company in the field of bio-payment. Chams and its technical partner, Dermalog, will work for five years on the Bank Biometric Matching Solution Project, which is expected to create 1000 new jobs for young professionals.

    Apart from its benefits to the national economy, which is bridging the formal and informal economy, the Bankers Biometric Matching Solution project and the increasing uptake of identity management products and services by private and public enterprises are expected to usher Chams into a new era of strength, financial stability, improved cash flow and profitability beyond the 2014 financial year.

    Chairman, Chams Plc, Very Revd Ayodeji  Richards, said the industry outlook and the corporate strategy indicate a robust future for the company.

    According to him, the information and communication technology (ICT) sector has now become a key driver of economic activity in Nigeria and other developing markets with myriad of ICT solutions now required to support business in various sectors of the economy, including financial services sector, telecommunications sector and trade.

    “The ICT business is so huge and indefinite in many respects. Our focus therefore will be on the identity management and payment industries. The structure and nature of economies in this part of the world leaves a huge gap to fill, given that there is an absence of core identity infrastructure, which also makes it difficult for the payment system to thrive,” Richards said.

    He outlined that Chams has maintained leadership in the identity management industry with several significant projects undertaken with various public and private institutions.

     

  • Chams, others to assist new ICT entrepreneurs

    A group of firms are set to assist fresh entrepreneurs in the sector to grow their business.

    Already, seven teams have been shortlisted from a pool of 160 teams that applied for the cash.

    Chief Executive Officer, TechnoVision, Tomi Davies, told The Nation that funding is fundamental to the success of young people who have business ideas, adding that this informed the decision of 14 entrepreneurs to invest funds for youths to build their business.

    “We are not just investing money, we are also investing our time to ensure that they succeed. We are going to guide the team, monitor them and make our networks available to them so that they can grow. The whole idea is to grow entrepreneurship in the country. Another round of pitching will be done again in September. I can guarantee that no angel will invest less than N1 million on the team. That is the minimum. Any of the angels could invest N10million or even N100 million,” he said.

    An angel is a venture capital fund investor.

    He added that some of the angels belong to private equity venture capital firms.

    He said the plan is complementary to that of the Federal Ministry of Communications Technology which has launched the Information Technology Developers Entrepreneurship Accelerator (iDEA) Incubation Centre.

    “We must support the Federal Government to grow entrepreneurship in the ICT sector. This is our response to that. The whole idea is to provide seed fund to entrepreneurs to start up,” he said.

    iDEA is anchored on the huge potential the software segment of the industry hold for the economy both in employment generation and value addition to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the nation.

  • Chams restrategies for better returns

    Chams Plc has started implementing a new intensive five-year strategic business plan aimed at strengthening the core competitive advantages of the company and enhancing its ability to operate profitability within the changing macroeconomic dynamics.

    The five-year plan, which includes a two-year corporate plan that allows the company to intermittently observe its corporate progress, was sequel to extensive internal and external business reviews and was a major kernel of efforts by the board and management to put the company on the path of stable profitability.

    Addressing shareholders at the Annual General Meeting of the company in Abuja, Chairman, Chams Plc, Prof Adebayo Akinde, said the board engaged reputable consultants with expertise and vast experience in business turnaround to help it in the reinvention and repositioning of the company for excellent performance in addition to internal business review and restructuring by the management of the company.

    He noted that the performance of the company had been impacted negatively by unstable government policies and challenges in the macro economy, which vitiated its roll-out and project timelines and frustrated corporate expectations of returns.

    He outlined that the new strategic business plan has the buy-in of all the directors and management and would open up new opportunities in the private sector, which would mitigate the company’s dependence on unstable public sector’s projects.

    According to him, while several long-awaited public sector projects have either been awarded or are in execution stage, the new strategic direction that focuses also on opportunities in the private sector would complement the strategic advantages of the company as the company-of-choice in information and communication technology (ICT) in Nigeria.

    In his review, managing director, Chams Plc, Sir Demola Aladekomo, said the company was poised to leverage on its cutting-edge and innovative technologies to take full advantage of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s cashless policy, otherwise known as ‘cashlite’ project.

    He pointed out that Chams has started rolling out its mobile payment solution with remarkable success while it has secured further milestones as a major stakeholder in the electronic and transactional payment industry. It should be recalled that the CBN had granted approval-in-principle for mobile payment licence in 2010.

    “The mobile payment solution characterised by our usual innovativeness, ease of use and cutting edge technology promises to change the face of payment in Nigeria. It must be mentioned that this singular solution is the future of transactional and payment processes with its huge propensity to dramatically yield untold value for our esteemed stakeholders. We are primed to roll out in full force with a view to capturing a substantial size of the market,” Aladekomo said.

    He noted that in furtherance of the ‘cashlite’ project, Chams was awarded a payment terminal service provider (PTSP) licence by the CBN through one of its subsidiary companies -Paymaster, which would enable the company to deploy and maintain Point of Sales (POS) Terminals; which is projected to be one of the major channels of the ‘cashlite’ project.

    He further drew attention to the approval of the BITEL POS/Point of Transactions (POT) as one of the terminals to be deployed for the ‘cashlite’ project by the CBN, a brand of terminal that is exclusively represented in Nigeria by Chams.

    According to him, as a company noted for innovation, Chams will not relent in the quest towards breaking new grounds in innovation while working on new solutions that will deliver additional value to the country and make its shareholders smile.

    “The future, I can say with all sense of certainty is bright. Though we have had unexpected delays in several projects due to the prevailing operating environment, we have sound strategies to survive the storm. It may have taken longer than expected, but we believe that with all the investments that we have made and the unfolding opportunities, our future is certainly bright,” Aladekomo assured.

    Drawing attention to the highly dynamic nature of the ICT industry, he reiterated the commitments and doggedness of the management to continuously implement new strategies that would deliver good returns to shareholders.

    “One thing that we will promise you by the grace of God is that your company has a brighter future. Paradoxically, new government policies make our technologies very relevant to the future and this is where we believe that we will continue to have the edge over others,” Aladekomo.

    Audited report and accounts of the company for the year ended December 31, 2011 showed that turnover increased by 35.8 per cent from N1.31 billion in 2010 to N1.78 billion in 2011. Gross profit also rose by 30.8 per cent to N686.79 million in 2011 as against N525.02 million recorded in 2010.

    Chams Plc and its subsidiaries offer solution to projects in identity management, payments, collection and transactional systems, as well as providing digital platform and ICT trainings. There are four subsidiaries CardCentre Nigeria Limited, which is engaged in the production and manufacturing of identity, payment and other smart cards; PayMaster Limited, which deals with deployment of POT and POS terminals; ChamsAcccess Limited, a licensed consortium for the deployment of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), which is also involved in the deployment of multi application terminals; and ChamsSwitch, which engages in provision of the e-payment transaction processing platforms.

    Chams was incorporated in Nigeria as a private limited liability company on September 10, 1985 and started operations a month later. It became a public limited company on September 4, 2008 and its shares were listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on September 8, 2008.