Information security group and microcap ISA Holdings said it felt profit pressure in its first half to August amid a shift in its sales mix, but it remained confident about the longer-term prospects of its business.
Group turnover rose 8% to R31.8m in the group’s six months to end-August, but after-tax profit fell 14% to R6.69m, with the group saying its revenue mix shifted a bit to include more product sales, as opposed to the heavy concentration of higher-margin professional and managed service revenues in the prior comparative period.
Information Security Architects (ISA), valued at R140m on the JSE, was established during the 1990s and was initially positioned as one of the leading value-added resellers of firewall and antivirus technologies.
The group derived 85% of its revenue from subscriptions in its first half, including both third-party products and its Managed Security Service offerings that features MSS Pulse, an internally developed security infrastructure management and monitoring platform.
“I continue to be optimistic about our long-term prospects, as the key drivers of the information security market remain robust,” CEO Clifford Katz said in the results statement.
“With the continued evolution and persistence of threats and attack vectors against corporate information and IT resources, together with the increased regulatory and legislative compliance requirements, stakeholders continue to elevate the importance of IT security within their organisations,” he said.
The company trimmed its dividend 14% to 4.3c — about a R7.3m payout.
ISA’s shares closed up 6.25% at 85c on Friday.
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