IBM continues to show profit

By PETER GRIFFIN IT writer

IBM's New Zealand branch continued its profitable run in 2002, posting a profit of $31 million in the year it shed its billing software unit and acquired the consulting arm of PricewaterhouseCooper.

Overdue accounts just released to the Companies Office show IBM had revenue of $326.3 million for 2002, down from $342 million in the previous year as a result of the closure of the ICMS billing software development centre. The sale cut revenue and expenditure as 140 staff were made redundant.

The profit compared to one of $18.8 million in 2001 and was boosted by an $8.1 million tax credit - a positive legacy of darker times in the 1990s when IBM reported consecutive losses of tens of millions of dollars. It has accumulated losses of $102 million, a figure that is whittled down as the company turns in yearly profits.

IBM's managing director Nick Lambert said the result put IBM in a better financial position than most of its competitors.

"We've probably got the strongest balance sheet of any technology company in New Zealand.

"A lot of organisations were writing IBM off at the end of the nineties and we've essentially gone from strength to strength."

EDS, IBM's biggest competitor, reported a record $78 million loss in July as more conservative methods of accounting hit the way revenue on outsourcing contracts was booked.

Included in IBM's accounts is the $17.4 million cash component of IBM's acquisition of PricewaterhouseCoopers' local consulting arm.

IBM picked up PWC Consulting's assets globally late last year in a US$3.5 billion deal settled in cash, convertible notes and shares.

Research house IDC estimated last August that the purchase of PWC Consulting would boost IBM's revenue locally to around $380 million and make it the country's largest IT company.

Lambert said the result reflected some revenue from the merged PWC consulting arm, but that the contribution would not be as big as some analysts had originally suggested.