ComArch expects growth in profits from New Year

Computer systems integrator ComArch expects slightly higher unconsolidated net profits in 2002 and is targeting 20%-30% annual profit growth going forward, CEO Janusz Filipiak said yesterday. Filipiak told Reuters that his company, a component of the Warsaw bourse's WIG 20 index, would keep its focus on mid-sized contracts and continue to offer a wide product range despite reduced IT spending caused by a sluggish economy. "We can already see that this year's result will be a bit better than in 2001, and the rest of the companies in the group are also faring better," Filipiak said in an interview. In 2001 ComArch earned zl. 8.8 million on sales of zl. 149 million. Filipiak said ComArch, the country's number three systems integrator by market capitalization, should go into the new year with an order book worth about zl. 70 million. "We're not building our business on contracts in the hundred-million-zloty range, but on those worth several million, and that is what we want to build our future on," Filipiak said. "We want to maintain an operating margin of 5%-6%, and re-invest the rest," he added. (Reuters) A.Z.