2008 ASX Announcements

Date: 29 February 2008

Objective Corporation turnaround to profit

Leading Enterprise Content Management (ECM) company, Objective Corporation (ASX: OCL) today announced profit after tax of $0.3 million for the six months to 31 December 2007. Revenue increased by 8 per cent to $15.2 million (FY07 H1: $14.1 million).

Asia Pacific revenue grew 31 per cent to a record $12.1 million (FY07 H1: $9.2 million). Asia Pacific profit before tax was $6.4 million, also a record and an increase of 123 per cent (FY07 H1: $2.9 million).

At 31 December 2007, cash was $14.1 million and the company had a strong balance sheet with no debt.

Consistent with previous years, an interim dividend was not declared.

Financial Summary

Mr Tony Walls, CEO, Objective Corporation said: “We are pleased to report a record result in Asia Pacific and an earnings turnaround for the company overall.”

Operations

The company continued its significant investment in its technology. Fully expensed research and development was $4.1 million, approximately 27 per cent of revenue.

Objective strengthened its ECM suite, with next generation products already delivering benefits to customers. Feedback is extremely positive.

Improvements to the Asia Pacific sales operations helped align and maintain high-quality service delivery and support to customers. Objective’s ECM solution was the first to achieve full compliance with all five specifications of the Public Record Office of Victoria’s (PROV) Victorian Electronic Record Strategy (VERS) Version 2 standard.

An Applications Engineering division was established to develop new content-based business applications. The launch of new commercial products is expected in the second half. 

The company continues to develop innovative partner and alliance models with partners NEC Asia and Polaris in Asia Pacific and Bramble.ccand Sun Microsystems in Europe.

The transformation of the company’s operations in Europe has taken longer than anticipated. Long industry lead times contributed to revenue below management expectations.

Outlook

Mr Walls said, “The ECM market continues to grow. We expect our Asia Pacific business will maintain its strong performance, and we anticipate an improved result in Europe where there is a pipeline of potential new business, which may return our business in the region to profit in the second half.

“Our earnings turnaround is expected to continue, with a return to full-year profit and payment of a full year dividend.

“We continue to actively look at acquisition opportunities that will add shareholder value for all stakeholders and propel the company into its next phase of growth,” said Mr Walls.

The board and management of Objective Corporation would again like to thank the company’s customers and staff for their commitment and valuable contributions to the growth and success of the company.

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