Gemalto back in profit as sales rise 3.1%

Security revenue up 11.9%

France-based smartcard company Gemalto has reported net income of E114.9m ($170m) for fiscal 2008, compared to a loss of E45.6m ($67.5m) last year, on revenue up 3.1% at E1.68 billion ($2.48 billion).

The company said revenue from mobile communications rose 2.5% to E948.2m ($1.4 billion), and secure transactions revenue grew 7.1% to E442.8m ($655.3m). Security revenue increased 11.9% to E215.9m ($319.5m), and public telephony sales declined 20.4% to E34.8m ($51.5m). Point-of-sale terminals revenue fell 31.8% to E38.2m ($56.5m).

The company said EMEA sales rose 3% to E940m ($1.39 billion), sales in the Americas increased 6.5% to E412m ($609.7m), and Asia revenue declined 1% to E328m ($485.4m).

Olivier Piou, chief executive at Gemalto, said: We reached the 10% adjusted operating margin target we had set for ourselves, one year ahead of schedule. The three main segments showed good resilience to the economic environment, posting a combined second-half operating margin of 11.2%. These strengths are evidenced in the 84% increase in our 2008 earnings per share.

Looking ahead, the company expects to achieve adjusted operating margin of 10% for fiscal 2009.

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