KUALA LUMPUR (May 18): ICT service provider VSTECS Bhd’s net profit fell 6.68% to RM11.88 million in the first quarter ended March 31, 2021 (1QFY22) from RM12.73 million a year ago, due to increase in operation expenses and decrease in finance income from lower cash and bank balances.

As a result, its earnings per share fell to 3.3 sen per share, from 3.6 sen per share a year before, its bourse filing showed.

Quarterly revenue also dropped 3.77% year-on-year to RM643.76 million from RM668.98 million, mainly caused by a 24.1% decrease in ICT distribution segment due to the high base effect, citing that the segment saw “unusually high demand at the height of the pandemic last year that led to an anomalous bumper quarter in 2021.”

Meanwhile, its revenue was cushioned by enterprise systems and ICT Services segments as both segments reported higher revenue.  

Going forward, the group said while shipments on consumer products are back to the normal lead time, delays/incomplete shipments of enterprise products will continue due to component shortages.

“Consequently, implementation of enterprise projects are expected to be delayed notably in the second half of the year.

“On a positive note, we have received a number of project orders on notebook and enterprise infrastructure products for nationwide deployment. We will be deploying some of the projects in this quarter,” it said.

With the continuous demand on endpoint devices and the number of pending consumer and enterprise products, the group is optimistic about its prospects for the following quarters in 2022.

Shares price of VSTECS closed up one sen or 0.87% to RM1.16, giving it a market capitalisation of RM418 million.