What results did you achieve this year?
Despite all the talk of hard times prevailing all over the world as well as here at home, the results of Penki kontinentai group were as planned in our various business segments and some of them even considerably surpassed forecast performance.
We successfully realized a lot of projects that we had undertaken in the field of banking technologies; we also presented innovative, highly marketable solutions that have already earned recognition. We also started introducing equipment for retail trade this year and offered a universal system of payment and loyalty cards. All this will enable us to provide complex on-demand services to our customers.
Our growth in the field of telecommunications out-performed the whole market. This is also true of growth in the number of customers of the interactive IP television Penki TV, Internet Skynet, voice over IP Skytel and the intelligent housing system Smart House. We are proud of the fact that the IP television, which we created, overtook our competitors in a year. Internet-access services, which we provide, were also among the highest-ranked in terms of speed and reliability.
What were the major developments in business, investment and projects during the year?
Investment in the development of optical Internet and IP television amounted to approximately 20 million litas in Lithuania this year. These investments will enable one of the companies of the group to increase its authorized capital in the near future. We also invested approximately 10 million in the creation of new software. We opened up representative offices in Uzbekistan, Georgia and the Republic of South Africa this year; we also implemented new projects in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. A new long-term agreement with one of our foreign partners enabled us to occupy a new business niche: to introduce hardware and software designed for the retail trade.
How has recession affected your business? What are current or possible losses?
Recession did not much affect this year’s results because the main fields of our business are based on long-term contracts, which were concluded quite a long time before the beginning of the so-called recession. However, naturally, next year will require even more mobilization and optimization of activity. On the other hand, we predicted possible changes in the market, were completely prepared for them and were in a position to offer our customers solutions, which optimize their activity. Therefore, we are certain that temporary difficulties will enable us to strengthen our positions.