Red Hat Inc aims for high double-digit revenue growth

KUALA LUMPUR: Red Hat Inc., the world's largest open source software solutions provider, is expected to achieve a high double-digit revenue growth in its new financial year ending March 31, 2015 (FY15), up from US$1.53 billion (RM5 billion) a year before.
"We expect a high double-digit growth in revenue from the whole group as well as from the region," Red Hat Asia Pacific Pte Ltd country manager for Malaysia & Brunei David Yap said at Red Hat's media briefing on its business update here yesterday.
In its last financial year ended March 31, 2014 (FY14), Red Hat Inc. generated US$1.53 billion in revenue, up 15% from FY13. The group has recorded 48 consecutive quarters of revenue growth, as it reinforced its position as the leader in open source solutions and development.
Yap attributed Red Hat Inc.'s revenue growth in FY15 to the increasing appetite for open source software in the Asia Pacific region, which contributed some 13% to 15% to the group's revenue.
Citing a report by IT research and advisory firm Gartner, Yap said the total IT spending in Malaysia is forecast to grow by 10.2% to reach almost US$21.24 billion (RM69.8 billion) in 2014.
Meanwhile, the total IT spending in Asia Pacific region is forecast to hit US$758 billion this year, up 4.2% from 2013.
Yap also highlighted that a global research showed that customers spending on the operating expenditure (opex) is more than 60% of the total IT budget.
"So what if we are able to reduce a little bit of your operation cost? You can have a saving and spend it on other innovation activities," he said.
The American-based Red Hat Inc, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is a software company that provides open-source software products, including cloud, virtualization, storage and middleware technologies.
Currently, the group's key customers in Asia Pacific include Allianz, Indonesia Stock Exchange, Nissan Motors, Malaccastate government, Santos, SK II, YTL Communications and more.
On another note, Yap said Red Hat Inc. has no immediate plan to float its shares on Bursa Malaysia with an initial public offering (IPO) for now.
"Our first priority is to establish our local entity here, hopefully we will be able to make the announcement soon as and when it materialize, but it is still early to talk about that," he said.
At the moment, none of Red Hat Inc.'s subsidiaries are listed, save for the group itself.