Citrix Asia Pacific full-year net profit tumbles further despite revenue increase in 2020

Citrix Asia Pacific net loss took a further nosedive during the 2020 financial year, reporting a AU$5.89 million net loss for the full year, an even bigger net loss compared the AU$1.45 million hit last year.

This was despite recording a year-on-year revenue increase from AU$298 million to AU$324.8 million for the period ending 31 December 2020.

The biggest contributor to the uptick in revenue during the period was support and services that contributed just over AU$170.6 million. This was followed by subscriptions that came in at AU$86.6 million — nearly AU$38 million more than the previous year. Revenue from product and licences of its Workspace Services and networking products increased by nearly AU$5 million to AU$85.5 million.

Noting its primary activity consists of marketing, selling, and supporting IT systems and service providers to build, manage, and secure virtual mobile workspaces, the Asia Pacific arm of the US-based Citrix Systems said it took nearly AU$340 million from customers, an uplift from AU$315 million last year, while payments to suppliers and customers amounted to $325 million, slightly lower than the AU$374 million last year.

Citrix Asia Pacific’s tax bill for the full year was AU$12 million, compared to the AU$8.6 million it paid last year. This was off the back of pre-tax profit of AU$6.14 million, a figure that was lower than the AU$7.12 million recorded in FY19.

Of the total AU$12 million tax paid, AU$517,000 was current income tax charges, another AU$3.77 million was adjustments in respect of current income tax of previous years. Citrix Asia Pacific also reported it had written down AU$5 million in foreign tax credits in Australia.

Citrix Asia Pacific said it currently employees 141 staff, an increase on the 136 it reported last year. This was reflected in the AU$3 million increase in employee salaries and benefits that amounted to AU$26 million during FY20.

After salaries, the company said its next largest expense was related to foreign currency gains, which was AU$15 million in the hole, compared to AU$1.7 million gain last year.

Looking ahead, the company said it continues to “perform well” and is optimistic that will maintain a “strong position” in the virtualisation market.

“The directors believe the current set of products and services that the company offers in meeting the markets’ requirements and will continue to offer new functionality throughout the next year to address new market trends,” it said.

In March, the company received what it referred to as a “favourable” ruling from the Indian Supreme Court in relation to withholding tax on software sales. From this, Citrix said it is “currently assessing the court’s decision and on how it will apply to the Indian tax authorities to recover the withholding tax paid”. However, no adjustments to its statements were made at 31 December 2020, the company said.

Citrix Systems is expected to finalise a $2.3 million class-action lawsuit that was taken out against the company next week.

The class-action lawsuit involved roughly 24,300 members who were impacted by a data breach, which Citrix disclosed of in March 2019 after being alerted by the FBI of a possible network intrusion. Cyber attackers had infiltrated the software giant’s internal servers for a period of roughly five months between 2018 and 2019. 

The data breach resulted in the theft of personal data — including Social Security numbers, passport numbers, limited health insurance data, driver’s licences, and financial account information such as payment card numbers — of Citrix staff, contractors, interns, job candidates, beneficiaries, and dependents.

Judge Ron Altman at the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida issued a preliminary approval for the settlement earlier this year. He also set 10 June 2021 for a hearing over Zoom to take place, which is when the settlement is expected to be finalised.

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