CDC Australia Strengthens Presence in Sydney Market with Strategic IT Services Acquisition

Sydney, Australia - 3 September, 2003 - CDC Australia Limited, a subsidiary of chinadotcom corporation, today announced the acquisition of a 100% stake in P.K. Information Systems (“PKIS”), a Sydney based IT services business, on an earn-out basis over the coming three years. This acquisition provides a strategic fit to CDC Australia and significantly strengthens CDC Australia’s position in the Sydney market.

PKIS has been consistently profitable, generating positive margins and substantial recurrent revenue streams. It adds its strong base of New South Wales government clients to CDC Australia’s experience in application development and business intelligence solutions through its Praxa Limited arm, a leading Australian IT outsourcing professional services provider acquired by CDC Australia in January 2003.

“It fits our outsourcing strategy because part of PKIS’ client work can be potentially undertaken by chinadotcom’s low cost software development centre in China, as well as the group’s joint venture partner in India,” said Allan Hyde, Managing Director of CDC Australia Limited. “Clients will benefit from synergies in the complementary skill sets of both PKIS and Praxa,” he said.

Mr John Clough, Chairman of Praxa Limited elaborated, “PKIS has specialised capabilities in the in-demand areas of Business Intelligence solutions and sophisticated .NET application development that can immediately benefit existing Praxa clients. At the same time, Praxa brings the advantages of scale and a broader range of capabilities to existing and new PKIS clients.”

PKIS has a successful 20 year track record, as reflected by its well-established NSW government and large private client base and related recurring revenue streams.
PKIS is an approved supplier to the NSW State Contracts Control Board on both the ITS2036 and ITS881 Panel Contracts.

Apart from its government business, PKIS was an attractive target for CDC Australia because of its growing commercial client base, the length and depth of its client relationships and its consistent profitability during tight IT industry conditions.

“In the rapidly maturing area of enterprise web services applications, the acquisition of PKIS now means that the CDC Australia group is well positioned to deliver customer solutions in both .NET and J2EE platforms,” John Clough continued.

“Praxa and PKIS will work closely together to ensure the full value of the synergies is realised over time, both from a business development and operational cost perspective,” John Clough added.

“Following the acquisition, it is ‘business as usual’ at PKIS with all staff retained in their current roles and no change in terms of our front end service delivery,” Liz Poy, PKIS Joint-Principal said. “But significantly, apart from administrative and business development infrastructure and services, the opportunity provides the necessary working capital to enable us to focus on aggressively growing the PKIS client base.”

Promising further strategic acquisitions by CDC Australia, Allan Hyde said, “PKIS is typical of what we’re seeking: businesses in this geographic region that add value to CDC Australia’s client base by widening and deepening relevant offerings in the software and IT services area; and opportunities that complement chinadotcom’s offshore assets, which include software development capabilities in India and China.”