New York, March 31 (Bloomberg) -- AsiaInfo Holdings Inc., China's biggest builder of Internet networks, expects to return to profitable operations next year after a loss in 1999, said Chief Executive James Ding.
``We made heavy investments for future growth, but we'll soon start to see profit, starting in the latter half of 2001,' he told the Bloomberg Forum.
Seven-year-old AsiaInfo was profitable for the three years through 1998, then lost $4.95 million, or 34 cents a share, in 1999 on revenue of $60.3 million. On March 3, it raised about $120 million in its initial public offering, becoming the first Chinese company listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
``The money is in the bank,' said Ding. It's to be used for developing software, acquiring companies and expanding the company's staff throughout China. The payroll is about 500, and it's targeted to grow to about 750 this year.
Ding, 34, who holds a master's degree in information sciences from the University of California at Los Angeles, started Beijing- based AsiaInfo as a U.S. company to exploit Internet opportunities in China.
It's created networks for China Telecom Ltd. and state-owned telecommunications companies in 30 provinces, and is building networks for China UniCom Corp. and China Netcom Corp.
After it builds networks, AsiaInfo sells software and services to the owners. Last year, that accounted for about a quarter of revenue but Ding said he'd like to make that the majority of sales over time ``because it's highly scalable and highly profitable.'
AsiaInfo, which buys most of its equipment from top U.S. technology companies including Cisco Systems Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Sun Microsystems Inc., plans to host Web sites, manage data centers and provide other Internet services, he said. |
