SEA Emerging Markets to Continue Accelerating Hitachi Sunway Revenue Growth

Japan-Malaysia JV company expects to ramp up overseas business by 25 percent by fiscal 2015;
Expands technology solutions portfolio to support Malaysian business market’s evolution

KUALA LUMPUR, 19 MAY 2014 — Hitachi Sunway Information Systems Sdn. Bhd (“Hitachi Sunway”), a leading IT services and solutions provider in Southeast Asia (SEA), today outlines its business strategy for the next two years to achieve its targeted revenue of RM137 million (JPY 4billion) by fiscal 2015.  

Established in April 2013, Hitachi Sunway is a joint venture (JV) between Japan’s Hitachi Systems, Ltd. and Malaysia’s Sunway Technology Sdn Bhd. In its first fiscal year (FY 2013), the JV reported RM91 million (JY2.9 billion) in revenue –namely fuelled through its business expansion efforts to strategic geographical markets in SEA.

Cheah Kok Hoong, Group CEO / Director of Hitachi Sunway shares that the company is organically growing in a ‘most synergistic manner’ from the very start of the JV last year, by moving quickly to tap the huge business opportunities in IT infrastructure building that are immediately presented within the SEA emerging markets.

“For Hitachi Sunway, the three markets that are fuelling our regional business growth are mainly Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand. We identified significant opportunities to extend our system integration (SI) expertise across in these three countries across industries to support demand for large IT infrastructure developments.”

Cheah shares, “Global research shows that more than half of the world’s growth over the next few years will come from emerging markets. Cheah concurs with the research saying, “We see continued high demands for IT solutions and SI services, in parallel with the business and national developments within these emerging economies — especially as organizations seek to improve their IT infrastructures to support business modernization and higher productivity for better competitiveness.”

He adds that many multinational companies, especially Japanese-owned groups of companies, are becoming the large investors in SEA market, “These companies are eager to establish their footprints in these SEA markets, and they are looking for ideal IT partners like Hitachi Sunway that has an on-site presence in multiple ASEAN countries to comprehensively support their regional expansion, operations and IT needs.”

The first stage of Hitachi Sunway’s SEA business expansion plan kicked off in 2013 started with Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. Hitachi Sunway is now in the second stage focusing on three markets including Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines, to continue fuelling the regional business growths.

Cheah shares, “Currently our businesses in most of these countries have already been established with steady demands for IT projects. We expect this to ramp up our overseas business by 25 percent in fiscal 2015 and continue contributing to our combined regional revenues for moving forward.”

Making Inroads into Vietnam’s Booming Economy

Last month, Hitachi Sunway officially launched its latest business base in Hanoi, Vietnam with the aim to further capitalize the country’s surging IT demands in the local market.

“Vietnam’s economy is growing on a spectacular basis in the country due to its large domestic market and is becoming the go-to destination for outsourced manufacturing. Hitachi Sunway expects this to drive the demands for our IT solutions and services by multinationals, enterprises and Japanese companies operating in Vietnam.”

In line with the JV’s overall growth fueled by regional business expansions, Hitachi Sunway has raised its employment headcount by 21% with 200 employees based across Malaysia and other offices in SEA.  

Strengthened IT Solutions Portfolio to Meet Malaysia’s Next-level of IT Demands

In bid towards its mission as a truly end-to-end ICT solution provider in SEA, Hitachi Sunway has made several strategic collaborations to strengthen its solutions portfolio. Its recent partnership with SAP Ariba is an example to quickly and effectively offer breakthrough Cloud solutions in delivering simplified IT services.

He highlights, “Today, for most enterprises in Malaysia, IT systems infrastructure is already a given basic foundation for their business operations. However, with the advent of Big Data and Mobility, they are now focused into optimizing their existing IT infrastructure to improve productivity and lower cost to meet the fast changing market dynamics.”

“Hitachi's fee-based Cloud offering facilitates this by allowing an effective delivery of IT solutions and services on a fixed monthly fee rather than usage-based billing. Through this model, our customers can be freer in acquiring the IT solutions that they need without worrying over capital expenditures,” he explains.

In Malaysia, for fiscal 2014, Hitachi Sunway will remain focused on incremental business opportunities in Financial Services as the No.1 development sector, followed by Oil and Gas, Manufacturing, and Architecture, Engineering & Construction (AEC) as the other major business areas.