To some people, the thought of dealing with four IBM Corp divisions simultaneously would be the stuff of nightmares. Not so JBA Holdings Plc’s chairman Alan Vickery: he positively relishes it. JBA’s manufacturing and distribution software now runs under OS/2 and Unix, as well as OS/400 and mainframe operating systems. IBM is both a supplier and a customer for the company, because in addition to joint development work at IBM’s Rochester, Minnesota facility, JBA also sells and installs AS/400s in over 40 countries. During the half, the Birmingham-based company completed work on its OpenRoute migration tool which enables its customers to convert from its traditional AS/400 base to the new System 21 product, which runs under Unix on RS/6000 boxes as well as the AS/400. Vickery said the shift away from dependency on the AS/400 to the RS/6000, and eventually to Hewlett-Packard Co’s HP-UX and Digital Equipment Corp’s Alpha-based systems will reduce the second half bias in the company’s results. Unix margins are also greater for the company than those on the AS/400, which Vickery admitted was the reverse of what the company had expected. JBA posted interim pre-tax profits up to ú754,000 from ú264,000 a year ago, on turnover that rose 29% to ú49.5m. The other force for change in the seasonal nature of the figures is the introduction of Oracle Corp as the company’s second major trading partner, the company said. System21 uses Oracle databases on all its systems bar the AS/400. The US unit is now the biggest for JBA, having leapfrogged over the UK, contributing to a 64% jump in sales in the Americas to ú24.7m. Hardware sales were well over target, and while obviously a good thing, caused a drop-off in margins. The introduction of the AS/400 RISC processors this year caused a fall in its AS/400 revenues, JBA noted.

Cosy relationship

This had a significant impact in the UK, with the company’s largest installed AS/400 base. Turnover in the UK was down a shade at ú15.0m. Vickery said revenues should recover in the second half as the new systems are installed. The work with Hewlett and DEC is well under way. Vickery was unperturbed by the latter’s increasingly cosy relationship with Microsoft Corp. I almost don’t care if Alpha dies, he said, indicating that JBA could just concentrate on other systems. It is still holding back on Windows NT, citing performance and scalability problems, but will start work next year to have a product in 1997, Vickery said. The acquisition of RatioPlan Unternehmensberatung Datenverarbeitung GmbH was completed yesterday, and revenues are expected in the final four months (CI No 2,703). RatioPlan, based in Villigen, south of Stuttgart, does much the same as JBA but in additional areas, such as pharmaceuticals and machine tool makers. Vickery said SAP AG would see the mud on their doorstep is more evident now the acquisition, costing up to ú10m in shares, has gone through. Cash balances were significantly down from ú10.4m to ú2.6m at this year’s half-way stage. Finance director David Williams said this was due to cash investment in a new product development, presentation and technology facility down the road from the existing manufacturing centre in Warwickshire. It will open by the year-end at the latest, and will ultimately cost ú2.5m. The drop in cash accounted for the fall in net assets. Research and development was up slightly to ú6.3m but down to 13% of turnover. Williams said research costs for the year were likely to be around ú14m, up from ú13.4m last year. JBA expects to do ú110m for the year, from ú90.7m in 1994. In line with stated policy, the interim of a penny will represent about a quarter of the total, and is up from 0.8p a year ago.