Penki Kontinentai Group news

Year 2008 – the year of changes, discoveries and victories

In what way was the year 2008 special for you?

The year 2008 was the year of changes, discoveries, and victories in every sense. I am happy to say that our company’s team became even stronger during this year; that we created and presented high-quality, innovative services and solutions, and consolidated our position in difficult and complex foreign markets, while at the same time strengthening cooperation with new and existing customers and partners.

What results did you achieve this year?

Despite all the talk of hard times prevailing worldwide and here at home, the Penki kontinentai group’s results were planned in our various business segments. Some of them even considerably surpassed forecast performance.

We successfully realized many projects that we had undertaken in banking technologies; we also presented innovative, highly marketable solutions that have already earned recognition. We also started introducing retail trade equipment this year and offered a universal payment and loyalty card system. All this will enable us to provide complex on-demand services to our customers.

Our growth in the field of telecommunications out-performed the whole market. This is also true of growth in the number of customers of the interactive IP television Penki TV, Internet Skynet, voice over IP Skytel, and the intelligent housing system Smart House. We are proud that the IP television, which we created, overtook our competitors in a year. Internet-access services, which we provide, were also among the highest-ranked in terms of speed and reliability.

What were the major developments in business, investment, and projects during the year?

Investment in optical Internet and IP television amounted to approximately 20 million litai in Lithuania this year. These investments will enable one of the group’s companies to increase its authorized capital soon. We also invested approximately 10 million in the creation of new software. We opened up representative offices in Uzbekistan, Georgia, and the Republic of South Africa this year; we also implemented new projects in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Tajikistan Kyrgyzstan. A new long-term agreement with one of our foreign partners enabled us to occupy a new business niche: introducing hardware and software designed for the retail trade.

How has the recession affected your business? What are current or possible losses?

The recession did not affect this year’s results because our business’s main fields are based on long-term contracts, which were concluded quite a long time before the beginning of the so-called recession. However, naturally, next year will require even more mobilization and optimization of activity. On the other hand, we predicted possible changes in the market, we’re completely prepared for them and could offer our customers solutions, which optimize their activity. Therefore, we are certain that temporary difficulties will enable us to strengthen our positions.

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