Ufida Software, China's biggest business management software developer, is looking to drive growth through local acquisitions, the company's top executive said yesterday.

 

The Beijing-based software provider is interested in "acquiring software developers in the finance and mobile commerce sectors", said Wang Wenjing, Ufida's chairman and CEO.

 

Ufida, the biggest ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software provider in Asia, will mainly target its high-end customers in the finance, telecommunications and retail sectors, which are currently dominated by foreign rivals Oracle and SAP, Wang said, adding that his firm now boasts about 500,000 clients.

 

"We have seen some leading firms in the finance sector switching to our products recently", such as Guotai Jun'an, the country's biggest security broker, he said.

 

The size of the finance software market in China reached 7.13 billion yuan last year, up 19.5 percent from 2005, according to Beijing-based market research firm CCID.

 

The revenue stream generated from high-end customers is expected to jump to roughly one-third of the company's total sales this year, up from 25 percent currently, Wang said.

 

Ufida commanded 24.5 percent of the Chinese ERP market in 2006, according to CCID.

 

The company's revenue reached 1.1 billion yuan last year, up 11.24 percent from the previous year, and its net profit hit 170 million yuan, a jump of 75.43 percent over the same period, according to its annual report.

 

According to a three-year growth strategy unveiled earlier this year, Ufida aims to situate itself as one of the world's top-five management software providers, banking on its current portfolio and the booming mobile e-commerce business.

 

In January, the software company invested $8.42 million in a joint venture with NTT DoCoMo, the Japanese mobile phone operator, to offer mobile-phone-based services.

 

The company has not announced a timeframe for achieving the goal.

 

The software firm is currently among the world's top 50 management software developers, according to Zheng Yulin, Ufida's vice-president.

 

(China Daily May 8, 2007)