Cloud computing - see here - Rhipe was the 2018 Microsoft Australian partner of the year winner; WAM (Wilson Asset Management) Group and Ellerston Capital both rate Rhipe as a "buy" now - see here - Hamish Douglass of Magellan (MFG) believes that we are underestimating the extent of the shift to the cloud - and the magnitude of the opportunity.  Even if some businesses still choose to own their own data centres for back-up and redundancy purposes, or use local data centres (for the same reasons), they will still use the cloud for their primary data storage in the future.

Microsoft and Amazon are at the forefront of this revolution, and Rhipe (ASX: RHP) are one of Microsoft's top partners in this area. If you don't invest directly in Amazon and Microsoft (as Hamish does), or even if you do, Rhipe is an ASX-listed exposure to cloud computing that is well run, the management have significant skin in the game, and they have some smart money on the register - including fundies like Regal, WAM & Ellerston.

19-June-2019:  GUIDANCE UPDATE FOR FY19 AND PRELIMINARY GUIDANCE FOR FY20

The board of rhipe Limited (‘rhipe’ or the ‘Company’) is pleased to provide a further upgrade on operating profit guidance for the 2019 Financial Year (FY19) to $12.5M+.   
 
As a result of these strong results, and the potential for further future growth, the Board of rhipe has decided to continue investing in the business during the 2020 Financial Year (FY20) with an expansion in operating expenses to fund sales growth, marketing and rhipe’s own intellectual property initiatives.  
 
The Board of rhipe currently estimates guidance for FY20 to approximately $16M in operating profit excluding any changes in market conditions or major expansion initiatives such as geographical or vendor expansion opportunities.   
 
 
[ENDS] 
 
 

Previously: 

11-June-2019:  TRADING UPDATE ON RHIPE’S PUBLIC CLOUD ACTIVITIES

rhipe limited (‘rhipe’ or the ‘Company’) is today providing an update on exciting progress made by the Company in relation to its public cloud business. As indicated in previous disclosures the public cloud part of rhipe is one of the key growth drivers of the business and an area where we have made significant investment in the last four years. 
 
We are therefore pleased to announce that we have exceeded half a million Office365 seats with the current seat count in excess of 530,000 including approximately 100,000 academic seats. Excluding the academic seats, rhipe’s Office365 seat count has increased by more than 170,000 seats or 65 per cent since the start of the financial year. Approximately 60 per cent of this growth in seats is in the Australian market with 40 per cent being delivered by our fast-growing activities across Asia. 
 
Further evidence of our continued success in Asia is demonstrated by Microsoft confirming this month that rhipe Malaysia has won the 2019 Microsoft Country Partner of The Year award for Malaysia, repeating its 2017 success.  In addition, the Company was also named a Finalist for the 2019 Microsoft Global Indirect Partner of The Year award. rhipe was honoured among a global field of top Microsoft partners for demonstrating excellence in innovation and implementation of customer solutions based on Microsoft technology. 
 
Dominic O’Hanlon, Chief Executive Officer of rhipe said, “The continued strong growth in Office365 supported seats and the two important industry awards provides recognition from Microsoft at both a local and global level and is a reflection of rhipe’s exceptional year of growth.  
 
“We have over 530k CSP seats globally with margin contribution from our public cloud business now exceeding the margin contribution from our traditional Microsoft private cloud offerings, although we continue to see this grow steadily as well.” 
 
O’Hanlon added “We’d like to thank the hard-working team in Malaysia, and the wider rhipe group whose daily efforts contribute to these awards and also our partners including Fedelis, Infront Consulting and Celcom in Malaysia.” 
 
[ENDS] 

Disclosure:  I hold rhipe (RHP) shares.

04-Apr-19:  Rhipe has announced two new board members - one is a replacement and one is new, which expands the board to 7 directors now, 6 of them being non-executive directors - click here for the full announcement.

Here is most of it:

Inese Kingsmill replaces Laurie Sellers who retired by rotation at the end of last year.  Inese brings to rhipe a 20-plus year career with global corporations, including Microsoft, Telstra and Virgin Australia. Inese has been recognised in Australia as one of the most effective Marketing leaders of her generation. She has a record of driving growth and transforming brands and culture across complex large enterprises. After ten successful years leading the marketing groups at Microsoft, Inese took on a senior role with Telstra to help drive transformation of their business in the Consumer/ Corporate space and was most recently CMO of Virgin Australia. A Graduate of Western Sydney University with a BA in Marketing, Inese is a Member of the AICD (Australian Institute of Company Directors). 
 
As rhipe continues to grow and expand its offerings, the Board has taken the decision to also expand the Board.  Olivier Dispas has been appointed and takes the Board from six to seven directors in total (6 Non-Executive).

A Seattle-USA based senior executive, Olivier brings a high level of experience and knowledge of the key international markets for rhipe. Olivier had a record of success leading the Global Channels business within Microsoft, responsible for over $30 billion of the firms’ business. This was the culmination of a 20-year tenure with Microsoft globally, and a level of connectivity that will be crucial for rhipe’s international growth. Since leaving Microsoft, Olivier has brought his skills and experience to the fore as a Board Advisor to two early stage software providers.

Managing Director, Dominic O’Hanlon said, “We are extremely excited to add two more talented industry heavyweights to our board as Non-Executive Directors in addition to the recent appointment of Gary Cox as Chairman. Their experience building successful channel businesses and marketing teams within the technology industry and beyond will be extremely valuable as rhipe continues to grow across APAC.”