The company, a provider of smart cards and eftpos terminals to banks and retailers, recorded an operating EBITDA profit of A$4.2 million, compared to a loss of A$2 million for the year to 30 June 2001.

Bruce Thompson, CEO, Keycorp, comments: "While this is a large loss for the company, it is non-recurring and more importantly the underlying operating result is positive. Our sales performance was strong in the second half, a trend which we are confident will continue. We are on track to deliver profitability, as promised, in 2003."

Revenue from products and services, which is the basis for recurring business, increased by 33% over the corresponding period, he notes.

The operating loss consisted of several significant one-off items, including a A$256 million revaluation of the transaction network business bought from Telstra at the height of the dotcom boom. Other write-downs related to a A$9.3 million charge on the company's aborted investment in US card manufacturer CPI and a A$10.7 million inventory charge.

Seperately, the company announced a seven-year partnership agreement with Samsung SDS, the large Korean systems integrator, to develop new implementations for the Multos smartcard operating system. The first, partnering with Mondex Korea and using Samsung's 32K crypto-chip, will be available from the second half of 2003.

Keycorp is also reporting a multi-year agreement to supply its point of sale (POS) payment terminals to a leading electronic payment processor in Canada. The deal allows for the sale of terminals, PIN pads, vertical market applications as well as terminal management solutions to clients in the North American markets.