Locaweb puts crisis aside to invest another 40% until December
DCI
Locaweb, leading company in the hosting of information technology (IT), give signs the sector is recovering from the financial crisis, and should invest an amount of R$ 35 million (US$ 18.4 million) until the end of this year, nearly 40% more than the amount invested last year. "The impact of the crisis was indirect. We continued investing and growing", affirms Celso Nunes, Officer of Relations with Investors of Locaweb. According to him, to a great extent the amount will be used for the construction of the second data center unit of the company, in São Paulo, which should be fully concluded in five years. The project will have nearly 25 thousand servers, with capacity to support a growth demand of seven to ten years.
The first module of the project, opened yesterday, has around 1,000 servers and capacity to support the demand of new clients in a period of one and a half years. In the first half of this year, Locaweb earned nearly R$ 61.7 million (US$ 32.5 million), a 32.4% increase compared to last year's same period. The expectation is to reach earnings of nearly R$ 101 million (US$ 53.2 million) in the year, with a growth of 36.7% compared to last year. "Before we start the project, our data center supported up to 3.2 thousand servers", explains Alexandre Glikas, commercial officer of Locaweb. According to Glikas, the crisis has also anticipated investments in staff, people and equipment for the opening of a new business unit of Locaweb, with the purpose of meeting the outsourcing demand, generated by large companies. Taking advantage of the good moment the sector is going through, Locaweb has recently started its internationalization process to cater to Latin American countries.