Asteros 15 years later: expanding beyond the IT market

Jun 17, 2013

This year, the Asteros Group celebrates its 15th anniversary. The company has come a long way from being a supplier of IT equipment to becoming the Russian market leader in the development of comprehensive engineering and IT infrastructure for offices and facilities. Asteros rang in its anniversary year with revenues of $ 617 million.

During its 15-year presence on the Russian IT market, the Asteros Group has continued to display strong business growth. Over the past five years, the company has recorded compound annual growth rates of 30%. Results of the financial year which ended on March 31st, 2013 (FY 2012), exceeded results from previous years but the rate of annual growth slowed down. In the company's 15th year, its revenues reached $ 617 million, which is 5% higher than in the previous financial period.

The areas with the best growth rates in FY 2012 were engineering and IT infrastructure (12.3%) and IT outsourcing (12.2%). Information security showed a 6.4% increase and the area of IT consulting grew by 3.8%. Asteros displayed a typical pattern of sales in its industrial cross-section. In its customer base, the financial (25.6%), telecommunications (24.5%), transport (15.3%) and energy (10.3%) industries showed the largest growth. The manufacturing, oil and gas, and public sectors also contributed to the total revenue.

“Fifteen years have passed since B.A.C., the forerunner of Asteros, was established as a company. There are employees here who were working from our company's very beginning and they represent our corporate culture. In my opinion, the values and traditions which we have kept since the founding of our company are the most important intangibles which enable us to develop and go our own special way. Today, the Asteros Group has reached its critical mass and is entering its anniversary year as the leader in the development of comprehensive infrastructure for offices and facilities. At the moment, we are on the verge of concluding the largest contracts at the federal level and we are focusing on the efficient planning of the company's development, which will create a reliable platform for the further large-scale development of business,” said Yury Byakov, founder and chairman of the board of the Asteros Group.

In 2012, Asteros underwent a number of large-scale internal reforms. A new business development strategy was formed, there was a change in management, and four business units with full financial responsibility and a unified control center were created. In addition to this, Asteros has created its own Project Office. During the past year, over 600 architects, engineers and IT professionals have joined the team. As a result, the company is marking its anniversary year with nearly 1700 employees.

Asteros commemorated its 15th birthday with new large-scale contracts. One of these contracts is the reconstruction and comprehensive development of the Moscow Dynamo Stadium and the surrounding commercial zone. The company is also currently working on installing low current cable systems in the terminal finger of Sochi International Airport and implementing a complete package of engineering systems in the airport's VIP terminal, which already uses 37 information and business aviation systems that were previously integrated by Asteros. Furthermore, a project to create engineering and IT infrastructure for the Sochi Olympic Village, in which the company is active as both a concept developer and a service provider, is now in the final stage of completion. The infrastructure project will result in 56 buildings which will host 3,500 guests during the Olympics.

“Presently, we have realized that classic systems integration, the area in which our company developed for many years, has become too narrow a field for us. Now our focus is on major long-range turn-key projects to build security systems, engineering, telecommunications and IT infrastructure for various buildings and facilities. These include airports, stadiums, hotels, offices, as well as educational and cultural institutions. The long-term priorities of Asteros are to efficiently manage these types of projects and develop a complementary set of skills using the experience which we have accumulated over time,” added Andrey Cheremnykh, President of the Asteros Group.

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