Oncard holds high hopes in southern China

Oncard believes it is "first in line" to be awarded the rights to develop southern China's second payments switch and break the existing central bank backed monopoly on transaction processing.

Oncard CEO Peter Abotomey says the company hopes to make an announcement about the switch venture within two weeks.

 "We think we are first in line, we are working very closely with the central bank, the joint venture arrangement with the central bank is almost complete, then we will apply for the second switch licence.

"Why are we first in line? Because I'm there every second week, in the queues saying hello talk to me and we are working very closely with the central bank."

Oncard released a much improved profit performance on Wednesday mainly due to its Chinese smart card operations.

Profit for the six months to December 31 was $2.84 million, up from a loss of $187,000 12 months ago. Revenue more than doubled to $6.62 million with earnings per share rising to 1.78 cents from 0.14 cents.

Profit from China totaled more than $3 million, with other Asian markets not performing well for the Peter Scanlon backed company, formerly known as DCS technologies. Oncard lost more than $600,000 in Australia/NZ in the half year.

Abotomey has high hopes for the Oncard Fuel Rewards card which offers a discount of up to 36 cents per litre and is currently being rolled out across New Zealand.