Bermuda Computer Services made a profit of just over $100,000 in 2000 despite the dampening of the market from a so-called "reality check'' on e-commerce.

A year earlier the Bermuda Stock Exchange-listed company announced a loss of $181,921.

Despite the turn-around, the company's directors voted to suspend quarterly dividends in the second half of the year in order to ensure the company had enough money to fund its continuing investment in Transact-e-Biz.com (Bermuda) Ltd.

The newly set up electronic hosting, server and store management section made a loss of $317,903 for the year and has been suffering from delays in negotiating an agreement with AT&T Global Network, the company said.

A total investment of $1.5 million will be needed to get the fledgling dot-com off the ground, the company said.

Last week, on April 26, the company's stock leapt 57.5 percent or $3.45 to close at a 52 week high of $9.45. The stock's 52 week low is $6.00.

The company, which has a market capitalisation of $2.6 million, stopped selling IBM personal PC's after competition from the Internet cut into their slice of the market, the company revealed in its annual report to the Bermuda Stock Exchange from company president Susan Wilson and general manager Aaron Smith.

Total assets of the group at December 31, 2000 were recorded at $5,162,163, including fixed assets of $2,735,728.

This compares with assets of $5,087,025 and fixed assets of $2,462,050 a year ago.

The company had cash and time deposits of $447,199 as at December 31, 2000 compared with $446,164 last year.

Shareholders' equity increased from $2,020,070 to $2,066,974 and the company paid dividends of $60,000 in the year, but directors however in July, 2000 suspended the quarterly dividends.

In the subsidiary company, BCS Agencies Ltd., which handles all IBM Agency business, excluding PCs and e-commerce, earned (before corporate overheads) $508,403. This is up 37 percent compared to 1999 when earnings totalled $370,000.

The company said: "BCS Agencies Limited experienced a business climate in Bermuda similar to that experienced worldwide by our global-reaching partner BCS profitable in `unique' year "In the words of IBM's CEO Lou Gerstner: `It turned out that last year was, in a word, unique.' "The hardware, software and IT services business saw a drop-off in customer demand as many large customers had put a freeze on big-ticket technology purchases heading into the new Millennium and that persisted until almost the middle of 2000.

"Then the inevitable happened, and some of the pent-up demand that had been building as customers delayed key IT initiatives came into being during the last half of the year.

"BCS Agencies was able to work with many of our existing customers as well as open some new markets in an effort to deliver total system solutions as the marketplace slowly started to revitalise its technology position.'' The company added: "Together with IBM and our local sister company, Transact-e-Biz.com, BCS Agencies has started to work closely with our customers to help them realise the true possibilities of e-business.'' The other subsidiary, The Computer Centre, which does sales and service of IBM Personal Computers and other related peripherals, continued to see the sales of personal computer products fall, resulting in an operating loss of $148,892. But this loss is less than in 1999 when a loss of $556,199 was recorded.

The company said that globally and in Bermuda the personal computer market place is going through significant changes which are adversely impacting sales/services revenues and gross margins in traditional stored due to buying on the Internet.

The company said: "In light of these trends the directors decided to disengage from the IBM Personal Computer business and focus efforts on our core competencies; IBM Mid Range Systems and Professional Services.''