"We're very serious on Y2K readiness. We started our action in 1998. This was one year earlier than ordinary companies," Haruyoshi Iida, vice-president of Asia Pacific operations, told Reuters in an interview.

"We're now very confident we are one of the best companies to pay attention to Y2K compliance."

Iida said Stratus' mission-critical computer systems were designed and ensured to work non-stop under all circumstances.

Its customers included the National Stock Exchange of India, the Korea Stock Exchange, the Taiwan Stock Exchange, the Philippine Stock Exchange and the Shanghai Futures Exchange.

In the US, its securities customers included Nasdaq, the Pacific Stock Exchange and the Vancouver Stock Exchange.

Stratus was acquired in January by Bahrain-registered investment group Investcorp from Ascend Communications Inc. Iida said Stratus was in talks to team up with a Hong Kong company and aimed to become the server provider of the new merged stock and futures exchanges, the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd.

"We cannot work alone. We have a small operation here. We need a partner here in Hong Kong to get accounts, such as the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Hong Kong futures exchange," he said, but declined to name the local company.

Hong Kong is proposing the merger of the stock and futures exchanges, which is likely to be completed in January or early February next year.

Iida said he expected Asia-Pacific revenue excluding Japan to double as the region climbed out of financial turmoil.

"Last year, it was a disaster for everybody. We made around US$10 to US$15 million...I expect it to more than double next year," he said.

Iida said Stratus would focus on China and South Asia following its success in Japan, which represents the bulk of its business in the region. Including Japan, the Asia Pacific region represented around 40 per cent of Stratus revenue.