Net profits at Comparex Informationssysteme GmbH, which spent a large part of last year haggling unsuccessfully with Hitachi Ltd over means of merging its business with the European arm of National Advanced Systems, plunged 32.9% to the equivalent of $18.8m. Nevertheless managing director Rolf Brilliger declared at the Hannover Fair yesterday that the net margin of 3% was quite satisfactory when compared with that of its competitors in the IBMulator market. Turnover fell 1.4% to $1,806m, of which peripherals represented 52%, up from 47% last year. Sales of Hitachi-built mainframes fell to 32% of the total from 39% with maintenance and service making up the 16% balance. Turnover for the first quarter is up 7%. The Mannheim company is 66.5% owned by BASF AG, 33.5% by Siemens AG.
