Blue Bell, Pennsylvania-based Unisys reported a net profit of $111.5m for the three months ended December 31 2003, up 25% on 2002, on revenue that grew 5.5% to $1.64bn. In the full-year period, net profit grew 16% to $258.7m, on revenue that grew 5.4% to $5.91bn. At the end of the 12-month period, the company had generated some $134m in free cash flow from operations.
According to CEO Laurence Weinbach, Unisys succeeded in achieving its target for double-digit growth in business process outsourcing, on the back of recent major projects. These deals included a $140m deal with HBOS in October to provide it with paper-clearing and check-clearing processes, a $450m deal with Royal & SunAlliance in February to run its closed book claims processing, and a $400m deal with Washington Mutual last December to provide outsourced check-processing and document-imaging services.
Unisys also achieved double-digit growth in enterprise security, its new ES7000 server sales, and reduced sales, general and administration expenses to 17% of revenue, down from 17.7% in 2002.
IT and BPO services accounted for 79% of Unisys’ revenue in the full year, with sales for the year up 9% at $4.69bn. Sales from hardware declined 8% to $1.22bn. Weinbach said Unisys has five strategic objectives for 2004: to drive double-digit growth in annuity outsourcing contract revenue, to drive improved operating margins from services, to continue growth in enterprise security, to achieve double-digit growth in ES7000 server sales, and to enhance the company’s brand.
This article is based on material originally published by ComputerWire
