French IT systems company Bull has reported a 6% increase in revenue to E341.5m ($441.3m) for the fourth quarter 2008.
The company said services and solutions revenue grew 12% to E143.2m ($185m), hardware and systems solutions revenue increased 19% to E115.2m ($148.87m), and maintenance revenue fell 7% to E51m ($65.9m). Revenue from fulfillment and third-party products fell 27%.
For fiscal 2008, the company reported a 22% increase in net income to E5.6m ($7.2m) compared to net income of E4.6m ($5.9) in the year-ago quarter, on revenue up 1% at E1.12 billion ($1.4 billion). EBIT grew 8% to E30.1m ($38.89m) and cashflow generated from continuing business operations was E27.5m ($35.5m).
For the year, France revenue grew 9% to E583m ($753.4m), while revenue for western Europe excluding France remained almost flat at E301m ($388.9m). Eastern and central Europe remained flat at E84m ($108.5m), while USA sales fell 32% to E38m ($49.1m). South America revenue fell 9% to E39m ($50.4m), while rest-of-the-world sales declined 13% to E87m ($112.4m).
Didier Lamouche, chairman and chief executive at Bull, said: In 2008, we adopted a new business segmentation and continued the systematic refocusing of our portfolio of business activities, through a combination of divestments of non-strategic activities, we sold our Medicaid-related business in the US, and acquisitions in high-potential segments. The acquisition of science+computing (s+c) will add further weight to our major successes in the German High-Performance Computing (HPC) market. In 2009, we will continue with appropriate cost reductions and improve our margins in services and on cashflow generation.
For fiscal 2009 the company said it expects EBIT to be in excess of E20m ($25.8m).
