The current quarter will be hit by continuing restructuring charges, Unisys Corp warned at its annual company-wide review for analysts, but it hopes for profits for the other three quarters of the year, and also for the full year. Certainly those are our objectives, said Ed Blechschmidt, recently-named chief financial officer. Referring to the restructuring plan it initiated last month, Blechschmidt declared We know it has disruption effect, but how much of an effect on the business it will have in the first quarter is hard to quantify. He said Unisys has begun talks on a new bank facility to replace the existing line, which is due to expire in May, but declined to comment on whether it might seek a larger amount of credit. It plans to redeem the $338m due in the third quarter through some combination of cash and possible refinancing. Chief executive James Unruh cautioned that the company expects a series of restructuring activities during 1996. The company said its gross margin goals for the future were to see a rate of about 28% for its Information Systems unit, 39% for the Computer Systems Group and 30% for the customer service business. The company expects its 1996 sales and revenues measured in dollars to grow in the mid-single digits. Blechschmidt said the company expects about $250m to $300m in capital spending compared to $318m in 1995. According to Reuter, the February 12 issue of Forbes reported that Greenway Partners has filed a shareholder resolution to appear this spring in the company’s proxy statement for its annual meeting, calling on the company to find new ways to increase shareholder value. Officers said the best way Unisys could address such issues was to carry out plans to operate as an integrated structure where each unit has profit and loss responsibility. Beyond that we will comment further in the proxy, the finance chief declared. The company has said that it will pull out of the general-purpose Unix market to concentrate on defensible niches, but an alternative, would be to merge with NCR Corp once the latter is spun out from AT&T Corp – with very little debt, it is to be hoped. NCR’s Unix hardware strategy meshes closely with that of Unisys, to create a stronger, more broadly-based firm.
