Cap Gemini Sogeti SA, reporting a net loss equivalent to $17.9m for 1994, down from a loss last time of $81m, is looking for a clear return to profit this year. The company saw turnover fall 8% to $1,917m, but the company says it was up 4.3% at constant exchange rates, and up 7% in the second half on that basis. Operating profit before goodwill writedowns was about 5% of turnover in 1994, up from 2.7% in 1993. The order book was 19% ahead. It expects a new improvement in its operating margins and a return to a clear net profit this year. Even if the economic recovery is taking its time to make its effects fully felt on the computer services sector in Europe, the Cap Gemini Sogeti group is convinced now that the 1995 financial year should be marked by a new improvement in its operating margins and the return to a net result very much in profit, it said. After the very strong improvement obtained in the second half of 1994, our aim is get better than 5% operating margins, and should hit this target in 1996 or earlier. It noted a recovery in Debis Systemhaus, the German company in which Cap Gemini has 19.6% alongside Daimler-Benz AG: Debis’s 1994 turnover grew 9% and would show a profit for the year, it said; excluding the Daimler-Benz activities, the company’s turnover rose 10%. It still does not know whether Daimler Benz will exercise its option to raise its stake in Sogeti SA, the dominant holding company: it has 12 months in which to exercise an option to increase its stake in Sogeti to 39.9% from 34%.
