Hatfield, UK-based Computacenter reported a net profit of 17.9m pounds ($28.3m) for the six months ended June 30, compared to a net profit of 16.2m pounds ($25.6m) in 2002, or an increase of 10%, on revenue that grew 29% to 1.25bn pounds ($1.98m). At an operating level, Computacenter beat market expectations, reporting a pre-tax profit of 32m pounds ($50.6m) compared to a consensus of between 28m pounds ($44.2m) and 31m pounds ($48.9m).
Revenue was helped by recent acquisitions in Germany and Austria, where it bought out GE CompuNet last November for 120m euros ($136.8m), a firm that reported revenue of 1.24bn euros ($ 1.42bn) in 2001. Excluding the acquisition, Computacenter’s revenue would have declined 6.5% to 911.3m pounds ($1.44bn). The company said that hardware prices continue to decline, and this affected organic revenue. However, it said this is being offset to some extent by managed services, which grew 12% during the half.
Computacenter said the GE division, now renamed CC CompuNet, had won two significant managed services contracts during the year to date, including a four-year deal with Deutsche Bank Frankfurt to provide services to 4,500 employees across Germany, Luxembourg and the UK, as well as a five-year Linux migration contract with Deutscher Bundestag in the German parliament.
Geographically, France remains the weakest market, which made an operating loss of 1.7m pounds ($2.69m) in the half, and this is currently being downsized. However, the UK market continued to experience strong demand on the back of projects for the UK Government and what it called a substantial improvement in the telecoms sector. Here the company’s managed services operation also won two significant deals during the half, including a 70m pound ($110.6m) five-year project for Abbey National covering 28,000 staff, and a contract extension with HBOS to cover 35,000 desktops. Together the deals involved the transfer of some 300 staff to Computacenter.
Source: Computerwire
