Hatfield, UK-based Computacenter said its operating profit for the year ended December 31, 2002 would be no lower than 51.1m pounds ($79.2m), effectively flat on the previous year, and in line with its previous statement made last November. It said: Trading for the year has ended satisfactorily, and we expect to report profits not less than this figure.
Computacenter continues to experience strong demand for its managed services and professional services offerings, which are continuing to offset the sluggish demand within its core hardware reselling activities.
It has been aggressively growing its business acting as the consolidator in the European VAR market. In late November, the company paid 121m pounds ($187.5m) to acquire Germany’s largest computer reseller GE CompuNet from GE Capital IT Solutions (GECITS), adding to its purchase of UK and French reseller operations of GECITS in October 2001 for 2m pounds ($3m). GE CompuNet will establish Computacenter as the largest specialist VAR in Europe, with additional revenue of 1.24bn euros ($1.92bn), of which 25% comes from IT services.
Source: Computerwire
