Anglo-French IT services company Sema Group Plc has reported six-month net profit to June 30 up 20.3% at 27.9m pounds ($44.8m) on revenue that rose 25.1% to 668.6m pounds ($1.07bn). At the pre-tax level, the London and Paris-based company said profit was up 21.9% at 37.9m pounds ($60.9m) for the half. Earnings per share rose 27% in the half, to 6.1 pence (9.8 cents).
Sema’s order backlog stood at a record 1.8bn pounds ($2.9m), despite the non-inclusion of its contract to become systems integrator for the Olympic Games between 2002 and 2008, which has yet to be finalized. Growth was greatest in the UK market and within Sema’s systems integration business. UK revenue rose 34.4% in the half, some 37.5% of total revenue. Growth was reportedly due to increased take up of the company’s outsourcing services.
However, overall outsourcing services lagged behind Sema’s systems integration offerings which showed 30.0% growth at 292.6m pounds ($470.0m). The company attributed much of this growth to its growing e-commerce business. Unlike many other service providers Sema is not expecting a downturn in its systems integration business, primarily because it has never staked a great deal of resources on Y2K remediation work.
Sema’s languishing products business received a boost with the first six sales of its SemaVision unified platform customer care, billing and network management tool for telecoms. Product revenue grew 12.6% to 74.6m pounds ($119.9m) for the half.
Telecoms is set to be the focus for Sema’s planned American push. Sema VP Tido Maini said the company was looking to achieve US revenue of $1bn by 2001. This will be achieved through one or two focused acquisitions. However, while Sema has been in discussion with around 20 suitable companies no agreement has yet been reached.
