During the three months ended March 31, 2003, Plano, Texas-based Perot made a net loss of $12.7m compared to a net profit of $19.4m in 2002, on revenue that grew 4% to $338m, and up 2% sequentially. However, excluding its $107m acquisition of US government services operation Soza & Company in February, which added $35m in revenue during the quarter, revenue would have declined 7% to $303m. At the end of the period, Perot’s cash position had declined 40% to $127.8m.
During the period, IT consulting services declined 14% to $13m, and IT solutions, the company’s outsourcing and systems integration business, declined 7% to $289.6m. Despite this, Perot said it had signed $752m worth of new contracts during the quarter, bringing the total value signed over the past 12 months to $1.6bn.
Commenting on the outlook, president and CEO Ross Perot Jr said: Against the backdrop of a very challenging global economic environment, we continue to win new contracts; have built a thriving government practice; and have visibility into the areas where we can improve our performance. In many respects, 2003 has started on solid terms, but broad economic weakness continues to pressure profit margins and earnings. Perot said it expects the new government business to achieve revenue of more than $200m in 2003.
During the second quarter, Perot expects revenue to grow between 6% and 9% to between $353m and $363m, and this will be helped by the Soza government services business, which is expected to add between $27m and $37m in revenue for the quarter. This is likely to offset further anticipated declines in its core accounts of between $10m and $15m sequentially. However, the company said it does not anticipate any further declines in its accounts after the second quarter.
Source: Computerwire
