This article is more than 1 year old

Computacenter's Euro ops outshine sluggish UK biz

Delighted, excited and confident...

Computacenter saw UK revenues slip in 2011, but strong growth in its European operations boosted revenues overall and underpin a bullish forecast for 2012.

The mega reseller and services firm’s German, French and Belgian operations now account for just under half its adjusted operating profit, emphasising its success on the continent, or the dire state of the UK’s financial and government sectors, depending which way you look at it.

Overall revenues were £2.85bn in the year to 31 December, up 6.6 per cent on the year. Pre-tax profits were £72.1m, up 10.3 per cent on the year.

Computacenter emphasised its adjusted profit before tax, which was £74.2m, up 12.4 per cent, once amortisation of acquired intangibles and exceptional items are stripped out.

Chief exec Mike Norris said the firm was “delighted with the strong customer demand for our service offerings ... Our new business pipeline for 2012 looks potentially as exciting, if not more so, than what we achieved in 2011.

“The Board believes that despite the current economic climate, there would need to be further deterioration in the environment for its expectations not to be met this year and the Board is confident of achieving further progress during 2012.”

It was Computacenter’s UK business that took the hit this year, with revenues down 12.9 per cent to £1.1bn, with supply chain business off 17.7 per cent to £728m. Services business for the firm was off just 1.7 per cent. However, operating margins at the UK business stood firm. Adjusted segment operating profit was £37.3m. Financial services and government customers were the main bogeymen for the firm in the UK, although the Computacenter noted weakened infrastructure spending overall.

By contrast, German revenues grew 21.8 per cent to £1.2bn, with supply chain revenues there up 25.9 per cent, including acquisitions. Adjusted segment operating profit was £27.7m. French revenues were up 33.1 per cent to £478m, boosted by the acquisition of Top Info earlier in the year. Like-for-like Gallic revenues were 7.9 per cent. Adjusted segment operating profits were £6m. Belgian revenues grew 0.9 per cent to £43m and delivered segmented operating profit of £1.6m. ®

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