Computacenter off to a good start

Information technology services provider Computacenter has started the year with an optimistic outlook, and told investors that it expects its full year results to be marginally ahead of its expectations.

Group revenue for the year increased by 2.0% on a reported basis and 6.0% in constant currency, while Group Supply Chain revenue was flat on a reported basis with an increase of 4.0% in constant currency.

In the fourth quarter, the firm saw a 6.0% increase in Group Services revenue in constant currency and an increase in Group Supply Chain revenue of 5.0% in constant currency.

At the year-end, net cash excluding customer-specific financing (CSF) was £150m, compared to £136.8m at December 31st 2011]. Including CSF, net cash was £131m, compared to £113.7m at December 31st the prior year.

In a statement the group said: "We are pleased with the year-end cash position, particularly given some short term working capital demands during the year relating to the ongoing business growth and our, now completed move to a new warehousing facility in France.

"We have also made significant capital investment in the business, particularly in relation to new systems, logistics facilities, service desk capability and remote management in order to sustain our growth."

Regionally, UK revenue grew by 9% for the year, with Services revenue increasing by 15% and Supply Chain revenue growing by 5%. German revenue, in constant currency, increased by 4% for the year as a whole, with 8% growth in Services and 2% growth in Supply Chain.

In France, revenue in constant currency grew by 7%, with 18% growth in Services revenue and 5% growth in Supply Chain revenue. In the second half of 2013, the group's largest French customer will go through a periodic renewal, but this should be offset by improvements elsewhere, it said.

"Computacenter UK has entered 2013 in good shape, with a strong Services pipeline," the company continued.

"We expect to make further progress in improving the performance of our problem contracts in Germany, where we will focus primarily on margin improvement. While it is too early to make predictions about 2013, we enter the year optimistic that the group will make progress."

The share price rose 3.33% to 434p by 09:05.

NR