Computacenter is today holding an Investor and Analyst
conference call to provide an update on trading for
the year ended 31 December 2007.
Group profit before tax for 2007 is expected to be marginally
ahead of consensus market expectations of £41.2
million. Net borrowings at the end of the period prior
to customer specific finances are expected to be circa
£30 million. This is after the effect of £35
million spent on acquisitions and £12 million
on the repurchase of our shares during the period. Arrangements
are being put in place to enable the share buy back
programme to continue during the closed period.
In the UK, prior to the effect of acquisitions, the
second half performance
improved compared to last year and to the first half
of 2007. Product sales grew
for the first time in a number of years despite continued
decline in the price
of technology. This was aided by strong gains in market
share in the datacentre
arena, winning some new major contracts particularly
towards the end of the year
and the effects of some customers moving away from the
direct model. In the
second half of 2007 we had a number of new contractual
services wins and
extensions, which enabled us to fully recover from previously
reported lost
contracts. We enter 2008 with a stronger contract base
than we started 2007.
Digica, which was acquired at the beginning of 2007,
performed in line with
management's expectations in the second half of the
year.
As expected, Computacenter Germany continued to perform
well with profits reaching a new high in 2007. Overall,
revenue remained strong in both products
and services and we saw a modest improvement in the
services margins towards the
backend of the year. Fourth quarter revenue was not
as strong as the comparable
period last year, which was an exceptional performance
driven by the VAT rate
changes in Germany.
Computacenter France performed ahead of expectations
for the year, recording a
small profit in the second half of 2007 although it
recorded a small loss for
the year as a whole. Due to competitive pressure we
have seen a reduction in
revenue in France particularly from large product deals
in the fourth quarter.
However, much progress has been made in stabilising
our French business in 2007
with reductions in the cost base, improvements in margin
and increases in
services revenue.
Computacenter will announce its preliminary results
for the year ended 31
December 2007 on Tuesday, 11 March 2008.
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