24th Apr 2014 08:09
LONDON (Alliance News) - Computacenter PLC expressed confidence Thursday in meeting its expectations for the full year, although it cautioned that there its still a "significant amount of work to be done", as it saw revenue up in the first quarter to end-March.
The IT infrastructure company posted revenue of GBP745.1 million for the first quarter of 2014, up from GBP691.9 million a year before, driven by a strong performance in the UK.
UK revenue rose to GBP350.4 million from GBP292.7 million. Within this, Supply Chain revenue rose 23%, buoyed by Microsoft Corp's recent decision to end support for its operating system Windows XP, as customers upgrade to Windows 7 and 8 and other operating systems.
In Germany, revenue declined 2% to GBP267.7 million from GBP272.9 million, as 2% growth in its Services business was offset by a 4% decline in its Supply Chain business. The company said that its onerous contracts in Germany continue to perform in line with the provisions it already has made for them.
In France, revenue rose to GBP114.7 million from GBP104.3 million. Despite this rise, Computacenter maintained that it has work to do on the French business to improve its performance. Although it has seen growth it has come from the lowest-margin areas of its business, the company said, and is therefore not growing its bottom line.
Computacenter is continuing to reduce its cost base in the French business, which it said will produce exceptional restructuring charges of between GBP7 million and GBP9 million in 2014.
The company had net cash, excluding customer specific financing, of around GBP45 million as at March 31, up from GBP23 million at the end of the first quarter of 2013, excluding its GBP75 million return to shareholders.
Shares in Computacenter were trading off 0.1% at 649.00 pence Thursday morning, having risen to 657.00p at the open.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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