21st Jul 2021 09:20
(Alliance News) - Computacenter PLC on Wednesday said it expects profit for the first half to surge on the back of a stellar performance in the second quarter, despite the independent technology partner being constrained by supply issues.
The Hatfield, England-based firm said it will deliver an adjusted pretax profit for the first half of 2021 around 50% higher than last year's GBP72.4 million.
Computacenter said trading across all of its major geographies has been "robust" throughout the first half of 2021, "with particular strength at the end of the second quarter".
However, profitability has been constrained by substantial supply shortages in the industry caused by the shortage of key components and the pound strengthening against other currencies, the company said. While this remains an area for concern for the firm, it is not currently expecting these scenarios to worsen.
Computacenter's operations in Germany have showed strength compared to the second quarter last year as the majority of its industrial clients are now fully operational. Its operations in the US also showed progress, a large part of which was only acquired during the final quarter of 2020.
Despite the UK having the most challenging comparison in the group, the UK showed some progress in the first half, following a very strong second quarter in 2020.
As the firm enters the second half of the year, its services backlog and more particularly its product backlog, across all geographies, are at a record high which gives it a high degree of comfort.
"Given the performance in the first half, the current backlogs and the forecast to the end of the year, while nothing in life is ever certain and we face a stronger comparative in the second half, it is highly likely that 2021 will be another year of substantial progress for the group," Computacenter said.
The company will announce its interim results on September 9.
Shares in Computacenter were up 4.0% at 2,558.00 pence each in London on Wednesday morning.
By Amrit Sahota; [email protected]
Copyright 2021 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
Related Shares:
Computacenter