Business
Pre-close Trading Statement
Pre-close Trading Statement.
About this update from Computacenter Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n Computacenter PLC\n09 January 2008\n\n\n Computacenter plc\n\n Pre-Close Trading Update\n\n\nComputacenter is today holding an Investor and Analyst conference call to\nprovide an update on trading for the year ended 31 December 2007.\n\n\nGroup profit before tax for 2007 is expected to be marginally ahead of consensus\nmarket expectations of £41.2 million. Net borrowings at the end of the period\nprior to customer specific finances are expected to be circa £30 million. This\nis after the effect of £35 million spent on acquisitions and £12 million on the\nrepurchase of our shares during the period. Arrangements are being put in place\nto enable the share buy back programme to continue during the closed period.\n\n\nIn the UK, prior to the effect of acquisitions, the second half performance\nimproved compared to last year and to the first half of 2007. Product sales grew\nfor the first time in a number of years despite continued decline in the price\nof technology. This was aided by strong gains in market share in the datacentre\narena, winning some new major contracts particularly towards the end of the year\nand the effects of some customers moving away from the direct model. In the\nsecond half of 2007 we had a number of new contractual services wins and\nextensions, which enabled us to fully recover from previously reported lost\ncontracts. We enter 2008 with a stronger contract base than we started 2007.\nDigica, which was acquired at the beginning of 2007, performed in line with\nmanagement's expectations in the second half of the year.\n\n\nAs expected, Computacenter Germany continued to perform well with profits\nreaching a new high in 2007. Overall, revenue remained strong in both products\nand services and we saw a modest improvement in the services margins towards the\nbackend of the year. Fourth quarter revenue was not as strong as the comparable\nperiod last year, which was an exceptional performance driven by the VAT rate\nchanges in Germany.\n\n\nComputacenter France performed ahead of expectations for the year, recording a\nsmall profit in the second half of 2007 although it recorded a small loss for\nthe year as a whole. Due to competitive pressure we have seen a reduction in\nrevenue in France particularly from large product deals in the fourth quarter.\nHowever, much progress has been made in stabilising ...