Computacenter profits rise as demand for services surges

Computacenter said on Wednesday that its adjusted profit before tax in the first half turned out to be “substantially ahead” of the same period last year.

The FTSE 250 company said that, while most of its industrial clients had been quiet, elsewhere there was a surge in demand for IT equipment to enable home working, which had considerably helped its performance.

Its customers had also taken up its services offerings, at what had been “a challenging and demanding” time for corporate IT functions.

The board said a reforecast of the second half had been reviewed, which included the first confirmation that its expected adjusted profitability in the second half should be “much improved” on the forecast considered in April.

“This reforecast has provided better insight and improved clarity for the board and, coupled with the very pleasing first half result, indicates a reduction in uncertainty in our markets for the second half of 2020,” Computacenter said in its statement.

“This allows the board to provide meaningful guidance at this time concerning the second half of the year, notwithstanding the ongoing, and unpredictable, Covid-19 crisis.”

Computacenter said that, while for obvious reasons 2020 was a difficult year to predict, given the performance of the first half, the demand for services, the current managed services opportunity pipeline and the strength of its customer base, the board believed that 2020 as a whole would be “a year of material progress”, following a record-breaking 2019.

“Computacenter's board acknowledges, as is the case every year, that there is still a significant amount to do in the second half of the year.”

The company said it would release its interim results for the six months ended 30 June on 9 September.

At 0828 BST, shares in Computacenter were up 9.7% at 1,904.37p.