Computacenter sees strength in French and German markets at half-year stage

Strong performances in France and Germany drove a 2.8% rise in Computacenter´s revenues at the half-year stage to £1.48bn.

However, management said business conditions in the UK were "challenging", with a reduction in services volumes driving a drop in that segment´s margins.

Mike Norris, Computacenter´s boss, commented: "The first half of 2016 finished slightly better than we had anticipated at the time of our Q1 Trading Update in April 2016, mainly due to the better performance of Computacenter in France."

In adjusted terms, profits before tax for the six-month stretch ending 30 June were off 13.1% to £25.3m and by 66.6% at the statutory level to reach £23.6m. Cash on the other hand shot higher by 115% to £96.6m.

"Despite the challenging market conditions in the UK referred to in our Q1 2016 Trading Update, as well as planned investments, the Board expects the full year to show modest progress in our adjusted profit before tax1, as compared to 2015 after allowing for the £3 million benefit from the one-off gain realised in the comparative period.

"The pipeline of Managed Services growth in the Group as a whole is encouraging and should deliver growth in 2017. Even more noticeable is the growing pipeline for Digital Workplace projects which we are looking to close in the second half of 2016, as customers look to take advantage of new operating systems. Particularly pleasing is the likely growth in major customers, one of our strategic key performance indicators," Morris added.

The IT infrastructure and services provider hiked its half-year pay-out by 12.5% to 7.2p per share.