Computacenter Share News (CCC)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Computacenter PLC Wednesday reiterated its full-year 2015 expectations, despite "continuing significant currency headwinds", as it reported a rise in revenue for its third quarter.

The IT services company said revenue in the quarter to end-September rose 4% to GBP721 million, up from GBP696 million, although this was held back by the strength of sterling and at constant currency would have risen 10%. This means its revenue in the year to date has risen 2%, or 8% at constant currency.

Services revenue rose by 1% in the quarter, or by 7% at constant currency, Computacenter said, while Supply Chain revenue increased by 5% and 12%, respectively.

In the UK revenue was up 7%, with services revenue up 10% and supply chain revenue up 5% in the quarter. Computacenter noted that it has a pipeline for new contract wins in the UK in the fourth quarter, although these wins are "by no means certain".

German revenue rose 7%, or 20% at constant currency in the quarter, as new contracts helped boost services revenue in local currency. The company expects strong growth in supply chain revenue to continue throughout the year.

These performances offset a decline in France, where revenue fell 14%, or 5% at constant currency. Some of this decline was "intentional and expected", the company said, as it shifted its target market to be more in line with the rest of the group. It expects a reduction in losses in France to help boost its performance as a whole in 2015, but cautioned that " much of the hard work to drive us into profitability is ahead of us."

"We are clearly pleased with the performance levels that we have maintained in the UK and even more pleased with the consistently improving position of Computacenter in Germany," the company said in a statement. Its outlook for the UK, Computacenter cautioned, is closely link to a number of large opportunities expected to be awarded towards the end of the year.

The outcome of these will "largely determine whether the UK business will be able to maintain its impressive growth performance of recent times," the company said.

Shares in Computacenter were down 0.2% at 746.50 pence Wednesday morning.

By Hana Stewart-Smith; hanassmith@alliancenews.com; @HanaSSAllNews

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