(Alliance News) - Computacenter PLC on Tuesday said its 2019 trading results will likely exceed market expectations thanks to solid trading by established businesses and an improved performance from US acquisition FusionStorm.
Shares in Computacenter, which has its head office in Hatfield, England were up 5.5% at 1,617.20 pence in London in morning trade.
The FTSE 250-listed IT infrastructure services firm said trading in the 11 months ended November 30 has shown "material progress". Revenue and profitability have been "well ahead" of 2018 so far on a life-for-like basis, excluding acquisition gains.
As such, having reviewed its November performance, Computacenter said it is expecting a 2019 trading result "well ahead of current market expectations" in terms of EPS and profitability.
"The strong 2019 performance is coming from Computacenter's established businesses and, in the second half of the year, from the acquired business in the US which is now performing in line with our expectations following a difficult start to the year," the company said.
Computacenter bought FusionStorm at the end of September 2018, paying an initial USD70 million in cash, with a deferred consideration of as much as USD20 million.
Moreover, the company's more difficult contracts performed either as or better than expected, having weighed Computacenter down in 2018.
"The group has not seen a repeat of the negative impact that occurred in the second half of 2018 due to contract provisions and these existing difficult contracts continue to perform in line with, or slightly ahead of, our expectations," said Computacenter.
"Computacenter's board acknowledge, as is the case every year, that there is still a significant amount to do in December, which is always our busiest month of the year, however visibility on this critical month's outturn is starting to improve."
By Anna Farley; annafarley@alliancenews.com
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