Computacenter Regulatory News (CCC)

9 Jan 2008 07:01

Computacenter PLC09 January 2008 Computacenter plc Pre-Close Trading Update Computacenter is today holding an Investor and Analyst conference call toprovide an update on trading for the year ended 31 December 2007. Group profit before tax for 2007 is expected to be marginally ahead of consensusmarket expectations of £41.2 million. Net borrowings at the end of the periodprior to customer specific finances are expected to be circa £30 million. Thisis after the effect of £35 million spent on acquisitions and £12 million on therepurchase of our shares during the period. Arrangements are being put in placeto enable the share buy back programme to continue during the closed period. In the UK, prior to the effect of acquisitions, the second half performanceimproved compared to last year and to the first half of 2007. Product sales grewfor the first time in a number of years despite continued decline in the priceof technology. This was aided by strong gains in market share in the datacentrearena, winning some new major contracts particularly towards the end of the yearand the effects of some customers moving away from the direct model. In thesecond half of 2007 we had a number of new contractual services wins andextensions, which enabled us to fully recover from previously reported lostcontracts. We enter 2008 with a stronger contract base than we started 2007.Digica, which was acquired at the beginning of 2007, performed in line withmanagement's expectations in the second half of the year. As expected, Computacenter Germany continued to perform well with profitsreaching a new high in 2007. Overall, revenue remained strong in both productsand services and we saw a modest improvement in the services margins towards thebackend of the year. Fourth quarter revenue was not as strong as the comparableperiod last year, which was an exceptional performance driven by the VAT ratechanges in Germany. Computacenter France performed ahead of expectations for the year, recording asmall profit in the second half of 2007 although it recorded a small loss forthe year as a whole. Due to competitive pressure we have seen a reduction inrevenue in France particularly from large product deals in the fourth quarter.However, much progress has been made in stabilising our French business in 2007with reductions in the cost base, improvements in margin and increases inservices revenue. Computacenter will announce its preliminary results for the year ended 31December 2007 on Tuesday, 11 March 2008. Enquiries: Computacenter plc Mike Norris, Chief Executive 01707 631601 Tony Conophy, Finance Director 01707 631515 Tessa Freeman, PR Manager 01707 631514 Tulchan Communications 020 7353 4200 Andrew Grant Stephen Malthouse This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange