Computacenter’s cost-cutting exercises are paying dividends as the corporate giant saw pre-tax profit rocket by 62 per cent for its H1 2009 interim results.

The firm posted an adjusted profit before tax of £18.2m for the six months ending 30 June 2009, compared to £11.3m in the same period of 2008. Group turnover dropped by 2.2 per cent to £1.2bn for the period compared to £1.25bn the previous year.

However, Computacenter is in a strong cash position, revealing net cash before customer-specific financing of £47.3m compared to a net debt last year of £29.7m.

Continuing in its positive vein, the VAR saw group annual services grow by eight per cent to £487.3m, contributing to 47.3 per cent of group-adjusted profit.

It also revealed that the UK cost-reduction and simplification programme was "substantially complete", helping it save more than £13m. It also achieved " substantial progress in Germany" with managed service growth, and Computacenter France also saw a strong service growth, to reduce its adjusted operating loss by 25.1 per cent.

Mike Norris, chief executive of Computacenter said in a statement: " Computacenter made strong progress in the first half of the year, reflecting success in sharpening our focus on cost reduction, growth in contractual services and exiting from businesses that use capital inefficiently.

"This was achieved in spite of the challenging economic backdrop, which has affected sales of products and integration projects. The continuing trend in our business mix towards contractual services improves the long-term visibility and predictability of our earnings and the pipeline for the future is encouraging.

"We are pleased with progress to date. While much remains to be done, we are confident that we are on track for the year as a whole. Looking further ahead, our increased services mix, allied with our strong and strengthening balance sheet, gives us encouragement for growth in the future."