Didata eyes managed services success after robust FY10 growth

Currency strength south of the equator gives helps integrator's impressive figures

Solid organic growth and the strength of southern hemisphere currencies helped global integrator Dimension Data (Didata) grow sales almost a fifth in its recently completed fiscal year.

For the year to 30 September, the firm increased sales 19.4 per cent annually in reported currency to $4.74bn (£3bn), with operating profit up 8.2 per cent to $237.8m.

The growth was partly fuelled by the strong performance against the US dollar of some of Didata's key trading currencies - including the South African rand and the Australian dollar. In constant currency, FY10 top-line growth stood at 9.9 per cent.

The integrator's product sales grew 11.3 per cent annually in constant currency to $2.73bn, while services revenue was up 8.2 per cent to $2.02bn. The Americas was Didata's top-performing region, with turnover soaring by 34.6 per cent and operational profit increasing more than fourfold to $25.1m.

Asia was another strong performer, with sales up 17.6 per cent and profit rising slightly to $53.3m. Growth in Europe, Australia and the Middle East and Africa was relatively muted, with each region posting a sub-10 per cent revenue increase.

Europe was the slowest growing region, with turnover up eight per cent. On the plus side, operating profit rose 16 per cent annually to $34.2m. The UK, alongside Germany and the Benelux countries, was also singled out for praise by the integrator.

During FY10 Didata made five acquisitions, including snapping up London-based videoconferencing player mvision two months ago. The integrator is itself on the brink of selling up, having agreed a £2.1bn deal with Japanese telco NTT in July. The acquisition should close next month.

Didata chief executive, Brett Dawson, said: "The group's vision of the market evolution, which focuses on key, high-growth technology sectors including the network, unified communications and collaboration, and virtualisation, continues to stand us in good stead. Our growth rates are greater than the market, implying market share gains in nearly all of our areas of focus.

"Our services journey remains on track and we envision Dimension Data developing and taking to market a richer array of managed services in the future. Increasingly, our services opportunities are multi-year managed services, and we expect this to increase."