Logicalis owner: growth climate is back

Good times are here to stay, says management statement from Westcon and Logicalis parent

Logicalis and Westcon owner Datatec believes the ICT industry is "finally returning to a growth environment that we can believe in", following a strong end to 2010.

The Johannesburg-headquartered firm today issued an interim management statement for the four-month period to 31 December. The company's fiscal year ends on 28 February and it expects second-half results to improve sequentially and on an annual basis.

Datatec claimed its business in the US showed promising recovery signs towards the end of 2010, while operations in Asia, South America and the Middle East remained its top performers. Improvements in the economic climate also took place across Europe, said Datatec.

Logicalis is expecting its profitability to continue to improve during the second half of FY11 and Datatec pointed out that the integrator posted its highest ever monthly sales in December. Westcon celebrated a rise in both gross and operating margins during 2010's last four months. The distributor is expecting profitability across the whole of H2 to improve sequentially.

In May last year, Datatec revealed it expects to post full-year revenues for FY11 of between $4.1bn (£2.6bn) and $4.4bn, with post-tax profit of about $58m. Today the company claimed it expects sales to be towards the upper end of that forecast.

Chief executive, Jens Montanana, said: "The improvement in trading conditions reported at our interims results in October last year has continued, with a notable return to confidence across all our major markets, particularly the US.

"It appears that we are finally returning to a growth environment that we can believe in. Gross margins are firming and profit margins expanding as the group continues to benefit from increased operational leverage and geographical reach."