EMEA drives first growth at HP for three years

Meg Whitman brands Q3 an 'important milestone' in turnaround efforts

A strong EMEA performance helped HP post its first annual sales growth in three years in its third quarter, which according to its boss Meg Whitman was an "important milestone" for the firm.

For the three months to 31 July, net earnings were down 29 per cent annually to $985m (£593.82m) on net sales which crept up one per cent to $27.56bn over the same period.

The overall growth was boosted by a strong performance in EMEA, which makes up 36 per cent of its business and saw an annual sales hike of five per cent. The Americas region – which makes up 45 per cent of the company - saw sales slump one per cent over the same period, the same amount by which its APAC region – which accounts for 19 per cent of the firm - saw its sales grow.

HP's chief executive Meg Whitman (pictured) said overall she was very pleased with the firm's performance but said it was not out of the woods yet.

"The third quarter of 2014 marks an important milestone in HP's turnaround," she said on a call transcribed by Seeking Alpha.

"As I said many times before, turnarounds are not linear and we face some tough comparisons in the fourth quarter. But overall I continue to be very encouraged by the progress we're making."

HP's Enterprise Group's (EG) revenue crept up two per cent annually in Q3, driven partly by surging sales of storage and networking but offset by an 18 per cent slump in its Business Critical Systems arm.

Whitman said the EG reaped the benefits of IBM's deal to offload its server business to Lenovo – which won US approval earlier this week.

"We moved aggressively to take advantage of the uncertainty customers feel about the IBM Lenovo transaction," she said. "In head-to-head fights with IBM for deals, we're seeing clear improvement in win rates; all this, while delivering stable growth margins."

Elsewhere in HP, its Personal Systems unit saw a 12 per cent annual spike in sales, while its Enterprise Services revenue was down six per cent over the same period. Its Software business saw sales slump five per cent annually.