Computacenter, Logicalis and Proact in results face-off
Which pan-European integrator performed best in latest financial period?
The global IT channel is on the up, if a trio of financial updates this morning from bellwethers Computacenter, Logicalis and Proact are anything to go by.
While Computacenter announced this morning its Q3 revenues were up by a tenth in constant currencies, Proact posted its eighth consecutive quarter of annual profit growth and South African IT group Datatec also announced revenue growth for its Logicalis arm.
According to a trading update this morning based on unaudited financial information, giant reseller and services firm Computacenter's Q3 revenues rose four per cent to £721m year on year, a 10 per cent rise stripping out currency effects.
UK sales rose by seven per cent to £323m, while German revenues spiked by seven per cent (20 per cent in euros) to £301m. Computacenter's problematic French arm suffered a 14 per cent (five per cent in euros) dip in sales to £85m, although the firm pointed out that some of that decline was intentional as it shifts its target market away from low-volume tin to services.
Across the group, services sales rose one per cent and product sales by five per cent on an as-reported basis.
Computacenter reiterated its full-year outlook, which it upgraded at the time of its interim results, but said its UK performance in Q4 will be "closely linked to a number of large opportunities that are expected to be awarded towards the end of the year".
Meanwhile, Sweden-headquartered Proact paid tribute to the fast-moving nature of the storage market in which it operates after scoring its eighth consecutive quarter of profit growth.
The pan-European integrator posted a 39 per cent hike in pre-tax profits to SEK23.8m (£1.86m) in its fiscal Q3 ending 30 September as revenues leapt by 36 per cent to SEK617m.
"We are active in a very interesting market, where information growth is still high and new technical fields are constantly being developed," said Proact managing director Martin Ödman, who highlighted IDC figures showing the all-flash array and hyperconverged infrastructure markets are booming at 275 and 162 per cent, respectively.
A year ago, Ödman said he would not be happy until Proact, which operates in 14 countries in Europe and the US, had achieved a pre-tax profit margin of five per cent.
Profits have risen year on year for eight straight quarters, Ödman said, with pre-tax profit margins now standing at 3.86 per cent, compared with 2.96 per cent in the same quarter in 2013.
"Profit development is one of our primary focus areas, and I am very pleased to see that our profits have improved yet again," he said.
Completing the VAR results trio, South African IT group Datatec's latest unaudited results statement revealed a mixed set of numbers for daughter company Logicalis, which operates not only in Europe but also the Americas and Asia-Pac.
Logicalis' revenues for the six months ending 31 August 2015 rose 5.2 per cent year on year to $751.4m, with growth driven by "strong performance" in the US and the contribution of recent German acquisition inforsacom Holding.
But EBITDA fell by 15 per cent year on year to $35.5m and Datatec confirmed a reorganisation of the Cisco and HP partner's UK business, following the completion of a long-term Welsh Assembly Government contract, is under way.