Insight sees EMEA recovery following restructuring

EMEA sees earnings up 16 per cent following $3.5m reshuffle

Insight's EMEA business has recovered in Q2 after undergoing a $3.5m restructure during the first three months of the year.

Group operating profit grew 19 per cent year over year to $69.32m for the three months ending 30 June on net sales of $1.68bn, up 16 per cent annually.

On a geographical basis, Insight's EMEA business returned to growth for the quarter, after logging a $1.13m operating loss for the first three months of the year as a result of a $3.5m restructure to tackle inefficiencies in its European operations.

EMEA earnings reached $13.48m, a 16 per cent year-over-year increase on Q2 of 2016. Sales however declined four per cent to 346.06m during the quarter.

Insight's CEO Ken Lamneck said the region has seen an uptick in cloud and services sales, while hardware sales were particularly strong in the UK during the quarter.

Since cloud sales are recorded as net profits for Insight, and are not realised in operating earnings, Lamneck said the firm's gross profits better represent how cloud adoption in growing. Gross profits grew eight per cent annually on a constant currency basis, according to the CEO.

"In the second quarter, our EMEA business continues to deliver on its strategy to expand cloud and services sales across the region, while driving above market growth in hardware in the UK business. All of which led to another quarter of strong earnings results," he said on an earnings call transcribed by Seeking Alpha.

"In addition, we've gained and realised the benefits of recent cost reduction actions in EMEA, which, when combined with our gross profit growth, drove adjusted earnings from operations up 16 per cent and the earnings from operations (EFO) margin up 0.4 per cent, up 70 basis points compared to the same period last year."

Insight's North American business saw healthy sales and profit improvements thanks largely to the firm's $258m acquisition of datacentre services player Datalink which closed in January.

Sales spiked 24 per cent to $1.28bn, as operating profits rose by 21 per cent to $50.41m. APAC meanwhile saw sales decline three per cent to $56.66m, but profits grow 10 per cent to $5.44m.

For the full year 2017, Insight is expecting sales to grow 17 to 19 per cent compared to 2016.