Channel bellwether Softcat enjoys 'strong' first half

LSE-listed reseller indicates it beat expectations for the first six months of its year

Softcat's shares have jumped by up to six per cent this morning as it announced its first half has panned out better than it anticipated.

The UK's largest pure-play IT reseller said trading for the six months to 31 January 2018 had been "strong across all segments and ahead of the board's expectations".

Softcat leapt up to second place in CRN Top VARs 2017 after revenues for its fiscal 2017 grew ahead of expectations to £832.5m, a 24 per cent annual hike.

It indicated this morning that gross profit and adjusted operating profit grew by 22 and 19 per cent, respectively, in the first half of its fiscal 2018, "reflecting consistent performance across the period and further successful execution of strategy".

Having debuted on the London Stock Exchange in 2015, Softcat was swiftly promoted to the FTSE 250 and its market capitalisation currently stands just above £1bn.

"The nature of the company's operations means that forward visibility is relatively low," Softcat said in its trading update.

"However, the strong H1 performance will clearly support the full-year outturn and as a result the board expects to slightly exceed previous expectations."