Softcat's share price soars on H1 trading update

Reseller kicks on after crossing the £1bn-revenue barrier last year

Softcat's share price rose over 20 per cent today after a trading update said the reseller will beat H1 expectations.

The note to the London Stock Exchange said Softcat is "materially ahead of where we expected to be at this stage of the year".

Softcat finishes its first half of the year on 31 January.

The reseller's last trading update came on 28 November, when it reported growth in revenue, gross profit and operating profit.

At the time CEO Graeme Watt said he was confident that the firm would meet the board's expectations for the year.

Softcat is now a £1bn-plus company in terms of both valuation and revenue. Its last financial year, ending 31 July 2018, heralded sales of £1.082bn.

At the time of publication the reseller had a market capitalisation of £1.37bn, ahead of channel peer Computacenter's £1.22bn.

Softcat was one of the best-performing publicly listed channel firms last year, with its share price rising 14.62 per cent.