Homegrown heroes Computacenter and Midwich's shares spike on strong results

Computacenter CEO Mike Norris hails 'record year', despite fall in UK services revenue, while Midwich sees sales leap by over a fifth

Even as uncertainty continues to swirl around Brexit, two of the UK's largest listed tech suppliers have impressed the market by posting strong annual numbers.

Homegrown heroes Computacenter and Midwich both saw their share prices rise fractionally this morning as they unveiled strong full-year figures to the stock market.

Computacenter's shares pogoed two per cent after it broke the £4bn revenue barrier in its year ending 31 December 2018.

Revenues rose by 14.7 per cent to £4.35bn at the London-listed reseller and IT services powerhouse, with supply chain up 20.5 per cent and £3.18bn and services growing by a more modest 1.5 per cent to £1.175bn.

Investor news services were split on whether Computacenter's profits went up or down, with one leading its 11.3 per cent rise in adjusted pre-tax profits to £118.2m and another focusing on the 3.2 per cent fall in statutory pre-tax profits to £108.1m.

In the UK, services revenues fell by 5.6 per cent to £450.2m on the back of an 18 per cent plunge in professional services revenue (see graph). However, a 17.1 per cent surge in supply chain revenue ensured total UK revenue rose by 9.7 per cent to £1.61bn.

In local currencies, German and French revenues rose by 8.3 and fell by 4.1 per cent to hit €2.116bn and €557m, respectively.

FusionStorm, the US IT solutions provider Computacenter gobbled in September, generated £3m of adjusted operating profit in the final three months of the year.

"2018 was a record year in revenue, adjusted operating profit and adjusted diluted earnings per share for the Group. We have also laid foundations for further growth in the years ahead," said Computacenter CEO Mike Norris (pictured top, right).

Computacenter's market cap now stands at £1.31bn, more than twice that of print and audiovisual distributor Midwich, whose share price rose one per cent in the wake of its final results for its year ending 31 December 2018 - propelling its market value to £590m.

Midwich's revenues rose by 21.6 per cent £573.7m per cent during a year in which it leapt into the Italian and Swiss markets through acquisitions.

Its pre-tax profits rose by 11.5 per cent to £21.1m.

"I am very pleased to report that in 2018 we again achieved strong growth across all the Group's businesses and regions at both a revenue and profit level," said Midwich CEO Stephen Fenby (pictured top, left).