NTT Data's EMEA business slips despite UK growth

Spain was a trouble spot for the tech giant in Europe, though sales for the whole group showed healthy growth

Global tech giant NTT Data has posted its full fiscal year results with mixed figures for its business operations in EMEA.

Net sales for the EMEA and LATAM segment dipped by 0.3 per cent to ¥454.2bn (€3.4bn) while operating income jumped 57 per cent to ¥6.1bn (€46m).

Japan-HQ NTT attributed the dip to fewer orders of large scale projects in Spain than the previous fiscal year, and the impact of Covid-19. However, the drop was offset by steady sales for digital transformation projects in Italy.

The UK business meanwhile has been in growth mode, with NTT Ltd announcing last September plans to open up a new datacentre in Hemel Hempstead by the end of 2021, as part of a £500m investment in the UK market.

Net sales for the whole NTT group jumped 2.3 per cent to ¥2.3bn (€17.3m) while operating income also climbed 6.3 per cent to ¥139.1bn (€1bn).

"While domestic and international economies are still under strict circumstances owing to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic throughout the fiscal year, a trend for recovery continues in the second half," said NTT.

"The economy is expected to recover as the level of socio-economic activities has been raised while we take measures to prevent Covid-19 from spreading.

"In the domestic information services industry, the IT market resulted in a negative growth as some clients reduced their investment in IT due to the influence of the spread of Covid-19.

"The needs to reduce costs, both in the existing domain, and of maintenance/operation seem to continue, so do the fierce price competition."

EMEA recovery in 2022

Looking ahead to the next fiscal year, NTT said that despite a continuously changing market due to Covid, it forecasts net sales of ¥478bn and operating income of ¥8bn for its EMEA business for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022.

The Japanese juggernaut said it would achieve this by expanding its digital business and strengthening its digital assets and digital human resources.