Computacenter has published a positive trading update for its third quarter ended 30 September 2019. Based on unaudited financial information, the company says trading across the group in the quarter has been “good”.
At a group level, both revenue and profitability “remain well ahead of our 2018 Q3 year-to-date performance” on a “like for like basis before the positive impact of acquisitions”, said Computacenter.
Following a “challenging first-half comparison”, the company says it has “as expected, comfortably beaten its prior year third quarter comparative” with the “positive momentum seen in the first six months of the year continuing throughout the quarter”.
The wider Managed Services portfolio “continues to perform very well”, said the firm, with established contracts “seeing increasing margins and the difficult contracts performing in line with expectations”.
“Our only marginal disappointment in the quarter was that we were notified that we were not the preferred bidder on a large managed services renewal in France,” said Computacenter. “This will have a small impact to the group in 2020, however we expect to continue a significant relationship with this customer.”
The company's overall outlook remains in line with its existing forecasts, which were upgraded in the group's trading update on 31 July 2019.
In the UK, the company saw “pleasing revenue growth” over the comparative quarter within the Technology Sourcing business segment. Germany “continued to perform strongly” throughout the quarter, with shortfalls from international sector customers “significantly exceeded by increases from the public sector”.
In France, there was a “better than expected performance” through the quarter. “Our smaller European countries continued their positive contribution”, added Computacenter. In the US, it saw a “strong return to both revenue and profitability growth”.
