29/04/2021 - Computacenter plc ("Computacenter", the "Company" or the "Group"), a leading independent technology partner trusted by large corporate and public sector organisations, today publishes a trading update, based on unaudited financial information, for the first quarter to 31 March 2021 ("the quarter").
Overview
We have been extremely pleased with the profit growth we have achieved in the first quarter of 2021, which is testament to our continued investment, over many years, in our systems, tools and processes that optimise our business and improve our customer experience. There has been a strong demand across the business particularly for our Professional Services in Germany and the UK, and significant revenue growth in Technology Sourcing in the UK. The cost base reductions we experienced since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic have been maintained through the quarter.
The combined performance of our existing US business and the recently acquired Pivot has been ahead of our expectation and while there is still a lot to do, the two companies remain on track. The weakness of the US dollar creates an unavoidable headwind to the Group's performance and, if it stays at the current levels, would be expected to impact full year profit by approximately £4 million. Our other acquisition in France, while as expected is loss-making, performed in line with our expectations and again the integration is on track.
Group Outlook
Due to the strong organic profit performance we expect 2021 to be a year of good progress in our reported profits. Although we will generate incremental positive growth from the Pivot acquisition in 2021, this will be almost negated by currency movements (if the current exchange rates remain the same) and the expected losses from our French acquisition.
Obviously, we are living through unpredictable times and much work remains to be done, but our good performance in Q1 and our internal forecast for the rest of the year gives us a great deal of confidence in our likely outcome.
This afternoon, Thursday 29 April 2021, we will be holding a Capital Markets event focused on the US opportunity.
Our next scheduled trading update is the announcement of our Interim Results on Thursday 9 September 2021.
Tulchan Communications
James Macey White / Matt Low
+44 20 7353 4200
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