Computacenter PLC (LON:CCC) said Wednesday that third-quarter group revenue fell by 3% from the same period a year ago but that trading for 2018 remains in line with the IT infrastructure services provider's expectations.
The FTSE 250-listed company said group revenue declined by 3% to £900 mln, from £931.9 million a year ago, and by the same amount in constant currency. The "small" decline compared with strong results it posted during the first half "is due to a significantly more challenging comparison," the company said. The first half of 2017 saw growth of 9% against the first half of 2016, the company noted. Third-quarter group revenues lead to an 11% increase year-to-date, and a 10% rise in constant currency terms.
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"While the overall growth rates in the third quarter in isolation are subdued compared to recent quarters, as mentioned above, the third quarter presented a more challenging comparison.
Our expectation for the fourth quarter is for improved growth before acquisitions but not to the levels seen in the first half of the year," Computacenter said in its update.
"As we look out further into the future our pipeline for Professional Services is building nicely while the Infrastructure Managed Services marketplace is somewhat more challenged which is making growth more difficult. However, we remain confident in our ability to gain Infrastructure Managed Services market share due to our focus on innovation and productivity improvements," the company added.
On regional levels, the UK operations logged a 9% fall in overall revenue in the third quarter, to £296 million. Services revenue decreased by 4%, in line with the decrease in the year as a whole. Computacenter said Technology Sourcing revenue fell by 12% in the third quarter, leading to a year-to-date increase of 28%.
French revenue fell by 6% in the third quarter, and by the same amount in constant currency, to £119 million, resulting in a year-to-date decline of 2% and of 3% in constant currency, respectively, as services revenue and Technology Sourcing Revenue both declined.
But in Germany, revenue grew 1% to £451 million, and by 2% in constant currency, for a year-to-date increase of 9% and of 8% in constant currency, during the period. Services revenue rose 1%, and by 2% in constant currency terms, leading to a year-to-date increase of 6% and of 5% in constant currency. Technology Sourcing revenue increased 1% in the third quarter.
Computacenter's international segment grew by 13% in the third quarter, and by the same in constant currency, to £34 million, for the year-to-date growth of 12% and of 14% in constant currency.
The company did say its outlook for the group's trading result for the whole of 2018 is still in line with the board's expectations, as upgraded in its July trading update and confirmed in interim results.
"The core technology drivers of digitisation, Cloud, Security and Network capacity improvement remain robust and these drivers, coupled with our recent geographical expansion,
should position us well for future growth into 2019 and beyond," the company said.
Computacenter earlier this month said it agreed to buy US IT firm FusionStorm.
Shares of Computacenter fell 18% to £1,029p in early Wednesday trading.