|
Sema pretax profit up 11%
|
 |
September 5, 2000: 6:37 a.m. ET
Anglo-French IT firm's stock tumbles as one-time items pad profit growth
|
LONDON (CNNfn) - Sema Group PLC, an Anglo-French provider of information technology services and software, reported on Tuesday that rising demand for mobile-phone and e-commerce services helped it to an 11 percent increase in first-half pretax profit.
The company, which is more than one-fifth owned by France Telecom, said pretax income rose to £42.2 million ($61.4 million) from £37.9 million a year earlier, as earnings climbed to 7.6 pence per share from 6.1 pence.
But shares of Sema (SEM), a member of London's benchmark FTSE 100 index, fell 138 pence, or 10.2 percent, to 1,212 pence as analysts and investors took account of one-time factors in the first-half profit figure - primarily gains of £13.5 million from the sale of an investment and a £14.3 million refund relating to Swedish pension fund contributions. They were offset by a £13.5 million pounds in charges to restructure its outsourcing business.
Net profit rose to £30.3 million from £27.6 million a year earlier.
Sales rose 13 percent to £720 million, and executives said they expecting growth to continue between 13 percent and 15 percent for the rest of the year.
More demand from mobile operators
Demand for telecom software including systems for customer care, billing and text messaging programs outstripped Sema's expectations. Revenue in this business rose 28 percent, as sales to mobile companies more than doubled.
The division accounted for over 11 percent of group revenues, more than twice the previous year's share.
"Telecoms has experienced growth ahead of our expectations for the first half," Chairman Julian Oswald said in a statement. "The growth has been achieved in some 20 different countries, but most significantly in the USA, Italy and Latin America."
Sema's e-commerce unit, Webtech, posted even stronger growth, nearly quadrupling, to represent 5.5 percent of company sales.
"It's a good set of figures but not as good as those from Logica and CMG," said Ross Jobber, head of European technology research at Deutsche Bank, referring to two of Sema's British counterparts in the sector.
Sema is currently integrating its $4.7 billion acquisition LHS, a German-American software company it bought in March.
Executives said the company got off to a slow start with new orders in the first half of the year, as customers took a break from spending after their efforts to combat the so-called "Millennium Bug" last year. 
-- from staff and wire reports
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sema Group
|
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
External sites are not endorsed by CNNmoney
|
|
|
|
 |
|
