Computacenter PLC Q1 2020 Trading Update (5672K)
April 23 2020 - 2:00AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMCCC
RNS Number : 5672K
Computacenter PLC
23 April 2020
Computacenter plc
Incorporated in England
Registration number: 03110569
LEI: 549300XSXUZ1I19DB105
ISIN: GB00BV9FP302
THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION FOR THE PURPOSE OF
ARTICLE 7 OF THE MARKET ABUSE REGULATION (EU) No. 596/2014.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Computacenter plc
Q1 Trading Update - 23 April 2020
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 2020 ("the quarter").
Overview
Trading across the Group in the quarter has been pleasing given
the current conditions. At the Group level, revenue has reduced
slightly compared to Q1 2019 however profitability has remained
in-line with the previous year.
Current trading impact of COVID-19
Current trading has been more robust than we anticipated at the
start of this crisis. There has been a marked difference in need
from customer to customer dependent upon which sector their
business is in. There has been a surge in demand from many of our
customers to enable business continuity particularly around
homeworking and network resilience. Conversely, particularly in the
industrial sector, where a large number of our customers have had
to cease production, our engineers and consultants are unable to
work. To mitigate the cost of carrying these staff, but retaining
them for the long term, we have placed approximately 10 per cent of
Computacenter's employees across Europe, on wage-subsidy programmes
utilising various governments' initiatives. The majority of these
employees are engineers, project managers and consultants.
Dividend
Whilst the Group's cash position is strong and trading is
in-line with our expectations, the Company continues to explore all
opportunities to maintain cashflow and preserve cash balances in
light of heightening macro-economic uncertainty directly related to
the COVID-19 crisis and its duration. The Company has received, and
approved, a number of requests for extended payment terms and
continues to look for ways to support the short term cashflow of
our smaller customers or those customers that have been materially
affected by the impact of COVID-19.
Accordingly, the Board believes it is prudent to no longer
propose the payment of a final dividend in respect of the financial
year ended 31 December 2019. Resolution 4 set out in the Notice of
Annual General Meeting 2020 will therefore not be put to a vote at
the AGM, and the 2019 final dividend will not be paid. The Board
recognises the importance of dividends to shareholders, and the
Company prides itself on a long track record of paying dividends
and other special cash returns. The Company will continue to
monitor the current crisis and resume distributing cash to
shareholders as soon as it is appropriate.
Group Outlook
Given the factors on the business, mentioned above, we are
confident in the short-term outlook and the Board believes that the
pre-tax profit performance in the first half of 2020 will be
broadly in-line with, or slightly ahead of, that of the first half
of 2019. The second half of the year is more difficult to predict
but currently our full year expectations remain unchanged.
As we emerge from the current crisis and return to business as
usual, we look forward to welcoming our furloughed employees back
to the business to once again deliver for our customers. In the
coming weeks we intend to reconsider the extent of our involvement
in the UK Government's Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme that has
been enormously helpful in the early and very uncertain days of
this crisis.
While it wouldn't surprise us to see a short-term dip in demand,
as enterprises return to work, we believe that the need to invest
in technology and in particular a robust IT infrastructure has been
brought in to clear focus by recent events.
Our next scheduled trading update is the announcement of our
Interim Results on Wednesday 9 September 2020.
Enquiries:
Computacenter plc
Mike Norris, Chief +44 (0) 1707
Executive 631 601
Tony Conophy, Finance +44 (0) 1707
Director 631 515
Tulchan Communications
James Macey White / +44 (0) 2073
Matt Low 534 200
This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the
London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct
Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United
Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution
of this information may apply. For further information, please
contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com.
END
TSTVLLFLBZLXBBB
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 23, 2020 02:00 ET (06:00 GMT)
Computacenter (LSE:CCC)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jun 2024 to Jul 2024
Computacenter (LSE:CCC)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jul 2023 to Jul 2024