First half 2009 results
WHAT'S NEW
• Solid operational performance
• Increase in revenues of 1.5% (+2.7% excluding the effect of exchange rates)
• Increase in target EBIT for the year
Bull – expert in open, flexible and secure information systems and one of Europe's leading players in the IT industry –announced its results for the first six months of 2009.
Key figures
- Increased order intake in all core business activities: order intake in Hardware and Systems Solutions, Services and Solutions, and Maintenance and PRS (which together account for 93% of the Group’s business activities) grew by 4.2%. Only orders for third-party products – a segment from which Bull has deliberately decided to make a managed exit – fell by 33%. This explains why overall order intake saw a slight fall of -0.6%
- Consolidated revenues increased by 1.5%. Excluding the impact of exchange rates, revenues grew by 2.7%. Overall, the Group’s core business activities grew by 4.6%. The ‘Hardware and Systems Solutions’ segment recorded a 15.8% increase for the period; the Group’s Extreme Computing offering – now the largest part of this segment – made a particularly significant contribution to this growth. ‘Services and Solutions’ activities grew by 3.4% when corrected for variations in the configuration of the business, ahead of the growth forecasts for the market in this period. Revenues from the Third-Party Products segment fell by 23.9%, as a result of the Group’s deliberate strategy to refocus.
- Gross margin was 21.9% of revenues. This change reflects the transformation of the Group’s portfolio of offerings. EBIT for the period was 2.5% of revenues.
- Net income was €2.0 million
- Net cash stood at €250.4 million as at 30 June 2009, compared with €171.1 million as at 30 June 2008.
Outlook: taking into account the performance recorded in the first six months of the year, the Group has increased its target EBIT (see glossary) for the 2009 financial year from at least €20 million to in excess of €25 million.