2002/2003 annual results
- June 25, 2003Regulated information
- Growth in revenues
- Operating profit maintained
- Net group income affected by one-time goodwill amortisation on September 30, 2002
- Improved financial situation
Paris June 25, 2002, SoluCom (ISIN: FR0004036036) today announced its annual results for the financial year 2002/2003.
Financial highlights
| Accounts as at 31/03 in Meuros |
2002/2003 | 2001/2002* Financial Year |
||
| First and second quarters |
Third and fourth quarters |
Financial Year 2002/2003 |
||
| Revenues
Operating profit result
Net profit result Net group profit |
11.2
0.8 |
12.8
1.3 |
24.0
2.2 |
21.6
1.8 |
*Arcome's consolidated results for a seven-month period
**Of which €1.7 million due to a one-time tax savings
***Of which Arcome's one-time goodwill amortisation of -€6.6 million
Revenues up
SoluCom registered consolidated revenues amounting to €24 million for the financial year 2002/2003 (ending March 31), which was up 11% on the prior year. With comparable perimeter (SoluCom-Idesys), the company posted organic growth of 11%.
Operating profit maintened
The company registered an operating margin of 9% on an operational profit result of €2.2 million. This is substantially higher than the 6.4% target announced by the group in 2002.
This result is also indicative of SoluCom's resilience, since the information technology services segment registered a negative growth rate of 3% overall in 2002 and 7% in the consulting segment.
The company's other income statement account balances shape up as follows:
| – |
A financial result of €0.2 million, including a provision of €0.1 million for depreciation on self-checking shares |
| – | A one-time result of €0.4 million of which €0.2 million were for Arcome restructuring charges and €0.2 for a write-down on self-checking shares |
| – | A prior net result from goodwill amortisation amounting to €2.7 million, including a one-time tax saving amounting to €1.7 million resulting from a deficit that came to light at the time the group's legal structure was simplified through the merger of CFT and Holding Arcome with SoluCom. |
Group net result affected by one-time goodwill amortisation on September 30, 2002
The group net result totaling €4.4 million was affected by a one-time goodwill amortisation amounting to €6.6 million that was promulgated on September 30, 2002.
Arcome: promising results
SoluCom's subsidiary Arcome, a specialist consultant for telecom operators, focused on restructuring its activities in the financial year 2002/2003. These restructuring activities were realised successfully. The company built sales momentum and is on track to refocus on key players. These factors enabled Arcome to stabilise its third and fourth quarter operating results, which amounted to €0.1 million.
These positive results notwithstanding, it should be noted that Arcome continues to operate in an extremely depressed telecom operators market in which it is virtually impossible to make projections.
Group strengths
In an industry segment characterised by shrinking IT budgets and ever tougher competition, SoluCom's resilience can be attributed to four factors:
| – | Extensive commercial actions which resulted in extremely strong customer loyalty, which was evidenced by the 27 new major accounts acquired during the past financial year |
| – | Alignment of our service offering with market needs, particularly in the international telecommunications network, wi-fi services, access security and business directories segments |
| – | Top-notch teams with superb training, plus a highly effective supervisory structure |
| – | Rigorous management practices (cost control, improved accounts receivables) |
These factors enabled us to increase productivity, stabilise incoming orders and register robust profits.
In addition, since we provide services that represent high shareholder value, we have for the present successfully limited the effect of strong price pressures.
Financial situation strengthened
The SoluCom group's financial position was solid as at March 31, 2003, with equity of €8.4 million and greatly improved current cash on hand totaling €0.6 million, a substantial increase compared with €2.4 million as at March 31, 2002.
This improvement is attributable to our self-financing capacity amounting to €2.8 million and a reduction of €1.1 million in our requirements for working capital.
As a result of this positive financial situation, we will be proposing a dividend payment of €0.12 (€0.18 including the dividend tax credit) at the annual shareholder's meeting in September of this year. This is on a par with last year's dividend.
The near-term outlook
“In fiscal 2003, we face a market environment that is at least as tough, if not tougher, than the one we faced in 2002,” said SoluCom CEO Pascal Imbert.
“ The market will surely rebound at some point, but we cannot say for certain exactly when this will occur. SoluCom's outstanding operational results for fiscal 2002/2003 are nonetheless indicative of the company's fundamental financial and operational soundness. We are therefore confident that we will be able to stay the course in these difficult times and that we will register growth when the market rebounds.”
About the SoluCom Group
The SoluCom Group, which was formed through the merger of SoluCom, Idesys and Arcome, is active in infrastructure consulting and engineering in the telecoms and networks, security and applications infrastructures segments. The Group has positioned itself in very high value-added services.
The Solucom Group's client roster includes some very prestigious names, all of which are very large accounts including: Air France, Arcelor, Auchan, BNP-Paribas, Cegetel, CNAM-TS, Crédit Agricole, EDF, E.Leclerc, France Télécom, Groupama, La Poste, L'Oréal, LVMH, Ministères des Affaires Etrangères et de la Justice, PPR, Renault, SNCF, Société Générale, Suez, Total, Veolia Environnement.
SoluCom trades on the NextEconomy segment of Euronext Paris.
Euroclear Code 7486 – FTSE: 972, IT services – ISIN: FR0004036036 – LCO
Consult our latest financial information at : www.solucom.fr
| SoluCom SoluComPascal IMBERT CEO |
Actus Emmanuel COUDURIER |
Download a PDF file about 2002/2003 annual results