“Atos Announces 1st Half FY 2000 Results”
Atos, a leading European e-services provider, today announced that six months revenue ending March 31, 2000, increased 9% to EUR 565.6 million at constant scope of consolidation compared to EUR 518.5 million for the prior-year period. Revenue growth was driven primarily by the strong development in the group’s e-business services offerings in Services and Multimedia.
Services revenue grew 24% for first-half fiscal 2000. The implementation and running of major customer contact center platforms and customer loyalty card programs contributed to the strong increase. Multimedia, excluding content provider royalties, accelerated revenue growth to 41%, demonstrating the success of its WORLDline platform. Connections to Internet-related services quadrupled over the year. Systems Integration and Outsourcing grew by 4% and 2% respectively and were impacted by the decline in client demands related to the year 2000 lockdown. To facilitate period over period comparisons, the aforementioned figures are at constant scope of consolidation.
On a reported basis, revenues for first half fiscal 2000 increased 5% over the prior year period.
Operating income reached EUR 46.8 million for first-half fiscal 2000, representing a decline of 13% over the prior year period, and was impacted by increased spending in research and development in launching new e-business activities, a decline in client demand related to the year 2000 lockdown, and the implementation of the mandatory law to reduce the working time in France.
The accounts were closed by the Executive Board and examined by the Supervisory Board for the six month period ended March 31, 2000.
|
(in euro millions)
|
Reported 1st Half FY 2000
|
Reported 1st Half FY 2000
|
% Change
|
| Revenue
Operating % of revenue Net income |
565.6
46.8 8.3% 20.0 |
540.5
53.5 9.9% 24,5 |
5%
-13% -18% |
| EPS before amortization of goodwill (in euro) EPS (in euro) |
1.28 .93 |
1.50 1.16 |
-15% -20% |
| Average number of outstanding shares |
21,408,286 |
21,207,314 |
|
Constant scope of consolidation* 1st Half FY 1999
|
% Change
|
| 518.5 | 9% |
* Constant scope of consolidation: figures for first-half fiscal 1999 exclude revenue from businesses sold in fiscal 1999 (QAD, Tibco, Atos IB, SPS, Atos Direct Belgium, Editique) and include revenue from divestitures (Phonepermanence, Ticketnet) and acquisitions (Odyssee) made during first half 2000 at constant scope of consolidation.
First Half Fiscal 2000 Highlights and Outlook
Bernard Bourigeaud, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Atos, commented, ” We saw good revenue growth of 9% at constant scope of consolidation, despite our first-half period straddling the changeover to year 2000. Our first-half profitability, however, did not meet our expectations. We’ve taken measures to improve profitability and should see better performance in the second half.
The strength of our end-to-end e-business offering continues to be an enormous asset and one which differentiates Atos from the competition. We signed a major contract with Peugeot where we built, integrated, and operate the full customer relationship management center. Likewise for Vivendi, we built and now fully manage an IT portal for 01 Informatique. We also deepened our relationship with Fimatex, a leading European e-brokerage service, and signed a six year contract to accompany them in their international development.
We signed a joint-venture with ParisBourse to create Atos EuronextSBF, a major information technology services provider for stock markets and financial institutions with sales over EUR 150 million and a staff of more than 800. The company will rapidly grow in size and develop internationally being the critical technological partner for the recently created Euronext, formed through the merger of the Paris, Amsterdam, and Brussels stock exchanges. In conjunction with this operation, we will resign the outsourcing contract to operate ParisBourse’ entire information systems for another seven years.
We have in place a powerful e-business infrastructure and to lead the charge, I’ve appointed a Vice President of e-business, who will report directly to me. We’ve decided to leverage the strength of the whole group and appointed e-business managers for each business unit and in each country to ensure that each activity is well positioned to match our clients needs.
We believe that the wave of consolidation that we’re witnessing throughout many sectors, including information technology services, is inevitable as clients view their operations from a European optic as opposed to a country by country basis. Our goal to generate an increasing amount of our revenues outside France lies unchanged and we remain open to seizing opportunities. Taking into account a healthy order backlog, a strong overall e-business offering, and favorable market conditions, we remain confident in achieving stronger second half revenue growth and improved profitability. We will create a solid foundation this year from which we can accelerate growth in 2001.”
Contacts
Lisa Barthelemy, Investor Relations
tel: + 33 1 49 00 96 32 lbarthelemy@atos-group.com
Marie-Tatiana Collombert, Press
tel: + 33 1 49 00 96 33 mtcollombert@atos-group.com
