"Atos Origin Confirms Annual Results for 2003"
Atos Origin, a leading international information technology services provider, today issued audited results for the year ended December 31st, 2003. In spite of difficult market conditions, revenue for the period amounted to EUR 3,035 million, which was almost unchanged compared with 2002. The operating profit was EUR 248 million, yielding an operating margin of 8.2%. Net income before goodwill amortisation was EUR 114 million, giving earnings per share of EUR 2.51, compared with EUR 2.48 in 2002. There was a net loss of EUR 169 million after goodwill amortisation, which included a goodwill impairment charge of EUR 225 million.
Opening net debt of EUR 440 million fell to EUR 266 million at December 31st, 2003.
Atos Origin issued unaudited results for 2003 on January 16th, 2004, ahead of the Special Meeting of Shareholders on January 22nd, 2004 at which the acquisition of Sema Group was approved. The Group is today issuing audited annual figures for 2003, which are in line with the preliminary results published in January.
Revenue for the period amounted to EUR 3,035 million, which represents a decrease of just 0.3% compared with the same period last year, but an increase of 1.8% in constant exchange rate terms. The group benefited from a full year revenue contribution from Atos KPMG Consulting, which was offset by a decline in Systems Integration. Both the Consulting and Systems Integration markets suffered from continuing pressure on prices, although at a lesser rate in second half of 2003. Managed Operations revenues were broadly unchanged after adjusting for the disposal of the document management and check processing activities from September 1st, 2003. The volume declines experienced during the current cycle have leveled off and are now improving slightly. Recurring business now makes up over 55% of total group revenues, including the application maintenance part of our Systems Integration business.
Operating profit was EUR 248 million, yielding an operating margin of 8.2% (2002 – 8.7%). While trading conditions in the European IT services market were difficult in 2003, our financial performance has remained solid. The focus on reducing our cost base and streamlining the organization produced continuous benefits and enabled the Group to improve margins from 7.9% in the first half to 8.4% in the second half.
Net income before goodwill amortization was EUR 114 million, compared with EUR 109 million in 2002. The group announced in December 2003 that it would take a goodwill impairment charge of EUR 225 million at December 31st, 2003 in respect of Atos KPMG Consulting in the UK. Together with normal goodwill amortization of EUR 58 million, total goodwill amortization in 2003 amounted to EUR 283 million, producing a Group net loss for the period of EUR 169 million.
Operational cash flow continued to be strong, resulting mainly from the tight management of working capital. After a reduction in net debt from EUR 440 million at the start of 2003 to EUR 386 million at June 30th, 2003, reported net debt fell to EUR 266 million by the end of 2003, significantly lower than our original target of EUR 350 million.
Sema Group
The unaudited results of the operations of SchlumbergerSema that have been acquired by Atos Origin (Sema Group), show that revenue for the year ended December 31st, 2003 amounted to EUR 2,371 million, with an operating margin of 3.1%. The operating margin for the fourth quarter of 2003 reached 4.7%, in line with expectations stated at the time of announcing the acquisition. We expect to receive final audited results for the Sema Group from Schlumberger shortly, and to finalise the audit process by mid-April.
Outlook
The Group believes that sentiment is improving slowly within the IT services market but that actual spending continues to be restrained, especially within Europe. We expect reported revenues for the combined group to be stable in 2004, on a constant scope and exchange rate basis.
The Group is accelerating its merger integration program and expects to complete most of the major actions within 2004, which should advance the benefits expected in 2005. Atos Origin expects the operating margin of the newly combined group to exceed 7% in 2004, compared with a pro forma operating margin of 6% in 2003.
Atos Origin’s closing net debt for 2003 was EUR 266 million. After including the EUR 400 million cash cost of acquiring Sema Group, together with transaction costs and a first valuation of the agreed working capital adjustment, the Group’s pro forma opening net debt on January 1st, 2004 was approximately EUR 720 million. In spite of the significant cash costs of integration and restructuring that we will incur this year, net debt is expected to fall below EUR 600 million by December 31st, 2004, excluding any cash impact of disposals.
Bernard Bourigeaud, Chairman of the Management Board and Chief Executive commented:
“Since announcing the Sema acquisition in September 2003, we have jointly visited all of our key clients and all of our operations, published our new organisation structure and set out our plans for integrating the two businesses. We are now well into the merger integration phase, from which we expect to achieve substantial cost reductions and to streamline the new group’s activities. The merger is proceeding well and I believe that it will be a tremendous success.”
Forthcoming Announcements
Friday, May 14th, 2004: First Quarter Revenues
Friday, June 4th, 2004: Annual General Meeting
Wednesday, Sept. 8th, 2004 Half Year Results
Wednesday, Nov. 10th, 2004: Third Quarter Revenues
About Atos Origin
Atos Origin is an international information technology (IT) services company. Its business is turning client vision into results through the application of consulting, systems integration and managed operations. The company’s annual revenues are more than EUR 5 billion and it employs 47,000 people in 50 countries. Atos Origin is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic Games and its clients include ABN AMRO, Akzo Nobel, Alstom, BNP Paribas, BP, Ericsson, EDF, Euronext, Fiat, France Telecom, ICI, ING, KPN, Lucent, Philips, Renault, Royal Bank of Scotland, Saudi Aramco, Schlumberger, Shell, Telecom Italia, UBS, UK Department for Work and Pensions, Unilever, Vivendi Universal and Vodafone. For more information, please visit the company’s web site at http://www.atosorigin.com
Atos Origin is quoted on the Paris Euronext Premier Marché and trades as Atos Origin, AtosEuronext, Atos Worldline, Atos KPMG Consulting and Atos Odyssée.
Press Contacts:
Marie-Tatiana Collombert
+ 33 (0) 1 55 91 26 33
marie-tatiana.collombert@atosorigin.com
Investors Contact:
John White
+ 33 (0) 1 55 91 26 32
john.white@atosorigin.com