"Atos Origin 2008 third quarter revenue"
Organic growth Q3 at +5.3 per cent; Year-to-date at +6.3 per cent
Revenue organic growth objective confirmed above +5 per cent for 2008
- New scope revenue for the third quarter at EUR 1,329 million; a +5.3 per cent organic growth
- YTD September revenue at EUR 4,072 million; representing an organic growth of +6.3 per cent
- YTD September order entries up by +10 per cent
- Further reduction of net debt at EUR 409 million end of September 2008
- Strong group actions launched to further decrease cost base
- Strategic review finalised: to focus the Group on high margin and recurring cash flow businesses
Atos Origin, a leading IT services company, today announces revenue for the three months ended 30 September 2008.
Commenting on the 2008 third quarter revenue, Philippe Germond – Chairman of the Management Board and CEO of Atos Origin said: “During the third quarter, we have been able to maintain an organic growth above +5 per cent as planned. Early September, we anticipated a possible more challenging economic environment and we decided to take appropriate actions to further reduce our cost base. For year 2008, we confirm our objective of revenue organic growth above +5 per cent”.
On the new scope excluding Italy sold on 31 January 2008 and AEMS Exchange sold on 5 August 2008, third quarter revenue amounted to EUR 1,329 million representing an organic growth of +5.3 per cent. On a year-to-date basis, revenue reached EUR 4,072 million with organic growth at +6.3 per cent.
Revenue by service line
With 6 per cent of total revenue at EUR 84 million, Consulting continued to show an improved trend and reported an organic growth at +11.2 per cent in the third quarter of 2008. On a year-to-date basis, the revenue organic growth was +2.1 per cent. During the third quarter of this year, France, The Netherlands and Spain increased their revenue compared to last year while the United Kingdom had, as expected, a slight decrease. The action plan implemented in the United Kingdom is underway including short term sales initiatives made proactively with Systems Integration.
With 39 per cent of total revenue, Systems Integration reached EUR 521 million and recorded a +5.2 per cent organic growth during the third quarter 2008. This performance was led by the United Kingdom (+10 per cent) and Germany and Central Europe (+21 per cent). France reached +3 per cent this quarter and The Netherlands -2 per cent.
On year-to-date basis, Systems Integration revenue organic growth was +6.8 per cent.
With 55 per cent of total revenue at EUR 725 million, Managed operations achieved a +4.7 per cent organic growth. This activity continued to benefit from Atos Worldline at double digit growth, France Managed Services, United Kingdom and Asia Pacific all with a strong growth while The Netherlands and Germany Central Europe slightly decreased.
On a year-to-date basis, Managed Operations revenue organic growth was +6.5 per cent.
Revenue by geographical area
Q3 2008 revenue organic growth was led by the United Kingdom at +8 per cent, France and Germany both above +6 per cent and Asia Pacific at +29 per cent.
On a year-to-date basis, revenue organic growth was +6.3 per cent. The United Kingdom, Atos Worldline, Spain, Belgium and Asia Pacific generated a double digit growth. All geographies are growing except The Netherlands slightly decreasing at -1% and the Americas affected by the revenue made on the Panamerican Games in Brazil in 2007.
Portfolio: growing backlog for 2009 revenue
For the first nine months of 2008, the order entries increased by +10 per cent compared to the same period in 2007 at same exchange rates. The book to bill ratio was 95 per cent year-to-date compared to 90 per cent year-to-date September 2007. In Q3 2008, order entries remained flat compared to Q3 2007 which included the three-year contract signed with Dresdner Bank in Application Management which represented 13 per cent of total order entries made in the quarter.
During the third quarter of 2008, the Group won several key contracts including in France Michelin for software development and Redcats for infrastructure transformation, in The Netherlands Achmea for application management with offshoring and the Ministry of Education, in the United Kingdom the Accountants Association for IT outsourcing including offshoring, in Germany NRW bank for infrastructure outsourcing, in Spain Banco Santander, Repsol, and with Telefonica for an application management contract with some offshoring.
The full backlog at the end of September 2008 reached EUR 7.5 billion representing 1.4 year of revenue and the full qualifed pipeline remained strong at EUR 2.6 billion.
The backlog for 2009 revenue reached EUR 2.5 billion, up by +8 per cent compared to the backlog for 2008 revenue reached at the end of September 2007.
Net debt
The net debt was EUR 409 million at the end of September 2008 compared to EUR 490 million end of September 2007.
In July 2008, for the first time, the Group paid a dividend to its shareholders for a total amount of EUR 28 million.
In August 2008, the Group completed the sale of AEMS Exchange and the purchase of Clearing and Capital Market operations. The net proceeds represented an amount of EUR 142 million.
The seasonal decrease in the working capital during the last quarter each year will allow the strong reduction of the net debt expected at the end of December 2008.
The contracted credit lines with banks represent a limit of EUR 1.2 billion until May 2011 of which EUR 1.1 billion authorised until May 2012. Taking into account the level of net debt at the end of September 2008 at EUR 409 million, and a further reduction in Q4 2008, the Group has no short term financing issue.
Group actions
The Group continues to implement forcefully the main initiatives of the 3o3 Transformation Plan such as Offshoring, Industrialization, Global Delivery, Purchasing and implementation of administrative shared services.
On the Purchasing initiative, the level of EUR 44 million savings has been reached as of September 2008 benefiting either on future capital expenditure optimisation or future income statement expenses reduction.
Furthermore, early September 2008, anticipating a new economic environment, the Group launched all the necessary actions to decrease the cost base and to adapt it to the possible difficult market conditions in 2009.
The most important actions are:
- Cash generation through capital expenditure optimisation (objective to reduce from 5.5 per cent of revenue to 4.5 per cent in 2009),
- accelerating the use of offshore capacity from current 4,000 staff reached in September 2008,
- reduction of subcontractors,
- adaptation of the bonus schemes to a new environment,
- freeze of all indirect recruitments and extreme caution on direct staff hiring,
- reduction of expenses such as travelling and training,
- optimisation of resources management with an additional cash impact of EUR 30 million in 2008.
Strategic review
During a two-month active process, the Strategic Committee working with the Management Board has reviewed various options in order to maximize value creation under current market conditions. The decision was made to focus the Group on high margin and recurring cash flow businesses.
- The strategy for Atos Worldline is to become the European leader in the transaction processing business through organic growth, outsourcing contracts and a few key acquisitions. The ambition is to reach in the next three years a size of EUR 1.5 billion revenue with an operating margin above 15 per cent.
- Consulting and Systems Integration will focus on selected profitable service offerings, and the service lines will continue to develop the distinctive offerings implemented in December 2007. The Group will explore partnerships to leverage existing platforms in Consulting and Systems Integration.
- For Managed Services, the objective is to focus growth on local outsourcing infrastructure and on mainframe and server management.
- The Group will focus on core geographies and activities and will divest between EUR 250 and 500 million revenue in the next months. Therefore, a first phase has started for non core geographies on a scope representing EUR 250 million revenue.
- The Group will maintain its emphasis on additional identified areas in order to accelerate the operational improvement (Systems Integration France, Consulting in the United Kingdom, G&A costs in The Netherlands,…).
2008 Objectives
- The Group confirms the objective of revenue organic growth above +5 per cent in 2008
- On the scope representing more than 95% of total revenue (excluding non core geographies being divested), the Group should reach an operating margin at 5.5 per cent, an improvement by +100 basis points compared to 2007 in line with the objective. The non core geographies will experience a small operating loss in 2008.
2009 Outlook
The Group is currently working on the budget process for next year and exchanging actively with clients. Due to the structure of its activities where 68% of the revenue are recurring, and the level of backlog already contracted, the Group remains confident to generate positive organic growth next year.
Forthcoming announcements
| 5 February 2009 | Fourth quarter 2008 revenue |
| 17 February 2009 | 2008 Annual results |
Disclaimers
Revenue organic growth is presented at constant scope and exchange rates
Figures presented for September 2008 are unaudited.
The document contains further forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties concerning the Group’s expected growth and profitability in the future. Actual events or results may differ from those described in this document due to a number of risks and uncertainties that are described within the 2007 annual report filed with the Autorités des Marchés Financiers (AMF) on 9 April 2008 as a Document de Référence under the registration number: D08-218.
About Atos Origin
Atos Origin is an international information technology services company. Its business is turning client vision into results through the application of Consulting, Systems Integration and Managed Operations. The Company’s annual revenue is EUR 5.8 billion and it employs 50,000 professionals in 40 countries. Atos Origin is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic Games and has a client base of international blue-chip companies across all sectors.
Atos Origin is quoted on the Paris Eurolist Market and trades as Atos Origin, Atos Worldline and Atos Consulting.
Press contact:
Marie-Tatiana Collombert,
Tel. : +33 (0) 1 55 91 26 33,
marie-tatiana.collombert@atosorigin.com
Investor contact:
Gilles Arditti,
Tel. : +33 (0) 1 55 91 28 83,
gilles.arditti@atosorigin.com
ANALYSIS OF Q3 2008 REPORTED REVENUE
| Revenue organic growth | 3 months ended 30 September 2008 |
| Revenue performance by service line | 3 months ended 30 September 2008 |
| Revenue performance by geographical area | 3 months ended 30 September 2008 |
ANALYSIS OF YTD SEPTEMBER 2008 REPORTED REVENUE
| Revenue organic growth | 9 months ended 30 September 2008 |
| Revenue performance by service line | 9 months ended 30 September 2008 |
| Revenue performance by geographical area | 9 months ended 30 September 2008 |
