Computacenter 'extremely pleased' with Q1 trading, cautions of FX impacts

Technology firm Computacenter said on Thursday that it was "extremely pleased" with profit growth achieved in the first quarter.

Computacenter stated there had been "strong demand" across the business, particularly for its professional services in Germany and the UK, and also stated it had seen "significant revenue growth" in its technology sourcing unit in Britain.

The FTSE 250-listed firm also highlighted that cost base reductions put into place since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic had been maintained through the quarter.

However, Computacenter did warn that the weakness of the US dollar created "an unavoidable headwind" to its overall performance and, if it stays at current levels, expects it to impact full-year profit by approximately £4.0m.

Computacenter said: "Due to the strong organic profit performance we expect 2021 to be a year of good progress in our reported profits. Although we will generate incremental positive growth from the Pivot acquisition in 2021, this will be almost negated by currency movements (if the current exchange rates remain the same) and the expected losses from our French acquisition.

"Obviously, we are living through unpredictable times and much work remains to be done, but our good performance in Q1 and our internal forecast for the rest of the year gives us a great deal of confidence in our likely outcome."

As of 0850 BST, Computacenter shares were down 2.95% at 2,562.0p.