Atos Origin’s performance in the first financial quarter of this year was the mirror image of many of its competitors’ – sales were down overall, but UK revenues grew.
In all, the French IT service company saw sales decline by 1.3% to €1.3 billion. This reflected a 2.6% drop in its home market, and a 5.7% decline in Benelux.
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In the UK, meanwhile, revenues grew 1.7% to €224 million. "Orders have materialised in managed services and in [high tech transformational services] which posted organic growth respectively of 2.4% and 14.8%," the company said in a statement. "Medical BPO was up 1.9% and systems integration was flat."
New UK contracts that Atos has won this year include a deal with investment bank Nomura’s UK asset management division to build and support its money marketing systems, and one with the Department for International Development.
Atos Origin’s contract to provide IT systems for the London 2012 Olympics is not included in its UK revenues. Instead, it is reported in the ‘Other countries’ division, whose sales dropped 2.4% to €94 million during the quarter.
The company’s results stand in contrast to those of Logica, which last week reported a 4.0% drop in UK sales, and Steria, whose first quarter UK sales fell 3.3%. Indian IT services provider Cognizant, meanwhile, saw UK revenues by 3.5% in the first quarter.
In each case, these companies were keen to downplay the impact of the UK government’s spending cuts, and said they expect UK business to pick up in the coming quarter.
