Dutch IT consultancy Getronics posts huge profit, poor operating results

AMSTERDAM (AFP) Aug 13, 2003
The Dutch information technology consultancy Getronics posted Wednesday a 50-fold rise in first-half net profit because of exceptional items that masked a fall in its operating results.

Net profit shot up to 230 million euros (259 million dollars), more than 50 times the four million euros recorded in the 2002 January-June period.

But the figure included a capital gain of 261 million euros from the sale of the group's Getronics Human Resources Solutions subsidiary to NIB Capital.

When one-off items and taxes were stripped out, Getronics showed a loss of 71 million euros in first-half 2003, compared with a 15-million-euro profit during the same period one year earlier.

Group sales slipped by 26 percent to 1.363 billion euros, while core earnings showed a loss of 50 million euros.

The results were lower than analysts' forecasts, which anticipated earnings of between 10-13 million euros on sales of 1.44-1.51 billion.

Getronics chief executive officer Axel Ruckert told a news conference: "We still have quite a way to go... We have to improve the operational performance of the ongoing, now core activities."

SPACE.WIRE