Capgemini first half net up 31% at 176m euro

IT services major Capegemini Group on Thursday reported a 31-percent increase in profit at  176 million euro for the first half of 2013 ended June 30, 2013.

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The company had posted a profit of 134 million euro in the year-ago period, it said in a release. Its revenues, however, declined 2.3 per cent to 5.03 billion euro in January-June 2013 as against 5.15 billion euro in the same  period of 2012, it added.

"In a challenging economic environment, we met our commitments and reported an improvement in our profit for the  period, enabling us to start the second half with confidence," Capgemini Group chairman and CEO Paul Hermelin said.

While technology services grew slightly in the first half of 2013, consulting services and local professional services (Sogeti), which are more sensitive to the economic environment, contracted. Revenues from outsourcing services were almost stable, it said.

In terms of geography, the emerging countries of Asia Pacific and Latin America reported strong growth, whereas, the UK and Ireland region contracted. "With an increase of revenues of 0.5 percent, North America is back to growth, which should continue in the second-half," the company said.

The firm's revenues from France and Benelux were also down in the first half of 2013, it added."Bookings totaled 4.82  billion euro in H1 2013," it said. 'Organic free cash flow' is 313 million euro for H1 2013, despite anticipated  payments received at the end of 2012 and compares with 309 million euro for H1 2012. Net cash and cash equivalents  total 272 million euro as on June 30, 2013.

The company announced it made a 235 million euro exceptional contribution to the Group's pension funds.

At the end of H1, the total headcount of the group was 127,968. Offshore employees totaled 54,280, up 18 percent  on June 30, 2012 (including 44,195 in India) and represented 42 percent of the total headcount,
up more than 4 points on June 30, 2012.