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Feb 05, 2007

2006 revenue: €1,262 million, Organic growth: 7.4%

The organic growth in consolidated revenue in the fourth quarter 2006 was 10.7%.
Second half organic growth was 10.8%.
For the year as a whole, revenue grew by 7.4% in organic terms to €1,262 million driven by the performance of the three main geographic zones who each grew by 10%.

 
2006 consolidated revenue
In € million
 
12 months
2005
12 months
   2006
Growth
Revenue
1174.9
1262.0
7.4%
Change in perimeter
-
 
 
Change due to currency effect
+0.3
 
 
Pro-forma revenue
1175.2
1262.0
7.4%
 
2006 revenue by geographic zone
In € million
12 months
2005*
12 months
2006
Organic growth
France
483.2
533.2
10.3%
UK
263.5
289.7
9.9%
Germany
185.4
203.2
9.6%
Other Europe
243.0
236.0
-2.9%
Total
1175.2
1262.0
7.4%
 
2006 revenue by business lines
In € million
12 months
 2005*
12 months
2006
Organic growth
Managed Services
488.3
536.5
9.9%
Consulting and Systems Integration
686.9
725.5
5.6%
* Revenue on a like-for-like basis (2006 basis)
 
 
Activity in the fourth quarter of 2006
 
Fourth quarter 2006 revenue by geographic zone
In € million
4Q
2005*
4Q
2006
Organic growth
France
131.2
148.8
13.4%
UK
70.5
71.8
1.7%
Germany
48.2
60.2
24.8%
Other Europe
72.0
76.0
5.2%
Total
322.0
356.4
10.7%
* Revenue on a like-for-like basis (2006 basis)
In France, growth was strong (+13.4% organic) thanks to a dynamic progress in the two business lines: Managed Services +16.4% and Consulting and Systems Integration +11.4%.
In the UK, the 9.9% annual growth is consistent with the estimates made a year ago and reflects the actual growth trend, taking into account the start up of new contracts and the current sales dynamic. The quarterly variation reflects the timing of the call off of orders already received under framework contracts (as indicated when we published our third quarter revenue which showed a growth of 28.7%).
In Germany, fourth quarter revenue, which rose by 24.8%, benefited from: 1) a good market dynamic in all market segments, 2) the commercial investments which were made in the first half of 2006 notably in Public Services which grew significantly in the fourth quarter, 3) a favourable comparison basis owing to the exit from non-core activities in the second half of 2005.
In the Other Europe zone, fourth quarter organic growth was 5.2% despite a slight fall in hardware sales (-€0.5 million). The Belgium/Switzerland area made a significant contribution to this performance.
 
Outlook
The Group’s target in 2006 is to achieve an operating margin of over 7%.
As of December 31, 2006 Book to Bill[1]  was 1.1 compared to 1.0 for the same period in the previous year and indicates that we can expect another year of growth in 2007.
 
2006 results will be published on February 28, 2007 after the close of the market and presented on at the SFAF meeting on Thursday, March 1, 2007.
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[1] Ratio of orders taken to revenue