Nine months revenues for 2008/09: 74.3 M euros – up 40% of which 14% organic growth

In Q3 of its 2008/09 financial year Solucom has posted turnover of € 26.6M, up across the board 37% as compared with the parallel period in the 2007/08 financial year. Excluding the effects of changing scope, related to the consolidation of Cosmosbay~Vectis as of 1 April 2008, Solucom's quarterly, organic growth was 13%, almost identical to that of the 2008/09 first half year (14%).

At the end of the first nine months of 2008/09 Solucom had achieved turnover of € 74.3M, up overall 40%, of which 14% represented organic growth.

IT market: a slowdown rather than a slump

Signs of the slowdown in the market continued in the past quarter, with clients increasingly cautious concerning their investments, and in certain specific cases, projects have been stopped or requests submitted for renegotiating prices, especially in the finance sector. Visibility continued to reduce and the high level of uncertainty characterizing the market should last a few months. However, developments in the IT market appear to confirm a slowdown in growth scenario rather than a sharp slump, as followed the burst of the Internet bubble.

Cosmosbay~Vectis: first signs of recovery

Despite the circumstances of a difficult market, Solucom has seen the first fruits of steps taken at Cosmosbay~Vectis to dynamise its sales. Cosmosbay~Vectis's activity rate started to improve in Q3 2008/09, whilst still far below its normative level around 70% – 75%.

The activity rate for the entire group for the first nine months of the 2008/09 financial year was 79%. On an unchanged scope, excluding Cosmosbay~Vectis, the activity rate was 84%, almost the same as that for the nine first months of 2007/08.

Pursuing staff growth

While remaining very much on guard about developments in its operating indices, the group has continued its recruitment efforts in Q3. At 31 December 2008 Solucom had 946 employees as compared with 666 at 31 March 2008, representing growth of 42%. On an unchanged scope, excluding Cosmosbay~Vectis, growth in the group's staff was 12%.

Annual objectives confirmed

Despite the uncertainties of the market, Solucom is maintaining its annual targets for the 2008/09 financial year that ends 31 March 2009, namely turnover between € 100 and 105M and an operating margin of between 10% and 12%.

Next financial release: annual revenues 2008/09 on 5 May 2009

Solucom: IT to serve our clients' performance results

Solucom is an IT & management consultancy.
Solucom also gives advice to large corporations regarding their IT systems strategies, and assists them in defining and steering their IT projects. Upstream, Solucom also gives advice to companies and telcos for their marketing strategies, business performance, and core business transformation projects
Its positioning is summarised by its mission statement: IT to serve our clients' performance results.

Solucom is the partner of the largest French companies in their national and international projects:
Air France-KLM, Alstom, AP-HM, Banque de France, BNP Paribas, Bouygues Telecom, Carrefour,  Crédit Agricole, EDF, GDF-SUEZ, La Poste, L'Oréal, Ministries of the Economy and Finance, of National Education,  and of the Interior, MMA, Neuf Cegetel, Orange, Pôle Emploi, RTE, Sanofi-Aventis, SFR, SNCF, Société Générale, Suez, Total.
Solucom was awarded the "innovative company" qualification by OSEO Innovation.
Solucom is listed on compartment C of the Paris Euronext market of NYSE Euronext.
ISIN code: FR0004036036 – LCO; ICB: 9533 – Services Informatiques

All of our financial information is published on www.solucom.fr