Atos goes back to black

Atos Origin dragged its bottom line back into the black in 2007, although the consulting arm of its business saw revenue fall by more than 11 per cent.

The French IT services group's revenue was up 8.5 per cent to €5.86bn for the year ending December 31. Organic sales growth was 4.3 per cent.

Managed operations revenues were €3.2bn, up 14.9 per cent, while systems integration revenues were €2.3bn, up 4.3 per cent. However, consulting, at €360m, was down 11.2 per cent on the year.

Atos Origin blamed the consulting arm's revenue slide on a number of painful contract re-negotiations in France and the UK.

Atos pulled in net income of €48m compared to a net loss of €264m in 2006, when it suffered a number of big charges following trouble at its UK and Italian units.

The firm paid out €98m in restructuring and rationalisation costs in 2007. In addition, it paid out a €57m charge following the termination of an NHS Diagnostics contract in the UK as well as the disposal of its Italian biz.

Atos CEO Philippe Germond was in an upbeat mood about the firm’s prospects for the year ahead, saying said in a statement that the company hopes to achieve underlying revenue growth of four per cent for 2008.

"We have now established the foundations that will allow us to improve competitiveness, and to increase substantially our profitability. More than ever, I am determined to develop the group's full potential and accelerate value creation," said Germond.®