Arrow CEO: Q4 was a 'record' quarter

In an alternative reality where one-off charges are meaningless, Arrow Electronics reported a healthy profit hike for calendar Q4 – however, in this (real) world, the picture was somewhat different.

The distie colossus posted big sales of $6.39bn, up four per cent on the same period a year earlier, and this was without making acquisitions.

The cost of those revenues also grew four per cent, but then came increases in admin expenses, depreciation and amortisation, restructuring and integration charges and trade name impairment.

All of these factors combined meant Arrow took home just $116.2m – after the tax man took his/her slice – compared with $134.8m a year earlier. Exclude those expenses and the company made a net $184.4m.

Clearly in reference to the sales output and EPS of $1.88, Arrow CEO Michael Long issued a statement, branding the results as a “record, completing an outstanding year”.

The global components arm grew four per cent to $3.59bn, posting growth across all regions, albeit limited to a one per cent jump in Europe.

The global enterprise computing arm, which this week acquired Computacenter’s tech disposal and asset recovery services arm, grew three per cent to $2.81bn. Europe declined six per cent - due only to negative for-ex conversions - but the Americas was up nine per cent.

In a conference call last night, Long said CIOs are making security a top priority, and "optimising their compute and storage requirements between on-premise data centres, both hybrid and public cloud.

"We've aligned our business to capitalise on these changes," he said.

Software and services fuelled growth but proprietary servers continues to be a shrinking space.

For the year, sales grew seven per cent to $22.7bn and net income was $498m, compared with $399.4m in 2013. Exclude charges and profit would have been $593m. Arrow said for-ex conversions cost it $175m in the year.

Looking ahead, Long said:

"As we look forward to 2015, we see no meaningful improvement in the economic backdrop and no material changes in the markets we serve." ®