Consulting leads Atos Origin revenue recovery

Atos Origin's revenues have increased by more than 8% to €2.7bn ((£1.8bn) for the first six months of the year, the firm has announced.

In a statement Atos Origin said that revenues for the six months ended 30 June 2005 amounted to €2.7bn, representing an increase of 8.1% compared with the same period last year. The firm's operating margin also increased in line with expectations to 6.7%, while net debt fell substantially to €363m, following Atos Origin's disposal of its Nordic activities at the end of June.

The Atos group reported under the new International Financial Reporting Standards for the first time. It announced that its basic earnings per share under IFRS, before unusual items (net of tax) were 33% higher than the figure for 2004 on a fully comparable restated basis.

Bernard Bourigeaud, group chief executive of Atos Origin, said that the group's performance was 'broad-based' and that each of the three main service lines recorded 'good growth', with consulting being especially strong and 'leading the recovery'.

Bourigeaud also hailed the integration of the Sema Group two years ago and said that it had been 'successfully completed' and transformed Atos Origin into a 'major player' in the global IT services market.

'We now have strong leadership positions in France, The Netherlands and the UK. We will double our revenues in Germany this year, although we still have work to do to reach our scale objective, and we are making good progress in Spain and Italy.

'We have also started to lay solid foundations for the expansion of our business in Asia Pacific. This is a vibrant region, with a strong economic growth rate and many opportunities to deliver radical IT solutions and services to our clients.

'In China, we already have a strong base of clients and our Olympic team is preparing for the Beijing Games in 2008. In Malaysia, China and especially in India, we are growing our offshore support capability rapidly, in line with demand from our clients.'

Bourigeaud added that the firm would 'continue to focus on achieving organic growth' throughout the remainder of 2005, ensuring that it 'executed properly' on large contracts and provided its clients with the 'highest level of service'.