Sopra still finding UK tough going

(By Anthony Miller – Thursday, 7th May 2009 8:00am). Mainly France-based SI, Sopra, had a slightly worse Q109 than larger peers Atos and Capgemini, with revenues down nearly 3% yoy like-for-like to €271m. Revenues at Sopra’s ever shrinking consulting business, Orga, fell 25% to just €9m and management expects a similar decline this quarter. The core French SI business grew 5% to €178m but with a shorter quarter, management doesn’t expect to sustain this growth rate.

Sopra is also feeling the pain outside of France. Revenues were down 12% LFL to €45m, with Spain harder hit than the UK. Management reckons Spain won’t grow again till 2010, though saw a chance that the UK might start to recover by the end of the year. We estimate that Sopra’s UK revenues were around £55-60m last year (see Sopra suffers in the UK) but it seems this year will be lower still. Sopra clearly lacks critical mass in its acquisition-based UK business. If it intends to make a real go of it over here, management needs to be looking for some more bolt-ons as the chances of winning any deals of significant size in its own right must look pretty slim.