Steria flips services growth trend

(By Anthony Miller – Sunday 17th May 2009 6:30pm). Somewhat later than its European peers, Steria finally revealed its Q109 revenues last Thursday, showing a complete reversal of the expected growth trends in Consulting/SI vs outsourcing. Unlike Capgemini, Atos and Logica, Steria saw Managed Services/BPO revenues decline by 8.4% (organic) in the quarter, while C&SI revenues grew 2.3%. MS/BPO now represents 37% of Steria’s revenues, down from 39% a year ago.

The yoy decline in MS/BPO will be in part due to Xansa’s Learning & Skills Council and MyTravel contracts which closed out just before the acquisition by Steria completed. These contracts also contributed towards the 3.8% yoy decline in Steria UK Q109 revenues, otherwise, UK revenues would have shown a 1% yoy rise. These two deals wash out from the comparisons from May.

For the record, Steria’s Q109 revenues fell 1.9% (organic) to €397m, with the UK remaining its largest market at €157m. These were a much more muted set of results compared to Q4 (see UK now leading Steria’s growth) as would be expected. However, Steria reports “robust” revenue trends in UK public sector and utilities. We’ll have to wait till the end of August before we hear how the rest of H109 went.