Fujitsu has seen losses improve in Q1 over the comparable period last year. Consolidated net loss was 21.9bn yen (US$221m), an improvement of 3.5bn yen. Net sales were 999.2bn yen (US$10.1bn), up 4.4% on 2012. Sales in Japan declined by 5.7%, but sales outside Japan rose 22.8%.
In infrastructure services, outsourcing services “grew steadily”, but overall sales were “weak” compared with Q1 2012. In systems integration services, sales grew primarily in the manufacturing, financial services, and public sectors. The company says it “will continue to pursue aggressive structural reforms to achieve profitable growth for this fiscal year and years forward."
As ever, very little (or no) information was released on the UK business specifically, although “corporate spending restraints” in Europe were highlighted as the cause of weakened sales of infrastructure services. However, we would temper that with the insight we have into the UK’s business. Numerous sizeable services deals have been inked this year, but customer names have not been released into the public domain. One deal we can speak about is the recently announced Balfour Beatty contract, worth £43m (see Fujitsu inks Balfour Beatty deal).
The profit tale in the UK is also improving. In the last full financial year, Fujitsu UK made a substantial 30% improvement in operating profit. This turnaround was thanks to an efficiency programme kicked-off by UK CEO, Duncan Tait, shortly after he took on the role in 2011 (see Fujitsu UK expands profits).