They may be the junior member of their peer group, but Paris-based Sopra showed its much larger French rivals Capgemini and Atos a clean pair of heels on both top line growth and margins. FY revenues (to 31st Dec.) grew by 6% like-for-like to €1.17b (+7% as reported) and operating margins near nigh doubled to 9.3%. Like peers, Sopra management is forecasting organic growth this year and ‘slight’ margin expansion. The core CSSI (consulting & SI) division grew by 5% like-for-like to €962m, with 8.7% margins. Sopra’s soon to be divested enterprise software arm, Axway, grew by 12% like-for-like to €208m, with a 12.3% operating margin.
It’s not clear how Sopra’s subscale UK business finished the year. It was still shrinking as late as Q3 (see Sopra UK recovering) – though not as fast as in the first half of the year. With over half its UK business deriving from the public sector (especially in its Scottish heartland), it’s hard to see how they could have made up the shortfall in Q4. Management reported a late surge in its non-France business, of which the UK comprises about one-third, but we still rather expect the UK to show a number a tad lower than the c.£50m chalked up in 2009.