IT services and consulting group Atos generated fourth-quarter revenues of EUR 2.91 billion, down 2.9 percent year-on-year on an organic basis (-3.5% in Q3). For the full-year, the company saw revenues contract by 3.0 percent organically to EUR 11.18 billion, meeting the revised guidance published in April.
Growth is targeted to resume in the current year, as the group expects revenues to rise 3.5-4.0 percent at constant currency. Free cash flow is forecast to increase to EUR 550-600 million, after contracting to EUR 513 million in 2020 from EUR 605 million a year earlier. Similarly, the operating margin should return to positive growth in 2021, after dropping by 1 percentage point from 2019 to a rate of 9.0 percent.
Geographically, the majority of Atos regions continued to post an organic revenue contraction in the fourth quarter. This trend was only partly offset by a slight progression in Northern Europe (+0.4%) and in the ‘other markets’ segment (+1.7%). Looking at the performance by division, the group’s two core business lines suffered single-digit declines, while the smaller Big Data & Cybersecurity unit saw revenues increase by 15.3 percent organically to EUR 410 million.
As in the previous quarters, 'Public Sector & Defence' achieved the highest year-on-year growth rate among the six industries targeted by Atos (+5.4%). 'Healthcare & Life Sciences' also maintained a positive trend (+3.5%), while 'Manufacturing' and 'Telecom, Media & Technology' continued to contract (-8.1% and -5.8% respectively).
Commenting on its commercial activity, Atos said that the fourth-quarter book-to-bill ratio of 130 percent reflected several significant contract wins, including Windtre in the telecom sector. For the whole of 2020, the group’s order entry reached EUR 13.3 billion, representing a book to bill ratio of 119 percent, from 106 percent in 2019 at constant exchange rates.
In related news, Atos announced the decision to accelerate its decarbonisation strategy, saying that its global operations were now committing to a 50 percent reduction in their own direct carbon emissions by 2025, as well as pledging to offset all residual emissions under their control and influence by 2028.
