Atos saw revenue hit €11.7 billion in 2016, on recorded growth of 9.7% year-on-year. The firm’s growth was largely driven by inorganic expansion, with organic growth at around 1.8%. The professional services firm plans to continue to expand inorganically in 2017, with a target of 6% assigned to M&A growth and 2% to organic growth.
Atos, a digital services and consulting firm, booked a positive year in terms of its financial results. The firm’s revenues increased by 9.7% year-on-year (12.8% at constant exchange rates) to €11.7 billion. Growth was largely the result of inorganic additions, with organic growth standing at 1.8%. Inorganic growth was realised through, among others, the acquisition of Engage ESM and Anthelio.
The firm managed to book growth across all sectors, with the Big Data & Cybersecurity arm the strongest performing business unit for the year. The United-Kingdom & Ireland, one of the firm's larger European markets, region saw a slight contraction in revenues of 0.4% to €1.8 billion.
Regarding the result, Chairman and CEO Thierry Bretons says, “In 2016, Atos achieved an excellent performance by overreaching all our financial commitments, including record margin improvement and free cash flow conversion. Accelerating innovation in cybersecurity, automation, and analytics, mirroring the booming demand from our customers, combined with a rigorous execution of our strategy were the key factors of this success. Our very solid financial performance materialised the alignment of our comprehensive Digital Transformation Factory with rising client needs.”
The firm’s operating margin too saw strong growth, up 9.4% in 2016 to €1.1 billion. The improvement, which beat the 8.4% increase noted the year previous, was partly the result of strong performances in the firm’s cloud-based business and the execution of efficiency programmes, as well as wider cost synergies won through its recently acquired Unify.
Free cashflow hit €579 million in 2016, up by 47.3% to the year previous, while the firm’s net income increased by 41.9% year-on-year to reach €620 million.
For 2017 the firm aims to grow its revenues by 6% at constant exchange rates and b 2% organically, while its aims for operating margin growth stands at between 9.5% and 10.0% of revenue.
Bretons reflects about the firm’s aims going forward, “With this record performance, Atos’ teams have built a unique foundation to deliver our new 3-year plan '2019 Ambition', matching new expectations of our clients, gaining new market shares, driving more profitable growth and cash generation, while continuing to enhance value creation for our shareholders.”