With a big boost from a successful acquisition policy and with its newly-gained regulatory freedom, Anglo-French computer services company Sema Group Plc is at last ready to tackle the US markets with its expertise in systems integration and outsourcing. At the interim stage, Sema Group’s net profits are up 44.0% at 17.9m on revenue that rose 31.0% to 559.5m pounds, but Sema is only claiming a 16% organic growth rate once currency effects are removed. Further growth comes from an additional 30.5m pounds of revenue and 1.6m pounds of profits contributed by acquisitions in the period. Along with the interim results, chief executive Pierre Bonelli was also able to reveal the changes to Sema Group’s shareholding structure which will allow the company the freedom to bid for contracts in the United States, an opportunity which it has been denied for the last 15 years. Sema Group was deemed by the US Federal Reserve Bank to be a subsidiary of Banque Paribas, despite the French bank’s effective interest of only 20.5%, and hence Sema was prevented from bidding for non-finance related work in the US. The removal of a spurious intermediary holding company, Financiere Sema, has allowed Sema Group to plan its long hoped for US campaign. We have only just gained our freedom in the US, and so the strategy is not in place yet, said Bonelli. But in what we do, the US represents half of the world market. If you play only in your own half, you cannot score many goals. Bonelli hinted that if less than 10% of Sema’s income derived from the US within the next four years, he would be very disappointed. The focus of Sema’s activities is also shifting in technical terms, towards the telecoms industry and away from defense and energy where the group built its reputation. The latter will not be de-emphasized, but for example, of the 11m pounds Sema spent on R&D in the first half, 4.7m pounds went on telecommunications (up from 1.7m pounds in 1996) with just 1.9m pounds spent on defense. Telecoms related income has climbed from 12% to over 17% of group revenue and Sema will rely on its expertise in billing systems and intelligent network services to continue this trend. The interim dividend has risen 22% to 2.8 pence.
