Computacenter has lifted its annual profit guidance after reporting a record backlog of orders, fuelled by strong demand for AI infrastructure. Shares in the FTSE 100-listed firm jumped around 7% on Monday morning following the trading update.
Record order backlog
The technology provider said its financial performance in the third quarter exceeded expectations, with revenues from its technology sourcing arm seeing robust growth. By the end of September, the company reported a record backlog of orders valued at £12.6 billion, up from £9.3 billion at the end of June, alongside a healthy pipeline of future opportunities.
Management now expects to deliver an adjusted pre-tax profit for the year of at least £425 million, significantly above the £387 million analysts had previously forecast.
Hyperscale and neocloud demand
The improved performance has been chiefly driven by "hyperscale and neocloud" clients across North America and the UK, the firm said. This includes work delivering major infrastructure projects such as large-scale data centres and AI-powered cloud computing facilities.
Computacenter designs, sources and implements IT infrastructure for businesses worldwide, covering hardware and software components, data storage solutions and network connectivity.
Budget reallocation and supply constraints
The firm, which moved up to the FTSE 100 from the FTSE 250 in June, had previously indicated that several clients were reallocating their IT budgets towards AI-related initiatives. This has sparked heightened demand for the components needed to support such projects, while supply constraints have simultaneously driven prices upwards. Demand for components has been driven particularly hard by so-called hyperscalers – the operators of vast data centres including Amazon, Meta and Google.
