Logica Plc has emerged from the shadows thrown by the mergers that created SD-Scicon Plc and Sema Plc last year to bask in the light of a strong financial interim performance with pre-tax profit up 37% at UKP7.4m and turnover up 33% at UKP77.3m. Following the acquisition of Data Architects Inc, Logica now employs over […]
Logica Plc has emerged from the shadows thrown by the mergers that created SD-Scicon Plc and Sema Plc last year to bask in the light of a strong financial interim performance with pre-tax profit up 37% at UKP7.4m and turnover up 33% at UKP77.3m. Following the acquisition of Data Architects Inc, Logica now employs over 3,400 staff worldwide with 22% of its turnover now coming from its US operations. A further 21% of revenue comes from the continent with the UK accounting for 46%. Logica’s chairman, Philip Hughes, said it was the first time in the company’s history that more than half its revenue came from outside the UK. No steps have yet been taken to pursue collaboration with software houses in France and West Germany although Hughes said the company would like a stronger presence in countries like France and Spain, as well as in Japan. He added, however, that Logica had more of an international spread than virtually any other software company having a healthy presence in Australia, Hong Kong and Malaysia. The finance sector is, of course, Logica’s core business accounting for over 30% of turnover and Hughes reported that its complementary electronic funds transfer products for banks (Data Architect’s BESS and its own Fastwire) have been its best selling lines over the past six months. Nevertheless, Logica is pursuing long term business campaigns through central government procurement processes in the UK, and in its manufacturing sector throughout the world. The faltering European space programme has begun to pick up but still accounted for only 2% of Logica’s revenue in this interim period. Hughes was clearly disgusted that the government has gone into the Columbus project with only a meagre 5.5% stake, less even than Belgium. However, should British Aerospace Plc get the prime contract for the polar satellite platform then Logica will provide the necessary software. New projects involving the application of research undertaken at Logica Cambridge Ltd include a speech recognition technique for use in noisy manufacturing environments, and human-computer interfaces for air control systems for the Civil Aviation Authority. A particular success has been the development of Product Formulation Systems which, in Hughes’ words, encapsulate the folk-lore of product mixes in Expert Systems. Ten such systems have already been sold for clients in industry. Finally, Logica is celebrating its twentieth birthday by pondering that most of its growth has occurred organically giving it a coherence it feels rivals may lack. It is, however, still in the market for acquisitions.
