Atos Origin warns British IT contracts to hit 2006 results

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2006

PARIS (AFP) — French IT group Atos Origin has warned that problems in the British market would weigh on its full-year results, sending its shares into a tailspin on the Paris stock market.

In mid morning trading, shares in Atos showed a loss of 17.69 percent to 36.47 euros in a slightly weaker market.

In a trading update issued Tuesday, the group said that its sales in the first half of the year had fallen 1.1 percent to 2.696 billion euros (3.379 billion dollars) compared with the equivalent period of last year.

It also announced delays to new business in the British market owing to several loss-making contracts and warned that sales growth and profit margins would be lower than expected.

Atos said that growth of sales on a comparable asset base,...