London and Johannesburg-listed IT group Datatec’s shares fell 5% today after it issued a surprise profits warning.
It said its networks business Westcon had traded weaker than expected in the third quarter. Datatec blamed everything from weak conditions across Europe, business disruption in North America due to Hurricane Sandy and lower than expected United States Federal spending in the second half of the year.
The firm said demand for its consulting services division had weakened in the second half.
Logicalis, the original UK business supplying manged IT services, “continues to trade strongly”, according to Datatec.
It expects full year revenues of between $5 billion (£3.1 billion) and $5.8 billion for the year to next February and post-tax profits to be around $104 million, down from $138 million last year. Its shares fell 18.25p to 376.25p.
