CGI Group Q3 profit rises - update

(RTTNews) - Tuesday, CGI Group Inc. (GIB, GIB.A.TO), a Canadian IT and business process services company, reported a 21% rise in its third-quarter net earnings, helped by a 6.5% revenue growth on a constant currency basis. On a continuing operations basis, the company's earnings were up 27.7%.

Third-quarter net income was C$77.9 million, or C$0.24 per share, compared with C$64.43 million, or C$0.19 per share, a year ago.

On July 21, the company had announced the divestiture of a Canadian business process unit providing claims adjustment and risk management services to the Canadian property and casualty, or P&C, insurance industry. The company has reclassified this unit as discontinued operations and expects the transaction to close in early August 2008. The third-quarter results included a net impairment of $3 million related to the transaction.

On a continuing operations basis, net earnings rose 27.7% to C$81.68 million from $63.97 million in the prior-year quarter. Earnings per share from continuing operations were C$0.25, in comparison with C$0.19 last year.

Third-quarter net earnings from continuing operations included $10.8 million, which was previously provisioned for income taxes and is no longer required. Excluding this, earnings per share from continuing operations were C$0.22 for the quarter. CGI Group also posted quarterly revenues of C$950.47 million, up from C$914.02 million in the comparable period a year ago. On a constant currency basis, the revenue growth was 6.5%. Foreign exchange fluctuations negatively impacted the revenue by 2.5% or $23.3 million.

During the quarter, the company booked $1.01 billion in new contract wins, extensions and renewals, resulting in a book-to-bill of 104%. Backlog at the end of the third quarter stood at $12.03 billion or 3.1 times annual revenue.

For the nine months ended June 30, 2008, the company earned C$219.27 million, or C$0.67 per share, compared with C$170.83 million, or C$0.51 per share, in the previous year. Revenue rose to C$2.78 billion from C$2.73 billion in the prior-year period.

Among others in the sector, consulting and outsourcing company Accenture Ltd. (ACN | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating), on June 26, has reported higher earnings for the third quarter, helped by revenue growth and higher operating margin.

On July 28, Electronic Data Systems Corp. (EDS | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating) reported a 16% rise in its second-quarter profit, driven by a 3.1% increase in top line and cost control.

GIB closed Monday's trading at US$10.22 on the NYSE, down C$0.11, on a volume of 147,900 shares. On the Toronto stock exchange, GIB.A.TO ended yesterday's trading at C$19.33.

For comments and feedback: contact editorial@rttnews.com Copyright(c) 2008 RealTimeTraders.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved

More News:   Market Updates | Stock Alerts | All Trading News | Stock Index