Six months after BullWay – our strategic plan for 2011-2013 – rolled into action, we are seeing the first positive results, as Bull returns to growth and profitability.
Since January, the new senior management team has undertaken a fundamental reorganization of the business, designed to provide the solid foundations for its growth and to liberate our energies. And the initial results are in: the first six months of 2011 saw growth of 3.6% (with a rate of 7.4% in Q2), a performance that is partly due to a significant increase in our international business outside Europe of 18.7%. Our profitability also improved, both in terms of EBIT and net income; and we have reaffirmed our medium-term objective to achieve a growth rate 50% higher than the market as a whole and a doubling of our EBIT. The virtuous circle of growth has started to turn.
What is more, our ability to attract long-term investors has once again been realized, with investment fund FSI[1] taking a stake in Bull. As a result the fund, which holds 5% of the Group’s capital, has become the third largest long-term shareholder in the Group, after Crescendo Industries and France Telecom. Recognizing Bull’s capacity for innovation and its strategic expertise in computing power and security, this investment marks FSI’s desire to support Bull’s ambition to be a leader in mission-critical digital systems. The recent contract with EUROCONTROL, to support the management of all Europe’s air traffic in complete security, is symbolic of these vital systems, going right to the heart of Bull’s expertise and technologies.
Nowadays, technological choices are ultra-strategic, most of all when they relate to mission-critical systems. That is why it is absolutely vital to master these technologies and to make them accessible. That goes for the Cloud too; another area where we have really taken the initiative with the advent of the NumInnov project, which will give SMEs direct access to our supercomputers via the Cloud, helping to boost their ability to innovate and their competitiveness.
I hope that you have a successful return to work after the summer break, and I’d like to thank you for your continued support for Bull.
Philippe Vannier - Chairman and CEO, Bull
[1] FSI (Fond Stratégique d’Investissement) is owned 51% by the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignation and 49% by the French State.
