Computacenter profits slip

NEWS Computacenter, distributor for companies including Sun and Compaq, has seen its profits shrink on growing revenues. Pre-tax profit before other items was £51.1m for 2001, down from £55.6m in the previous year. But after charges of £16.23m relating to the sell-off of its loss-making operations pre-tax profit was down to £36.63m from £57.95m. This was on revenue that was up 5.3 per cent to £2.09bn. During early morning trading it lost 2.8 per cent from its share value, down to 347p. This compares with a 52-week low of 157p last October. The company said it remains cautious about its trading outlook for 2002.