Despite lower productivity, ICT sees gains

In the face of a struggling global economy, ICT Group has managed a solid result for Q1 2020. The Barendrecht-based software solutions specialists revealed it took in 41.6 million euros in the first quarter, a rise of 6 percent compared to the same quarter last year. However, even with these gains in revenue, the company’s take didn’t fare so well as earnings before interest and taxes slumped about 7 percent.

With this backdrop, ICT is bracing itself for uncertainty and challenges brought on by the current corona climate. “Obviously, COVID-19 is having an unprecedented impact on economic activities since mid-February. The impact on the performance of ICT was still rather limited in the first quarter of 2020. Around 95 percent of our activities for our clients can be done remotely,” says ICT CEO Jos Blejie. “Nevertheless we anticipate that the impact will deepen the longer the lockdown measures continue.” Going on to say, ”Therefore we expect that it will become more challenging to sustain performance levels at the level of the first quarter. Particularly secondment services will be affected. Our projects in R&D engineering and vital infrastructures are less sensitive to a sudden economic downturn, but might follow suit if the economic uncertainty persists.”