Market slowdown in IT investments impacting Dimension

Market slowdown in IT investments impacting Dimension The growth in the market for IT infrastructure that distinguished the early part of the year leveled off during the latter half of the second quarter. The overall economic slowdown has made clients more cautious, particularly in the telecom and banking & finance sectors. This uncertainty is reflected in postponed or revised IT projects. Development for the rest of the year is difficult to predict, with conflicting signals from both clients and market analysts. Based on projected market growth of 30 percent, Dimension's objective for the full year called for organic growth of 40-50 percent. Dimension no longer considers this market growth rate to be feasible. Based on preliminary figures, Dimension will report sales of SEK 690 million (670) for the first half of 2001, with a profit margin of about 4 to 5 percent (7,5). Profitability remains the highest priority for Dimension, at the same time that its objective is to grow faster than the market as a whole. Measures have initially been taken that will reduce costs by slightly over SEK 20 million compared with budgeted expenditures for the year. This will be achieved firstly through a cut in the pace of new recruitment and reduced spending on outside consultants. "Like many others, we are finding the market difficult to predict right now, with a great deal of cautiousness with regard to IT investments, even in expanding sectors," says Sven Uthorn, Managing Director of Dimension AB. "This resulted in a major slowdown in sales during the latter part of May as well as in June. On the positive side, however, we have noted growth in our service operations and we continue to do well in industry and the public sector. Even though it is difficult today to predict when the market will recover, we are convinced that with our leading market position as a foundation we can expect strong long-term development." At the request of the Board of Directors of Dimension AB Sven Uthorn, Managing Director For further information, please contact: Sven Uthorn, Managing Director, Dimension AB Phone +46 8 445 24 00 Mobile +46 709 31 00 03 e-mail: sven.uthorn@dimension.se Financial information schedule The interim report for January-June 2001 will be released on August 21, 2001 The interim report for January-September 2001 will be released on October 24, 2001 The year-end report for 2001 will be released on February 19, 2002 About Dimension Dimension is an IT integrator that designs and implements infrastructure to handle business-critical information. Examples include advanced server and data storage solutions for e-commerce and Internet banking systems, Internet/intranets and business systems. Clients are primarily in telecommunications, banking & finance, media and industry. The wholly owned Group subsidiary Next Nordic works with the sale of Sun systems and related products to resellers. In the last ten-year period the Dimension Group has grown organically by an annual average of 71 percent, with operating margins of 8-10 percent. In 2000 Dimension's sales amounted to SEK 1,475 million, with a profit after financial items of SEK 138 million. The Group has 270 employees in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Latvia and Lithuania. The head office is located in Bromma, Stockholm. The Dimension share is listed on the Stockholm Exchange's O-list. ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2001/07/03/20010703BIT00030/bit0002.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2001/07/03/20010703BIT00030/bit0002.pdf