Softcat (SCT) investor relations material

Executive summary

• FY26 growth exceeded expectations: GII rose 30.5% to £4.72bn, gross profit 24.7% to £616.3m and underlying operating profit 19.4% to £215.1m.

• Growth reflected customer demand, infrastructure modernisation and market-share gains; more than 10,500 customers generated 20.6% higher gross profit per customer.

Financial highlights

• Revenue increased 35.4% to £1,975.1m; statutory operating profit rose 13.6% to £196.4m and profit after tax increased 13.0% to £150.3m.

• Adjusted underlying basic EPS rose 19.7% to 83.2p; basic EPS was 75.8p. The 31.5p annual ordinary dividend was up 7.5%.

• Admin expenses increased 27.7% to £401.2m, reflecting investment, commissions, headcount and one-off costs; non-underlying costs were £18.7m, including £15.6m for systems and £3.1m of Oakland-related costs.

• Gross profit/GII declined 0.6 pts to 13.1%, reflecting product mix, Microsoft EA changes and dilution from large lower-margin solutions projects.

Outlook and guidance

• Excluding GDT, FY27 underlying operating profit growth is expected in the high single digits, slightly ahead of gross profit growth; gross profit is expected to be H1-weighted.

• Operating profit is expected to be more evenly phased in FY27; non-underlying costs are forecast at ~2–2.5x FY26 levels, with lower systems-development costs and GDT acquisition and integration costs.

• FY27 absolute operating costs are expected to decline, but marginally increase excluding low-teens millions of H2 one-off costs; average headcount growth is expected to rise 1–2 percentage points.