Softcat (LSE:SCT) has confirmed a strong financial performance, which it highlighted as significantly beating the original expectations for the year.
In financial results released on Wednesday, Softcat reported gross invoiced income of £4.72 billion for the year ended 31 July, up 30.5% on the £3.62 billion recorded a year earlier.
The London-listed IT infrastructure reseller and services provider, which supplies hardware, software and managed services to corporate and public sector customers across the UK and Ireland, said gross profit rose 24.7% to £616.3 million, with underlying operating profit up 19.4% to £215.1 million.
Statutory operating profit climbed 13.6% to £196.4 million, after £18.7 million of non-underlying costs, mainly tied to investment in a new sales system.
Underlying basic earnings per share rose 19.7% to 83.2p, while statutory basic earnings per share increased 13.8% to 75.8p.
Growth was broad-based across customer segments and technology areas, with particularly strong performance in the corporate business, led by double-digit growth in both small and medium and enterprise customers, alongside high single-digit growth in public sector.
The customer base grew 3.4% to 10,500, while gross profit per customer rose 20.6% to £58,500, reflecting increased spend from existing customers across the technology portfolio.
Underlying cash conversion came in at 93.6%, down from 95.6% a year earlier, with closing net cash of £199.9 million, up from £182.3 million.
The board declared a final ordinary dividend of 21.6p, taking the total ordinary dividend for the year to 31.5p, up 7.5% on the prior year.
Softcat also completed a £45 million share buyback in February, its first, bringing total cash returned to shareholders in the year to £137.5 million.
"Growth in gross profit and underlying operating profit came in significantly ahead of our expectations at the start of the year, reflecting the strength of our culture, the quality of our customer relationships and the benefits of the sustained investment we have made over many years," chief executive Graham Charlton said.
Charlton said memory chip supply constraints had "added complexity to pricing, availability and planning," while customers remained disciplined but continued to spend on technology.
The company flagged that some customer orders were pulled forward during the year because of memory shortages, which contributed to growth alongside previously disclosed larger solutions projects and a positive vendor rebate contribution.
Post year-end, Softcat announced the $1.05 billion (£785 million) acquisition of GDT, a US-based multi-vendor IT solutions provider, which it said would strengthen its capability to serve customers with international requirements and provide a platform for long-term growth alongside its UK and Ireland business.
The deal is expected to complete by the end of the first quarter of calendar year 2027, funded through cash, new debt facilities and £346 million in proceeds from a new share issuance.
Excluding any contribution from GDT, the board said it expects high single-digit underlying operating profit growth in the 2027 financial year, slightly ahead of gross profit growth, following what it described as very strong two-year growth across the 2025 and 2026 financial years.