Good Progress in 2011 in Sales Momentum and Operating Profitability

From this point onwards, Bull will be presenting profit contributions by Business Line, in line with the Group's new management structure. Certain functional and cross-divisional costs - relating among other things to the commercial management of key accounts and international organization - have not been allocated to the BLs because of their shared nature, designed to encourage synergies. Group EBIT corresponds to the sum of the profit contributions from the BLs afterwards functional and cross-divisional costs have been taken into account.

External order intake grew strongly, by 18%, to ?65.5 million, boosted by numerous successes in France and internationally. External earnings for the year were ?63.8 million, up by 8% thanks to the continued good performance of the proprietary server business, as so then as the growth of the Extreme Computing offering. This BL is responsible for the design and assembly of these products, including the delivery of two Petascale supercomputers on two continents in December 2011. The book-to-bill ratio was 1.03 for the period. Profit contributions for this BL were ?20.8 million, representing a fall in both amount and rate compared with 2010 due to the effect of increased R&D expenses.

Order intake for this BL fell by 3.7% compared with 2010, to represent 97% of earnings this year. This fall is explained by the delay in signing a number of significant orders - which have already been finalized in January 2012. Earnings for the year were ?813.6 million, up 5.7%. This increase is due in some cases to the momentum in key offerings just as Extreme Computing. The BL's secure storage offering was furthermore strengthened at the outset of the year with the acquisition of the Egyptian leader in storage solutions, during infrastructure services as well contributed to growth. Computing Solutions recorded a ?64.5 million profit contribution, representing 7.9% of earnings, an increase compared with 2010 both in volume and rate.

Order intake in this BL was in the extreme strong, growing by 5.3% to ?337.1 million. Earnings for the period were ?312.9 million, up by 3.2%. This growth was mainly supported by the BL's activities in France, Latin America and Poland. The book-to-bill ratio was 1.08 for the period. Contribution to profit grew to ?9.8 million. Operating profits increased by 0.8 points to 3.1% of earnings, thanks in particular to better resource utilization.

Order intake grew by 4.7% this year to reach ?123.5 million. This growth is due to resurgence in commercial activities in the second half of the year, especially in Q4. Earnings remained stable in 2011 compared with 2010 and grew strongly in the last quarter of the year. Profit contribution from this BL declined both in amount and rate to ?2.5 million, afterwards taking into account a charge of ?3.4 million in respect of PPA. Security offerings - where the already protracted decision-making cycles have become even longer - require furthermore commercial investment. This applies to the BL's hi-tech offerings in the defense sector, which require a sustained commitment over the medium term. The partial depreciation of goodwill reflects this situation.

EBIT for the year was ?43.7 million, an increase of 23.1% compared with 2010. This improvement is the result of the momentum generated by BullWay, and comes both from the improved contributions from the Business Lines and the lower functional and cross-divisional costs. EBIT as well includes R&D expenses, as then as sales and administrative costs:

Having taken on 1,000 new people worldwide in 2011, the Bull Group is planning to continue its recruitment program in 2012 to support its customer projects. Of the 500 new hires planned for France, half will be in the Paris region and half outside the capital, mainly in South Eastern France where the Group is experiencing strong growth, with the opening of two new Services Centers focused on Business Intelligence.

Their direct liquid-cooled innovation is revolutionary. Because they are designed to use water at room temperature for cooling, they deliver improvements of around 40% in energy performance compared with traditional data centers, while however being such as easy to maintain as standard air-cooled servers.

The data center

The data center, which extends to over 3,200m2, is dedicated to Bull's outsourcing activities for mission-critical applications. It features the latest innovations and practices in terms of energy efficiency and sustainable development, and addresses the key concerns of businesses wanting to effectively combine performance, corporate social responsibility and security. The data center hosts mon.service-public.fr - the French government public services portal - as then as other sensitive applications requiring an in the extreme high level of security. It is as well one of the main data centers supporting Bull's Cloud computing offerings.

Bull's approach confronts the four key challenges that the cloud poses to business - strategy, future proofing, sovereignty and security.

1. The enterprise cloud: Bull has created 'Advisory Services for Cloud', a consultancy and change management-led methodology to support the transition to the cloud 2. The agile cloud: Bull is unveiling an innovative, turnkey cloud computing platform, bullion cloud Platform, and enhancing its server families as then as its StoreWay storage systems with all the functionalities needed for the cloud 3. The secure cloud: Bull delivers an end-to-end response to this critical challenge by launching a comprehensive cloud security offering 4. The managed cloud: Bull is launching two offerings aimed at organizations wanting to implement hosted private clouds and offers innovative public cloud solutions for HPC and e-business.

The Bull SAP BI Services Delivery Center in the Rhône-Alpes region is the centerpiece of the resources Bull Business Integration Solutions is putting in place, as part of the BullWay plan, focused on industrialization and specialization. The center is designed to support all Bull clients and it offeres optimized production capabilities when it comes to the development and maintenance of Business Intelligence information systems. Staffed mainly by experienced consultants, the SAP BI Services Center will as well be recruiting a number of young graduates, who will find that it provides a business platform that guarantees them rapid skill development, better employability, and the chance to work on ambitious and innovative projects in a flagship environment.

Shadow is designed for armed forces and is evenly well suited to meeting homeland security requirements. It not only protects passengers, vehicles and critical areas against remote-controlled explosive devices, nevertheless can as well be used to identify enemy communications and monitor radio signals.

'intelligent' signal jammer

With Shadow - an 'intelligent' signal jammer, based on technology in other words unique in the world, designed to intercept, jam and neutralize RCIEDs - Bull is furthermore strengthening its leadership in security. Compared with traditional systems, its adaptability considerably reduces operators' and vehicle passengers' exposure radiation; which makes the system especially so then suited to intensive use.

Operating margin: For each Business Line, corresponds to the profit previously tax, other operating income or expenses, other financial income or expenses, proportional share of the results of associated companies, and allocation of functional and cross-divisional costs.

Information Innovation company

Bull is an Information Innovation company, dedicated to helping Corporations and Public Sector organizations optimize the architecture, operations and the financial return of their Information Systems and their mission-critical related business processes.

The geographic split of consolidated earnings has changed slightly since 2010. Growth in high-potential international markets, just as South America, as so then as the business gained as a result of the acquisition finalized in Egypt, explains the increase in the proportion of earnings recorded outside Europe.