Overseas sales help HP avoid sub-prime crisis

Hurd: Sales stem from areas outside North America

HP’s profit for the second quarter of the 2008 financial year grew 22 per cent to $2.6bn (£1.3bn) compared with that period in 2007, with the company recording record cashflow from operations of $4.8bn (£2.4bn).

Revenue was up 11 per cent to $28.3bn (£14.4bn), indicating that like IBM, HP has avoided much of the fallout from the US sub-prime mortgage crisis that has affected other technology companies selling mainly to North America.

HP chairman and chief executive Mark Hurd said that 70 per cent of the firm’s revenue came from outside the US, particularly emerging economies. Revenue from Europe, the Middle East and Asia rose 16 per cent to $11.1bn (£5.6bn) year on year.

The personal systems group led HP’s success, with sales up 16 per cent year on year to $10.1bn (£5.1bn), and shipments up 21 per cent. The imaging and printing group made $7.6bn (£3.9bn), up six per cent on the second quarter of 2007, with enterprise storage and servers, up four per cent year on year.

The services division, which includes outsourcing, consulting and integration, saw revenue rise 12 per cent to $4.6bn (£2.3bn), with operating profit up 11 per cent to $508m (£258m). HP’s $13.8bn (£7bn) acquisition of outsourcing company EDS will expand HP’s services portfolio and help it compete with IBM, according to Hurd.

HP software revenue rose 28 per cent to $727m (£370m), with operating profit up to $93m (£47m) from $7m (£3.6m) the year before, mainly because of the firm’s acquisition of business technology optimisation specialist Mercury Interactive in 2006.