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Paris - French computer services group Atos on Wednesday reported a record net profit for last year and said it would float its electronic payments unit Worldline on the stock market.
Atos reported a net profit of €262m ($360.4m) for the year, an increase of 17.0% from the 2012 level, from sales which slipped by 0.9% to €8.6bn.
At the end of last year, Atos employed 76 320 people throughout the world, and during the year it recruited 10 806 people, of whom 62.0% were in emerging markets.
Atos said that its operating margin rose sharply to €645m, an increase of €78.3m and amounting to 7.5% of sales.
Under a plan for 2014-2016, it intends to increase the operating margin annually by 1.0 to 2.0 percentage points from the 2013 level and to raise sales annually by 2.0-3.0%.
The company said it intended to buy back shares worth €230m, having spent €116m on buying its own shares last year.
The board recommended a 17.0% increase in the dividend payout to shareholders to €0.70 per share.
This year it said it intended to raise the operating margin to 7.5-8.0% of sales.
It would also obtain a stock quotation for and float Worldline with the intention of making it one of the leaders in Europe for electronic payments. This subsidiary has 7 000 employees and is active in 18 countries.
In 2013, Worldline achieved sales of €1.11bn, an increase of 4.8% in the year with an operating margin of 15.0%.
