Pliezhausen, 22 February 2022. DATAGROUP SE (WKN A0JC8S) posts record results in the first quarter of FY 2021/2022. Good order intake, additional business with existing customers and successful integration of last year’s acquisitions lead to significant improvement in revenue, earnings and margins.

In the first quarter of the fiscal year (01.10.- 31.12.2021) revenue grew by 13.4 % to EUR 123.2m (previous year EUR 108.6m). The increase in revenue was driven by the expansion of the customer base as well as by upselling among existing customers. Growth was also supported by the first-time full consolidation of Urano Informationssysteme GmbH and dna Gesellschaft für IT Services mbH (now DATAGROUP BIT Oldenburg GmbH), which were acquired in the last fiscal year. Organic growth over the last 12 months was 5.6%, in line with the Executive Board’s expectations.

Operating earnings before taxes, interest, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased by 29.4 % to EUR 19.2m (PY EUR 14.8m). The EBITDA margin grew from 13.7 % to 15.6 %. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) improved by 59.1 % to EUR 10.4m (PY EUR 6.6m), the EBIT margin increased significantly from 6.0 % to 8.5 % and thus is further approaching management’s long-term ambition of 9 %.

Investments in property, plant and equipment and intangible assets (CAPEX) had increased significantly in the past years, especially due to the centralisation of our production. Already in the 2020/2021 business year, these could be halved from around 22m EUR to approx. 11m EUR after completion of this measure and are now again in a reasonable relationship to the development of turnover. Earnings per share were 76 cents compared to 41 cents in the previous year, corresponding to an increase by 84.7 %.

“We are looking to the further course of this fiscal year with great confidence”, Max H.-H. Schaber sums up “The last two years have provided massive impetus for digitization, from which DATAGROUP will benefit sustainably as the engine room of digitization. We also see continuing strong demand for AI-based services and the development of software robots, for example for automation of back-office processes, a service provided by our subsidiary Almato”, Schaber continues.

Acquisitions have also developed positively in the last fiscal year: Urano, which was acquired in May 2021, has shown an outstanding performance within the group of companies and makes positive contributions to the comprehensive income of DATAGROUP. dna Gesellschaft für IT Services mbH (now DATAGROUP BIT Oldenburg GmbH), which was acquired in April 2021, has also proven to be a fortunate purchase. The unit was allocated to the financial services sector and excellently complements the existing portfolio of DATAGROUP’s BIT companies.

CORBOX Ensures Stable Order Intake

In the first quarter of FY 2021/2022, DATAGROUP has acquired 6 new customers and was able to upsell products to 10 existing customers on the basis of the CORBOX. This has led to 18 contract renewals. CORBOX is a modular and combinable suite of IT services covering all areas of IT operations in companies. Thanks to standardization and highest quality standards, DATAGROUP makes IT simple for its customers. Overall, more than 80 % of gross margin are generated by long-term contracts with terms of between three and seven years. This ensures planning certainty and sustainability for the business.

Traditionally, an outlook for the fiscal year will be provided at the Annual General Meeting which this year will be hosted on 10 March. Shareholders can only participate virtually due to the pandemic. For comprehensive information on the Annual General Meeting please visit www.datagroup.de/en/annual-general-meeting.

DATAGROUP offers a conference on the quarterly figures with the Management Board. This will take place on 22 February 2022, at 11:00 am. You can register for the conference under the following link: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/8685991645446236171. We will provide a recording of the webcast afterwards.

02.-04.03.2022

Virtual Roadshow Berenberg Bank

10.03.2022

Annual General Meeting

30.03.2022

Pareto Securities, TechIT Conference

11.-13.05.2022

HAIB Stockpicker Summit, Berlin

19.05.2022

Stifel SMID Cap Forum, Frankfurt

23.-25.05.2022

Spring Conference, Frankfurt

Berenberg Conference USA 2022, Tarrytown

24.05.2022

Publication of Q2 and H1 Results

01.-02.06.2022

Quirin Champions Conference

22.-23.06.

Stifel 2022 International Technology Conference, New York

23.08.2022

Publication of Q3 Results

17.-18.10.2022

CF&B European Midcap Event, Paris

22.11.2022

Publication of Preliminary Full-Year Results