AGM agrees on 50% higher payout per share
Guidance for FY 2017/2018 published

Pliezhausen, March 8, 2018. DATAGROUP SE (WKN A0JC8S) today held its Annual General Meeting at the company’s headquarters near Stuttgart. With about 69% of the share capital being represented, all items on the agenda were approved with a majority. Following the record results of fiscal year 2016/2017 the shareholders decided to significantly increase the dividend. The management has given a positive guidance for the current fiscal year as well: revenue is expected to grow to more than EUR 265m, EBITDA should exceed EUR 30m.

The Annual General Meeting of DATAGROUP SE decided to raise the dividend from 30 to 45 cents per share. In total, the company will distribute EUR 3.75m to its shareholders, corresponding to some 26% of the net profit of EUR 14.68m. The remaining amount of EUR 10.93m will be carried forward to new account. In FY 2016/2017, DATAGROUP again reached a new all-time-high with revenue of EUR 223.1m and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of EUR 27.0m, and in each case exceeded the upper end of its guidance, which was increased twice over the course of the year.

“By raising the dividend by 50% the shareholders of DATAGROUP will participate in the strong increase in earnings and cash flow”, said DATAGROUP CEO Max H.-H. Schaber at the Meeting. “This means that they will benefit twice from the strong operating performance, which has already been reflected in a share price increase of 109% in the year under review.” At the same time, the moderate payout ratio of 26% takes into account the requirements for equity ratio and liquidity of such a dynamically growing company. “We are thus prepared at any time to seize opportunities that lie before us”, said Schaber.

The first four months of FY 2017/2018 were satisfying. During this period, DATAGROUP increased revenue by 22% to EUR 87.4m (previous year EUR 71.6m). EBITDA grew disproportionately by 41% to EUR 9.8m (EUR 6.9m).

The management has announced to continue the dynamic growth in the current fiscal year, expecting revenue to increase to more than EUR 265m. EBITDA, the most important key performance indicator of operating profitability, is to grow to over EUR 30m. DATAGROUP is still focused on three pillars, as COO Dirk Peters affirmed to the shareholders: “Our goals are to acquire additional new outsourcing customers, transform our existing customers into CORBOX customers with a procurement of services as broad as possible, and generate inorganic growth through strategic acquisitions.” In the first five months of FY 2017/2018, 17 new CORBOX contracts have already been signed, nine of which with new customers and eight with existing ones.

By taking over ALMATO GmbH on February 1, we have acquired a specialist for the optimisation of standard business processes through Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Real-Time Interaction Management (RTIM). Founded in 2002, the software and IT service company headquartered in Reutlingen is specialised in optimising standard business processes as a value-added reseller. ALMATO is one of the pioneers in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Real-Time Interaction Management (RTIM) in the field of full and partial automation in Germany. The company’s customers are national and international companies from the fields of telecommunications, utilities, finances, retail, industry and tourism, for which services quality and customer satisfaction are important strategic factors. ALMATO focuses on standard software products that are introduced in line with customer needs and adjusted to accommodate individual preferences. „The service portfolio of ALMATO GmbH is a perfect fit to the CORBOX service portfolio. In the future, we will also be able to support our customers in automating their digital business processes. We have identified many application areas in our own house as well, where fully automated processes for administrative activities would reduce an employee’s workload, improve the quality and reduce costs”, said DATAGROUP CEO Max H.-H. Schaber

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