Pliezhausen, 20 January 2022. DATAGROUP SE (WKN: A0JC8S) today publishes its audited annual financial statements for FY 2020/2021 and fully confirms the preliminary results published in November.

DATAGROUP significantly exceeded guidance both in revenue (>EUR 440m) and EBITDA (>EUR 61m). Revenue was up 24.1 % to EUR 444.7m in FY 2020/2021. EBITDA increased from EUR 41.8m to EUR 67.3m (+60.9 %) with FY 2019/2020 being adversely affected by special effects.

“We are very happy that we have more than fulfilled our own goals and the estimates of our analysts in terms of sales and earnings in the past fiscal year. With the help of standardized services from our CORBOX portfolio we generate highly profitable sales with long-term service contracts. The long retention time of our existing customers is proof of the sustainability of the CORBOX-Service-as-a-Product approach”, comments Max H.-H. Schaber, Chief Executive Officer of DATAGROUP.

“At present, we greatly benefit from the general digitization efforts of German Mittelstand companies and public authorities”, adds Andreas Baresel, Chief Production Officer. “We are also working with urgency to further digitize our own business processes in order to be even more efficient for our customers and continue to guarantee consistently high quality”, Andreas Baresel continues.

Sales and Earnings Development

When compared to the last fiscal year, DATAGROUP’s revenues have grown at a rate of 24.1 % from EUR 358.2m to EUR 444.7m. Organic growth was 7.7 %, which is a historic all-time-high in the history of DATAGROUP. EBITDA came in at EUR 67.3m in the fiscal year compared to EUR 41.8m in the previous year (+60.9 %), EBIT improved by 223.3 % to EUR 29.1m (PY EUR 9.0m).

These record earnings are based on several pillars: The performance of DATAGROUP’s fully integrated entities such as Hamburg, Stuttgart or Cologne was extremely pleasing. New contracts from last year, for instance at DATAGROUP BIT Düsseldorf GmbH (previously DATAGROUP Financial IT Services GmbH), also contributed to organic growth. COVID-19 in particular led to positive demand effects, either directly by providing the IT infrastructure platform and the IT support for the vaccination centers in Baden-Württemberg, but also due to an increase in demand for IT services in connection with mobile working and the necessity to digitize certain business processes. Inorganic growth was driven by the first-time consolidations of URANO Informationssysteme GmbH (“URANO”) and dna Gesellschaft für IT Services mbH (“dna”, now DATAGROUP BIT Oldenburg GmbH), which were consolidated on 1 May 2021.

The Management Board of DATAGROUP will explain the results in detail at the Press Conference on 21 January at 10.00 am. You can register for the event under the following link.

Market Entry in Financial Services Sector Successfully Completed

After initial difficulties due to delayed start-ups in a couple of customer situations, DATAGROUP successfully operates the IT of various banks and financial service companies. DATAGROUP has successfully established itself as an independent provider in this segment with a sales share of some 20 %. By acquiring dna, DATAGROUP now also has a preferred partner of a central IT service provider of the savings bank association – a perfect addition to the existing activities of the DATAGROUP BIT companies. “In retrospect, the strategic decision of taking the risk to enter this market segment has proven to be absolutely right”, says Max H.-H. Schaber, CEO of DATAGROUP. “The financial services sector currently is under severe digitization pressure and, at the same time, there are only few specialized providers. DATAGROUP is increasingly perceived as a specialist for the operation of IT systems of small and mid-sized financial service providers, and we are increasingly invited to new tenders”, Schaber continues.

Good Start to the New Fiscal Year

The first weeks of the new fiscal year have already been positive. DATAGROUP continues to master its own high requirements for quality as well as the claim to be the partner of the German Mittelstand companies. The high customer satisfaction, which is a key concern of the company, is also reflected by the renewal of numerous contracts.

Details about the Annual General Meeting and Upcoming Reshuffle of the Management Board

The Annual General Meeting for FY 2020/2021 is scheduled for 10 March 2022. For the fiscal year ending 30 September 2021, the management intends to propose to the Annual General Meeting a dividend of EUR 1.00 per share.

Additionally, the reorganization of the Management Board will be effected as announced: Andreas Baresel will succeed Max H.-H. Schaber, who will retire due to his age, in his role as Chief Executive Officer and will ensure to continue the success story of DATAGROUP. Following the acquisition of Consinto in 2012, Andreas Baresel has been closely involved in the company’s successful integration and the further development of the DATAGROUP Group. Andreas Baresel has been responsible for production since his appointment to the board at the start of FY 2018/2019. He has also demonstrated his competence in dealing with the reorganization of the central production units as part of the SQUARE project amongst others.

From 1 April 2022, Dr. Sabine Laukemann will assume responsibility for human resources and organization, a new position on the board. “We want to accommodate the growing size of our company but also the ever-growing importance of qualified experts for the successful growth of the DATAGROUP”, says Max H.-H. Schaber, Chief Executive Officer of DATAGROUP.

With effect of 1 October 2021, Oliver Thome has already taken on the Finance department, for which the CEO had previously been responsible. Oliver Thome had been Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer of Controlware GmbH, a mid-market provider of Managed Services. Max H.-H. Schaber will stand for election to the Supervisory Board of DATAGROUP SE at the Annual General Meeting.  This means that the founder and Chief Executive Officer of many years will continue to support the company in the future.