Pliezhausen, 20 February 2024. DATAGROUP SE (WKN A0JC8S) today publishes its financial figures for the first quarter of 2023/2024. The first quarter was mainly characterized by a very strong order intake of more than EUR 15m on an annual basis. Major new CORBOX customers with contract terms of 3-5 years were acquired across all sectors and industries, and CORBOX contracts were extended and expanded.
As expected, revenues of EUR 121.1m were down slightly compared to the same quarter of the previous year (EUR 126.2m). DATAGROUP expects revenue growth for FY 2023/2024 compared to the previous year. The specific outlook for the current fiscal year will traditionally be given at the Annual General Meeting, which will take place on 14 March this year.
The revenue development compared to the prior-year quarter was mainly influenced by two special effects: On the one hand, the revenue of the previous year was still under the particularly positive influence of the corona-related special economic boom, as DATAGROUP had taken over IT services for vaccination centers until the end of December 2022 and was able to increase its trading business disproportionately through digital school boards. This special effect is visible in the fact that revenue in the service business increased by 4.2 % compared to the prior-year quarter to a historically high share of 86.6 % of total revenue, whereas retail revenue declined and only accounted for 13.6 % of total revenue in the first quarter of 2023/2024. A second effect was a revenue transformation in the current fiscal year, as DATAGROUP prematurely cancelled existing contracts from earlier acquisitions, which were operated with low profitability outside the CORBOX core business, in the course of the past fiscal year.
Gross profit increased by 3.1 % to EUR 85.1m (previous year: EUR 82.5m) and again clearly shows that the focus on profitable revenues in the CORBOX core business is paying off.
“We are very pleased with the extremely strong order intake in the first quarter, which proves that our CORBOX core business with Managed IT Services is in excellent shape”, comments DATAGROUP CEO Andreas Baresel on the quarterly figures. “The demand for CORBOX IT services and for our consulting services, especially in the SAP environment, is very strong.” DATAGROUP has signed contracts for the outsourcing of IT services with companies from the energy supply and industrial sectors, among others. For example, the specialty chemicals group Evonik signed a contract for at least three years in the area of end user services. As DATAGROUP’s business model assumes an average ramp-up and implementation phase of nine months, the first revenues from the new contracts will only be generated at the end of the current FY 2023/2024 and the majority in the coming FY 2024/2025. “In addition, we are already preparing for the future and are investing heavily in artificial intelligence, cyber security and cloud technologies. These investments from a healthy and profitable position will secure our future competitiveness. We are consciously accepting short-term earnings impacts in return,” continues Baresel.
In the first quarter of 2023/2024, DATAGROUP continued to invest in the three aforementioned future topics, which had a negative impact on earnings of around EUR 1.5m. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) therefore declined to EUR 10.1m (previous year: EUR 11.5m), the EBIT margin was 8.4 %. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) reached EUR 18.5m (previous year: EUR 19.7m), with an EBITDA margin of 15.3 %. Earnings per share totaled EUR 0.73 compared to EUR 0.87 in the previous year.
An important pillar of DATAGROUP’s business strategy is inorganic growth through acquisitions. This strategy was also pursued in the first quarter of 2023/2024 with the acquisition of CONPLUS. The CONPLUS Group provides services related to SAP Business One, the SAP solution for small and medium-sized companies and has many years of management and consulting experience in this area.
“CONPLUS is a very good addition to the Hövermann Group, with whose acquisition in 2022 we entered the highly attractive SME market,” explains Andreas Baresel. “CONPLUS is mainly active in northern Germany and North Rhine-Westphalia, where it has excellent customer relationships in the SME market. By acquiring CONPLUS, we not only benefit from the expansion of our regional presence and new customers, but also gain qualified personnel and expand our technological expertise.”
In January 2024, DATAGROUP directly continued its inorganic growth path with the acquisition of the IT service provider iT TOTAL, thus completing the second acquisition in FY 2023/2024.
Total assets increased by 6.0 % compared to the end of the financial year to EUR 493.4m (30.09.2023: EUR 465.3m). The equity ratio remains very solid at 30.1 % (30.09.2023: 31.7 %). Cash and cash equivalents increased to EUR 38.0m (30.09.2023: EUR 21.9m).
Net debt was EUR 118.0m compared to EUR 112.6m at the end of the financial year on 30 September 2023. The net debt to EBITDA ratio is therefore 1.59. The cash flow trend remains very stable with a cash inflow from operating activities of EUR 12.7m (previous year: EUR 17.4m).
At the beginning of December 2023, DATAGROUP received an above-average rating in the Whitelane Research study on the IT sourcing market in Germany for the ninth time in a row. According to the study, DATAGROUP achieved a customer satisfaction rate of 77 per cent – with an average satisfaction rate of 74 per cent across all IT service providers surveyed. “We are very pleased that we once again performed so well in the Whitelane study,” says Baresel. “After all, customer satisfaction is an important strategic goal for us. The results of the study show us that we are on the right track with our consulting and IT services, which are tailored to individual customer requirements.”
CEO Andreas Baresel and CFO Oliver Thome will present the figures for the first quarter of 2023/2024 in an online conference call. This will take place today, 20 February 2024, at 10:00 am. You can find the registration details for the conference call at https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/7003658607456104288
A recording of the webcast will be made available afterwards.
Anke Banaschewski
Investor Relations
anke.banaschewski@datagroup.de
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