DATAGROUP SE: DATAGROUP had a good start to the new fiscal year

DATAGROUP had a good start to the new fiscal year

Revenue +22 %, EBITDA +35 %
EBITDA margin reaches 10.8 %
Services share further expanded

Pliezhausen, February 28, 2018. DATAGROUP SE (WKN A0JC8S) today publishes figures for the first quarter of fiscal year 2017/2018, in which the previous year's positive development continued unabated. The company has disproportionately improved its operating earnings, not least because of a renewed expansion of the services business.

In the first quarter of the fiscal year (01.10.-31.12.2017) revenues grew 21.5 % to EUR 64.9m (previous year EUR 53.4m). The share of revenue generated with services was expanded once again, now reaching 81.8 % (81.3 %). Operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) improved disproportionately to revenue and were up 35.2 % to EUR 7.1m (EUR 5.2m); the EBITDA margin rose 9.7 % to 10.0 %. It has to be noted here that the previous period's EBITDA had already been positively impacted by one-time effects of some TEUR 500 resulting from the DXC transaction (previously HPE). Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) grew 12.1 % to EUR 3.7m (EUR 3.3m), corresponding to an EBIT margin of 5.7 % (6.2 %). Despite the capital increase, earnings per share (EPS) of 22 cents remained virtually unchanged compared to the previous year's 23 cents. The disproportionately low development of earnings after depreciation and amortisation is due to a higher depreciation of property, plant and equipment of EUR 1.3m yoy as a result of the two acquisitions made in 2017 and investments in operating and business equipment because of the takeover of 306 SAP experts from DXC.

"We are very pleased with the start to the new fiscal year. Our two strategic acquisitions of HanseCome and ikb Data - today DATAGROUP Operate IT GmbH and DATAGROUP Financial IT Services GmbH - in the previous year have fully met our expectations to date and have contributed significantly to revenue growth and an improvement of operating earnings", said DATAGROUP CEO Max H.-H. Schaber. "Even though we had already recorded a substantial surge in profitability in the previous quarter, the group's operating performance has improved again, as documented by the strong EBITDA development." The two successful providers of high-quality Cloud and outsourcing services sharpen DATAGROUP's profile as Cloud enabling platform, which is geared towards long-term customer relationships in the services business. The company's successful positioning has been confirmed again in Q1 with the extension of a contract with an existing customer from the aviation industry. The order covers the support of some 17,000 IT workplaces and mobile users around the globe and has a volume of EUR 16m with a term of three years.

Agenda 2020 consistently pursued

DATAGROUP continues its strategy of expanding the services portfolio and CORBOX by strategic acquisition in the current year as well. In January, the company acquired ALMATO GmbH, a software and IT services company specialised in optimising standard business processes as a value-added reseller. "The very profitable company is an ideal complement to the group's existing competences, while it also provides an access to an interesting portfolio of SME customers", said DATAGROUP COO Dirk Peters. With its expertise in robotic process automation (RPA) and real-time interaction management (RTIM), ALMATO is one of the pioneers in the field of full and partial automation in Germany and addresses the growth market of digitisation in industries with labour-intensive administrative processes. ALMATO has 40 employees and generated annual revenue of EUR 4m in 2016.

The company's positive operating development, which is reflected in DATAGROUP's share price development, has led to the inclusion into Deutsche Börse's new Scale 30-Index in February. The selection index tracks the performance of the 30 most liquid companies listed in the SME segment Scale. DATAGROUP has been listed on Scale from the beginning on March 17, 2017 and has already positively contributed to the index's overall performance (+30 %) with a price increase by over 60 %.

An overview of the Q1 2017/2018 key figures is available for download on www.datagroup.de/investor-relations.

Financial Calendar

March 08, 2018 General Annual Meeting at the company's headquarters in Pliezhausen

May 14, 2018 Publication of Q2 and H1 results

About DATAGROUP:
DATAGROUP is one of the leading German IT service companies. About 1,900 employees at locations across Germany design, implement, and operate IT infrastructures and business applications such as SAP. With its CORBOX product, DATAGROUP is a full-service provider, supporting over 600k global IT workplaces for medium and large enterprises. In other words:
We manage IT. The company is growing organically and through acquisitions. The acquisition strategy is particularly noted for its optimal integration of new companies. DATAGROUP is actively participating in the IT service market's consolidation process with its "buy and turn around" and its "buy and build" strategy.

Contact:
DATAGROUP SE
Claudia Erning
Wilhelm-Schickard-Str. 7
72124 Pliezhausen
Phone +49 7127 970-015
Fax +49 7127 970-033
claudia.erning@datagroup.de