NNIT A/S: 1/2018 Financial report 2017 and Annual General Meeting 2018

Financial report 2017 and Annual General Meeting 2018

Full year revenue growth of 4.6% and an operating profit margin of 9.6% after a strong Q4 2017 with operating profit margin of 13.9%

Performance highlights for full year 2017
         

• Revenue increased by 4.6% in reported currencies. Excluding a one-off settlement with a customer in the public customer group revenue increased by 5.5%
   
• The share of NNIT's revenue from customers outside the Novo Nordisk Group in 2017 was 57.3% compared to 55.2% in 2016
   
• Operating profit margin was 9.6% in reported currencies compared to 10.6% in 2016. Excluding impact of the settlement operating profit margin was 10.4%
   
• Net profit of DKK 216m which is an increase of 0.4% compared to 2016. Excluding the impact of settlement (DKK 26m) net profit was DKK 237 which was an increase of 9.8%
   
• Free cash flow for 2017 was DKK -90m being impacted negatively by the acquisition of SCALES and investment in a new data center. Adjusted for these the underlying free cash flow for 2017 was at the same level as in 2016
   
• The construction of the new tier III data center was finished on time and on budget
   
• Order backlog for 2018 at the beginning of Q1 2018 was DKK 2,213m, an increase of 4.0% compared to the same time last year
   
• Outlook for 2018 is:
  • Revenue growth of 4-7% in constant currencies
  • Expected operating profit margin of 10-10.5% in constant currencies
  • The expected level of investments in 2018 is 6-8% of total revenue
     
• The Board of Directors proposes to increase the dividend payments to DKK 2.30 per share corresponding to DKK 104.7m which includes the interim dividend for 2017 (DKK 48.7m) paid in August 2017. This corresponds to a pay-out ratio of net profit of 48% compared to 47% in 2016

  
Per Kogut, CEO at NNIT says about the financial statement: "Following a challenging third quarter I am very pleased that we closed 2017 on a good note with high operating profits in the fourth quarter. I am particularly pleased that our strong underlying cash flow allows us to propose an increased dividend including interim dividend to a total of DKK 4.30 per share in a year where we build a new data center and acquired SCALES."

Conference call details
NNIT will host a teleconference January 25, 2018 at 10:30 CET about the financial report for 2017. Please visit the NNIT webpage at www.nnit.com to access the teleconference, which can be found under 'Investors - Events & presentations'. Presentation material will be available on the website approximately one hour prior to the start of the presentation.

Conference call details
Webcast link: https://nnit.eventcdn.net/annualreport2017

Annual General Meeting
The Annual General Meeting of NNIT A/S will be held on Thursday March 8, 2018 at 2 pm at the NNIT head office, Oestmarken 3A, 2860 Soeborg, Denmark.

The Board of Directors intends to propose re-election of Anne Broeng, Carsten Dilling, Peter Haahr and Eivind Kolding, and election of Caroline Serfass and Christian Kanstrup as new members of the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors also intends to propose re-election of Carsten Dilling as Chairman and re-election of Peter Haahr as Deputy Chairman.

The Board of Directors intends to propose re-election of PricewaterhouseCoopers Statsautoriseret Revisionspartnerselskab as the Company's auditor.

Further, the Board of Directors also intends to propose to extend the period of the authorization to increase the Company's share capital without pre-emption rights for the Company's existing shareholders from 30 April 2018 to 30 April 2021.

Finally, the Board of Directors intends to propose an extension of the period of the authorization for the Board of Directors to increase the Company's share capital in connection with the issue of new shares for the benefit of the Company's employees and/or employees of its subsidiaries from 30 April 2018 to 30 April 2021.

Proposed dividend
Due to the strong underlying cash flow generation, the Board of Directors intends to propose to the shareholders at the annual general meeting that dividends of DKK 2.30 per share be distributed for the financial year 2017. Including the interim dividend of DKK 2.00 per share in August 2017 this brings the total dividend for the financial year 2017 to DKK 4.30 per share (2016 DKK 4.20 per share), equal to a dividend pay-out of 48% of the 2017 net results.

Share-based incentive program
NNIT will in January 2018 introduce a new Retention Program for the six members of NNIT's Group Management as a replacement for the launch incentive program (LIP) from NNIT's initial public offering. The program was approved at the Annual General Meeting in March 2017. The program is in structure based on a similar approach as the LIP and consists of a self-investment part equivalent to 8 months' fixed base salary plus employer paid pension contribution for each participant. Subject to performance targets NNIT will grant two restricted stock units (RSUs) to each participant per self-invested share. The self-invested shares will be subject to a lock-up restriction and cannot be sold earlier than three years from the date of grant. The RSUs granted to the participants will after the expiry of the lock-up period vest and simultaneously be converted into shares on the first day in the first open trading window in 2021, subject to fulfilment of performance criteria related to annual growth in sales (measured as average growth in sales in DKK) and operating margin (measured as average operating margin) measured on Group level. The performance criteria are weighted 50/50. The Retention Program will be treated as an equity-settled share-based incentive program and expensed over the three-year vesting period based on the market price at grant date. The maximum total number of RSUs granted by NNIT is 111,976 which corresponds to an estimated cost of DKK 20 million.

Contacts for further information
Investor relations:
Jesper Vesterbæk Wagener
Head of Investor Relations
Tel: +45 3075 5392
jvwa@nnit.com

Media:
Helga Heyn
NNIT Communications
Tel: +45 3077 8141
hhey@nnit.com

About NNIT
NNIT A/S is one of Denmark's leading IT service providers and consultancies. NNIT A/S offers a wide range of IT services and solutions to its customers, primarily in the life sciences sector in Denmark and internationally and to customers in the public, enterprise and finance sectors in Denmark. As of December 31, 2017 NNIT A/S had 3,030 employees. For more information please visit www.nnit.com.