DORTMUND (dpa-AFX) - The IT service provider Adesso has posted a loss at the start of the year despite a significant increase in sales. However, earnings are expected to pick up again in the course of the year and Adesso has confirmed its forecast. Demand for the further digitization of companies is good despite the subdued economy. Nevertheless, the shares fell on Monday.

At lunchtime, the shares lost around three percent to 103.20 euros, making them one of the weakest stocks on the SDax. As a result, Adesso is also down almost four percent since the beginning of the year. The company continues to report good demand, but capacity utilization remains below average, wrote Jefferies analyst Henrik Paganetty.

The start to the year reflects the lower number of working days compared to the same period last year, commented Warburg expert Andreas Wolf. On each working day, Adesso generates a turnover of around 5 million euros, which is directly reflected in the result. In the coming quarters, however, Adesso will have one more working day available than in 2023.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) stagnated at around 17.8 million euros in the first quarter, as Adesso announced at the start of the week. This was due to two fewer working days than in the same quarter of the previous year and high investments in the IT Solutions segment. On top of this, the number of full-time employees rose disproportionately to sales, which also drove up absolute personnel costs.

The bottom line was a loss of 3.2 million euros, after Adesso had made a profit of 2 million euros in the previous year. Depreciation in connection with the expansion of the company headquarters had a negative impact, as did higher taxes.

Nevertheless, operating profit for the year as a whole is still expected to rise to between 110 and 130 million euros - partly due to more working days in the second half of the year and measures initiated at the beginning of the year to increase profitability. Adesso is still aiming for a double-digit growth rate in sales to more than 1.25 billion euros. In the first quarter, revenue rose by 15 percent to 317.1 million euros. Adesso grew much more strongly in Germany than abroad./niw/ngu/stk