Pliezhausen, 23 May 2023. DATAGROUP SE (WKN A0JC8S) today publishes results for the first half of FY 2022/2023 (01.10.2022 – 31.03.2023). The first half of the fiscal year generated very good results, above all concerning the further increase in profitability. Furthermore, the provision of additional financial resources and the securing of credit lines laid the foundation for future inorganic growth.

Revenues increased from EUR 247.6m to EUR 251.0m (+1.4 %). Earnings developed very positively in the first half of the year: Operating earnings before taxes, interest, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) improved by 5.4 % to EUR 39.4m (PY EUR 37.4m). The EBITDA margin showed a further improvement, growing from 15.1 % to 15.7 %. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) improved by 14.0 % to EUR 22.8m (PY EUR 20.0m). The EBIT margin increased significantly from 8.1 % to 9.1 % and exceeded management’s mid-term ambition of 9 %. The rise in investments in property, plant and equipment and in intangible assets (CAPEX) from EUR 3.4m in the prior-year period to EUR 7.6m was mainly driven by the planned and almost finalized conversion and expansion of the data center infrastructure based on an increase in business volume. Earnings per share were 174 cents compared to 145 cents in the previous year, an increase of 19.7 %. Cash flow from operating activities also remained at a very high level of EUR 28.4m. Despite the payment of dividends for the fiscal year 2021/2022 in March 2023, net debt was reduced from 1.43 to 1.36 of EBITDA compared to 30 September 2022.

Cost increases triggered by inflation have been more than compensated for through systematic measures, even under difficult general conditions. For instance, services provided by third parties have increasingly been undertaken by our own staff in the past six months. Revenues increased, although the one-off business with Covid-19 vaccination centers, which was still up and running in the prior-year period, had come to an end while simultaneously some of our companies were transformed towards the CORBOX business as planned. The latter often involves a change from low-margin to higher-margin revenues and leads to temporary foregone revenue. The successful overcompensation of these effects was based on the acquisition of new CORBOX contracts and on upselling.

These CORBOX contracts range from full IT outsourcing, which includes the management of the entire IT infrastructure of a customer, to individual IT services such as managed & private cloud services, public cloud services and end user services to SAP hosting. For instance, the contract with NBank, the investment and business promotion bank of the federal state of Lower Saxony, was extended. The main focus of activities was the provision of data center services, e.g. hosting and operation of the SAP core systems as well as the data warehouse. This is now complemented by other services from the modular CORBOX portfolio in the areas of service desk, security, database services and network.

DATAGROUP expects the positive order trend to continue, as the company has already signed additional new contracts with a volume of some EUR 30m at the beginning of the second half of the year.

“Our very good half-year results and the strong order intake re-confirm the resilience and profitability of DATAGROUP’s business model and underline our clear confidence that we will meet our guidance. Our CORBOX service portfolio is high in demand for its flexibility on the one hand and its wide range of IT outsourcing services on the other hand. Long-term contracts with our customers guarantee a reliable business development”, says Andreas Baresel, Chief Executive Officer of DATAGROUP. “Many customers benefit from our comprehensive know-how, as they can extend existing contracts by additional services again and again, whenever their requirements evolve over time. This means we can ensure that their IT basic operations are implemented professionally on the one hand, but also score when it comes to current challenges such as cloud services, cyber security, or automation solutions.”

With the acquisition of systemzwo GmbH, an Ulm-based system house, after the end of the reporting period, DATAGROUP continues to focus on its path of inorganic growth. The growth strategy is supported on a sustainable basis by financial resources and credit lines which were secured in a recently completed financing round with several banks.

systemzwo is the 30th acquisition of DATAGROUP since the IPO in 2006. systemzwo GmbH was founded in 2007 and supports Mittelstand companies in Ulm and its surrounding area with a current headcount of 38 employees. The company generated revenue of almost EUR 13m in the last fiscal year and will be consolidated in the DATAGROUP Group with effect from 1 April 2023. The customer portfolio of systemzwo is a substantial addition to the existing client base of DATAGOUP in this region. With it, the IT service provider continues to expand its regional footprint in Ulm.

Furthermore, DATAGROUP has increased its stake in URANO Informationssysteme GmbH from 70 % to 100 % with effect from 3 April 2023. The first stake in the Bad Kreuznach-based IT service provider was acquired in May 2021. At that time, the agreement included an option to buy the remaining 30 % of the shares in two years’ time. This step marks the end of the two-year transition phase.

The interim consolidated financial statements are available for download under datagroup.de/publications.

DATAGROUP will host a conference call on the half-year results with the management. It is scheduled for 23 May 2023, at 10:00 AM (CET). You can register for the conference call under the following link: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/8169162917219523925. A recording of the webcast will be provided after the event.

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