DATAGROUP Publishes 2019/2020 Annual Financial Statements – Good Start to the New Fiscal Year

Good start to the new fiscal year – Progress in restructuring of DATAGROUP Financial IT Services

Pliezhausen, January 20, 2021. DATAGROUP SE (WKN A0JC8S) today publishes annual financial statements for FY 2020/2021. The Group has recorded impressive sales growth in the last fiscal year. Earnings figures were affected by delayed start-ups in the banking sector and significantly higher expenses for the boarding of new bank customers. A recognizable improvement of financial ratios, as already seen in the fourth quarter, has continued at the beginning of the new fiscal year.

In fiscal year 2019/2020 (01.10.2019 – 30.09.2020) revenue increased by 16.8 % to EUR 358.2m (PY EUR 306.8m). The proportion of services in revenue improved significantly to 85.1 % (PY 79.1 %). Operating earnings before taxes, interest, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) and before risk provisions increased by 14.8 % to EUR 53.8m (PY EUR 46.9m), the EBITDA margin before risk provisions was 15.0 % (PY 15.3 %). Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) and before risk provisions decreased by 11.2 % to EUR 21.0m (PY EUR 23.6m). The EBIT margin before risk provisions was 5.9 % (PY 7.7 %). As a result of the risk provisions as well as high non-recurring expenses in the financial services sector, EBT deteriorated by 69.5 % to EUR 6.6m (PY EUR 21.7m). Earnings per share (EPS) were EUR 0.03 compared to EUR 1.74 in the previous year. When adjusted for risk provisions, EPS were EUR 1.47 (1). Organic growth of the fully integrated entities was approx. 2 %.

In the past fiscal year, delays and increased costs related to the start-ups of new customers in the financial services sector (DATAGROUP Financial IT Services GmbH) weighed heavily on the earnings figures. Immediate measures have been taken to cut costs and improve the earnings situation.

The complete Annual Report is available for download on the company’s website at https://www.datagroup.de/publications/.

Chief Executive Officer Max H.-H. Schaber will explain the figures of fiscal year 2019/2020 in a conference call on January 21, 2021 at 11.00 am. All interested investors, analysts, and journalists are cordially invited to participate. The invitation is made available at www.datagroup.de/financial-calendar. A recording of the conference call will be provided after the event.

Good Start to the New Fiscal Year

Despite the renewed restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic DATAGROUP had a good start to the new fiscal year. “Our business has developed extremely well over the first months of the new fiscal year. The measures taken to improve the earnings situation of DATAGROUP Financial IT Services GmbH (FIS) are beginning to show exceptionally good results”, says CEO Max H.-H. Schaber. “We have significantly improved the cost situation and the efficiency in our delivery model. This leads to results which are well above our planned key figures and gives us reason to hope that the company’s restructuring may be completed sooner than planned”, says Schaber.

“Furthermore, the excellent results of our fully integrated companies show that our business model as an IT service provider for customers with the challenging structures of a Mittelstand company is robust and sustainable even in times of this pandemic”, Schaber continues. “As the Covid restrictions could be tightened, it is not possible at present to make a well-founded forecast. However, experiences of the first lockdown give us reason to hope that an extension of the current lockdown should not hit us too hard. We have left the exceptional expenses of the past year behind and from today’s point of view we expect operating earnings to improve significantly, especially at FIS”.

Almato, which is specialized in automation with Robotic Process Automation and in mobilization of business applications, can also report a significant business recovery and a number of interesting new projects following last year’s postponement and cancellations of orders due to coronavirus.

Customer Satisfaction Continues to Grow

Early in December, DATAGROUP was ranked third in customer satisfaction and achieved top scores in customer loyalty, innovation and cloudability in the current study on IT outsourcing in Germany conducted by market research institute Whitelane and consulting company Navisco AG. This study is the most comprehensive study on IT outsourcing in Germany. “The requirements for IT service providers have increased, especially in times of coronavirus. We have been close to our customers since the onset of the pandemic and support them in partnership and at eye-level. This is rewarded by our customers with loyalty: 72% of the DATAGROUP customers say they are so satisfied that they are likely to directly negotiate with DATAGROUP instead of initiating a tender process in the event that the contract is extended”, explains Dirk Peters, Chief Sales Officer of DATAGROUP.

(1) In preparation of the annual financial statements, risk provisions of EUR 5.5m in Q2 and of EUR 6.5m in Q3 were reclassified from other expenses to risk provisions.