Pliezhausen, 18 January 2024: DATAGROUP SE (WKN A0JC8S) today publishes the audited consolidated financial statements for FY 2022/2023 and thus confirms the preliminary FY figures already published on 21 November 2023.

At EUR 497.8m, sales were at the upper end of the guidance of EUR 485 – 500m and slightly above the previous year’s figure (previous year: EUR 494.0m), which has also been adjusted. In both financial years, a change in the accounting method for the license business led to a reduction in sales in accordance with IFRS 15 (Principal Agent).  

Gross profit increased by 3.5 % to EUR 341.2m (previous year: EUR 329.8m) and the key earnings figures also rose disproportionately: operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased by 4.9 % to EUR 80.2m (previous year: EUR 76.5m), exceeding the guidance of EUR 76 – 80m. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) increased disproportionately thanks to efficiency measures and the focus on profitable contracts and were up 9.3 % on the previous year at EUR 45.3m (previous year: EUR 41.5m, guidance EUR 45 – 48m) despite investments of around EUR 1m in the future topic of artificial intelligence in the fourth quarter of 2022/2023, which had an impact on earnings. The EBIT margin reached 9.1 % (+0.7 percentage points compared to 8.4 % in the previous year) and was therefore above the medium-term target of 9 %. Net profit rose significantly to EUR 28.3m after EUR 22.0m in the same period of the previous year. Earnings per share thus totaled EUR 3.39 compared to EUR 2.64 in the previous year.

Further details can be found in the audited consolidated financial statements at datagroup.de/publications.

MANAGEMENT’S DIVIDEND PROPOSAL OF EUR 1.50 PER SHARE (PREVIOUS YEAR: EUR 1.10 PER SHARE)

In view of the good earnings development, the Supervisory Board and the Management Board of DATAGROUP SE have decided to propose a dividend of EUR 1.50 per share (previous year: EUR 1.10 per share) to the company’s Annual General Meeting on 14 March 2024. This corresponds to a total dividend payout of EUR 12.5m (previous year: EUR 9.2m).

“As our presented figures show, we are very well positioned operationally and were again able to achieve a good business result in FY 2022/2023 despite a still challenging macroeconomic situation”, says Andreas Baresel, CEO of DATAGROUP SE. “There is strong demand for our holistic IT outsourcing solution CORBOX across all industries, which is reflected in our consistently good order intake. For us and our shareholders, these long-term contracts mean recurring revenues, good profitability and a reliable and stable long-term development of DATAGROUP.”

With the dividend proposal presented, DATAGROUP continues its historic dividend policy, which provides for a payout ratio of around 40 % of the net income for the period.

POSITIVE OUTLOOK DUE TO STRONG ORDER INTAKE IN THE CORBOX CORE BUSINESS AND STRATEGIC NEW ACQUISITIONS OF CONPLUS AND IT TOTAL

With the takeover of the CONPLUS Group at the end of 2023 and the acquisition of the IT service provider iT TOTAL, DATAGROUP has already strategically strengthened its position with two companies in the current fiscal year 2023/2024. Further acquisitions are planned for this fiscal year.

New customer wins such as the specialty chemicals manufacturer Evonik, for which DATAGROUP will manage around 30,000 IT workstations in client management, field service and service management, as well as several municipal utilities and public institutions, in the construction and industry sectors and in the banking and financial services sector, give the Management Board of DATAGROUP a positive outlook for the company’s further business development. The specific outlook for the current fiscal year 2023/2024 will be announced at the Annual General Meeting on 14 March 2024.

The audited consolidated financial statements 2022/2023 are available on the DATAGROUP website at datagroup.de/publications.