EQS-News: adesso increases sales by 28 % to EUR 833.7 million after nine months / Capacity utilisation measures having an effect / Return to usual profitability expected in 2024

adesso increases sales by 28 % to EUR 833.7 million after nine months / Capacity utilisation measures having an effect / Return to usual profitability expected in 2024

• Third-quarter EBITDA margin improves considerably to 9.9 %
• Budget overruns on fixed-price projects as well as lower-than-expected licence sales impact third quarter of 2023
• EBITDA at EUR 53.5 million (previous year: EUR 71.4 million) after nine months
• Demand for adesso’s digitalisation services remains high
• Positive outlook: strong growth in 2024 and higher profitability expected

In its quarterly statement for Q3 2023, published today, the adesso Group largely confirmed the preliminary figures released in its ad hoc announcement on 2 November 2023. The consulting and software development company continued its strong growth trajectory with a 28 % increase in sales (of which 26 percentage points were organic) to EUR 833.7 million in the first nine months. At EUR 53.5 million, operating earnings (EBITDA) were 25 % lower than in the same period of the previous year, due mainly to the weaker first half of the year and despite a significant improvement in margins in the third quarter of 2023. The measures initiated in the first few months of 2023 made it possible to mitigate the growth-related delays in capacity utilisation. The EBITDA margin of 9.9 % in the third quarter of 2023 reflects the positive profitability trend. With demand for the digitalisation services offered by adesso remaining high, the company expects another double-digit percentage increase in sales in 2024 and a return to the usual EBITDA target margin range.

In the third quarter of 2023, adesso continued to increase its sales revenues compared to the previous quarters and the previous year, achieving a new record level of EUR 287.4 million. Growth of 19 % as against the strong third quarter of 2022, which benefited from high licence sales, indicates only a slight decrease in momentum. The higher capacity utilisation rate reported at the end of the second quarter of 2023 was maintained into the third quarter. However, personnel costs rose at a faster rate than sales. In addition, third-quarter licence sales fell short of expectations, and the budgets for two larger fixed-price projects overran. The sharp decline in licence sales in the third quarter of 2023 meant that the EBITDA contribution in absolute terms of EUR 28.4 million was down 15 % year on year (EUR 33.3 million). The EBITDA margin improved considerably compared to the first half of 2023 to 9.9 %.

The Executive Board remains positive with regard to adesso’s future business development. Order intake remains at a record level, and adesso is showing no signs of a slowdown at present despite the bleaker forecasts regarding overall economic development. Most of the 28 % increase in sales in the first nine months of 2023 came from the German market. The relative growth abroad was an equally strong 26 %. The established adesso companies in Switzerland, Austria and Turkey contributed to this rise, as did the most recently acquired companies in Italy and Austria. Dynamic sales growth in the double-digit percentage range was achieved in almost all core industries served by adesso. The automotive industry also accelerated its pace of growth to 6 %. The sectors generating the highest sales, public administration, insurance and banking, saw continued year-on-year increases of 22 % respectively 23 %. Utilities, which is still a relatively young core industry for adesso, recorded the highest rise of 84 % or almost EUR 30 million.

Personnel costs – the largest expense item – increased by 35 % from EUR 422.5 million to EUR 572.4 million due to factors such as inflation, significantly outstripping the growth in sales revenues and staff numbers. The average number of employees, converted into full-time equivalents, rose by 32 % year on year to 8,778. As at the reporting date of 30 September 2023, adesso employed 9,222 people (full-time equivalents). At EUR 87 thousand, annualised personnel costs per employee were up on the previous-year level of EUR 84 thousand, as expected.

On account of rapid growth, adesso continues to require external service providers, even though the measures resolved in the first half of the year to improve capacity utilisation resulted in this item declining by 1 % to EUR 38.0 million for the first time in the third quarter. As a result, gross profit after the first nine months of the year increased at a slightly greater rate than sales, by 29 % to EUR 713.7 million.

Other operating expenses climbed by 27 %, from EUR 77.0 million to EUR 98.6 million. The consolidation of the pre-pandemic status and the increase in the number of employees are causing numerous expense items to rise, including travel, marketing, personnel recruitment, business premises and vehicle expenses.

Income tax expense decreased by around half to EUR 5.2 million (previous year: EUR 10.4 million). Based on pre-tax profit, the tax rate was calculated at 106 % (previous year: 30 %). The rise in the tax rate was primarily caused by constant, non-deductible expenses, which had a greater impact than in the same period of the previous year on account of the year-on-year decrease in earnings before tax.

Consolidated earnings after taxes in the first nine months of 2023 almost reached the break-even point, amounting to EUR -0.3 million (previous year: EUR 23.8 million). Earnings per share stood at EUR -0.05 (previous year: EUR 3.64).

“The significant improvement in the EBITDA margin in the third quarter underlines that our measures to boost capacity utilisation are having an effect,” says CFO Jörg Schroeder, commenting on the positive trend. “However, we had expected business in the third quarter of 2023 to provide a higher EBITDA contribution in absolute terms to make up somewhat for the growth-related delays in capacity utilisation from the first half of the year and the resulting declines in earnings. Budget overruns on two fixed-price projects and lower-than-expected licence sales prevented us from performing even better.”

With regard to the fourth quarter of 2023 and beyond, the Executive Board is confident that the high demand will allow the company to build on the positive trend from the third quarter and return to a normal level of profitability in 2024. While the full-year EBITDA forecast was adjusted to between EUR 70 million and EUR 90 million depending on the licence acquisition and capacity utilisation in the fourth quarter, the Executive Board held out the prospect of a return to the usual EBITDA target margin range in 2024 with continued strong double-digit percentage in sales growth.

The full quarterly statement, as well as a table comparing key performance indicators over a period of several years, is available at www.adesso-group.de/en/ in the Investor Relations section.

adesso Group

With more than 9,200 employees and expected annual sales of more than EUR 1 billion in 2023, adesso Group is one of the largest German IT service providers with outstanding growth opportunities. At its own locations in Germany, other locations in Europe and Turkey as well as at numerous local customers adesso offers consulting and software development services for optimising core business processes. adesso also offers ready-to-use software products for standard applications. The development of an own, industry-specific product portfolio opens up additional growth and earnings opportunities and is another key element of the adesso strategy. In 2023 and 2020, adesso was awarded the title of the best employer of its size in Germany across all industries. After having already achieved first place among IT employers in 2016, 2018 and 2020, adesso was ranked first again in 2023.