QSC AG : increases revenues by 6% in first half of 2018

08/06/2018

• Revenues rise to € 186.2 million in first six months of 2018
• Cloud revenues up 36% to € 15.6 million
• Further double-digit growth in TC business
• Key earnings and financial figures develop as planned; consolidated net income up 18%
• QSC now expects revenues at least at upper end of € 345 million to € 355 million range

Cologne, 6 August 2018. The Cloud and ICT provider QSC increased its first-half revenues to € 186.2 million, up from € 175.9 million in the previous year's period, and now expects its full-year revenues for 2018 at least to reach the upper end of the € 345 million to € 355 million range communicated in March 2018.

Growing demand for cloud services and IoT solutions

The growth generated in the first half of 2018 was driven by the Cloud and Telecommunications (TC) segments. In its Cloud business, QSC managed to increase its revenues by 36% to € 15.6 million in the period under report. This growth was due to success in both areas of activity - cloud services and Internet of Things (IoT). In the first half of 2018, the TC business benefited above all from higher demand in the international voice termination business: TC revenues rose by 14% to € 103.8 million. The two other segments - Consulting and Outsourcing - largely performed in line with expectations.

EBITDA came to € 18.2 million in the first half of 2018, as against € 20.2 million in the previous year's period. Operating earnings (EBIT) for the same period rose from € 4.4 million to € 4.6 million. Consolidated net income improved to € 1.3 million in the first half of 2018, up from € 1.1 million one year earlier. Free cash flow totalled € 2.8 million at the end of the first six months, compared with € 6.4 million in the previous year's period. The Company's key earnings and financial figures therefore developed in line with expectations in the first half of 2018. For the financial year as whole, QSC therefore still plans to generate EBITDA of between € 35 million and € 40 million and free cash flow of more than € 10 million.

QSC benefits from new vertical organisational structure

CEO Jürgen Hermann is satisfied with the business performance in the first half of 2018: 'Our operating business is already benefiting from implementation of the new vertical organisational structure.' At the beginning of 2018, QSC assigned responsibility for sales and technology to its business units and thus significantly boosted their autonomy. With regard to the second half of 2018, Hermann added: 'We now expect the spin-off of our TC business into a standalone subsidiary to provide added momentum.' This move was approved by the Annual General Meeting in July 2018. In future, QSC will be pooling its TC business at its wholly-owned subsidiary Plusnet GmbH.

Notes:
The complete Half-Year Report can be downloaded at www.qsc.de/en/investor-relations. This Corporate News includes forward-looking statements. These are based on current expectations and forecasts as to future events made by the management of QSC AG. Due to risks or erroneous assumptions, actual results may deviate substantially from these forward-looking statements.

Contact for enquiries:
QSC AG
Arne Thull
Head of Investor Relations
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www.qsc.de

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