Acando : Year-end report 2014

FOURTH QUARTER OCTOBER 1 - DECEMBER 31, 2014

>        Net sales of SEK 620 m (405)

>        Operating profit before goodwill impairment and nonrecurring items was SEK 52 m (33), corresponding to an operating margin of 8.4% (8.3)

>        The operating profit after nonrecurring items was SEK 35 m (33)

>        Profit after tax was SEK 26 m (26)

>        Earnings per share were SEK 0.25 (0.37)

ACCUMULATED JANUARY 1 - DECEMBER 31, 2014

>        Net sales of SEK 1,856 m (1,438)

>        Operating profit before goodwill impairment and nonrecurring items was SEK 118 m (66), corresponding to an operating margin of 6.4% (4.6)

>        The operating profit after nonrecurring items was SEK 43 m (66)

>        Profit after tax was SEK 30 m (50)

>        Earnings per share were SEK 0.35 (0.71)

>        Cash and cash equivalents totaled SEK 76 m (99)

>        The Board of Directors intends to propose that the Annual General Meeting resolve on a dividend of SEK 1.00 per share, corresponding to a total of approximately SEK 103 m (71).

Statement by Carl-Magnus Månsson, CEO

When we closed the books on 2014, we had completed a high-paced business integration and faced, probably, one of the most exciting years in Acando's history. During the autumn, we grew at many of our most important and largest customers in Sweden through expansion of existing assignments and new, challenging projects, often because of our collective, broader offering and delivery capacity. In parallel, our clear positioning and size in the market creates new possibilities with, both major global customers and smaller rapidly growing companies. Operations in our other countries trended favorably toward the end of the year, which provides new possibilities for cross-border deliveries and the exchange of both solutions and experience. Our capacity to combine strategic insight with acceleration in implementation makes us unique, and was manifested in a number of our assignments during the quarter.

In terms of results, our operations in Norway and Germany trended strongly during the quarter, and despite a positive trend in Sweden over the year, we assess that scope exists for continued improvements when the integrated organization reaches full effect in terms of both costs and revenue synergies. It is equally important that we create an offering that engages our employees, and I am proud to note that, in the fourth quarter, employee turnover was lower than it was for Acando during the same period in the preceding year.

Here are a few concrete examples of what we helped our customers with during the quarter: Together with a telecoms operator, we defined a strategic position and an initial implementation for e-health, we went live with a large retail solution based on MS Dynamics AX, we created solutions for managing data from automated electricity-meter reading, we are participating in a major modernization program in the bank sector, we were entrusted with rolling out a global AX solution for a telecom equipment supplier, we are accelerating growth at a small tech start-up, we went live with a global SAP solution for the paper industry and we are leading one of the largest e-commerce projects in Sweden.

In the fourth quarter, we completed the integration of Connecta and Acando and, thereby creating the launch pad under our new brand platform ahead of 2015. Our strategic change initiatives continue at full speed. We secured cost synergies of SEK 52 m linked to the integration. We are capturing an ever increasing share of projects and major assignments at increasingly large customers. We work consistently with increasing the proportion of off-shore and junior consultants using measures including clear incentives and targeted recruitment, for example, through new trainee programs. We have successfully packaged solutions in several areas, such as Portals and Analytics, which enables us to reuse solutions at new customers.

Through the merger of Connecta and Acando, we have laid the foundation to continue building Sweden and northern Europe's most modern consulting company. Our journey together under a new flag has only just started.

This is information that Acando AB (publ) is obligated to disclose under the Securities Market Act and/or the Financial Instruments Trading Act. This information was submitted for publication on February 12, 2015.

For further information, please contact:
Carl-Magnus Månsson, President and CEO, [phone]
Anneli Lindblom, CFO, [phone]

Acando is a consulting company whose business concept is, in partnership with its customers, to create business value by enhancing and streamlining processes, organizations and digital solutions. We stand out due to our ability to combine skills in strategy and business operations with sound technical expertise and deep understanding of how organizations function. The Group has approximately 1,800 employees allocated over four countries. Acando had sales of close to SEK 2 billion in 2014 and is listed on the Nasdaq Stockholm.

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