Amadeus FiRe : Preliminary results for fiscal year 2019

04.02.2020 [News]

Frankfurt/Main, 4 February 2020. In fiscal year 2019 the Amadeus FiRe Group achieved consolidated sales of EUR 233.1m (prior year: EUR 205.8m), an increase of 13.3 percent year-on-year. All services provided by the Amadeus FiRe Group contributed to this positive overall development.

Shortly before the end of the year, on 19 December 2019, Amadeus FiRe AG acquired 100% of the shares in Comcave Holding GmbH. The consolidated income statement of the Amadeus FiRe Group for the 2019 financial year does not include Comcave business figures due to the very late acquisition date. It will be included as of the beginning of the 2020 financial year. The preliminary revenue and earnings figures for Comcave Holding GmbH for 2019 were in line with the expectations communicated in the ad-hoc announcement on 19 December 2019.

The gross profit of the Amadeus FiRe Group for the 2019 financial year amounted to EUR 110.6 million (previous year: EUR 99.3 million), an increase of 11.4 percent. The gross profit margin fell by 0.8 percentage points year-on-year from 48.2% to 47.4%. This decline is mainly due to a change in the service mix as a result of the comparatively strong growth in the lower-margin Temporary Staffing and Interim- and Project-Management services. In addition, in the fourth quarter, the results from the Temporary Staffing service were burdened by an unusually high sickness rate.

The selling and administrative expenses totalled EUR 72.1 million, compared with EUR 62.0 million in the previous year. This increase was largely due to the increase in the number of employees as a result of the planned significant expansion of the sales organization and corresponding expenses. The expenses also include the transaction costs of some EUR 3 million for the acquisition of Comcave Holding GmbH incurred in the fourth quarter.

Earnings before interest, taxes and goodwill amortisation (EBITA) for the past financial year consequently amounted to EUR 38.7 million, up 3.2 percent on the previous year's result (EUR 37.5 million). The non-recurring expenses, in particular for the successful Comcave transaction, and the high sickness rate in the fourth quarter impacted EBITA growth for the year as a whole by 10 percentage points.

The EBITA margin 2019 was 16.6 percent. Adjusted for transaction expenses, the EBITA margin reached 17.9%, 0.3 percentage points below the prior-year margin of 18.2%. The slight decline is also attributable to the above-average growth in the temporary staffing service.

After all the organic growth targets set for 2019 were achieved, the acquisition of Comcave at the end of the year significantly strengthened the Training segment. The merger of Amadeus FiRe and Comcave opens up new opportunities for interlinking training and personnel services in the interests of all participants and candidates.

In 2020, the Management Board intends to take further expansion steps in both business segments, Personnel Services and Training, each with increasing revenues and earnings. An essential task will be the integration of Comcave into the Amadeus FiRe Group. Special attention will be paid to the exploitation of commercial synergy potentials. All Company's plans are based on a stable macroeconomic environment in Germany.

The final figures for the 2019 financial year will be announced at an annual press conference / analyst meeting. In consequence of the transaction directly at the end of the year, the new date for the conference is March 25, 2020.

Amadeus FiRe AG
Jan H. Wessling
Investor Relations
Tel: [phone]