DATAGROUP : significantly increases revenue and earnings outlook for the current fiscal year

24. September 2018

EBITDA guidance: > EUR 34m (previously: EUR 30m)
Revenue guidance: > EUR 269m (previously: EUR 265m)

Pliezhausen, September 24, 2018. DATAGROUP SE (WKN A0JC8S) Shortly before the end of the current fiscal year 2017/2018, management has updated its outlook and now expects revenues of EUR 269m (PY: EUR 223.1m). With more than EUR 34m, operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) will be well above the earlier expectations of EUR 30m (PY: EUR 27.0m).

This development is particularly pleasing as the company recognised positive one-time effects of EUR 4.4m a year earlier. Despite the fact that these one-off effects have largely disappeared (currently only EUR 0.8m), EBITDA continues its strong organic growth - the EBITDA margin is likely to exceed 12% when adjusted for one-offs (PY adj.: 10.1%).

DATAGROUP's positive development has been driven by all entities of the group in the fiscal year ending in September. The existing units have seen a higher utilisation, and the recently acquired companies contributed to improved revenue and earnings.

HanseCom, which was acquired in May 2017, was able to achieve very good profitability much faster than expected. It was still negative at the time it was taken over, which is why the unit had been acquired at a negative purchase price.

Likewise, Almato has accelerated the pace in the second half of the year and is expected to make a contribution to earnings that exceeds the initial budget. It had been acquired in January this year. 'Demand for intelligent solutions to digitise business processes continues its strong development', says Peter Gißmann, Managing Director of Almato GmbH. This rapidly growing unit supports customers in their optimisation of digital business processes through robotic process automation (RPA) and real-time interaction management (RTIM).

FIS (previously IKB Data) has successfully completed the relocation of the data centre, and further progress was made with the company's integration as a vertical IT operations provider for the financial service industry. 'FIS, which we have acquired in August 2017, really gets going now', says DATAGROUP CEO Max H.-H. Schaber. 'New large-scale orders from the high-margin outsourcing business are yet to fully come to fruition and will add to revenue and earnings in the following years.' In July, DATAGROUP had reported a major contract with the NRW.Bank. This has been the largest single order in the company's history with a volume in the high double-digit million euros range.

Furthermore, DATAGROUP has acquired new CORBOX customers in other areas. Consequently, the order intake target will be significantly exceeded in terms of volume. 'There will probably be more success stories about new customer contracts to report in the next few weeks', adds Max Schaber. 'This will have a positive impact on our organic growth in the years to come.'

The publication of the preliminary figures of FY 2017/18 is scheduled for 26th of November.

Extract from the Financial Calendar:

24/09/2018	Berenberg and Goldman Sachs 7th German Corporate Conference - Munich
25/09/2018	Baader Investment Conference 2018 - Munich
08-09/10/2018	CF&B European Large & Midcap Event - Paris
18/10/2018	Berenberg Madrid Seminar 2018 - Madrid
26/11/2018	Publication of the preliminary figures for the fiscal year 2017/2018
27/11/2018	'Deutsches Eigenkapitalforum' - Frankfurt/Main
29/11/2018	Warburg 'Meet the future' Conference - Berlin
03-06/12/2018	Berenberg European Corporate Conference - Pennyhill Park, Surrey

About DATAGROUP:
DATAGROUP is one of the leading German IT service companies. Over 2,000 employees at locations across Germany design, implement, and operate IT infrastructures and business applications such as SAP. With its CORBOX product, DATAGROUP is a full-service provider, supporting over 600k global IT workplaces for medium and large enterprises as well as public authorities. In other words: We manage IT. The company is growing organically and through acquisitions. The acquisition strategy is particularly noted for its optimal integration of new companies. DATAGROUP is actively participating in the IT service market's consolidation process with its 'buy and turn around' and its 'buy and build' strategy.

Contact for further information:

Investor Relations

DATAGROUP SE

Wilhelm-Schickard-Str. 7

72124 Pliezhausen

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