Press Release
COMPANY NEWS RELEASE
- For the first time since its IPO, the company generates positive half-yearly earnings before interest and tax (EBIT)
Berlin, August 6, 2007 – After a successful start to the year 2007, Beta Systems
continued its uptrend in the second quarter as well. The Berlin-based software provider had thus
already raised its result considerably by the end of the first half-year, achieving a significant
improvement in the result which rose from € -19.0 to € 0.2 million and which marks the turnaround.
Accordingly, Beta Systems posted a positive half-yearly EBIT, for the first time since its IPO.
This success is all the more remarkable as revenue in the second half of the year is usually the
strongest and, up until now, profit is generally generated towards the end of the year. This
positive trend in the first half of 2007 was attributable to the growth of around 14% in the
profitable license business and of almost 30% in the services segment, as well the optimization of
the cost structure. The trend will be supported in future by 'Beta 4Agility', the new product and
sales strategy, which enables a more agile IT for large companies and providers of IT and financial
services.
Key Financial Data in the First Half of 2007
- EBIT improves significantly to € 0.2 million (Q1-Q2/2006: € -19.0 million)
- License revenues advances by 13.9% to € 11.3 million (Q1-Q2/2006: € 9.9 million)
- Services revenues grows 29.3% to € 7.6 million (Q1-Q2/2006: € 5.9 million)
- Great changes to the product and services mix with deliberate foregoing of the low-margin
hardware business has led to the level of total revenue falling, as planned, to € 41.9 million
(Q1-Q2/2006: € 45.3 million).
- Cash flow of € 5.3 million from operating activities remains at a high level (Q1-Q2/2006: € 1.7
million)
- Quarterly result increases to € 0.0 million / € 0.00 per share (Q1-Q2/2006: € -10.9 million / € -1.25 per share)
Key Financial Data in the Second Quarter of 2007
- EBIT climbs to € 0.9 million (Q2/2006: € -15.4 million)
- License revenues remains stable at € 5.4 million (Q2/2006: € 5.5 million) and services revenue
posts an increase of 39.8% € 4.0 million (Q2/2006: € 2.8 million)
- Due to the scaling back of the low-margin hardware business (-85.1% year on year to € 0.5
million), total revenue has declined to € 20.9 million (Q2/2006: € 23.5 million)
- Quarterly result increases to € 0.9 million/€ 0.10 per share (Q2/2006: € -9.4 million/€ -1.08 per share)
Statement by the Chief Executive Officer
"Also in the second quarter of 2007 our company has delivered impressive proof of its
successful new strategy. In the second quarter we achieved double-digit growth rates in sales in
our profitable license and services business and have put our turnaround on a firm footing.
Numerous medium-size orders and a number of major projects underscore the positive response to and
greater confidence of our customers in our focused offer of comprehensive solutions for data and
document processing and IT security and compliance", commented Kamyar Niroumand, Chief Executive
Officer of Beta Systems Software AG.
He added the following statement: "In tandem with this enormous restructuring success, we are
looking to our future and have recently announced an initiative called 'Beta 4Agility' to our
customers and shareholders. This initiative is intended to bolster our positive development in
future. Gernot Sagl, Chief Financial Officer of Beta Systems Software AG, added the following: "In
passing the breakeven threshold as early as the first half of 2007 we have reached an important
commercial and financial milestone. We are confident that, with the optimized cost structure and
our 'Beta 4Agility' growth program, we have paved the way for future profitable growth by
leveraging our own strength."
Outlook for the financial year 2007 reaffirmed
Breakeven attained in the first half-year affirms the forecast released at the
start of 2007 for a significant improvement in profit, with a single-digit EBIT margin for the
financial year as a whole. The steady implementation of measures in the company's sales
operations in conjunction with the optimized cost structure affirms the Management Board's
assumption that sales will rise slightly and profit improve significantly in the current financial
year. In this context, management expects growth to persist in the software license and services
business and the share of revenue from hardware to decline further.
More information on the first half-year of financial 2007
Our Investor Relations Team are at your disposal for any questions you may have on the
results of the first half-year of 2007. They can be contacted under the telephone number +49
(30) 726 118-171 or by e-mail
ir@betasystems.com.
The complete Half-yearly Financial Report 2007 has been posted on the company's web site at www.betasystems.de under the "Investor Relations" heading.
End of the press release
Beta Systems Software AG – Agility Integrated
Beta Systems Software AG Berlin (Prime Standard: BSS, ISIN DE0005224406) develops
high-profile software products and solutions for the secure and efficient processing of large data
volumes. The core businesses of Beta Systems comprise document processing as well as IT user
management data processing in data centers and compliance solutions. In addition, the Beta 4Agility
suite offers large companies new integration products to enhance their agility in IT and business
processes. The products serve to simplify the automation of data and document processing and
improve on the security and performance of IT.
Beta Systems, which has been a listed company since 1997, was founded in 1983 and has a workforce of more than 600 employees. The company’s principal place of business is Berlin. Beta Systems has Centers of Competence in Augsburg, Cologne and Calgary, as well as 17 subsidiaries worldwide and cooperations with numerous partner companies. With more than 3,000 running installations, it has a customer base of more than 1,300 major companies from the sectors of financial services and IT service providers and industry at large in Germany, Europe and the USA.
More information on the company and its products can be found under
www.betasystems.com.
Contacts:
Company contact:
Beta Systems Software AG
Stefanie Frey
Tel.: +49 (0)30 726 118-171
Fax: +49 (0)30 726 118-800
e-mail:
stefanie.frey@betasystems.com
Agency contact:
HBI PR&MarCom GmbH
Alexandra Osmani, Alexandra Janetzko
Tel.: +49 (0)89 99 38 87-0
Fax: +49 (0)89 930 24 45
e-mail:
alexandra_osmani@hbi.de ;
alexandra_janetzko@hbi.de
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