Bristol, UK., February 23, 2011– UNIT4, the world’s leading provider of business software for fast changing organisations, today announced its annual results for 2010, citing a successful year despite challenging market conditions.
UNIT4 is well known for providing customers in the public and private sectors with solutions that reduce costs, improve control and enable them to manage rapid and continuous change without the typical costs associated with set-up and customisation. This differentiation helped create opportunities for UNIT4 in 2010, particularly in the public sector, despite fears that government spending would come under pressure.
“UNIT4 solutions are designed to help organisations reduce costs, improve control and manage change so they continue to be successful in challenging market conditions,” said Edwin van Leeuwen, CFO, UNIT4. “By further addressing the trend towards cloud computing and SaaS in 2010, UNIT4 is also providing its customers with a choice of software delivery options that will help them reduce upfront investment in IT and ensure efficient technology adoption into the future. UNIT4 has implemented a series of strategies to address this market, including majority investment in FinancialForce.com, and as a result has taken a lead against its competitors.”
Q4 financial summary:
UNIT4 saw a strong order intake in the final quarter of 2010, including large customer orders in Germany, the United Kingdom and North America. A healthy level of activity was also seen in all other territories including the Benelux region, Sweden and Norway. Total revenue improved by 20.7%, including revenues from Teta SA, acquired during 2010. EBITDA grew by 11.7% to €30.6 million, an EBITDA margin of 24.8%.
Highlights for full year 2010:
- Total 2010 revenues increased by 11.1% to €421.7 million (2009: €379.4 million)
- License revenue grew by 23.4% to €72.7 million (2009: €58.8 million)
- Total EBITDA improved by 14.6% to €86.1 million (2009: €75.1 million)
- The total EBITDA margin grew to 20.4% (2009: 19.8%)
- Net profit (before goodwill) improved by 23.5% to €43.2 million (2009: €35.0 million)
Geographical breakdown:
The Benelux business grew by 10%, with significant improvements in the private sector compared with 2009. Revenues in Norway and Sweden grew by 10% and 15% respectively, partly due to currency effects. The key success factors in Scandinavia are UNIT4’s strong presence in the public sector and its extensive base of satisfied customers.
License revenues in Spain grew by 26% with large orders in healthcare and the private sector. Despite this, total revenue declined by 6%, primarily due to the lower number of consultants as a result of the reorganisation in 2009. Germany had a very strong fourth quarter, but in total its annual revenue declined by 5%. In the United Kingdom revenue grew by 4%. The service revenues declined – as in Spain – due to fewer consultants and more fixed-price contracts, but license revenues grew significantly. Public sector business in the UK remained strong, especially in the last quarter.
Revenue in North America grew by 11% and accounts for 5% of the total UNIT4 revenue. With two main offices, on the west and east coasts, and a portfolio including both Agresso Business World and Coda products, a number of substantial and important orders were won. Performance in Asia improved significantly, with a >100% increase in revenue from new license sales. Further investment is planned in the region. Eastern Europe (Hungary and Czech) also reported a significant increase in license growth.
Outlook for 2011
UNIT4 expects to see license revenue increase again in 2011. In total, organic revenue growth for the mid to long term is estimated at between 5% and 10%. A strategic reorganisation of its R&D resources is planned this year which will see a focus on R&D in Granada, Spain.
Results webcast
Chris Ouwinga, UNIT4 CEO and Edwin Van Leeuwen, UNIT4 CFO will be presenting the results via a webcast at 1000 CET on 23 February 2011. To join the webcast please visit http://www.unit4.com/Investors/financialinformation
For a full copy of the 2010 results statement, please visit http://www.unit4.com/Investors/investornews
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About UNIT4
UNIT4 is a global business software and services company aimed at helping dynamic organisations to embrace change simply, quickly and cost effectively in a market sector it calls 'Businesses Living IN Change' (BLINC)™. The Group incorporates a number of the world’s leading change embracing software brands including Agresso Business World and CODA financial management software.
Agresso Business World is our flagship ERP suite for mid-sized services intensive organisations. It is widely acknowledged for delivering ongoing, post-implementation changes without the typical external IT costs and services that cost firms huge sums of money each year. This is achieved thanks to its powerful VITA™ architecture, which is unmatched in the ERP world.
CODA Financials is our award-winning suite of best-of-class financial management software designed to integrate with your industry- and company-specific applications. CODA’s LINK™ architecture sets it apart from ordinary accounting systems by providing a financial information backbone for companies with fast changing and mixed application environments. It is a global accounting solution for mid-to large sized organisations, offering a "no compromise" approach to financial modelling, process control and application choice.
In the UK we focus strongly on the public sector, where we are the leading provider of ERP systems to local government and post 16 education organisations, as well as having a considerable presence in the emergency services and health sectors. We also focus strongly on professional services organisations and a range of commercial sectors including Financial Services, Retail and Media and Publishing. Overall we aim to be the UK’s foremost business software company, providing solutions that transform the delivery of public services and comprehensively support commercial organisations in their ability to adapt and prosper in rapidly changing environments.
UNIT4 is a top six mid-market ERP software player globally and the 2nd largest European ERP supplier. With offices in 17 European countries, as well as 7 countries across North America, Asia Pacific and Africa and sales activities in several other countries, a revenue of €379.4 million was realised in 2009. UNIT4 is headquartered in Sliedrecht, the Netherlands. The company has around 4,160 employees.
UNIT4 is listed on Euronext Amsterdam by NYSE Euronext and is included in the Amsterdam Midcap Index (AMX). For more information on UNIT4 or any of its operating companies, please visit the website at www.unit4.com
UK Highlights by Anwen Robinson, Managing Director of UNIT4 Business Software
2010 was an unsettled year for the UK economy and overall trading conditions remain challenging. Despite this UNIT4 Business Software Ltd performed well; total revenues were steady and licence sales were strong. The UK continued to win new business across both the public and commercial sectors, adding 57 new name customers while closely managing costs.
Anwen Robinson, UK Managing Director for UNIT4, commented: “Having started the year as a group of five mainly separate organisations (Agresso, Coda, MCA Distinction, Collaboration Software and Agresso Travel), all coupled together around common aims, by its end we had aligned under the new UNIT4 Business Software brand, with a single purpose and vision.
“We believe that our solution portfolio caters for the diverse system requirements of our expanding user base. With Agresso we can deliver more traditional enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions, while Coda Financials and Dream offers best-in-class financial solutions that integrate with other line of business applications. Collaboration Software delivers the market’s most configurable project extranet, document and workflow management tool ensuring users can quickly store, find and share project information and our SaaS offering FinancialForce Accounting removes the burdens associated with on-premises applications.
“Our sector-based platform sales strategy provides clarity around our solutions, key partners, technology and delivery options enabling customers to achieve even faster RoI. The UK business also initiated a number of innovations which have been adopted subsequently by UNIT4 – these include Sustain4 (environmental performance management), Linked4 (open and linked data initiative), File4 (MS Word to iXBRL conversion software) as well as a number of service based improvements such as our new Fast Start implementation approach and 360° operational reviews.
“The results of our efforts are encouraging especially when set against ongoing economic challenges. Indeed we are pleased to report that that our flexible solutions are allowing our clients to address the uncertainty in Commercial and Public Sector markets.
“Our Public Sector sales team exceeded their 2010 target securing a number of notable wins such as Herefordshire County Council, the local primary care trust and Hereford Hospital Trust– the first UK cross sector shared service based on Agresso. In addition Cotswold District Council, Forest of Dean District Council, West Oxfordshire District Council and Cheltenham Borough Council (including Cheltenham Borough Homes) entered into a shared service arrangement underpinned by our Local Government Platform. These and other wins cement our position as the number one supplier of ERP systems to the Local Government sector where we now have 96 UK council customers, representing a 22 percent market share for UNIT4.
“Police, Fire & Ambulance emergency services organisations all benefit from Agresso’s integrated solutions. A number of sales were made which will provide the foundation for regional shared service operations that will deliver significant efficiency savings.
“The flexible nature of UNIT4’s offering has meant a strong performance in not-for-profit, including a UK win at Save the Children International for the global implementation of finance, project costing, billing and procurement technology that will be used across its 29 national organisations. The system will reduce administration costs, improve budgeting, prepare the charity for on-going regulatory change and improve accountability to its donors.
“Our Education sales team also performed well and we also remain the number one provider to post 16 education, achieving a number of notable wins in Colleges and Universities alike. The acquisition of pFact (Full Economic Costing for research) in Q4 also added 21 new Higher Education names to our customer base.
“Whilst the UK commercial sector has been slow to pick up after the impact of the worldwide recession, we realised 29 new business sales including Rank Group plc, Clifford Thames Group and EDF Energy as well as major systems upgrades from existing customers looking to drive operational efficiency improvements. Throughout 2010 our commercial pipeline displayed steady growth and we are developing a number of advanced sales prospects.
“Combine our comprehensive solution portfolio with our focus on exemplary customer service provision and we believe we are well placed to take advantage of the opportunities open to us.”
