Bristol, UK, 21st April, 2011 – UNIT4, the world’s leading provider of business software for fast changing organisations, today reported a strong performance across the business in the first quarter of the year.
License growth was greatest in Norway, with a number of major orders in the public sector, including an order for the Agresso HR and Payroll solution from Oslo Kommune, the largest local government organisation in Norway and a new contract with Mesta, Norway’s largest highway construction contracting group. The UK also achieved above average growth, with significant orders in both the public and private sectors, including Marchwood Power, Stonegate Pub Company, the University of Greenwich and The House of Commons. FinancialForce.com, UNIT4’s cloud applications company formed with investment from salesforce.com, also reported a period of strong growth with above average deals. All other territories performed in-line with or better than expectations.
Q1 highlights (compared to results in Q1 2010):
- Total revenue increased by almost 16% to €112.1 million.
- Organic revenue improved by 7%.
- License sales increased by 23%.
- Contract revenue (excl. SaaS/subscription) grew by 9% and services revenue increased by 15% as a result of more consultants.
- The highest growth was in UNIT4’s SaaS/Subscription business at more than 40%.
- Gross margin remained at a level of 91.2%.
- Total EBITDA grew by 23% to €18.9 million, creating an EBITDA margin for Q1 of 16.9%, incl. investments in FinancialForce.com and reorganisation/reallocation costs in the R&D department.
- EBITDA excl. investment in FinancialForce.com and reorganisation costs was €22.8 million, growth of 34% compared with Q1 2010.
UNIT4 works with organisations that experience particularly high levels of on-going change, a market segment it calls Businesses Living IN Change, or BLINC™. Its software is designed to support change simply where these organisations, in all sectors around the world, are affected by frequent reorganisation, mergers and acquisitions, or compliance and regulation issues.
“UNIT4 is well known for providing customers, both public and private sector, 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,” said Edwin van Leeuwen, CFO at UNIT4. “This differentiation is creating opportunities for us following signs of recovery in our markets. This is the first time ever we have achieved an EBITDA level of 20% by the end of the first quarter.”
Based on the current trading environment, the management reconfirms the outlook for 2011 given in earlier statements.
