029 Group SE

Earnings Release • Nov 4, 2002

News Details

Ad-hoc | 4 November 2002 08:29

Brainpower N.V. part 1

3rd Quarter Financial Results for the period ended Sept. 30, 2002 (Part1 of 2) Ad-hoc-announcement processed and transmitted by DGAP. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. ——————————————————————————– 3rd Quarter Financial Results for the period ended September 30, 2002 EBITDA Losses Reduced for Sixth Consecutive Quarter Revenues of EUR1.8 million represent a decrease of 6% from Q2 2002 – Reuters agreement bears fruit with first significant customer win – Sales force productivity up 260% year-on-year – Italian subsidiary reaches EBIT breakeven – Operating costs excluding restructuring costs down 22% from year ago period Brainpower N.V. (Neuer Markt: BPW), provider of enterprise-wide investment analytics, attribution and decision-support solutions, today announces financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2002. Rocco Pellegrinelli, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Brainpower, commented: “The expected pick-up in demand from financial institutions for software solutions failed to materialize in the third quarter and we are unlikely to see any improvement in the market place through the end of this year and into the beginning of next. Consequently, our revenues for the quarter ended September 30, 2002 equaled EUR 1.8 million, a decrease of 6% from the previous quarter. The cost reduction program launched in May of this year, however, has helped us reduce our cost base by an annualized EUR 2.5 million. This represents a decrease of 22% year-on-year. As a result of these economic pressures in the market place, we have lowered our full-year forecast to EUR 8.0 million, a modest improvement over full-year revenues of EUR 7.8 million in 2001. This has also negatively impacted our EBITDA breakeven expectations and we now forecast reaching this important target in the first half of 2003. Despite the market pressures, we were able to achieve some impressive results during the period. We announce today that our agreement with Reuters Group Plc., signed in the second quarter of this year, has borne fruit. Reuters will provide Brainpower’s fund analysis technology to one of Europe’s largest financial institutions headquartered in Frankfurt. The Brainpower technology will be used in combination with Reuters Market Monitor (RMM), which delivers broad information, pricing and news covering financial instruments such as securities, fixed income, foreign exchange, and commodities, by private banking financial advisors. With approximately 7,000 Intranet users, this will be the largest rollout of Brainpower’s sophisticated analytics technology to date. The economic benefits of the project will be realized starting next year, accordingly this revenue stream is not included in our revenue backlog figures.Our sales productivity has risen substantially over the past year. On average, each salesperson was able to sign new business of Eur 72,000 during the quarter compared to just Eur 20,000 one year ago. Our new business pipeline continues to grow with large contracts under discussion in each of our key markets, however market conditions have lengthened the average time required to close deals. We have achieved these extraordinary results by; raising the profile of our products and company over the past year, launching new technologically advanced products and focusing a smaller, better-trained sales force on higher margin opportunities. Despite the economic difficulties faced by German financial institutions, our sales team signed two new German clients during the quarter, which included a large full-service bank and a well-respected private bank. End of Part 1 end of ad-hoc-announcement (c)DGAP 04.11.2002 ——————————————————————————– WKN: 553169; ISIN: NL0000238228; Index: Listed: Neuer Markt in Frankfurt; Freiverkehr in Berlin, Bremen, Hamburg, Hannover, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart und München 040829 Nov 02