GFT Technologies SE — Earnings Release 2008

Mar 2, 2009

News Details

Corporate | 2 March 2009 07:38

GFT defies financial crisis and proposes 2008 dividend

GFT Technologies AG / Preliminary Results

Release of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a company of EquityStory
AG.
The issuer / publisher is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

---

• Preliminary and unaudited figures for 2008 financial year presented
• Revenue: EUR 242.2m; earnings before taxes (EBT): EUR 6.9m
• Major investments in new software products
• Executive Board proposes dividend of EUR 0.10 per share
• Outlook for 2009: revenue at same level as previous year, EBT at EUR 6m
  to 8m

Stuttgart, 2 March 2009 - The international IT company GFT Technologies AG
(GFT) today reported its preliminary and unaudited financial figures for
the past financial year. 'In 2008 we succeeded in clearly reinforcing our
position in the financial sector, despite the difficult environment,'
announced Ulrich Dietz, Chairman of the Executive Board of GFT. He
continued, 'to remain competitive in the current economic climate,
companies need a flexible and innovative IT partner.'

At EUR 242.2m, the GFT Group's 2008 revenue was just below the level of the
successful previous year (EUR 247.1m). The Resourcing division, with EUR
145.7m, and Services, with EUR 90.9m, made the greatest contributions here.
Earnings before taxes (EBT) came to EUR 6.9m (prev. year EUR 12.4m).
Significant investments in marketing and sales for the introduction of the
archiving environment inboxx contributed significantly to the decline in
earnings. Against the background of the turbulences in the financial
markets, the GFT Executive Board had lowered the fullyear forecast to EUR
240m in revenue and EUR 6m in earnings before taxes in the course of the
year. 'In the fourth quarter, the effects of the crisis in the financial
services area opened up interesting possibilities for us,' says Ulrich
Dietz. 'We managed to convince with pragmatic IT solutions and as a result
at the end of the year we were able to outdo the modified forecast.'

First distribution of dividends in company history

For the first time in company history, GFT intends to pay out a dividend.
The ongoing good earnings situation and solid liquidity permit
distribution, which is to be retained should business continue to be good
in the future. The Executive Board proposes to the Supervisory Board that a
dividend of EUR 0.10 per share be distributed for the 2008 financial year.
Overall, this constitutes to a dividend distribution sum of EUR 2.63m.

Well-positioned for future economic developments

Ulrich Dietz explained: 'For us, the fact that we have been able to
successfully hold our own in the current recession has been a confirmation
of our strategy of risk distribution across three business divisions. We
are well-positioned to exploit the opportunities in the crisis with our
offering in the Services, Resourcing and Software divisions. We support
banks particularly by means of IT-based risk management systems; in
addition, our customers benefit from the flexible use of external
IT-specialists, whom we refer quickly and promptly, as well as from our
comprehensive archiving solutions. With our flexible and innovative range
of services, we are also prepared for volatile economic developments in
2009.'

The uncertain world economic conditions render a reliable assessment of
likely business development difficult. However, the Executive Board expects
conditions to remain challenging. Based on the current outlook, GFT Group
expects for the financial year 2009 revenue at the level of the previous
year and earnings before taxes of EUR 6m to 8m are expected.

Additional key data

In 2008, the GFT Group generated the most revenue in the Resourcing
division. At EUR 145.7m the previous year's figure (EUR 140.4m) was
exceeded by four percent and made up 60 percent of overall revenues
(previous year: 57 percent). The Resource Management sector grew by 24
percent and managed to more than make up for the slight decline in Third
Party Management. The current economic conditions led to greater price
sensitivity among the clients in hiring freelancers. Despite the decline in
revenue, earnings of the Resourcing segment were with EUR 3.4m almost at
previous year's level (EUR 3.5m).

In the Services division GFT achieved revenues of EUR 90.9m (prev. year:
EUR 100.8m). The decline of almost ten percent compared to the previous
year, is attributed to the overall difficult conditions in the financial
sector and the completion of a project in Brazil, where, in the previous
year, it had been possible to achieve special items. This influenced
segment earnings, which consequently declined from EUR 10.3m to EUR 7.1m.

Business with archiving solutions in the Software division remained below
expectations in the financial year 2008. Subdued customer demand in all
industries was clearly noticeable in the Software segment. Revenues fell
from EUR 5.9m in the previous year to EUR 5.6m. Due to investments in the
further development and sale of the archiving environment inboxx, earnings
declined from EUR -0.6m to EUR -3.1m. In a more positive market environment
GFT expects much better sales success for this solution.

Both revenue as well as pre-tax earnings per quarter, rose continuously in
the course of 2008. In the fourth quarter of 2008, the GFT Group generated
revenues of EUR 64.7m. Earnings before taxes were EUR 2.6m, which
corresponded to 38 percent of the overall amount of 2008.

On 31 December 2008, the GFT Group employed a total of 1,027 employees, 70
percent of these outside Germany. The reduction by 60 people compared to
the yearend of 2007 is mainly due to the sale of shares in the Indian
subsidiary. In the previous year, 56 employees worked here.

The company had cash and cash equivalents of EUR 35.2m on 31 December 2008,
EUR 6.5m more than at the same point of time in the previous year (EUR
28.7m). Net income at EUR 6.0m was below the previous year's figure (EUR
8.6m). Accordingly, earnings per share were EUR 0.23 following EUR 0.33 at
the end of 2007.

Today, on 2 March 2009, the following events are taking place:

9:30 a.m. Annual Results Press Conference
Presentation and explanation of the 2008 preliminary figures by Chairman of
the Executive Board Ulrich Dietz and Chief Financial Officer Dr Jochen
Ruetz.

Event location: Salon 5 of the Hotel Steigenberger Graf Zeppelin,
Arnulf-Klett-Platz 7, 70173 Stuttgart

11:30 a.m.: Analyst Conference

Explanation of the 2008 preliminary figures by Chief Financial Officer Dr
Jochen Ruetz. Dial-in by telephone. For any questions please call +49 711
62042-172.

Detailed figures are available in the press area of the GFT website
(www.gft.com)

Andrea Wlcek
Head of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations
GFT Technologies AG
Filderhauptstrasse 142
70599 Stuttgart, Germany
T +49 711 62042-440
F +49 711 62042-301
M +49 173 702 29 95
andrea.wlcek@gft.com
www.gft.com

02.03.2009 Financial News transmitted by DGAP

Language: English
Issuer: GFT Technologies AG
Filderhauptstr. 142
70599 Stuttgart
Deutschland
Phone: +49 (0)711/62042-0
Fax: +49 (0)711/62042-301
E-mail: Investor-Relations@gft.com
Internet: www.gft.com
ISIN: DE0005800601
WKN: 580060
Listed: Regulierter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Freiverkehr
in Berlin, Stuttgart, München, Hamburg, Düsseldorf

End of News DGAP News-Service

---