QSC AG

Earnings Release • May 7, 2012

News Details

Corporate | 7 May 2012 07:30

QSC gets off to fiscal 2012 as planned

QSC AG / Key word(s): Quarter Results

07.05.2012 / 07:30

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QSC gets off to fiscal 2012 as planned

– New orders of EUR 36.4 million in Direct Sales

– Revenues advance to EUR 116.0 million in first quarter of 2012

– EBITDA reaches EUR 17.5 million

– Guidance reiterated for full 2012 fiscal year

– QSC investing in growth for the coming years

Cologne, May 7, 2012. QSC AG started fiscal 2012 as planned, making progress in its transformation process into an ICT provider. The company brought to market its first entirely self-developed Cloud product with the cospace communications platform, broadened its sales partner network by more than 20 prominent IT players and won requests for proposals for numerous large ICT projects.

ICT revenues up sharply in Direct Sales

Revenues rose by 10 percent to EUR 116.0 million in the first quarter of 2012, compared to EUR 105.1 million for the corresponding quarter one year earlier. Progress in the transformation process is illustrated by the differing development of the business units. The Resellers Business Unit, which accounts to a large extent for conventional TC revenues, saw its revenues decline by 15 percent to EUR 45.2 million during the past quarter. ICT revenues in Direct Sales, on the other hand, advanced by 78 percent to EUR 42.1 million as a result of the consolidation; QSC had acquired the majority interest in INFO AG on May 2, 2011. Revenues in the third business unit, Indirect Sales, improved moderately to EUR 28.8 million, compared to EUR 28.0 million in the first quarter of 2011.

Rising revenues and a strong level of new orders, most of them having a term of three to five years, and a volume of EUR 36.4 million in the first quarter of 2012 necessitated expansion of the workforce, especially in IT Outsourcing and IT Consulting. Overall, the QSC Group employed a workforce of 1,366 people as of March 31 of the current fiscal year. Moreover, the major success that Direct Sales is achieving necessitated the temporary employment of external IT specialists. The costs this involved, together with the costs that are necessary for operating two fully functional headquarters of publicly traded corporations since the acquistion of INFO AG, as well as ongoing integration costs, pushed EBITDA down to EUR 17.5 million, in contrast to EUR 20.5 million in the especially profitable first quarter of 2011

EBIT reached EUR 4.0 million, as opposed to EUR 8.1 million the year before, while consolidated net profit totaled EUR 2.3 million, compared to EUR 6.5 million for the same quarter one year earlier. ‘These results are right in line with our expectations,’ notes QSC Chief Executive Officer Dr. Bernd Schlobohm. ‘2012 is a year of preparation in order to achieve the full strength and power of the QSC Group. These preparations involve direct costs, such as the costs of greater collaboration within the Group and the development of new products and services, while the revenues will not be generated until later.’

These preparations also include expansion of data center capacities; during the first quarter of 2012, the company opened another highly-modern data center in Munich on 5,000 square meters of floor space. Consequently, capital expenditures rose to EUR 8.7 million in the first quarter of 2012, in contrast to EUR 6.4 million for the same quarter on year earlier. Free cash flow reached EUR 5.8 million in the first quarter of 2012, enabling the QSC Group to reduce its net debts by 18 percent within three months to EUR -27.3 million.

QSC continues to anticipate revenues of between EUR 480 and EUR 510 million for 2012

In view of the fact that QSC started the fiscal year as planned, the company is reiterating its guidance for the full 2012 fiscal year that it had announced in early March: QSC anticipates revenues of between EUR 480 and EUR 510 million, an EBITDA margin of at least 16 percent and a free cash flow of between EUR 22 and EUR 32 million. The QSC Group views the current fiscal year as a year of preparation in order to achieve its full strength and power and to drive the integration of subsidiary INFO AG. At the same time, the company is targeting its investments toward growth in subsequent years. One focal point of activities, in addition to expanding the workforce and winning new IT sales partners, is the in-house development and marketing of Cloud-based products; the company plans to bring a total of four to six products to market by year-end.

In EUR million	Q1 2012	Q1 2011
Revenues	116.0	105.1
EBITDA	17.5	20.5
EBIT	4.0	8.1
Consolidated net profit	2.3	6.5
Free cash flow	5.8	21.9
CAPEX	8.7	6.4
Workforce	1,366	656

Queries to:

QSC AG

Arne Thull

Head of Investor Relations

Phone: +49 221 6698-724

Fax: +49 221 6698-009

E-mail: invest@qsc.de

Internet: www.qsc.de

Notes:

The 3-month report is available for download at www.qsc.de/en/qsc-ag/investor-relations.html . This corporate news contains forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and forecasts of future events by the management of QSC AG. Due to risks or mistaken assumptions, actual results may deviate substantially from those made in such forward-looking statements.

End of Corporate News

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Language:	English
Company:	QSC AG
	Mathias-Brüggen-Straße 55
	50829 Köln
	Germany
Phone:	+49-221-6698-724
Fax:	+49-221-6698-009
E-mail:	invest@qsc.de
Internet:	www.qsc.de
ISIN:	DE0005137004
WKN:	513700
Indices:	TecDAX
Listed:	Regulierter Markt in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Freiverkehr in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Hannover, München, Stuttgart

End of News	DGAP News-Service

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