Sharply increased pace of growth leading to 13th record year in succession

Provisional figures show that ATOSS Software AG has continued to accelerate its dynamic development in financial year 2018, setting new records for sales and earnings. Consolidated sales were up by a substantial 15 percent at EUR 62.6 million. And despite significant future-oriented investments, ATOSS once again exceeded the excellent development in earnings achieved in previous years: growth in operating profits (EBIT) outstripped the rate of increase in sales, climbing 20 percent to EUR 16.9 million with a margin on sales of 27 percent (previous year 26 percent). Once again ATOSS has performed significantly better than the market in general and clearly exceeded its own forecasts at the beginning of the year.

ATOSS Software AG reports a highly successful development in business for the thirteenth year in succession. Once again in the past financial year, with its innovative product ideas and state-of-the-art software solutions, the Munich specialist has acquired over 1,000 new customers who have chosen ATOSS as their workforce management partner. Provisional figures reveal a seamless and accelerating continuation in a long series of consistently positive results.

This is reflected in particular in the highly positive development in sales during the past financial year. Software sales in this period were 14 percent higher at EUR 39.4 million (previous year: EUR 34.6 million), equating to 63 percent of the Group’s overall turnover (previous year: 63 percent). Software licenses accounted for sales of EUR 13.3 million (previous year: EUR 12.7 million). Growth in the cloud business was particularly strong with turnover rising to EUR 4.2 million, more than double the figure for the year before. The consistent positive trend in software maintenance over many years has also been sustained, with sales climbing 10 percent to EUR 21.9 million (previous year: EUR 19.9 million). Turnover in consulting, too, at EUR 17.7 million (previous year: EUR 14.7 million) was up by 21 percent, well above the figure for the previous year and continuing a trend that has been evident for some years. Hardware sales and other revenues amounted to EUR 4.1 million (previous year: EUR 3.7 million) and EUR 1.4 million (previous year: EUR 1.6 million) respectively.

Despite a marked increase in growth-oriented investments relative to the year before, particularly in R&D, sales and customer services, the return on sales at 27 percent based on EBIT was above Management Board guidance for financial year 2018.

The market for workforce management continues to offer substantial potential for growth. The challenges posed by digitization, new work concepts and an increasingly individualized society are bringing profound and continuous changes to the world of work. As a consequence the demand for workforce management solutions is growing unabated. ATOSS is excellently positioned in this market environment, as demonstrated not least by the successful transformation of the company’s business model with the introduction of the cloud business. This in turn contributed to a further increase in the volume of recurring revenues as a proportion of overall turnover in 2018. As a result in addition to its robust and increasing core business, ATOSS can look forward to further potential growth in the dynamically developing cloud segment. This is evident not least from the gratifying development in sales figures. The software component in cloud orders as a proportion of overall software orders received (software licenses and the software component of cloud subscriptions) has doubled year on year, rising from 14 percent to 28 percent. The dynamic demand for cloud solutions helped to underpin the growth in orders for software licenses as well as the software component of cloud subscriptions which climbed 27% to EUR 18.5 million (previous year: EUR 14.6 million). As a result orders on hand for cloud solutions increased markedly to EUR 16.9 million (previous year: EUR 8.7 million). Together with orders on hand for software licenses at EUR 5.5 million (previous year: EUR 5.5 million), this constitutes an excellent foundation for further growth.

In view of the excellent business situation, the Management Board expects to see further record development in the current financial year 2019 with an EBIT margin of approx. 25 percent and will propose that the Supervisory Board in deciding on the appropriation of profits should approve a distribution of EUR 4.00 per share. In line with the policy of previous years this would include a dividend of EUR 1.40 (previous year: EUR 1.17) and a special dividend amounting to EUR 2.60 per share. The recommendations for the appropriation of net income put forward by the Management and Supervisory Boards will be resolved upon at the annual general meeting on April 30, 2019.