Sliedrecht, The Netherlands, April 21, 2011 – UNIT4, the world’s leading provider of business software for fast changing organizations, 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 organization 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. 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 reorganization/reallocation costs in the R&D department.
- EBITDA excl. investment in FinancialForce.com and reorganization costs was €22.8 million, growth of 34% compared with Q1 2010.
UNIT4 works with organizations 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 organizations, in all sectors around the world, are affected by frequent reorganization, 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 customization,” 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.
About UNIT4
UNIT4 is a global business software and services company aimed at helping dynamic public sector, and commercial services organizations to embrace change simply, quickly and cost effectively in a market sector it calls 'Businesses Living IN Change' (BLINC)™. The Group incorporates a number of the world’s leading change embracing software brands including Agresso Business World, our flagship ERP suite for mid-sized services intensive organizations and Coda, our best-of-class financial management software.
With operations in 17 European countries, as well as 7 countries across North America, Asia Pacific and Africa and sales activities in several other countries, its revenue was €421.7 million in 2010. UNIT4 is headquartered in Sliedrecht, the Netherlands and has over 4,000 employees. It is listed on Euronext Amsterdam and is included in the Amsterdam Midcap Index (AMX). For more information on UNIT4 or any of its operating companies, please visit the website at
www.unit4.com, follow us on Twitter @UNIT4_Group or contact:
For investor and analyst enquiries, contact:
Edwin van Leeuwen, CFO UNIT4 N.V.
+31 (0)184 44 44 44
Edwin.van.leeuwen@UNIT4.com