S&T: Best 3rd quarter ever

Sales double in Business Solutions

October 24, 2007 - Vienna. In 2007, the S&T Group has had the best 3rd quarter since the start of business. In the 3rd quarter of 2007, S&T achieved sales of €122.9 million, an increase of 8.5%. The sales in IT consulting and solutions pro-jects (business area – Business Solutions) developed exceptionally well, and with €39.4 million, was twice as high in Q3 2007 as in the same period of the previous year. EBIT for Q3 in 2007 was €2.4 million, 62.3% higher than in Q3 2006. S&T expects further significant increases for the 2007 year end.

The S&T Group plans to double its business by 2010 and to generate more than 60% of sales in IT consulting and solutions. The 2007 3rd quarter results bring the Group significantly closer to this strategic aim. Already almost half of the Q3 sales (49.3%) come from Business Solutions and Managed Services. The sales in Business Solutions alone doubled in the 3rd quarter of 2007 to €39.4 million. The Managed Services area also made significant gains. With large outsourcing contracts, S&T achieved an increase in sales of 12.2 % with €21.2 million in the 3rd quarter. The sales in infrastructure business stood at €62.3 million in the 3rd quarter 2007, EBITDA rose by 50.5% compared to the previous year to €4.4 million and EBIT rose by 62.3% to €2.4 million.

January to September 2007: 10.2% more sales

S&T achieved total sales of €351.5 million in the first nine months of 2007, representing an increase of 10.2% compared to the same period in 2006. The Business Solutions area also performed outstandingly in this period, with sales of €102.5 million, represent-ing growth of 57.1%. Sales in the business area of Managed Services rose by 12.7% to €60.6 million. Together, these two segments make up 46.4% of total sales. With infra-structure solutions (Enterprise Systems) S&T achieved sales of €188.4 million (-5.8%) from January to September 2007. EBITDA for the first nine months of 2007 amounted to 11.4 million euros (-3.0%), matching the year-earlier level. EBIT posted a significant improvement, above all due to the record earnings generated in the third quarter. It totaled 6.1 million euros for the first nine months of 2007 (-20.3%), halving the restruc-turing-induced decline of -40.7% experienced in the first six months of 2007.

Outlook for 2007

For the 2007 financial year S&T expects an increase in total sales to €510-520 million and an increase in EBIT to €13-15 million.