29.04.2008 |

S&T: IT consulting and solutions business records +55% growth

EBIT up 40%

Sales Q1 2008: €116.6m (+12%)

EBIT Q1 2008: €2.2m (+40%)

EBITDA Q1 2008: €4.1m (+30%)

April 29, 2008. The S&T Group achieved remarkable results in Q1 2008: Overall sales rose 12% to €116.6m, and sales in the Business Solutions area rocketed an outstanding +55%. EBIT increased to €2.2m. EBITDA also rose by +30% to €4.1m. S&T stock performed well despite challenging market conditions – in March the share price rose +7.4% to outperform all other shares of the ATX Prime Index.
The success of the S&T Group’s strategy has been confirmed by the IT consulting and solution provider’s Q1 2008 results. The company has been pushing its consulting, solutions and service operations as they are less affected by seasonal influences than the IT infrastructure business. During the traditionally weak business period at the start of the year, S&T recorded growth in sales of 12% and EBIT growth of 40%. As expected, after record results in the 4th Quarter of 2007 and for the 2007 financial year as a whole, S&T’s growth is set to continue. S&T has won new and strategically important business. At the same time other contracts were successfully completed and solid foundations were laid for another successful year in 2008.

A boom in IT consulting and solutions

The IT consulting and solutions area of the business recorded particularly outstanding results in the 1st Quarter of 2008 – rising 55% to €34.6m. By 2010, the company plans to generate more than 60% of its sales from both this and the Managed Services business areas. Particularly in the DACH region S&T has achieved in the managed services business area a good market position by assuming responsibility for the servicing of entire IT areas. Numerous large contracts in this area in Q1 led to an organic sales growth of 18% to €23m.

One contract alone was worth €1.8m: The S&T Group was contracted by ISS Facility Services to manage the planning, implementation and servicing of a data center, as well as the IT setup for 450 workstations and 140 printers at 51 ISS locations. In addition, January saw S&T begin work on the implementation of a multi-million euro Managed Desktop Service contract in 14 countries for OMV. As expected, Q1 also saw the Enterprise Systems business area with sales of €59m demonstrating robust and profitable performance.

Outlook 2008

The outlook for the 2008 financial year remains unchanged: S&T anticipates sales of between €560m and €580m, and EBIT of between €15m and €17m.