UNIT4 Reports Continued Growth in Q1 2012

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Apr 24, 2012, 08:00 ET

SLIEDRECHT, the Netherlands, April 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Traditional license and SaaS revenues grow

Company increases investment in sales and marketing

UNIT4, the global business software group, today reported encouraging results for Q1 2012. The world's leading provider of enterprise software for Businesses Living IN Change (BLINC) saw a 3% growth in revenue to $151.4M USD* (€115.3 million) (Q1 2011: $147.2M USD (€112.1 million)).

The business and trading environment in the first quarter was in line with management expectations and the group achieved above average revenue growth in North America, Canada, Asia Pacific, UK and Norway. In addition to seeing continued growth in traditional license revenue in the first quarter, the UNIT4 group as a whole is extremely well placed to meet the increasing trend towards SaaS/subscription.

FinancialForce.com, the cloud applications company in which UNIT4 is a majority investor, once again showed significant growth in monthly run rate. It is well positioned in a high growth market, has an extremely strong sales pipeline and has been successful in recruitment to meet ambitious growth plans.

The Group remains optimistic about the outlook for the rest of the year and has increased investment in sales and marketing in key operational areas, which is expected to have positive effects later in 2012. As a result, the total EBITDA declined in the first quarter by 5% to $23.6M USD (€18.0 million) (Q1 2011: $24.8 USD (€18.9 million)). In addition to the increased investment the total EBITDA also includes also $2.6M (€2.0 million) reorganization costs (primarily Spain).

The gross margin increased to 92.0% in Q1, compared with 91.2% over the same period in 2011.

Edwin van Leeuwen, UNIT4 NV's CFO, said: "We are pleased with our performance in the opening quarter of the year. The current trading environment has not deteriorated compared with the final months of 2011 and in several areas we are seeing further growth opportunities. Our objective for financial year 2012 is to grow our SaaS and subscription business whilst maintaining or growing our traditional license revenue. We have increased investment in sales and marketing in parts of the business with good growth potential, particularly in Financialforce.com and in UNIT4 North America, UNIT4 Asia and UNIT4 Germany. These investments generate pressure on profitability in the early months of the year but we expect this to recover later in 2012. The EBITDA for Q1 2012 was already better than we had expected."

Outlook

Based upon the current estimates and pipeline, UNIT4 management continues to expect growth in the single digit range both in revenues and EBITDA for the total year 2012.

*1 EUR = 1.31295 USD

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, revenue of $597.0M USD (€454.7 million) was realized in 2011.

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 http://www.unit4.com, follow us on Twitter @UNIT4_Group or visit our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/#!/UNIT4BusinessSoftwareNV

Hilary Pike, UK PR Manager, UNIT4
+44(0)7810-657-778
[email protected]

SOURCE UNIT4