News
Unterföhring/Munich, 24th January 2020 – KPS AG (WKN: A1A6V4 / ISIN: DE000A1A6V48), Europe’s leading consultancy for business transformation and process optimisation, increased group revenue by 4.9% to €180.7 million and thereby reached the higher end of the expected €170-180 million range. The driver of the growth in revenue was the excellent development of KPS’s international transformation projects.
EBITDA of €22.6 million (+12.6% in comparison to the previous year, margin 12.5%) is within the forecasted range of €22-27 million. It should be taken into account that as a result of the better than expected development especially by the acquired ICE Management Consulting, in Spain in the previous business year, additional earn-out obligations of €4.8 million were due which had a negative effect and must be taken into account. As a consequence, the adjusted EBITDA would be €27.4million and the EBITDA margin would climb to 15.2%.
The strategic measures started at the end of 2017 which involved acquisitions in foreign markets demonstrated their clear success in the previous business year. International revenues climbed by 79.5% to €77 million and contributed 42.6% (prev. year 24.9%) to group revenue. The development in Scandinavia is noteworthy. The KPS project teams in this region were able to strongly increase turnover by +149% to €40.8 million in comparison to the business year before.
Driven by the growth in income after taxes by 24% as well as the optimisation of working capital, KPS achieved a free cashflow of € 20.6 million, which was an increase on the year before of 42.6% In turn, Cash Conversion improved as measured by Free Cashflow in relation to the EBITDA of 72% in business year 2017/2018 to 91% in 2018/2019.
By the end of the business year, the equity ratio was at 45.2% (prev. year 46.5%) and the net debt to EBITDA ratio (including Earn-Out obligations of € 15 million) stood at 1.0. Therefore, KPS remains on very solid footing with regard to its financing structure.
Owing to the successful development in business year 2018/2019 the Supervisory Board and the Executive Board will suggest a dividend of €0.35 per share at the Annual General Meeting on 20 March 2020.
The Executive Board expects a stable business development and expects revenue of €181-191 million. The focus will be on increases in efficiency and productivity. In turn the Executive Board expects EBITDA in the range of €28-36 million. Via the application of IFRS 16 (Lease Accounting) for the first time, the expectation includes a positive one-time effect of €3.8 million.
The detailed Annual Report is now available for download at www.kps.com.
24th January 2020
KPS plc
The Executive Board
