29.10.2008 | Austria

S&T again increases services sales in Q3

Optimistic outlook for the entire 2008 financial year

Despite the ongoing international financial crisis, the IT consultancy and service provider S&T has again successfully expanded its consulting and services business in the third quarter of 2008. In the Managed Services sector (outsourcing solutions), S&T showed an increase in sales of 23.2%, to 26.1 million Euro, for this period (Q1-Q3 2008: 73.3 million Euro, +21.0%). Sales figures for the Business Solutions Division (software solutions and SAP consulting) rose in the third quarter of 2008 by 1.3% to 39.9 million Euro, and increased in the first nine months of the year by 12.4% to 115.3 million Euro. Total sales increased in Q3 2008 by 1.7% to 124.9 million Euro, and increased from January to September 2008 by 3.1%, to 362.3 million Euro. The company is expecting sales of 510-520 million Euro and an EBIT of 11-12 million Euro for the whole year, thereby achieving numbers close to the record figures from 2007.
The contribution to S&T Group sales growth made by the service provision business (outsourcing, software and consulting) has increased over-proportionally and now accounts for 52% of total sales. The hardware-related Enterprise Services business achieved sales of 58.9 million Euro (-5.4%) in Q3 2008 and 173.7 million Euro (-7.8%) for the first nine months of the year. “Due to the financial crisis, some customers have postponed infrastructure orders, in particular those involving servers and storage equipment,” explains Christian Rosner, S&T CEO.
In the third quarter of 2008, the Group generated an EBITDA of 3.3 million Euro (-24.7%), January to September totalling 10.6 million Euro (-7.7%). The EBIT for Q3 was 1.4 million Euro (-44.4%) and was 5.0 million Euro (-17.1%) for the first nine months of the year. The gross margin was 40.5% in Q3 and 40.2% for the year to the end of September. Rosner: “The financial crisis unfortunately can’t fail to have some impact on S&T, but we have a stable business model with a considerable portion of our portfolio consisting of services and consulting, as well as mostly mid-term duration contracts and projects. In addition, IT is crucial for practically every company and is vital in particular when it comes to boosting cost and efficiency potentials. We are therefore currently expecting a good 2008 fourth quarter in our key business units“.

2008 Outlook


Despite the prevailing economic climate, the S&T Group expects a good 2008 fourth quarter in the majority of its countries. For the whole year, the company expects total sales of 510-520 million Euro and an EBIT of 11-12 million Euro. Rosner: “We are assuming that we will again increase the gross margin for the whole year and that we will be able to continue on our path of solid success, despite the ongoing crunch. In 2009 we will focus on increasing profitability in all countries and business units.”
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Gabriela Mair
Head of Corporate Communications
Tel.: +43 1 367 8088 1024
Cell: +43 664 60191 1024

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