q.beyond increases its revenues and aligns its strategy to recession

• Revenues defy weak macroeconomic climate and rise by 8% to € 43.1 million in third quarter of 2022
• Quarterly revenues in Cloud segment surge year-on-year by 18%
• Strategic focus now on profitable Cloud business and SAP
• 2022 forecast amended in line with macroeconomic climate: budgeted revenues of € 174 million to € 178 million and EBITDA of € 6 million to € 8 million

Cologne, 26 October 2022. In a quarter marked by great economic uncertainty, based on preliminary calculations the IT service provider q.beyond increased its revenues by 8% to € 43.1 million. The Cloud business again posted a particularly dynamic performance, with revenues in this segment rising year-on-year by 18% to € 35.3 million in the third quarter of 2022. Against this backdrop, EBITDA also improved to € 1.7 million compared with the operating EBITDA of € 1.6 million (€ 29.4 million including the successful sale of a business field) in the previous year’s quarter.

q.beyond’s CEO, Jürgen Hermann, sees Cloud, by far the largest business field at the company, as very much headed in the right direction: “Over the past two years, we have systematically expanded the range of cloud-related services on offer. And our acquisitions also enabled us to make bespoke additions to our portfolio.” By contrast, the SAP business was suffering more notably from the macroeconomic downturn and the downstream impact of the pandemic. Revenues here amounted to € 7.9 million in the third quarter of 2022, as against € 10.0 million in the previous year’s period. Following restructuring, this segment is expected to return to growth in the coming year. The software-as-a-service (SaaS) business is also underperforming expectations in the ever-tougher economic climate. In view of this, q.beyond will no longer pursue the capital-intensive development of proprietary SaaS applications. In its SaaS business, the company will now focus on providing customer-specific solutions for existing applications.

Focus on profitable growth

“We are preparing for a more prolonged period of recession”, comments Jürgen Hermann when explaining the key objective behind this decision. “Our focus is now quite clearly on those business fields where we can even then grow profitably.” As well as Cloud, which has generated high margins for years now, these fields also include SAP.

Alongside the Cloud and SAP businesses, a further major component of the “beyond 2022” strategy presented in April involved growth driven by SaaS product revenues, not least by way of acquisitions. Excluding these revenues and given the recession and associated energy crisis, the targets communicated for the SaaS business for 2025 will not be achievable. This decision and the current economic uncertainty also impact on the forecast for the current financial year: In line with market expectations, q.beyond now expects to generate revenues of € 174 million to € 178 million (previously: around € 180 million). Consistent with this, EBITDA is now set to reach between € 6 million and € 8 million (previously: around € 8 million), while the free cash flow forecast is unchanged at up to € -10 million. This means that revenues are still set to rise by some € 20 million compared with the previous year’s figure of € 155.2 million.

The company will provide extensive information about its business performance in the third quarter of 2022 on 7 November 2022. The Management Board will then present further details of the amended strategic focus at the German Equity Forum due to be held from 28 to 30 November 2022.

About q.beyond AG:
q.beyond AG is the key to successful digitalisation. We help our customers find the best digital solutions for their business and then put them into practice. Our strong team of 1,100 people accompanies SME customers securely and reliably throughout their digital journey. We are experts in Cloud, SAP and SaaS. With nationwide locations and its own certified data centres, q.beyond is one of Germany’s leading IT service providers.

Contact:
q.beyond AG
Arne Thull
Head of Investor Relations/Mergers & Acquisitions
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