SinnerSchrader has closed the 2017/2018 financial year from 1 September 2017 to 31 August 2018 with a good fourth quarter. On the basis of the provisional, as yet unaudited figures of the annual financial statements, the revenue for the quarter was approximately EUR 17.3 million. This equates to an increase of over 18% compared to the same period of the previous year. The revenue of the preceding third quarter was increased by 4.9%.

SinnerSchrader thus generated revenue of just under EUR 64.3 million in the 2017/2018 financial year as a whole. The revenue forecast of EUR 63.8 million, which was originally published in November 2017 and most recently confirmed in July 2018, was therefore comfortably achieved on the basis of the unaudited figures. All three operating segments contributed to the Group's growth with good growth rates. In total, SinnerSchrader expanded its business volume by over 13% in the last financial year.

The merger with the Accenture Group, which holds around 66% of the shares in SinnerSchrader AG, and in which SinnerSchrader has been incorporated via a control agreement since January 2018, provided initial stimulus for the SinnerSchrader business during the course of the reporting year. Together with Accenture Interactive, SinnerSchrader is the biggest digital agency in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Operating earnings (EBITA) before direct costs from the implementation of the merger agreement with Accenture reached a good EUR 2.7 million in the fourth quarter according to the unaudited figures and were around 23.7% higher than the previous year's EBITA. Double-digit operating margins were generated in all three segments. Overall, the Group achieved an operating margin of 15.9% in the fourth quarter. The costs of the merger agreement still amounted to nearly EUR 0.4 million in this quarter.

With these operating earnings in the fourth quarter, SinnerSchrader closed the 2017/2018 financial year as originally forecast with EBITA before merger costs of EUR 7.2 million according to the unaudited financial statement figures. The operating margin for the year as a whole came to 11.2%. In the previous year, the comparable EBITA and the margin amounted to EUR 6.3 million and 11.0% respectively. As planned, the merger costs totalled a good EUR 2.0 million over the 2017/2018 financial year, so EBITA after these costs came to nearly EUR 5.2 million compared to EUR 3.4 million in the previous year.

The unaudited consolidated financial statements report consolidated earnings (before profit transfers to the Accenture Group) of around EUR 3.5 million, which gives earnings per share of between EUR 0.30 and EUR 0.31. SinnerSchrader thus achieved its November 2017 forecast here, too.

On 31 August 2018, the final day of the 2017/2018 financial year, SinnerSchrader had cash and cash equivalents of EUR 6.7 million compared to EUR 4.9 million as of the previous year's reporting date. The SinnerSchrader Group had 6xx employees on 31 August 2018, yy more than on the previous year's reporting date.

SinnerSchrader was included in the Accenture Group's consolidated financial statements, which were published today, on the basis the provisional figures. SinnerSchrader is expected to announce the final, audited figures of the consolidated financial statements and the separate financial statements of SinnerSchrader AG for the 2017/2018 financial year together with a forecast for the 2018/2019 financial year on 29 November 2018.

ABOUT SINNERSCHRADER
SinnerSchrader is one of the leading digital agencies in Europe with the focus on the design and development of digital products and services. More than 600 employees work on digital transformation for companies such as Allianz, Audi, comdirect bank, ERGO, Telefónica, TUI, Unitymedia and VW. SinnerSchrader was founded in 1996, has been listed on the stock exchange since 1999 and has offices in Hamburg, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, Munich, and Prague. Since April 2017, SinnerSchrader has been part of Accenture Interactive.