DATAGROUP Withdraws Outlook
 

Pliezhausen, April 27, 2020. DATAGROUP SE (WKN A0JC8S) withdraws its revenue and EBITDA outlook for the time being due to one-off effects caused by coronavirus.

To date, the DATAGROUP business had been mostly unaffected by the current corona pandemic. "We have an extremely stable business model thanks to our long-term contracts for the supply of basic IT operating services", said Max H.-H. Schaber, CEO of DATAGROUP. Following a slight temporary boom caused, for instance, by setting up home offices for customers, there have been disruptions in production at some points in the past two months. On the basis of extraordinary factors in connection with the corona crisis, larger transitions in particular cannot be fully implemented within the given time frame. This can lead to delayed start-ups resulting in losses of turnover. "Moreover, we have noticed cautious investment behavior among our customers concerning our Almato business with software robots and the mobilization of business applications, which currently is still mostly project-based", explains Andreas Baresel, Chief Production Officer of DATAGROUP.

Further impacts of the corona pandemic are also expected for IT-Informatik, which was acquired in August 2019 and now is operating under the name of DATAGROUP Ulm. DATAGROUP had acquired assets and employees from insolvency proceedings, but not the customer relations. These were meant to be directly transferred to the CORBOX world through new contracts. The effects of the corona pandemic lead to unexpected delays in ramping up new business here as well. Following start-up losses of EUR 1.3m in the first quarter, the company is making small profits by now, but is unlikely to make any substantial contribution to the Group's results from today's perspective.

For these reasons, the management of DATAGROUP withdraws its guidance for the time being. "We are proceeding cautiously, and currently cannot reliably estimate the duration and extent of the economic effects of these uncertainties on DATAGROUP", says Max H.-H. Schaber, CEO of DATAGROUP.

"In the long run, however, the corona pandemic is expected to boost the digitization of business processes and the mobilization and cloudification of our working worlds", adds Andreas Baresel. "When the corona-related exceptional situation is over, momentum could be generated particularly for our cloud and collaboration solutions, which should lead to an upturn in business."

ABOUT DATAGROUP

DATAGROUP is one of the leading German IT service companies. Over 2,700 employees at locations across Germany design, implement, and operate IT infrastructures and business applications such as SAP. With its CORBOX product, DATAGROUP is a full-service provider, supporting over 600k global IT workplaces for medium and large enterprises as well as public authorities. The company is growing organically and through acquisitions. The acquisitions strategy is particularly noted for its optimal integration of new companies. DATAGROUP is actively participating in the IT service market's consolidation process with its "buy and turn around" and its "buy and build" strategy.

CONTACT

Claudia Erning
Investor Relations
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