itelligence AG remained on its growth path in the first half of 2016, increasing its revenues by 10.8% from MEUR 322.8 to MEUR 357.7. This development was attributable to both organic growth (8.4%) and the companies acquired last year (2.4%). Project start-up and acquisition costs had a disproportionate impact on earnings in the first half of the year. Orders on hand climbed by 3.7% to MEUR 661.0 as of June 30, 2016 (June 30, 2015: MEUR 637.7).
Norbert Rotter, CEO of itelligence AG: “itelligence remains on a solid growth path. This is being driven by the digital transformation and the resulting growing demand for services and consulting on Industry 4.0, and I expect this area to continue to provide positive impetus. We succeeded in increasing our revenues by more than 10% in both the first and second quarters, benefiting from organic growth as well as the non-organic growth resulting from our strategic acquisitions last year. Thanks to the companies acquired this year, this trend will continue in the second half of 2016.”
In the revenue segments, Consulting revenues rose by 9.4%, from MEUR 144.9 to MEUR 158.5. License business enjoyed very strong revenue growth of 24.1% in the first half of the year, from MEUR 22.8 to MEUR 28.3. Revenues from recurring business increased by 9.5% on the whole, with Outsourcing & Services revenues amounting to MEUR 117.1 (previous year: MEUR 119.2) and Application Management revenues totaling MEUR 52.1 (previous year: MEUR 35.3).
In terms of geographical distribution, itelligence generated revenue growth of 5.3%, from MEUR 151.8 to MEUR 159.8, in its largest segment of Germany/Austria/Switzerland (DACH). In the first half of the year, Western Europe posted the strongest revenue growth of 24.3%, from MEUR 67.9 to MEUR 84.4. itelligence increased its revenues in Eastern Europe by 21.0%, from MEUR 31.9 to MEUR 38.6. The US segment also enjoyed strong performance with growth of 4.1%, generating revenues of MEUR 66.7 after MEUR 64.1 in the previous year.
The Asia segment recorded revenues of MEUR 6.0 in the first half of 2016 after MEUR 5.0 in the same period of the previous year (+20.0%). Finally, revenues in the Other segment increased slightly year-on-year to MEUR 2.2 (previous year: MEUR 2.1).
In terms of earnings performance, itelligence was down on the previous year at the end of the first six months of 2016. This was due primarily to project start-up costs for IT solutions, acquisition costs, and exchange rate losses. EBIT for the first six months of the current year amounted to MEUR 8.1 after MEUR 11.4 in the previous year (-28.9%). The EBIT margin was 2.3% as against 3.5% in the previous year. EBITA amounted to MEUR 11.6 after MEUR 14.6 in the previous year (-20.5%), resulting in an EBITA margin of 3.2% compared with 4.5% in the same period of the previous year.
Reflecting the two acquisitions made (ITML GmbH and BIT.Group GmbH), the Management Board is raising its revenue forecast for the year as a whole to MEUR 740-750, while the EBIT margin is projected at between 5% and 5.5%.