05/11/2015

QSC posts good start to 2015 and confirms forecast

• Revenues of € 104.7 million
• EBITDA of € 9.1 million
• New orders of € 64.2 million
• Personnel cuts initiated
• Sales success in Cloud business with Vodafone Deutschland

Cologne, 11 May 2015. QSC AG began 2015 on a successful note with its core topics. The signing of a contract with Vodafone Deutschland in March of this year has boosted QSC’s positioning as a cloud provider. Via its FTAPI subsidiary, the Company will in future be providing Vodafone corporate customers with a secure e-mail encryption product.

Another core topic, the process of focusing on medium-sized corporate customers in the Outsourcing business, has also started well. Here, the Company has signed a contract worth € 40 million with the Hessian energy supplier Süwag.

QSC has also initiated sustainable cost-cutting measures, focusing in particular on staff cuts. Termination of employment has already been agreed with an initial total of around 100 employees.

First-quarter revenues amounted to € 104.7 million (previous year: € 109.1 million). Of this total, € 56.8 million (55%) was attributable to the Telecommunications business unit, € 36.8 million (35%) to Outsourcing, € 9.8 million (9%) to Consulting and € 1.3 million (1%) to the Cloud business.

The Telecommunications business remained relatively stable compared with the two preceding quarters. Outsourcing revenues decreased compared with the previous quarter. The major order received from Süwag will only generate notable revenues from 2016 onwards. The Consulting business was clearly positive and witnessed strong overall demand. With the Vodafone order, the Cloud business has also laid a strong foundation for future revenues.

Consistent with expectations, the EBITDA of € 9.1 million for the first quarter of 2015 fell short of the previous year’s figure of € 13.4 million. In terms of operating earnings (EBIT), the figure of € -3.0 million posted by QSC marks an improvement on the two preceding quarters.

In general, the Company can point to an initial improvement in its key financials compared with the preceding quarters, even though the cost-cutting measures introduced, and here the job cuts in particular, will only produce tangible results in the second half of the year.

Comments Jürgen Hermann, CEO of QSC: “Stabilising our core business is just as important as expanding our cloud products. This market is set to show rapid growth in the years ahead and QSC has clear competitive advantages.”

Following the good start to 2015, QSC can confirm its full-year forecast for 2015 presented at the end of February. The Company continues to expect to generate revenues of more than € 400 million, EBITDA of more than € 40 million and positive free cash flow.

In € million	Q1 2015	Q4 2014	Q3 2014	Q2 2014	Q1 2014
Revenues	104.7	106.4	106.6	109.4	109.1
Gross profit	27.1	20.3	26.1	27.8	30.2
EBITDA	9.1	2.3	8.8	10.5	13.4
EBIT	-3.0	-29.2	-3.9	-2.0	1.1
Consolidated net income	-3.4	-24.1	-6.2	-3.9	0.3
Free cash flow	-4.4	-38.2	3.7	5.0	4.6
Capital expenditure	3.5	10.8	6.3	8.2	4.7
Employees	1,666	1,697	1,709	1,712	1,705

Notes:
The 3-month report can be downloaded at www.qsc.de/en/qsc-ag/investor-relations.html. This Corporate News contains forward-looking statements that are based on current expectations and forecasts on the part of the management of QSC AG with regard to future events. Due to risks or erroneous assumptions, actual events may deviate materially from these forward-looking statements.

Contact for enquiries:
QSC AG
Arne Thull
Head of Investor Relations
Tel: + 49 221 669-8724
Fax: +49 221 669-8009
E-mail: invest@qsc.de