08/09/2021

q.beyond accelerates growth and generates record new orders

• Revenues rise 12% to € 38.8 million in second quarter of 2021
• Quarterly new orders more than double year-on-year
• Forecast raised: Higher EBITDA and free cash flow expected after IP Colocation sale

Cologne, 9 August 2021 – As announced, q.beyond AG accelerated its growth in the second quarter of 2021. Revenues at the IT service provider rose year-on-year by 12% to € 38.8 million, following growth of 10% to € 37.5 million in the first quarter of 2021. q.beyond’s CEO, Jürgen Hermann, voiced his satisfaction: “Our business is growing dynamically despite the pandemic. We now expect a strong second half of 2021.”

Jürgen Hermann backed up this expectation mainly by referring to the record volume of new orders received in the first half of 2021. Compared with the previous year, this key figure surged by 67% to € 116.3 million. In the second quarter of 2021, new orders even more than doubled to € 87.5 million. A significant share of this increase was due to q.beyond gaining the first major customer in its new focus sector of logistics. Nearly 90% of orders in the past quarter involved new customers or new services for existing customers.

Cloud-&-IoT revenues grow by 19%

Demand for cloud solutions has particularly picked up in the pandemic. Revenues in the Cloud & IoT segment rose year-on-year by 19% to € 28.6 million in the second quarter of 2021. The SAP segment, which was affected far more severely by restrictions on contact, generated revenues of € 10.2 million in the past quarter, compared with € 10.5 million in the previous year. The SAP business also benefited from the high share of recurring revenues, which accounted for a 77% share of companywide revenues in the second quarter of 2021.

EBITDA shows disproportionate growth

q.beyond’s scalable business model means that rising revenues produce disproportionate earnings growth. Based on a € 4.3 million increase in revenues, EBITDA rose by € 2.0 million to € 1.2 million in the second quarter of 2021. Like in the first quarter of 2021, the marginal return came to more than 40%. As expected, the free cash flow of € -3.6 million in the second quarter of 2021 almost matched the previous year’s figure.

Sustainably positive free cash flow from Q3 2021 already

q.beyond will already report a sustainable positive free cash flow from the third quarter of 2021, and thus one quarter earlier than previously planned. This is due to sale of the wholly-owned subsidiary IP Colocation to DATEV, which was announced on 2 August. Alongside an inflow of funds, this sale will also generate one-off income, mainly from accounting gains.

q.beyond is therefore raising its EBITDA and free cash flow forecast for the 2021 financial year as a whole. Based on unchanged growth in revenues to € 160 million to € 170 million, the company now expects to report EBITDA of between € 8 million and € 13 million (previous forecast: € 5 million to € 10 million) and free cash flow of between € -2 million and € +3 million (previous forecast: € -10 million to € -5 million). The new forecast also accounts for the sales and earnings contributions now no longer included for the former subsidiary IP Colocation in the second half of 2021, as well as for costs relating to this transaction.

Company value almost doubles

Explains Jürgen Hermann: “Our profitable growth is increasingly gaining momentum.” Quarter by quarter, the company is coming ever closer to meeting the ambitious targets it set itself back in May 2019 with its “2020plus” growth strategy. For 2022, the company has budgeted revenues of € 200 million, an EBITDA margin of more than 10% and a sustainably positive free cash flow. This ongoing growth is also opening up new potential for q.beyond’s share: Within just one year, the company’s value almost doubled to € 207 million as of 30 June 2021.

The growth in the company’s value is due to the consistent implementation of the “2020plus” growth strategy. One key element of this strategy involves targeted takeovers. q.beyond most recently took over all the shares in the modern workplace specialist datac in June 2021 and followed this up at the end of July by acquiring a stake in Snabble, the provider of a prizewinning scan-&-go solution for retailers.

High growth momentum beyond 2022

With no debts, net liquidity of € 30.7 million and an equity ratio of 73% as of 30 June 2021, the company is excellently placed to make further acquisitions. At the same time, the high volume of new orders and market launch of platform-based innovations, including the “StoreButler” digitalisation platform for retailers, are boosting its internal growth capacity. Jürgen Hermann is convinced: “Our business will continue to show highly dynamic developments even beyond the coming year.”

Key figures at a glance

Notes:

The complete Half-Year Financial Report can be accessed at www.qbeyond.de/en/investor-relations. This Corporate News contains forward-looking statements that are based on current expectations and forecasts on the part of the management with regard to future events. Due to risks or erroneous assumptions, actual events may deviate materially from these forward-looking statements.

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 1,000 people accompanies SME customers securely and reliably throughout their digital journey. We are experts in Cloud, SAP and IoT.

q.beyond AG resulted from the rebranding of QSC AG in September 2020. With nationwide locations and its own certified data centres, it is one of Germany’s leading IT service providers.

Contact
q.beyond AG
Arne Thull
Head of Investor Relations/Mergers & Acquisitions
T +49 221 669 8724
invest@qbeyond.de