03/30/2022
q.beyond expects strong revenue growth through to 2025
- 2021 consolidated financial statements: revenues rise 8% to € 155.2 million
- 2022 forecast: revenue growth to between € 180 million and € 200 million
- “beyond 2022” strategy: revenues of € 270 million to € 300 million in 2025
All targets met in 2021 financial year
As announced at the beginning of February 2022, in the past financial year q.beyond generated revenues of € 155.2 million (2020: € 143.4 million). With EBITDA of € 31.7 million (2020: € -2.0 million) and free cash flow of € 33.2 million (2020: € -15.8 million), the company also achieved the other targets communicated in its forecast, which was most recently raised in November 2021. This had accounted for all effects resulting from the successful sale of the colocation business. Jürgen Hermann, q.beyond’s CEO, draws a positive conclusion for 2021: “Despite challenging conditions, we pressed consistently ahead with implementing our growth strategy and increased all relevant key figures.”
The revenue growth posted for 2021 was driven above all by success in the Cloud business, where segment revenues rose by 11% to € 113.7 million. At € 41.5 million, the revenues generated in the SAP segment in the second year of the coronavirus matched the 2020 figure (€ 41.4 million). Rapidly rising segment contributions underline the scalability of q.beyond’s business model. Earnings in the Cloud & IoT segment improved year-on-year by 58% to € 12.3 million. Thanks not least to efficiency enhancement measures, earnings in the SAP segment even surged by 93% to € 5.4 million. The company-wide marginal return stood at more than 40% in 2021, meaning that each additional euro of revenues increased earnings by more than 40 cents.
Strong growth in 2022 financial year
Given record new orders of € 184.5 million and its takeover of business operations at scanplus in December 2021, q.beyond has a solid basis to reach its revenue target of between € 180 million and € 200 million in 2022. The broad range of this forecast is due to the uncertainty surrounding the impact of the war in Ukraine on the German economy. It is also not yet possible to foresee the potential implications of the coronavirus pandemic in the further course of the year.
The SaaS business will already contribute revenues on a scale of € 15 million to € 20 million to q.beyond’s growth in 2022. Including the costs of preparing internally developed and externally acquired SaaS solutions and launching these onto the market, the company expects to generate EBITDA of € 8 million to € 16 million and free cash flow at a maximum of € -10 million in 2022. These investments in q.beyond’s future will be made possible by the profitability of the Cloud and SAP businesses, as well as by the company’s net liquidity of € 56.2 million as of 31 December 2021.
High growth in revenues, EBITDA and free cash flow through to 2025
The expansion in the SaaS business will create additional growth opportunities in the years ahead. With its “beyond 2022” growth strategy, the company has once again set itself ambitious targets: by 2025, its revenues are set to rise to between € 270 million and € 300 million. In 2025, the company expects to achieve an EBITDA margin of 14% to 16% and free cash flow of € 15 million to € 25 million. Jürgen Hermann explains: “The profitable growth in our Cloud and SAP businesses creates the basis for us to expand SaaS solutions offering great growth and earnings potential.” Shareholders should benefit from this dynamic growth principally via the increase in the company’s value. In 2021, this grew by 14% to € 188.0 million.
The growth planned for the coming years will be driven by all three business fields: Cloud, SAP and SaaS. In its Cloud business, q.beyond will particularly benefit from the further rise in demand for cloud and security solutions. At present, nearly 50% of medium-sized companies are currently still thought to operate their own IT. In the SAP business, the migration of companies to the new S/4HANA software generation will accelerate once the pandemic has run its course. These factors will be supplemented by high growth momentum in the SaaS business, not least as a result of acquisitions.
Growing demand for SaaS solutions
The SaaS business is primarily about introducing new business models. It therefore extends q.beyond’s Cloud and SAP business, which generally focus on enhancing companies’ efficiency, with a further major component. Jürgen Hermann is convinced that demand for SaaS sector solutions will rise sharply as digitalisation advances. He explains: “Together with customers in our focus sectors, we have long been working to promote SaaS pilot projects. Given the very positive response we have received, we are now further accelerating development work and launching a continuous stream of further SaaS solutions onto the market. “With more than 170 SaaS specialists, q.beyond has the capacities needed for this.
Jürgen Hermann sees SaaS solutions as the logical next step in q.beyond’s growth strategy: “We said from the outset that we aim to reimagine digitalisation for SMEs – with innovative one-stop solutions to revolutionise business models. That is exactly what out our SaaS solutions do. They are the right product at the right time.”
Key figures at a glance
| € million | 2021 | 2020 |
|---|---|---|
| Revenues | 155.2 | 143.4 |
| - Cloud & IoT segment | 113.7 | 102.0 |
| - SAP segment | 41.5 | 41.4 |
| EBITDA | 31.7 | (2.0) |
| EBIT | 15.2 | (18.8) |
| Consolidated net income | 9.8 | (19.9) |
| Free cash flow | 33.2 | (15.8) |
| Net liquidity at 31 December | 56.2 | 44.9 |
| Equity ratio at 31 December | 74% | 72% |
| Employees at 31 December | 1,139 | 936 |
Notes:
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. The Annual Report is available at www.qbeyond.de/en/investor-relations.
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 1,100 people accompanies SME customers securely and reliably throughout their digital journey. We are experts in Cloud, SAP and SaaS.
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
