• Gross profits slightly below previous year (2.32 million euros) at 2.22 million euros
• Gross profit margin climbs to 14.1 percent (previous year: 13.9 percent)
• Earnings before taxes (EBT) still negative at -0.49 million euros (previous year: -0.17 million euros )
• Forecast for 2016 confirmed
• Comprehensive change initiative in H1 2016
Karlsruhe, May 25, 2016 – asknet AG, a supplier of global e-commerce solutions, has announced the figures for the first three months of 2016. Gross profits, the key performance indicator of the asknet Group, declined by a moderate 4 percent to 2.22 million euros in Q1 2016 (previous year: 2.32 million euros). The reduction in gross profits is a direct consequence of the stronger concentration on profitable growth and of one-time effects resulting from transactions of Q1 2015, which had a positive impact on that period. At the same time, the important gross profit margin climbed from 13.9 percent to 14.1 percent while sales revenues declined by 6 percent to 15.77 million euros (previous year: 16.74 million euros). The fact that revenues and gross profits / margins continue to move in opposite directions encourage the company to push forward the change process initiated at the end of 2014 and to gradually improve the sustained profitability of the Group through a strategic repositioning. Earnings before taxes (EBT) were still negative in the first three months of 2016 and amounted to -0.49 million euros (previous year: -0.17 million euros). The business trend of the first quarter was already reflected in the Group’s forecast for 2016. asknet therefore continues to project a moderate increase in the gross profit margin, gross profits and earnings before taxes (EBT) for the full financial year 2016.
asknet‘s Academics Business Unit recorded a moderate decline in gross profits from 0.72 million euros to 0.70 million euros. At the same time, the business Unit continued to expand its range of services and to accelerate its internationalization. Since May 2016, asknet has been offering fully integrated IaaS solutions exclusively to its academic customers. This includes all network components such as servers and computing power as well as network capacity via the cloud. The first quarter also saw asknet win a consulting mandate from a large Austrian university. Gross profits in asknet’s Digital Goods Business Unit declined from 1.43 million euros in the prior year period to 1.36 million euros in Q1 2016. The reduction is primarily attributable to the fact that asknet gradually gave up less profitable projects in the course of 2014, which is now taking full effect. At the same time, the business unit has been able to win several new customers in the year to date. Besides the deals announced in the Corporate News dated March 29, further agreements were signed in April and May with customers in the APAC region, including a manufacturer of security software from India. The positive effect on revenues of these new contracts will start to be felt already at the end of the second quarter and more fully as of the third quarter. The new business unit, Physical Goods, generated gross profits of 0.16 million euros in the first quarter of 2016 (previous year: 0.17 million euros). A relaunch at a customer scheduled for the second quarter will lead to higher sales revenues; the same applies to new products for HBO. Moreover, asknet was able to announce a new customer for its stand-alone product asknet Verify. Steinberg Media Technologies, a long-standing asknet customer, now also uses the innovative verification solution in its online shop.
Besides the successful deal closures mentioned above, asknet also continued its change process in the first three months of 2016 and made significant progress. The change process of the first half of 2016 comprises a total of 13 individual projects aimed at analyzing and increasing the economic and strategic contribution made by internal processes and procedures. These include, for instance, the optimization of the customer service and fulfillment processes as well as the reduction in payment costs and currency expenses incurred by the company. Moreover, actual customer margins remain under review in terms of the cost-efficiency of the underlying business.
Says Tobias Kaulfuss, CEO of asknet AG: “We are pushing ahead our transformation into an innovative growth company. It is particularly gratifying to see that we have been able to expand our product range by our new IaaS offerings within a very short space of time. Further innovative additions to our range of products and services will follow. The contracts signed with several new customers also make us optimistic. On balance, we continue to project a moderate improvement on the previous year for the current financial year. In the medium term, a new focus, optimized structures and process as well as a customer-oriented product range will lead to a sustainable increase in our financial profitability.”
January 1 – March 31, 2016
Sales revenues: 15.77 million euros
Gross profits: 2.22 million euros
Gross profit margin (gross profit in percent of sales revenues): 14.1%
EBT: -0.49 million euros
Result for the period: -0.49 million euros
January 1 – March 31, 2015
Sales revenues: 16.74 million euros
Gross profits: 2.32 million euros
Gross profit margin (gross profit in percent of sales revenues): 13.9%
EBT: -0.17 million euros
Result for the period: -0.17 million euros
The condensed financial statements for the first three months of 2016 are available on the company’s website at www.asknet.com as of today.
• Gross profit margin climbs to 14.1 percent (previous year: 13.9 percent)
• Earnings before taxes (EBT) still negative at -0.49 million euros (previous year: -0.17 million euros )
• Forecast for 2016 confirmed
• Comprehensive change initiative in H1 2016
Karlsruhe, May 25, 2016 – asknet AG, a supplier of global e-commerce solutions, has announced the figures for the first three months of 2016. Gross profits, the key performance indicator of the asknet Group, declined by a moderate 4 percent to 2.22 million euros in Q1 2016 (previous year: 2.32 million euros). The reduction in gross profits is a direct consequence of the stronger concentration on profitable growth and of one-time effects resulting from transactions of Q1 2015, which had a positive impact on that period. At the same time, the important gross profit margin climbed from 13.9 percent to 14.1 percent while sales revenues declined by 6 percent to 15.77 million euros (previous year: 16.74 million euros). The fact that revenues and gross profits / margins continue to move in opposite directions encourage the company to push forward the change process initiated at the end of 2014 and to gradually improve the sustained profitability of the Group through a strategic repositioning. Earnings before taxes (EBT) were still negative in the first three months of 2016 and amounted to -0.49 million euros (previous year: -0.17 million euros). The business trend of the first quarter was already reflected in the Group’s forecast for 2016. asknet therefore continues to project a moderate increase in the gross profit margin, gross profits and earnings before taxes (EBT) for the full financial year 2016.
asknet‘s Academics Business Unit recorded a moderate decline in gross profits from 0.72 million euros to 0.70 million euros. At the same time, the business Unit continued to expand its range of services and to accelerate its internationalization. Since May 2016, asknet has been offering fully integrated IaaS solutions exclusively to its academic customers. This includes all network components such as servers and computing power as well as network capacity via the cloud. The first quarter also saw asknet win a consulting mandate from a large Austrian university. Gross profits in asknet’s Digital Goods Business Unit declined from 1.43 million euros in the prior year period to 1.36 million euros in Q1 2016. The reduction is primarily attributable to the fact that asknet gradually gave up less profitable projects in the course of 2014, which is now taking full effect. At the same time, the business unit has been able to win several new customers in the year to date. Besides the deals announced in the Corporate News dated March 29, further agreements were signed in April and May with customers in the APAC region, including a manufacturer of security software from India. The positive effect on revenues of these new contracts will start to be felt already at the end of the second quarter and more fully as of the third quarter. The new business unit, Physical Goods, generated gross profits of 0.16 million euros in the first quarter of 2016 (previous year: 0.17 million euros). A relaunch at a customer scheduled for the second quarter will lead to higher sales revenues; the same applies to new products for HBO. Moreover, asknet was able to announce a new customer for its stand-alone product asknet Verify. Steinberg Media Technologies, a long-standing asknet customer, now also uses the innovative verification solution in its online shop.
Besides the successful deal closures mentioned above, asknet also continued its change process in the first three months of 2016 and made significant progress. The change process of the first half of 2016 comprises a total of 13 individual projects aimed at analyzing and increasing the economic and strategic contribution made by internal processes and procedures. These include, for instance, the optimization of the customer service and fulfillment processes as well as the reduction in payment costs and currency expenses incurred by the company. Moreover, actual customer margins remain under review in terms of the cost-efficiency of the underlying business.
Says Tobias Kaulfuss, CEO of asknet AG: “We are pushing ahead our transformation into an innovative growth company. It is particularly gratifying to see that we have been able to expand our product range by our new IaaS offerings within a very short space of time. Further innovative additions to our range of products and services will follow. The contracts signed with several new customers also make us optimistic. On balance, we continue to project a moderate improvement on the previous year for the current financial year. In the medium term, a new focus, optimized structures and process as well as a customer-oriented product range will lead to a sustainable increase in our financial profitability.”
January 1 – March 31, 2016
Sales revenues: 15.77 million euros
Gross profits: 2.22 million euros
Gross profit margin (gross profit in percent of sales revenues): 14.1%
EBT: -0.49 million euros
Result for the period: -0.49 million euros
January 1 – March 31, 2015
Sales revenues: 16.74 million euros
Gross profits: 2.32 million euros
Gross profit margin (gross profit in percent of sales revenues): 13.9%
EBT: -0.17 million euros
Result for the period: -0.17 million euros
The condensed financial statements for the first three months of 2016 are available on the company’s website at www.asknet.com as of today.
