EQS-News: DATAGROUP Gives Positive Outlook for Current Fiscal Year

• Dividend increase to EUR 1.50 per share
• Strong growth in CORBOX core business
• Focus on future topics of AI, cloud services and cyber security
• Company acquisitions as a further pillar of growth

Pliezhausen, March 14, 2024: DATAGROUP SE (WKN A0JC8S) today held its Annual General Meeting at the company's headquarters in Pliezhausen. Among other things, the shareholders voted in favor of increasing the dividend to EUR 1.50 per share. The DATAGROUP Management Board expects revenue to grow to EUR 510-530m in the current fiscal year (previous year: EUR 497.8m), which already takes into account the effects from organic growth, revenue reduction from legacy contracts, and inorganic growth from M&A. EBITDA is expected to be in the range of EUR 77-81m and EBIT of EUR 43-46m and includes investments of around EUR 6m in future growth areas, a significant portion of which will be recognized in profit or loss.

At today's Annual General Meeting of DATAGROUP SE at the company's headquarters in Pliezhausen near Stuttgart, 73.1 % of the voting share capital was represented. The shareholders approved all items on the agenda with a large majority, including the distribution of a dividend of EUR 1.50 per share (previous year: EUR 1.10) from retained earnings. This corresponds to a total dividend payout of EUR 12.5m (previous year: EUR 9.2m) or 44 % of the net profit for the period of FY 2022/2023 and is thus within the usual range of DATAGROUP's dividend policy.

"Despite all macroeconomic adversities, we have again achieved a good business result, in which we naturally want our shareholders to participate", says Andreas Baresel, CEO of DATAGROUP SE. "The economic situation remains challenging, but DATAGROUP is excellently positioned and I am therefore optimistic about the future."

Strong order intake in CORBOX core business

The Management Board reported a successful CORBOX core business growth in the current financial year. Demand for CORBOX IT services continued to rise compared to the same period in the previous year and demand for consulting services, including in the SAP environment, also developed positively. New customer sales of EUR 18.5m have already been acquired on an annualized basis in the new financial year. "The strength of our business model and the sustainability of the CORBOX service-as-a-product approach are particularly evident in uncertain times," continues Baresel. "This approach ensures reliable and stable long-term development thanks to recurring sales and good margins. The latest incoming orders will also lead to further sales growth after the usual start-up phase of around nine months."

Focus on future topics of artificial intelligence (AI), cloud services, and cyber security

In his speech, the CEO addressed the future topics AI, cloud services, and cyber security in detail. DATAGROUP intends to invest EUR 6m in these areas in the current fiscal year and thus lay the foundation for further success and future growth. "The use of artificial intelligence will take our IT services production to a whole new level", says Baresel. "Our service capacities can be significantly expanded without a significant increase in personnel and at minimal marginal costs. We see great growth potential in the area of cyber security, particularly due to the increasing regulatory requirements for companies. The increasing shift of operational and transformation services to the cloud will massively change the depth and structure of value creation in the IT sector: Cloud services will become the dominant operating model and DATAGROUP naturally wants to benefit from this development as well."

Company acquisitions as a further pillar of growth

Inorganic growth through acquisitions will continue to be an important pillar of success in the current fiscal year. In the past fiscal year, DATAGROUP increased its stake in URANO Informationssysteme to 100 % and acquired the assets of arago with the IP rights to the AI technology HIRO in addition to the acquisition of the Ulm-based IT system house systemzwo.

In the current fiscal year, two further acquisitions have already been made with conplus and iT TOTAL and the pipeline of interesting takeover candidates is still well filled. DATAGROUP is systematically exploring the market. The following profiles are particularly attractive: regional system houses on their way to becoming IT service providers; companies that strengthen the CORBOX core business; companies with strong digitization competence as well as IT service providers in the SME target customer market.

Publication of the DATAGROUP Sustainability Report

At the Annual General Meeting, the Management Board also presented the Sustainability Report 2024 to the shareholders. The updated report bundles information on the company's measures in the areas of environment, social commitment, and corporate governance. "We at DATAGROUP are aware of our corporate and social responsibility", says Dr Sabine Laukemann, Board Member for Human Resources, Strategy and Organization. "We therefore attach great importance to sustainability and working in partnership with our customers and employees. We report on this in the current sustainability report. In the current financial year, we are continuing to implement our sustainability strategy project and its practical implementation with the chair of Prof Dr Ebinger at Nuremberg Institute of Technology." On the occasion of the company's 40th anniversary, the DATAGROUP FOREST is one of the projects in the area of ecological commitment, in which a forest of the future is to be planted on a fallow area in the Black Forest together with the customer Forst BW. The plan is to plant 4,000 trees that will be able to cope with the challenges of climate change.

Promising business development in the current financial year 2023/2024 and intensification of investor relations work

"After a year of upheaval, we have made a good start to the new financial year and are very positive about the future in view of the successes in our core business and the future topics we have announced," says Oliver Thome, CFO, Investor Relations and M&A. "We are firmly convinced that our direction is exactly the right one and that this will also be reflected in the share price in the medium term. To support this, we have further expanded our investor relations activities. By regularly and transparently communicating our business model and development as well as attending additional, new conference formats, we want to attract new groups of investors to the DATAGROUP share and increase the share's liquidity."

Further information on the Annual General Meeting and the voting results as well as the speech by the Management Board can be found at www.datagroup.de/en/annual-general-meeting.

About DATAGROUP

DATAGROUP is one of the leading German IT service companies. Around 3,500 employees at locations throughout Germany design, implement and operate IT infrastructures and business applications. With its CORBOX product, DATAGROUP is a full-service provider and manages the IT workplaces of medium-sized and large companies as well as public-sector clients worldwide. DATAGROUP is growing organically and through acquisitions. The acquisition strategy is characterized above all by an optimal integration of the new companies. DATAGROUP actively participates in the consolidation process through its "buy and turn around" or "buy and build" strategy.

Contact for Investors

Anke Banaschewski
Investor Relations
anke.banaschewski@datagroup.de

Press Contact

Sarah Berger-Niemann
Corporate Communications
presse@datagroup.de