“Ementor continues to deliver strong financial performance,” says Claus Hougesen, CEO Ementor ASA. “Strong cash flow, overall revenue growth and margin improvements show that the Group is on track to reach our ambitious financial targets.”
Services revenue for the fourth quarter 2007 continues to show strong performance with 24.7% growth year-over-year, adjusted for currency. Product revenue was up by 6.7% adjusted for currency and loss of employee home-pc sales in Sweden, due to legislative changes. Ementor generated a total underlying revenue growth of 9.1% and this is the third quarter in a row with underlying growth above market growth rates.
Group EBITDA in fourth quarter 2007 ended at MNOK 216.0, up 8.9% year-over-year, representing an EBITDA margin of 5.0%.
Operating result (EBIT) for fourth quarter 2007 was MNOK 190.0, representing an increase of 10.1% year-over-year.
Earnings after tax (EAT) in fourth quarter 2007 were MNOK 254.6.
Highlights 2007 full year
EBITDA for the full year 2007 ended at satisfactory MNOK 502.1, representing an EBITDA margin of 3.7%, which is up from MNOK 344.7 in 2006 (2.6% margin). Revenue ended at MNOK 13416.7 versus MNOK 13289.3 in 2006, up 5.7% adjusted for loss of employee home-pc sales in Sweden. Services revenue grew by 15.9% and product revenue adjusted for employee home–pc grew by 3.9% y-o-y.
The Group generated an outstanding MNOK 521.3 in cash from operations in 2007.
“2007 was a year characterised by growth and profitability,“ says Claus Hougesen. “We entered a new phase in the life of the company in 2007 following the integration of Ementor, Atea and Topnordic, a phase characterised by strong focus on operational excellence. A key to the Group’s success lies in the fine tuning of the many day-to-day details of our operation – in turn enabling the company to expand while keeping a modest cost base.”
Q4 financial performance by country
Norway continues to deliver strong performance in fourth quarter 2007 with an impressive EBITDA of MNOK 75.5 (7.0% margin). Revenue grew by 14.1% and reflects strong growth in sale of both services and products.
Denmark continues to deliver strong performance and fourth quarter EBITDA ended at MNOK 84.5 (5.4% margin). Strong increase in services revenue of 32.2% year-over-year explains the major improvement in results, with total revenue increasing by an impressive 14.1%.
Sweden reports fourth quarter EBITDA of MNOK 46.9 (3.8%), down from MNOK 63.6 in the corresponding period 2006. The decline is due to the loss of employee home-pc sales in Sweden. A new decentralised organisational structure was implemented Q3 2007 and is expected to fuel topline growth through increased pressure on the market and a more effective sales organisation going forward.
Finland reports fourth quarter 2007 EBITDA of MNOK 2.5 (0.5% margin) which is on same level as corresponding quarter in 2006. Revenue in fourth quarter was MNOK 463.8, up by 1.6% adjusted for currency and is the first quarter in 2007 with revenue improvement versus corresponding periods last year. Revenue growth and increased market pressure continues to be the main focus moving forward in Finland, which is a market with significant growth potential for the Group.
Acquisitions & outlook
A total of 9 acquisitions were completed in 2007, bringing expertise, competence and volumes to the company and its customers. This includes acquisition of Sonex Group in December 2007, establishing Ementor as the leading IT infrastructure player also in the Baltic region.
Through the acquisition of the Norwegian company Tomato, announced January 23 2008, a unique offering and platform of expertise within virtualisation technology and server consolidation was created.
“The Group created a strong financial position in 2007,” says Claus Hougesen. “Going into 2008 we expect to further consolidate our position as the leading supplier of IT infrastructure products and services in the Nordic and Baltic region.”
The quarterly report and presentation is available at
www.ementor.com/reports The press conference is available through webcast at
www.ementor.com/webcast The Stock Exchange Announcement is available at
www.ementor.com/ose
For further information, please contact:
Claus Hougesen, CEO Ementor ASA, mob +45 25 43 51 62
Rune Falstad, CFO Ementor ASA, mob +47 906 14 482