On track to become a leading total technology solutions provider
Highlights H1 2016
· Revenue up 22% to € 42.1 million, 8% organic growth
· EBITDA increased 32% to € 4.2 million
· Net profit at € 2.1 million, an increase of 44% (H1 2015: € 1.5 million)
· Acquisition of BMA in the field of Smarter Health completed
· Intended acquisition of Nozhup in the field of Smarter Industries as announced on 12 July 2016
· Barring unforeseen circumstances, ICT expects an improvement in EBITDA between 25%-35% for the full year 2016 compared to 2015.

Key figures
(in millions of €) H1 2016 H1 2015 Change
Revenue 42.1 34.6 22%
Revenue Added Value 37.3 31.8 18%
EBITDA 4.2 3.2 32%
Amortisation / depreciation 1.2 1.1 8%
Operating result 3.0 2.1 44%
Net profit 2.1 1.5 44%
(in €)
Earnings per share (*) 0.24 0.17 41%
(*) Based on the average number of outstanding ordinary shares.

Jos Blejie, CEO of ICT Group N.V.: “We are pleased with the developments of this first half year. Both in terms of results as well as in the further roll out of our strategy. We realised strong revenue and EBITDA growth, to which all our key activities contributed. We closed the acquisition of BMA, thereby strengthening our position in Smarter Health. We announced the expansion of our water infrastructure services through the acquisition of the Dynniq activities. And finally, early July, we announced the intended acquisition of Nozhup, with which we will gain significant scale in the Industrial Automation markets. These are all important steps in our road map to becoming a leading total technology solutions provider. In March we decided to close our Polish operations and focus our nearshoring business on Strypes in Bulgaria, which is further professionalising its organisation to enable sustainable growth. We are confident about the second half of the year and therefore expect an improvement in EBITDA between 25-35% for the full year 2016.”

Strategy update
In the first half of 2016 ICT made important steps in the execution of its strategic road map. The success of the earlier strategic choices is reflected in the strong financial results realised in the first half of the year. In 2015 ICT changed its organisational structure from verticals to business units, to spark the entrepreneurial spirit within ICT. This resulted in the first half of 2016 in a profitable autonomous growth of 8%.
In February 2016 ICT completed the purchase of 51% of the shares of BMA (Buro Medische Automatisering), a leading Dutch Healthcare software company active in obstetrics. The remaining 49% will be acquired after a period of three years. This transaction also marks an important step in ICT’s growth strategy and further enhances ICT’s position in the field of Smarter Health.
The acquisition of Raster in September 2015 marked an important step in strengthening ICT’s position in the Oil and Gas market. In June 2016, ICT acquired the water related services activities of Dynniq, which strengthened ICT’s expertise in Smarter Cities. In July 2016, we announced the proposed acquisition of Nozhup, active in process automation in the industry and infrastructure markets. With these acquisitions, ICT is well on track to deliver on its ambition to become one of the largest Industrial Automation players in the Netherlands, addressing the global themes Smarter Industries and Smarter Cities.
Furthermore at the end of March 2016 ICT announced the closure of the ICT Poland operation with effect from 31 May 2016. As the Polish operations had not reached the necessary scale to continue to make the operation viable, ICT decided to focus its nearshoring strategy fully on Strypes Bulgaria.
At the beginning of July 2016 a new legal entity (start-up), ICT Mobile B.V., was incorporated, in which ICT holds 51% of the shares (49% is owned by the two founders). With this new activity ICT is responding to the trend of enterprises embracing mobile processes and adopting a mobile strategy at high speed.
At the AGM held on 11 May 2016 the statutory name change of ICT Automatisering N.V. to ICT Group N.V., was adopted. The new name better reflects the international character of the company and also enables the company to easier add new labels to the group.
Notes to the results
In the first six months of 2016 ICT Group’s revenue came in at € 42.1 million, up 22% compared to € 34.6 million reported in H1 2015. Organically, revenue increased by 8%. This was driven by increased number of staff, slightly higher average rates and good project results, whilst overall productivity was slightly lower.
Revenue at ICT Netherlands increased 7% to € 32.3 million in H1 2016 from € 30.1 million in the same period last year. Productivity levels were more or less at the same levels as last year, but ICT was able to increase the average rate and the company realised good project results. Licences and materials sales were below expectations. Market circumstances in the Industrial Automation market remained challenging. Other markets, including High Tech, Machine & Systems, Automotive, Healthcare and Logistics, showed a positive development. ICT sees ample opportunities in Healthcare that realised good growth percentages.
Strypes Bulgaria (“ICT Nearshoring” or “Strypes”) saw a 26% increase in revenue from € 2.5 million in H1 2015 to € 3.2 million in the first six months of 2016. As Strypes further broadened its client base, it continued to decrease the firm’s dependency on its largest client. In the past six months Strypes invested efforts both on new clients as well as on the internal processes, with the objective to further professionalise the organisation and to ensure that Strypes Bulgaria will be able to continue its strong growth path. Given these outlays we anticipate a temporisation of the results.
Raster contributed revenues of € 2.9 million in the first six months of 2016. Despite the still challenging Oil and Gas market, Raster showed a good performance, in line with expectations.
The segment ‘other’ (Improve, BMA and ICT Poland) recorded revenues of € 4.2 million. The market for training is favourable as is reflected in the revenue recorded by Improve, which slightly improved over last year. BMA performed below expectations as a result of postponement of projects, but expects to improve in the second half of the year and the new product developments are running on schedule. As a result of the closure of the Polish operations as per 31 May 2016, revenue of ICT Poland was slightly down compared to H1 2015.
Personnel costs increased overall to € 24.9 million (H1 2015: € 21.6 million), as a result of both salary increases as well as the increase in number of employees. Other operating expenses also increased, mainly as a result of the most recent acquisitions. The costs related to strategic initiatives and the realisation of acquisitions and partnerships amounted to € 0.3 million (H1 2015: € 0.3 million).
EBITDA for the first six months of 2016 increased by 32% to € 4.2 million, compared to € 3.2 million in the comparable period in 2015. Organically (excluding BMA and Raster) EBITDA was in line with last year. Profitability at ICT Netherlands increased, but this was off-set by the increased investments in Strypes Bulgaria and the costs related to the closure of the Polish operations. The EBITDA margin increased from 9.2% in H1 2015 to 9.9% in H1 2016.
Based on Purchase Price Allocation, ICT has attributed a value to and is amortising a number of intangible assets, including order backlog, software and customer relations of its recent acquisitions. Amortisation amounted to € 0.9 in the first half of 2016, comprising € 0.3 million related to Strypes Bulgaria, € 0.3 million related to Raster and € 0.3 million related to BMA. Depreciation for the first half of 2016 amounted to € 0.2 million (H1 2015: € 0.2 million).
The operating profit amounted to € 3.0 million in H1 2016 (H1 2015: € 2.1 million).
The results from joint venture InTraffic increased compared to last year and contributed € 0.1 million to the results. The result from associates improved to € 0.1 million negative (H1 2015 € 0.2 million negative), mainly due to a better performance of LogicNets Inc.
Taxes in the first half of 2016 amounted to € 0.7 million compared with € 0.4 million in the first half of 2015.
Net profit for the first six months of 2016 amounted to € 2.1 million, compared with € 1.5 million in H1 2015. This translates into earnings per share of € 0.24 for H1 2016. The number of outstanding ordinary shares increased during the first half year 2016 to 8,845,251 (31 December 2015: 8,747,544).
Cash flow movement
As usual for the first half of the year, net operational cash flow amounted to € 0.3 million negative in H1 2016 (H1 2015: € 0.8 million negative). The cash position per 30 June 2016 decreased to € 1.2 million (31 December 2015: € 6.7 million). This was mainly due to investments in housing facilities, the payment of the earn out obligation related to the acquisition of Strypes Bulgaria, the purchase price cash consideration of the acquisition of BMA, and the payment of dividend. The acquisition of BMA was partly financed from the acquisition facility.
Balance sheet structure
In the first half of 2016, shareholders’ equity increased to € 36.3 million (31 December 2015: € 35.5 million) as a result of the net effect of dividend paid of € 2.1 million, issuance of new shares of € 0.8 million, related to the acquisition of BMA and net profit of € 2.1 million. The balance sheet total increased from € 58.2 million at year-end 2015 to € 70.3 million at 30 June 2016, as a result of the acquisitions in the last half year. Solvency (shareholders’ equity/total assets) represents a sound financial basis and stood at 52% at the end of June 2016 (61% at year-end 2015).
Personnel
The total number of employees at 30 June 2016 was around 4% higher than at year-end 2015. This was due to both acquisitions and as well as increased recruitment efforts.
Significant events after the balance sheet date
On 11 July 2016, ICT signed a letter of intent to acquire Nozhup. With this intended acquisition ICT gains significant scale in the industrial automation market. At the same time it considerably widens ICT’s customer base in this market. Nozhup will immediately contribute to the profitability of ICT.
In anticipation of the intended acquisition of Nozhup, ICT has extended its acquisition credit facility with Rabobank in July 2016 from € 6 to € 11 million. Additionally ICT has increased its working capital credit facility from € 6 million to € 10 million. The conditions of the facilities remained unchanged.

Composition of the Supervisory Board
At the General Meeting of Shareholders held on 11 May 2016, Mr. Luthra was reappointed for a second four-year term as member of the Supervisory Board.

Outlook
ICT continues to aim for organic growth in combination with growth through acquisitions. ICT will focus on further leveraging its recent acquisitions. Given the strategic progress made and its acquisitions, ICT expects for the full year 2016 an improvement in EBITDA between 25%-35% compared to the full year 2015.

tijd 09.07
ICT EUR 10,625 -7ct vol. 7.327