Qurius 2011: substantial operational improvements and creating perspective for innovative growth

ZALTBOMMEL, 15 March 2012 – European ICT solutions provider Qurius reports a total revenue of EUR 74.5 million and a small operational loss of EUR 0.6 million EBIT (before restructuring) on its financial year 2011 (2010 EBIT: EUR -3.5 million) for continued operations. This result reflects the operational improvements the company made in 2011. Being half way in its three year restructuring plan that started in the second half of 2010, Qurius acknowledges that restructuring the operations required more effort than expected. However the restructuring is still executed according to plan. At the start of 2012 the company is able to position itself for innovative growth combining traditional strengths in ERP with smart technologies covering the range of CRM, business intelligence, augmented reality, collaboration and customer platforms and social media integration.

The considerable financial recovery of Qurius is best shown by the development of its EBITDA during the last twelve months. At the close of 2011 the EBITDA level for the restructured operations was EUR 2.6 million, where it was EUR -0.2 million at the end of 2010. Excluding the sold Infor and hardware business the 2010 EBITDA amounted
EUR -2.8 million, which brings the improvement in 2011 on EUR 5.4 million. Further restructuring in all operations as well as the divestment of the Spanish and Belgian operations resulted in the improved performance level for the company. Proceeds of the divestments were partly used to decrease Qurius’ debt position with the NIBC to EUR 8.5 million (2010: EUR 11.6 million). With the equity that was raised through the Standby Equity Distribution Agreement (SEDA) facilities of Yorkville Qurius was able to invest in new developments and innovative technologies. Based on these technologies Qurius offers solutions addressing business themes like:Chain Integration, Compliance, Control, Customer Orientation, New Way of Working.


From operational restructuring, to innovative developments

“We look at 2011 as a year of largely completing the operational restructuring of our business”, says CEO Leen Zevenbergen. “This was a very necessary process in re-vitalising the company and it took us longer than we expected. Now we are in the next phase of our three year restructuring plan and are stepping up to innovative developments both in our traditional ERP-business as well as in new technologies. Customers are welcoming these new developments. We started the restructuring process in the middle of 2010 and we experienced a tough ride because the economic headwinds in Europe made companies in The Netherlands and the UK reluctant of investing in ICT. I am very happy to say that during this whole restructuring period existing and new customers have continued to show their confidence in Qurius. They bought in on our sector expertise and on innovative solutions. In 2012 there will be further roll outs of these solutions as well as the launch of innovations that we initiated in 2011. We have substantially changed management in Germany and The Netherlands and we saw very positive business developments in the UK. The restructuring of Qurius was accelerated through our alliance with Prodware. Sharing knowledge, resources and marketing power with Prodware has strengthened us in 2011. Transferring our Spanish and Belgian operations as strategic building blocks into the Prodware operation in the fall of 2011 has created a strongly focused core group in Qurius with operations in the UK, Germany and The Netherlands as well as a growing group of high level developers in the Czech Republic. We now concentrate on our most successful markets – geographies and sectors – and are building Qurius into one company, with better shared processes, staff and facilities, ready to create operational excellence. We now focus on our strengths. We have executed an initial carve out of software products from existing operations and put it in an ISV (Independent Software Vendor) company: QIPtree. This will enable us to sell Intellectual Property to third parties all over the world. We have created room for innovation as is reflected in our fast track development of CRM Online relying on strong partnerships with Microsoft and Zero2Ten from the USA. This new activity that we first rolled out in 2011 in The Netherlands and Germany, makes us a player in the Microsoft Dynamics space with great readiness for speeding up the introduction of more cloud based solutions and services that we are planning to implement in 2012. Despite of all the operational restructuring we have been improving our sustainability performance little by little. I dare to say that we are now creating a solid perspective for innovative growth towards an ICT solutions provider that is able to integrate the next generation of business management systems with the newest interactive platforms and social media.”


2011 Financial Developments

• Total revenue of continued business decreased with EUR 7.1 million. The decrease is mainly caused by the divestment of the Infor business that is included in the figures of 2010 for 6 months, with a revenue of EUR 4.6 million. In addition to that the hardware business in Germany was terminated at the end of 2010, of which the revenue in 2010 amounted to EUR 1.9 million. Taking these two elements into account, the actual revenue decrease in 2011 is limited to EUR0.6 million (-0.8%).
• The development in revenue categories is as follows:
- service revenueEUR 43.8 million (2010: EUR 49.7million)
- license revenue EUR 7.7 million (2010: EUR 8.2 million)
- maintenance revenue EUR 12.2 million(2010: EUR 12.5million)
- hardware revenue EUR 10.8million(2010: EUR 11.2million)
• Operating expenses decreased with EUR 9.3 million to EUR 45.4 million
• EBITDA amounted to EUR 2.6 million (2010: EUR -0.2 million)
• EBIT beforerestructuring amounted to EUR -0.6 million(2010: EUR -3.5 million)
• EBIT after restructuring amounted to EUR -2.1million(2010: EUR -6.9 million)
• The Spanishand Belgian operations were sold to Prodware for EUR 3 million and the transaction result was EUR -4.6 million, attributable to derecognition of goodwill, loans and deferred tax assets of the Spanish and Belgium operations.
• Net result for the period amounted to EUR -7.7million(2010: EUR -8.1 million), of which EUR -5.5 million is attributable to the sold Spanish and Belgian operations.

Financials

(continued operations in EUR x 1,000) 2011 cumulative 2010 cumulative Q4 2011 Q4 2010
Net sales 74,515 81,653 19,003 18,978
EBITDA 2,641 -229 225 -895
EBIT (before restructuring) -572 -3,539 -366 -1,634
Restructuring costs -1,553 -3,377 -1,251 -1,445
EBIT -2,125 -6,916 -1,617 -3,079
Net result for the period -7,714 -8,125 -6,007 -4,023
Earnings continued operations per share (in EUR) -0.02 -0.07
Net sales segmentation

By category
(in EUR x 1,000) 2011 cumulative 2010 cumulative % Change Q4 2011 Q4 2010 % Change
Licenses 7,702 8,167 -5.7% 2,475 2,789 -11.2%
Maintenance 12,178 12,527 -2.8% 3,287 2,568 28.0%
Services 43,817 49,747 -11.9% 11,186 10,790 3.7%
Hardware 10,818 11,212 -3.5% 2,055 2,831 -27.4%
74,515 81,653 -8.7% 19,003 18,978 0.1%

By country(in EUR x 1,000) 2011 cumulative 2010 cumulative % Change Q4 2011 Q4 2010 % Change
Netherlands 45,918 49,174 -6.6% 11,222 11,805 -4.9%
Germany 22,217 25,081 -11.4% 6,297 5,950 5.8%
United Kingdom 5,879 4,703 25.0% 1,232 1,174 4.9%
Other 501 2,695 -81.4% 252 49 414.3%
74,515 81,653 -8.7% 19,003 18,978 0.1%
EBIT margin (before restructuring costs)

2011 cumulative 2010 cumulative Q4 2011 Q4 2010
Netherlands 75 -1,997 249 -579
Germany -668 -1,386 -463 -955
United Kingdom 529 -291 70 6
Other -508 135 -222 -106
-572 -3,539 -366 -1,634

Employees

FTE as at 31 December 2011 2010
Netherlands 302 342
Germany 154 189
United Kingdom 39 56
Other countries 29 19
524 606

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