After a strong first half, distributor ALSO is aiming for a full year improvement in EBITDA of between €10m and €15m on the previous year, of which €8m was earned in the first half before application of IFRS 16 by means of accelerated structural optimization, it says.
With the takeover of ABC Data with operational units in Poland, Hungary, Romania, Lithuania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic and to the integration expense to be expected (SAP launch and restructuring costs) the company also anticipates a neutral effect on its 2019 EBITDA.
The medium-term target is to increase EBITDA to between €240n and €300m after application of IFRS 16. In addition, the company aims over this period to achieve a return on capital employed (ROCE) of between 13% and 14% (2018: 11.8 percent).
In the first half of 2019 the ALSO Group generated an EBITDA of €64.4m, a 15% increase before application of IFRS 16. Sales were up by 14% to €4.8bn, which means that further market share was gained in the highly competitive IT business, it says.
These results are due to the ongoing structural optimization project and to improvements in gross profit and acquisitions. New Centers of Competence made a significant contribution towards this growth. All three business models developed positively: Supply +13.8%, Solutions +15.8% and As-a-Service +12.7%. After application of IFRS 16, EBITDA in the first half of 2019 totaled €76.3m, a 36.2% improvement.
Overall, the growth of IT-as-a-Service / ALSO Cloud-Business has continued to accelerate, it says. In the first half of 2019 it grew from €62m to €97m, a year-on-year increase of 56%. The number of IT seats increased from 2.3 million to 2.9 million, an increase of 23% in the number of seats managed directly by ALSO and of 30% in the number managed by our partners.
