EQS-News: OTRS AG publishes half-year report 2023: Agile and customer-centric corporate approach shows good results

OTRS AG publishes half-year report 2023: Agile and customer-centric corporate approach shows good results

• Double-digit revenue growth of 11.5% compared to the previous year in a difficult market environment
• Investments affect earnings development
• Further development of OTRS into a platform for management and automation of business processes planned

Oberursel, 31 October 2023: OTRS AG (ISIN: DE000A0S9R37), the manufacturer and world's largest service provider for the service management suite OTRS, has successfully completed the first half of the 2023 financial year in a difficult market environment. As expected, revenues increased by around 11.5% compared to last year's period to EUR 6,278 thousand (first half of 2022: EUR 5,629 thousand). The main driver of this development was the continued growth of the important recurring revenues, which improved by 8.1% to EUR 5,606 thousand (first half of 2022: EUR 5,186 thousand). The share of recurring revenues in total revenues was thus 89.3% (first half of 2022: 92.1%).

The basis of this steady and sustainable growth is the constant updating and improvement of the software functionalities. For this reason, OTRS AG continued to drive software development and improvement in the first half of 2023 and invested EUR 2,259 thousand in further development.

Germany continues to lag behind with the digital transformation and new technological achievements from the artificial intelligence environment pose challenges for companies. However, this has not led to decisions being made more quickly. Quite the opposite - in a market environment characterized by economic and geopolitical uncertainties, investment decisions are being put to the test more than ever and corresponding orders are being placed only very hesitantly. As a result, the sales cycle for OTRS AG has once again lengthened and requires even more intensive efforts in the acquisition of new customers.

In addition to the measures already initiated in the financial year 2022, such as the cooperation with Gartner, the introduction of an ERP system from SAP or the switch to the agile further development of the OTRS software, OTRS AG is therefore driving forward the professionalization of the company processes through further measures. Under the leadership of the new Chief Technology Officer Benjamin Müller, for example, the development of the Service Management Suite OTRS will be continued as a rolling release from autumn onwards and OTRS will be further developed into a flexible platform for the management and automation of business processes, on the basis of which a wide range of use cases will be mapped. Within the framework of a clear customer focus, the goal is to successively expand the range of solutions with functions, scopes and technologies that are relevant for users now and in the future and to be able to recognize customer and market requirements even earlier and to incorporate them more quickly into product development.

However, these measures also affect the earnings situation of OTRS AG - both in the past half-year and presumably in the financial year 2024. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) amounted to EUR 83 thousand in the first half-year of 2023 compared to EUR 681 thousand in the same period of the previous year. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) amounted to EUR -536 thousand in the first half of 2023 compared to EUR 369 thousand in the same period of the previous year. The declines in EBITDA and EBIT are mainly due to high expenses for hiring new employees, the introduction of the ERP system and increased market research activities, as well as the fact that development costs are no longer capitalized as a result of the switch to agile software development. In the previous year's reporting period, internally generated intangible assets in the amount of EUR 515 thousand were still capitalized. Personnel costs increased disproportionately in the reporting period to EUR 3,773 thousand (first half of 2022: EUR 3,361 thousand). The 12.3% increase is due in particular to new hires to expand the solution management team. Against this backdrop, the operating cash flow also decreased to EUR -1,489 thousand (first half of 2022: EUR 842 thousand).

OTRS AG constantly reviews the ongoing change process to see whether the measures introduced are sustainable and future-proof. By investing in professional and technical qualifications at an early stage, OTRS AG can continue to benefit from a broad and intact digitization trend. For the current financial year 2023, the Executive Board has specified its previous forecast more precisely. Revenues are now expected to increase by 5% to approximately EUR 12,400 thousand (previous forecast: revenue increase of 4% to 7% to approximately EUR 12,300 thousand to EUR 12,700 thousand). Due to the extensive investments in personnel and Gartner as well as the introduction of SAP and without capitalizations, the Executive Board expects an EBITDA in the range of EUR -500 thousand to EUR -800 thousand for 2023 (previous forecast: break-even to slightly negative EBITDA).

Detailed information is provided in the half-year report on the company website at https://corporate.otrs.com in the Investor Relations section.

For interested investors and members of the press, OTRS AG will hold an earnings call today, 31 October 2023, at 11.00 am. To register, please send an email to: sh@crossalliance.de.

About OTRS AG

OTRS Group is the manufacturer and the world’s largest provider of the enterprise service management suite OTRS. It offers companies industry-independent solutions for structured communication in customer service, IT service management and security management. In addition to the core product OTRS, the security solutions STORM and CONTROL ensure efficient cybersecurity incident management and transparent documentation in accordance with standards such as ISO 27001.

Among its customers are Lufthansa, Porsche, BSI (Federal Office for Security in Information Technology), Helios Kliniken, Haribo, Ameropa und TUI Cruises. The company consists of OTRS AG and its five subsidiaries OTRS Inc. (USA), OTRS S.A. de C.V. (Mexico), OTRS ASIA Pte. Ltd. (Singapore), OTRS Do Brasil Soluções Ltda. (Brazil) and OTRS Magyarország Kft. (Hungary). OTRS AG is listed on the basic board of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

For more information, see www.otrs.com.

Contact:

OTRS AG
Zimmersmühlenweg 11
D-61440 Oberursel
Phone: +49 (0)6172 681988-0
Fax: +49 (0)9421 56818 18
E-Mail: ir@otrs.com
Internet: www.corporate.otrs.com

Investor Relations
CROSS ALLIANCE communication GmbH
Susan Hoffmeister
Bahnhofstr. 98
D-82166 Graefelfing/Munich
Phone: +49 (0) 89 125 09 03-30
E-Mail: sh@crossalliance.de
Internet: www.crossalliance.de