EQS-News: AUSTRIACARD HOLDINGS AG ANNOUNCES FY 2023 RESULTS

• Group Adj. Revenues* during FY 2023 increased by 13.2% reaching € 351.3m. Excluding the effect of the one-off Kenyan elections project in 2022, comparable revenues increased by 23.0%, or € 65.8m.
• Growth driven by strong performance in Secure Chip & Payments, Digital Transformation Solutions in Central Eastern Europe, consolidation of Romanian postal activities.
• FY 2023 Group Adj. EBITDA grew by 27.2% and reached € 49.3m, with a margin of 14.0% compared to 12.5% in FY 2022. Excluding Kenya, Adj. EBITDA grew by 50.6%.
• Net Income for the period increased by 220.9% to € 17.0m, with a margin of 4.8% compared to 1.7% in FY 2022, due to strong operating performance and significantly less adjustments.
• Dividend of €0.10 per share to be proposed to the AGM.

*Excluding the effect of IAS29 (Hyperinflation accounting) with respect to the Türkiye-based operations. Reported IFRS FY 2023 Group Revenues were € 364.6mn.

CEO COMMENTARY

AUSTRIACARD HOLDINGS AG Group-CEO, Manolis Kontos, noted:

 “2023 was a remarkable, transformational year for AUSTRIACARD. In March, through a merger with our already listed sub INFORM in Greece our shares were listed in both the Vienna and Athens exchanges, enabling investors to participate in the successful course of the whole Group. In the middle of the year we proceeded with the reorganization of our businesses along geographic clusters, facilitating faster expansion in new markets, enhancing at the same time cross selling and customer service. In December we also completed our refinancing at Group level, securing significant financial flexibility to pursue our growth objectives.

We posted one more year of strong growth in both revenues and profitability. Group Adj. Revenues grew by 13.2%, Adj. EBITDA by 27.2% and Net Income by 220.9%. If we exclude the Kenyan elections project effect from 2022 results, the respective increases are 23.0% in Adj. Revenues and 50.6% in Adj. EBITDA.

Performance was very strong in Central Eastern Europe & DACH, where Adj. Revenues grew by 35.2% reaching €224.6mn and Adj. EBITDA by 166.8% reaching €30.3mn, driven by Secure Chip & Payment, Digital Transformation Solutions and consolidation of Romanian postal operations. In Western Europe, Nordics & Americas, Adj. Revenues were flat at €116.0mn with Adj. EBITDA at €17.9mn, affected mainly by the US regional bank turmoil in H2 2023. The US market remains a priority for the Group and we anticipate strong contribution in the years to come. In the Türkiye, Middle East & Africa segment, Adj. Revenues declined by 3.0% to €53.7mn and Adj. EBITDA reached €4.9mn, due to the Kenyan elections comparable. Ex. Kenya, the segment’s Adj. Revenues grew by 76.0% and Adj. EBITDA by 68.1%. The performance in Türkiye reflects the ability of the Group in bringing results in the markets we focus to grow our market share.     (All segment figures are displayed pre intragroup eliminations).

AUSTRIACARD just completed one year as a listed company and to reward our shareholders we plan to propose to the AGM the distribution of a €0.10 per share dividend. 

Finally, on behalf of the Board I want to extend our warmest wishes to Panagiotis Spyropoulos, our departing Group CEO. Panagiotis has been instrumental, during the 13 years that he was at the helm, in expanding AUSTRIACARD across all axes, geographic reach, size and profitability. We thank him for his hard work, talent, loyalty and determination.”

1-12 2023 BUSINESS PERFORMANCE

The following analysis is based on the business performance as monitored by Group management excluding effects of IAS 29 Hyperinflation accounting. The reported IFRS FY2023 Results of the Group can be found in the corporate website https://www.austriacard.com/investor-relations-ac/financial-reporting-ac/.

 Business Performance

 AUSTRIACARD HOLDINGS Group revenues reached € 351.3m increasing by € 40.9m or 13.2% compared to 2022. The main drivers of this revenue increase are attributed to a strong performance of the Secure Chip & Payment Solutions
(€ +27m), especially in Central Eastern Europe & DACH, as well as Türkiye. This amount includes € 9.5m revenues related to not-yet invoiced Contract assets. The number of sold and invoiced cards increased by 7.1m or 5.6% from 127.7m to 134.8m cards. Revenues from postal and distribution services grew by € 20.0m mainly attributable to the Romanian market through the majority stake acquisition of Pink Post solutions business. Additionally, revenues in the field of digitalization solutions increased by € 6.0m due to the start of the implementation of the public digitalization projects in Greece and continued business growth in that area in general. This strong performance in Secure Chip & Payment and Digital Transformation Solutions, the two technology based pylons of the Group, together with general improvement in other sectors more than compensated the reduction in security printing related to the Kenya elections project implemented 2022.

Gross profit I increased by € 20.7m or 15.0% to € 158.8m in 2023 as a result of the strong increase in revenues. The Gross margin I increased by 0.7 percentage points to 45.2% mainly due to a higher average sales price and the increase in service related revenues such as Document Digitalization and distribution services.

Gross profit II increased by € 12.3m or 16.6% to € 86.8m in 2023 and Gross margin II increased by 0.7 percentage points to 24.7% due to revenue growth and economies of scale as result of the higher utilization of the group’s production facilities.

Operating expenses excluding depreciation, amortization and impairment (OPEX) increased by € 13.2m or 13.4% from € 98.5m to € 111.7m in 2023 mainly due to the addition of the Pink Post distribution business in Romania (€ 10.0m), the finalization of the set-up of the personalization facility in the US (€ 2.6m), higher headquarters expenses in the wake of the listing at the Athens and Vienna stock exchanges and the reorganization of group management (€ 1.4m). Also, OPEX increased as a result of business growth, combined with inflationary salary and costs increases, that more than offset the reduction in OPEX related to the Kenya election project implemented in 2022 (€ -8.5m). As percentage of revenues Operating expenses remained stable at 31.8% compared to 31.7% in 2022.

Adjusted EBITDA increased by € 10.6m or 27.2% from € 38.7m to € 49.3m in 2023, as a result of the strong operating performance of Secure Chip & Payment Solutions in the Central Eastern Europe & DACH as well as Türkiye markets, the consolidation of the Pink Post distribution business and the growth of Digital Transformation Solutions, which more than compensated higher OPEX requirements and the Kenya election project effect in 2022. As a result, adjusted EBITDA margin increased by 1.6 percentage points from 12.5% to 14.0%.

Adjusted EBIT increased by € 8.8m or 36.3% reaching € 33.2m as the increase in adjusted EBITDA was only partially compensated by higher depreciation & amortization mainly related to recent investments. Adjusted Profit before tax increased by € 6.0m or 29.9% reaching € 26.1m as the higher adjusted EBIT was partially offset by higher interest expenses driven by the increase in Euribor. 

Profit after tax increased by € 11.7m and thus more than tripled from € 5.3m to € 17.0m due to the adjusted Profit before tax and the reduction of non-cash expenses for management participation programs by € 5.0m.

Pro forma business performance excluding Kenya election project

As presented in the table below, excluding the effects of the Kenya election project implemented in 2022 Revenues have increased by 23.0%, Gross Profit II by 28.9% as the Gross profit II margin improved by 1.1 percentage points from 23.6% to 24.7% based on average sales price increases, economies of scale and a higher contribution of services and solutions, which have a higher margin, in revenues. OPEX in absolute terms increased by 24.3% while OPEX as a percentage of revenues slightly increased by 0.3 percentage points compared to 2022. Adjusted EBITDA increased by 50.6% and the adjusted EBITDA margin improved by 2.6 percentage points to 14.0% in 2023.

Effect of IAS 29 Hyperinflation

As presented in the table below, the application of IAS 29 Hyperinflation with respect to our Türkiye-based operations, hyperinflation accounting increased Revenues by € 13.3m reaching € 364.6m in 2023 compared to by € 4.4m reaching 
€ 314.7m in 2022. Hyperinflation accounting is also increasing adjusted EBITDA, adjusted EBIT and adjusted Profit before tax in the IFRS Income statement compared to the Management Income statement by € 1.3m, € 1.2m respectively 
€ 1.1m each in 2023 compared to € 0.4m in 2022. Due to the negative impact of IAS 29 in Net finance costs, Profit before tax and Profit as per Management Income statement are lower by € 0.2m in 2023 and by € 0.3m respectively € 0.4m lower in 2022.

Financial Position

Total assets increased by € 51.5m from € 270.2m to € 321.7m as of 31 December 2023 which is mainly related to increases in inventories for raw materials, goods-in-transit (€ +22.2m) and contract assets (€ +9.5m) and restricted cash deposits received from customers included in other receivables and contract liabilities (€ +8.1m). Non-current assets increased by € 3.0m to € 156.8m mainly due to the cyclical revaluation of land and buildings and the effects of hyperinflation accounting for the operations in Türkiye (€ +2.5m) and investments in machinery which were partially offset by depreciation and amortization and the reduction in fair value of interest rate swaps for hedging purposes 
(€ -1.4m).

Non-current liabilities increased by € 25.3m from € 90.0m to € 115.2m as a result of the group-wide refinancing of loans & borrowings (€ +31.8m) being partially offset by the derecognition of long-term liabilities for management participation programs. Equity increased by € 26.3m due to the Profit of the financial year and the implementation of the equity settled stock option plan for senior group management (€ +9.4m). As a result of the Company’s merger with its former subsidiary Inform P. Lykos Holdings SA, Greece, non-controlling interest was reduced from € 11.6m to € 0.7m.  The Group’s equity ratio thus increased from 29.9% to 33.3% as of 31 December 2023.

Coming from a low level as of 31 December 2022, Net working capital increased by € 35.1m or 152.5% from € 23.0m to 
€ 58.2m due to the high level of Inventory and Contract assets. Net working capital as a percentage of revenues increased from a very low level in 2022 of 7.4%, after being at 15.8% in 2021 to 16.6% as of 31 December 2023.

Net Debt increased by € 18.5m from € 76.6m as of 31 December 2022 to € 95.0m as of 31 December 2023 due to the normalization and thus increase in working capital requirements. The net debt / adjusted EBITDA ratio decreased from 2.0 in 2022 to 1.9 as of 31 December 2023.

ABOUT AUSTRIACARD HOLDINGS AG

AUSTRIACARD HOLDINGS AG, headquartered in Vienna, with an international presence and one of the leading providers of Secure Digital Technology Solutions in Europe.

AUSTRIACARD HOLDINGS AG is the one of the leading B2B providers of smart cards, personalization and payment solutions, as well as secure data management and digitalization solutions, in Austria, Scandinavia, Central and Eastern Europe and South Eastern Europe, while also having significant market share in many other European countries and Türkiye. The Group is expanding fast in geographical areas outside Europe, such as the USA where it has established a new personalization center, and the Middle East & Africa where sales units have been developed that have already drawn significant new business. In addition, the Company has become a payment products and solutions partner of choice for Challenger Banks/Neo Banks, a growing market segment world-wide.

The Company has a very strong pan-European operational footprint, reaching from the United Kingdom to Greece and Türkiye, with seven production facilities and seven personalization centers in Europe, as well as an additional personalization center in USA, employing currently around 2,600 people. It also has sales offices in Norway, Czech Republic, Germany, Croatia, Serbia, Jordan, the UAE and a network of partners and selling agencies around the world. This footprint enables the provision of a high service level to our customers, confirmed by the very long-lasting business relationships. The Group’s international customer base benefits from a complementary product and services and solutions offering ranging from bill printing, direct mailing and document processing to payment, transit and ID cards increasingly bundled with online, mobile and digitalization transformation solutions.

Contact person: Mr. Dimitrios Tzelepis, Executive Director, Capital Markets, M&A and IR
Tel.:   +43 1 61065 - 357
E-Mail:  d.tzelepis@austriacard.com
Website:  www.austriacard.com
Symbol:  ACAG
ISIN:   AT0000A325L0
Stock Exchanges: Vienna Prime Market, Athens Main Market

1. BUSINESS PERFORMANCE AND FINANCIAL POSITION

The following analysis is based on the business performance as monitored by Group management excluding effects of IAS 29 Hyperinflation accounting.

B) PRIMARY FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Consolidated statement of financial position

Consolidated income statement

Consolidated statement of cash flows