Announcement No. 1 -2009
19 January 2009
Despite generating top-line growth, Netop Solutions A/S issues profit warning
for FY 2008
Netop Solutions managed slight year-on-year top-line growth in the original
Danware business in the fourth quarter of 2008 in a market under significant
pressure from the global economic slump. However, the improvement was not enough
to bring the FY 2008 revenue to the expected level.
Like many other businesses, Netop Solutions has been adversely affected by the
global economic crisis. Especially the UK market was severely impacted in the
fourth quarter of 2008, which combined with the low GBP/DKK exchange rate had a
substantial negative impact on revenue.In addition, we experienced a slowdown
of our sales growth in the US market towards the end of the fourth quarter
2008, presumably due to investment restraint.
On the other hand, we generated considerable Y/Y-growth in the very important
Nordic market during the fourth quarter. In terms of revenue, the Nordic market
and Swiss acquisition GenevaLogic both performed ahead of expectations. After a
difficult start, sales of the Netop Live product, which originates from the
distributor agreement with Medianet, began to improve in December 2008 but
nevertheless remained well below the Q4 2008 forecast.
Against this background, we lower our financial forecast for FY 2008 as revenue
is now expected to be approximately DKK 92m (against the previous forecast of
some DKK 100m), and EBITDA is expected to be a loss of around DKK 35m (against
the previous forecast of a DKK 25m loss) including expected non-recurring income
of DKK 12m before tax from the sale of Netop Solutions' head office property.
Through a number of organisational initiatives, we have reduced the Netop
Solutions cost base by about 25% in spite of increasing our sales force in the
USA by five people in a move intended to support the revised sales initiatives
and to ensure future growth in the US market.
The year 2008 was one of change for Netop Solutions. Our company is in the midst
of a turnaround, and we have now launched a large number of the initiatives
intended to help improve the efficiency of the business and produce a strong
revenue improvement, and most have been executed.
The following steps and measures were among the most important factors
influencing the business in 2008 and in early 2009:
New CEO appointed
New name
Acquisition of GenevaLogic and conclusion of distributor agreement with Medianet
Optimising the organisation. In order to create a more scalable and flexible
organisation, we have relocated development operations from Denmark and
Switzerland to the development company in Romania acquired as part of the
Medianet agreement
A new go-to-market strategy
Establishing an office in China
Implementation of Salesforce
Implementation of Navision software
New Order To Cash process that has automated our internal order process,
reducing it from 4.5 days to just a few minutes
New website - www.netop.com
New intranet
New brand
Based on the above steps and the reduced cost base, Netop Solutions expects to
generate a considerable revenue increase and a substantial improvement in profit
before non-recurring items in 2009 relative to 2008.
Contact
CEO Kurt Bager CFO Claus Finderup Grove
Tel.: +45 45 90 25 25 Tel: +45 45 90 25 25
E-mail:kgb@netop.com Email: cfg@netop.com
About Netop Solutions A/S
Netop Solutions A/S, formerly Danware A/S, develops and markets software
solutions enabling swift, stable and secure transfer of screen images, sound and
data between two or more computers. The company has three core business areas:
Administration, Education and Communication. The core product within Netop
Administration, Netop Remote Control, enables remote control of one or more
computers. Netop Education consists of Netop and Vision software solutions for
e.g. computer-based classroom teaching. Netop Communication is a modern unified
communications solution integrating web, video and audio conferences, secure
chat, single-click talking and desktop and file sharing. Netop Solutions has
subsidiaries in the US, UK, China, Germany and Switzerland, and Netop solutions
are sold in more than 80 countries. Netop Solutions A/S (formerly Danware A/S)
is listed on the Nasdaq OMX Nordic Exchange Copenhagen and is a component of the
SmallCap+ index. For more information, go to www.netop.com.
Translation In the event of any inconsistency between this document and the
Danish language version, the Danish language version shall be the governing
version.
Despite generating top-line growth, Netop Solutions A/S issues profit warning for FY 2008
| Source: Netop Solution A/S
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