- Group revenue rises significantly by 38.7 percent to €440.6 million
- Operating cash flow around €100 million higher than in the same quarter of the previous year and thus at a historic record high of €+56.3 million in the first quarter
- Executive Board confirms forecast for the financial year
The CANCOM Group has started the 2024 financial year with significant growth at Group level. Revenue increased by 38.7 percent to € 440.6 million in the first quarter of 2024 (previous year: €317.7 million). Gross profit increased disproportionately, rising by 46.2% to €171.0 million (previous year: €117.0 million). EBITDA was also up significantly at €30.4 million (previous year: €24.1 million) and EBITA at €16.9 million (previous year: €13.5 million). The “International” segment, which accounts for the majority of the CANCOM Austria Group’s contribution, performed particularly well.
“CANCOM has made a good start to the year: in the first quarter we have seen the restraint that is the result of the weak economic development and the reluctance of public sector clients to place orders, particularly in Germany,” says Rüdiger Rath, CEO of CANCOM SE, summarising the first quarter. “In our major international market, the development was extremely positive thanks to the contribution of the CANCOM Austria Group and demand for our strategic focus areas, especially Security & Networking and AI, remains strong.”
Operating cash flow improved significantly
At €+56.3 million, cash flow from operating activities was significantly higher than the previous year’s figure of €-43.6 million and improved accordingly by around €100 million. Significantly lower trade receivables and a substantial reduction in inventories were responsible for the significant improvement.
Business segment International remains strong, business segment Germany under pressure as expected
With revenue of €147.7 million (previous year: €9.8 million), the business segment International performed extremely well, primarily due to the contribution of the CANCOM Austria Group. With a segment EBITDA of €12.3 million (previous year: €1.9 million), the EBITDA margin in the first quarter was 8.3 percent. As a result of the restraint shown by small and medium-sized SME customers and public-sector clients, particularly at the beginning of the year, revenue in the business segment Germany totalled €292.9 million (previous year: €297.9 million). EBITDA in the segment amounted to €18.1 million (previous year: €22.2 million) and the EBITDA margin arrived 6.2 percent.
Executive Board confirms forecast for the full year
“So far, the development is in line with our comments and our forecast, and the economic development in the second half of the year will be important for CANCOM,” says Rüdiger Rath, explaining the outlook for the full year. “Uncertainty about the development will continue to accompany us for the foreseeable future, but we expect demand for our solutions to increase, especially in our focus areas of Modern Workplace, Security & Networking, Cloud & Datacenter, IoT Solutions and AI.” The start of replacement cycles for hardware, rising demands on IT landscapes and the need for investment driven by AI solutions will drive demand over the course of the year and support growth for the CANCOM Group well above the level of the IT market. Accordingly, the Executive Board confirms the forecast from the 2023 Annual Report and expects the key financial figures to develop as follows in 2024:
CANCOM Group
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Forecast 2024
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Revenue
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€1,750 to €2,000 million
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Gross profit
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€640 to €740 million
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EBITDA
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€130 to €155 million
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EBITA
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€75 to €100 million
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