EQS-News: adesso SE increases sales by 11% to EUR 353.4 million in the first quarter of 2025 / EBITDA of EUR 17.8 million at the level of the previous year, which benefited from other operating income

adesso SE increases sales by 11% to EUR 353.4 million in the first quarter of 2025 / EBITDA of EUR 17.8 million at the level of the previous year, which benefited from other operating income

• Improved capacity utilisation and above-average market sales growth leads to expected increase in earnings over the course of the year
• First quarter of 2025 subdued due to delays in the public sector caused by new elections

adesso SE continued its growth trajectory in the first quarter of 2025 in a difficult macroeconomic environment. Sales increased exclusively organically by 11% to EUR 353.4 million (previous year: EUR 317.1 million). The number of full-time equivalents (FTEs) increased by 5% to 10,461 (previous year: 9,926) as at the reporting date, which is significantly less than the increase in sales. As well due to the reduced hiring momentum, the utilisation of the company's own employees improved compared to the previous year and remained at a decent level. At EUR 17.8 million, EBITDA matched the operating result of the previous year, in which the reversal of a warranty provision that was deemed too high increased other operating income by EUR 2.6 million to EUR 6.4 million (Q1 2025: EUR 2.8 million). Due to the continued good demand for adesso's services as part of the digital transformation, the cost of materials increased significantly by 27% to EUR 53.9 million (previous year: EUR 42.6 million) due to the use of external staff. Hiring momentum is expected to pick up again moderately in the further course of the year, meaning that the cost of materials ratio should decrease. However, personnel costs rose at a slower rate than sales, increasing by 9% to EUR 248.0 million (previous year: EUR 227 million). With average employee growth of 6%, this corresponds to a continued moderate increase in personnel costs per FTE of 3%. Gross profit per FTE also increased by 3% from EUR 111 thousand in the previous year to EUR 115 thousand.

Despite the difficult economic situation, adesso's portfolio for the further digitalisation of companies is generally meeting with good demand. Sales growth was achieved in almost all of the core sectors served by adesso. Only the automotive sector fell short of the previous year's figure. adesso's strongest sector in terms of sales, “Public Administration”, was able to increase its growth to 11 % (previous year: 7 %) despite the delays caused by the new elections. However, the sector was also affected in the first quarter of the previous year by delays to already budgeted projects as a result of the unconstitutional supplementary budget of the German government. Growth was particularly strong in the “Healthcare” sector at 37%. The “Utilities” sector also continued to develop strongly with a 25% increase in sales.

Sales growth in the German market amounted to 13%. Outside of Germany, sales increased less strongly by 5%. While adesso's foreign company with the highest sales in Switzerland remained below the previous year's figure, the adesso companies in Austria, Turkey, the Netherlands and Italy increased their sales. adesso SE, the Group company with the highest sales, was able to increase its sales in the foreign market by 2 % compared to the previous year. At 84% of total sales, the share of sales generated in Germany was roughly on a par with the previous year.

As expected, the EBITDA contribution in the first quarter of 2025 was subdued due to the negative impact from the IT Solutions segment as well as the impacted development of the largest core industry “Public Administration” in Germany. Nevertheless, the need for digitalisation remains high in the sector. As one of the largest German IT service providers, adesso is likely to benefit from the planned additional investments in infrastructure and defence over the course of the year and beyond, meaning that a catch-up effect can be expected here. As communicated, the willingness to invest in the insurance product area is not expected to brighten up until the second half of 2025. With a subdued development of the operating result in the first quarter and a slightly disproportionate increase in depreciation and amortisation of 13% compared to sales to EUR 17.6 million (previous year: EUR 15.5 million), a slightly positive EBIT of EUR 0.3 million (previous year: EUR 2.3 million) was achieved. Consolidated net income totalled EUR -4.1 million (previous year: EUR -3.3 million), which corresponds to earnings per share of EUR -0.54 (previous year: EUR -0.49).

Due to the distribution of working days over the year as a whole, the majority of earnings are expected in the second half of the year, as in previous years. This means that seven more working days will be available in the second half of 2025 than in the first half of 2025. Otherwise, the Executive Board believes that the original assumptions for the full-year forecast remain largely unchanged. While capacity utilisation remains at a stable level at the beginning of the second quarter, the intensively continued measures to increase profitability will be reflected in a slight year-on-year improvement in the margin over the course of the year. The forecast corridor for sales (EUR 1.35 to 1.45 billion) and EBITDA (EUR 105 to 125 million) still appears achievable.

The full quarterly statement, as well as a table comparing key performance indicators over a period of several years, is available at www.adesso-group.de/en/ in the Investor Relations section.

adesso Group
With more than 10,400 employees and annual sales of around EUR 1.3 billion in 2024, adesso Group is one of the largest German IT service providers with outstanding growth opportunities. At its own locations in Germany, other locations in Europe and the first locations in Asia, as well as at numerous local customers adesso offers consulting and software development services for optimising core business processes. adesso also offers ready-to-use software products for standard applications. The development of an own, industry-specific product portfolio opens up additional growth and earnings opportunities and is another key element of the adesso strategy. adesso was recognised as a Top Employer in 2025 and as the best employer in its size category in Germany across all industries in 2023 and 2020. After having already achieved first place among IT employers in 2016, 2018 and 2020, adesso was ranked first again in 2023.