BRAIN FORCE announces successful turnaround and revenue growth

BRAIN FORCE HOLDING AG (Vienna Stock Exchange: BFC, Reuters: BFCG), a leading IT service company with business operations in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Slovakia and the USA, made an ad-hoc announcement today on its preliminary results for the 2010/11 fiscal year (October 1, 2010 to September 30, 2011). The company achieved a turnaround in the past fiscal year and generated clearly positive operating results, with an operating EBITDA of € 3.13 million (prior year: € 1.15 million) and an operating EBIT of € 1.04 million (prior year: € -1.65 million). Moreover, BRAIN FORCE returned to a growth path with respect to its top line. Group revenues climbed 2% to € 71.09 million. In a like for like comparison with adjustments for changes in the consolidation range, the Group posted organic revenue growth of 6%.

“The operating results of the 2010/11 fiscal year underline the successful strategic reorientation of the company and the effectiveness of the implemented restructuring measures“, says CEO Michael Hofer, expressing his satisfaction with the preliminary figures presented today. “Organic top line growth of 6% along with a revenue increases of 11% and 21% in the third and fourth quarters respectively show a clearly positive trend which needs to be continued. Moreover, the development of the total number of employees was gratifying. At the reporting date the number of salaried and free-lance employees increased in comparison to the prior-year level for the first time since 2007, rising by 10% to 786 people“, Michael Hofer adds.

“All operating units generated significant revenue and earnings increases in the fourth quarter“, says CFO Thomas Melzer in his analysis. “For the fiscal year 2010/11 only our subsidiary in Italy posted operating results slightly below the previous year, which I attribute to the difficult economic environment there“, Thomas Melzer adds. In Germany, the largest market for the BRAIN FORCE Group, revenues in the 2010/11 fiscal year were up 6% to € 38.24 million, and operating EBIT rose from € 0.11 to 1.78 million. In Italy, revenues fell 4% to € 20.71 million, whereas the operating EBIT at € 0.44 million hardly changed from the prior year. Revenues in the Netherlands climbed 30% to € 8.95 million, and operating EBIT strongly improved from € -0.74 to +0.42 million. Revenues in the Central East Europe region (Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia) dropped by 40% to € 3.19 million, and operating EBIT decreased from € 0.32 to 0.14 million, which is exclusively due to the changes in the consolidation range. However, from an organic perspective revenues in the Central East Europe region were up 32%, and operating EBIT more than doubled. The holding company also contributed to the solid earnings development of the BRAIN FORCE Group, reducing costs by a further 4%.

The financial statements and the Annual Report for the 2010/11 fiscal year and the outlook for the 2011/12 fiscal year will be published within the context of a press breakfast to be held on December 21, 2011.

Preliminary results 2010/11