2009: Another strong order intake in Q3 for Unit 4 Agresso, with highest EBITDA margin ever

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13 October 2009

With significant orders across the whole Unit 4 Agresso group, Q3 2009 was better than expected. The original expectation was that Q3 would end slightly below the same period in 2008, since that was a record 3rd quarter at the time (EBITDA +63%). But after a good July and August 2009, September was the best month of the year for the group, with record profitability.

In September 2009, Unit 4 Agresso scored a significant order from one of the most prestigious universities in the US, which offers further growth potential in coming years. Growth was also seen in the public sector in the UK. Many deals which were expected in the beginning of Q4 were closed before the due date.

The total Q3 revenue amounted to € 90.1m, a decrease of 6% compared with the third quarter of 2008. Based on constant currencies, the revenues declined 3%.

However the gross margin went up from 90.2% in Q3 2008 to 91.2% in Q3 2009.

The EBITDA rose in total by 13% to € 18.9 million – due principally to synergies and cost savings. The EBITDA margin in Q3 2009 was 21.0%, compared to 17.5% in Q3 2008.

CFO Edwin van Leeuwen said: “Although it is too early to say that the economy is improving, we are glad that we have reduced the pressure on Q4. For the rest of the year we need only a slightly higher EBITDA than Q3 to make our target. This is only slightly higher than Q3. It is encouraging to see us continuing to win substantial deals for Agresso and CODA, particularly against the large, traditional ERP players. Financialforce.com is also performing well in its first few weeks. After the official launch we have seen a high level of attention and leads, keeping the new salesteam busy on both sides of the Atlantic.”
 
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About Unit4Agresso

Unit 4 Agresso is a leading international producer of business software. With offices in 14 European countries, 5 countries outside Europe and sales activities in several other countries a revenue of € 194 million was realized in the first half year of 2008. Unit 4 Agresso is headquartered in Sliedrecht, the Netherlands. At the end of 2008, Unit 4 Agresso had 3,537 employees.

About Agresso

Agresso is a mid-market enterprise resource planning (ERP) company and one of the top five providers of ERP solutions for professional services and public sector organisations. Agresso offers a uniquely integrated data/process/delivery architecture designed specifically for Businesses Living IN Change (BLINC) ™.  Agresso is known as "The ERP Market's Definition of Agility" as it allows an unlimited amount of ongoing, post-implementation changes without the typical external IT costs and intervention that nets billions of dollars in revenue to the market leaders. For more information, please visit:www.agresso.com

ABOUT CODA

CODA creates, markets and implements a comprehensive range of software systems designed specifically to meet the needs of Financial Directors and Finance Departments. These include financial management systems, analysis applications, and business process management and control software to implement compliance solutions. Its service oriented architecture also makes CODA software easy for clients and other vendors to integrate with their business applications.

CODA was founded in 1979 and has around 500 employees working at 18 offices in 14 countries. CODA software is designed for multi-currency, multi-language, multi-country, multi-company and multi-site operations, and is used by around 2,600 medium and large organizations in over 100 countries in a variety of markets and within both public and commercial sectors.

CODA is a Unit 4 Agresso company. Unit 4 Agresso is a leading international producer of business software for service companies and organizations. With offices in 19 countries, including the United States and Canada, and sales activities in several other countries, annual revenue of €393.6 million was realized in 2008. Unit 4 Agresso is headquartered in Sliedrecht, the Netherlands and employs about 3,500 people.

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