Unifiedpost shows double-digit growth and addressable

High natural income and buyer growth, mixed with European platform roll-out

La Hulpe, Belgium – September 16, 2022, 7:00 a.m. CET – Unifiedpost Group (Euronext: UPG) (Unifiedpost, the Group or the Company) is happy to announce a double-digit natural digital income growth over H1 2022. The recurring digital processing income grew by 21.7% y/y to €55.9 million in H1 2022. The Group income grew by 13.6% y/y to €91.7 million over the identical interval. The buyer base grew by a robust 14.9% in H1 2022 to achieve near one million clients. Unifiedpost was additionally in a position to convey the key funding section of the European platform roll-out to a very good finish. This units the Company in a novel place to make the most of the anticipated market growth within the coming years pushed by regulation. It additionally permits administration to shift the main focus in the direction of turning into money stream optimistic.

Highlights

• Group income grew by 13.6% y/y to €91.7 million in H1 2022, with recurring digital processing income up 21.7% y/y
• Strong growth of buyer base by 14.9% in H1 2022 in comparison with finish 2021
• On the again of platform and roll-out investments, the Group EBITDA quantities to -€6.5 million
• Cash and money equivalents quantity to €42.7 million and an extra €39.3 million obtainable in undrawn financing. Sufficient money to permit Unifiedpost to realize a optimistic money stream
• Becoming money stream optimistic by H2 2023 is the important thing precedence for the Company

Commenting on the H1 2022 outcomes, Hans Leybaert, CEO and founder said: “I am proud of how our businesses have continued to grow in H1 2022. Unifiedpost again shows double-digit organic growth, while investing in the European expansion of our teams, solutions and products. Our performance is in line with management expectations and budget. The peak of our investments is now behind us. We strongly believe our long-term growth and profitability profile is fully intact. The focus will be on gross margin improvement and cost efficiency, balancing investments for long-term growth while managing near-term profitability. The pipeline is well-stocked with major licensing deals and we are also working on major partnerships. We see important economies such as France and Poland reaching milestones in making digital invoicing mandatory. These developments give us confidence for the future. I wish to thank our global teams for their commitment to the development of Unifiedpost so far, and in the future.”

Key monetary figures

Okey business KPI’s

Impact of macro-economic and geopolitical scenario

Unifiedpost has not been instantly impacted by the Russian aggression in opposition to Ukraine. The Group has no business in Ukraine, nor in Russia. It additionally has no improvement centres in these international locations. All international locations the place the Group is energetic are nonetheless experiencing ranges of inflation that haven’t been noticed in many years. 

Double-digit growth charges in digital processing business

Unifiedpost grew its income in H1 2022 by 13.6% y/y in H1 to €91.7 million, pushed by a double-digit natural growth of the digital processing income mixed with a sound growth in postage and parcel optimisation providers.

The Group noticed its income from digital processing rising by 17.7% y/y to €59.3 million in H1 2022. This was primarily pushed by the robust natural growth charge of 21.7% y/y of the recurring digital income, i.e. digital platform income excluding the mission and license business. The growth is unfold over totally different international locations and markets, with the Nordic international locations, Serbia, Romania, the Baltics, and the Benelux exhibiting accelerated growth charges.

The mission and license business, which is non-recurring, contributed €3.4 million to the H1 2022 income. Project income is forward of administration expectations.

The variety of clients elevated by 14.9% in H1 2022 to a complete of 910,845 at H1 2022. Overall common income per person (ARPU) in digital processing business quantities to €23.0 for Q2 2022. This displays some decline as anticipated by the administration because of the enhance in SME business of the Group. 96.3% of the full digital processing income resulted from recurring providers, barely larger because of the restricted variety of giant initiatives.

The gross margin of the digital processing business decreased barely to 40.0% (H1 2021 42.8%). The lower within the first half of the yr is predominantly attributable to the launching prices of the brand new providers and by inflation impacting suppliers and salaries.

Sound growth in postage & parcel optimisation business

Group income was additionally supported by strong growth in postage and parcel optimisation providers (+ 6.9% y/y in H1 to €32.4 million). Unifiedpost noticed its postage and parcel optimisation business having a very good H1 2022, leading to a income of €32.4 million. This is a rise of €2.1 million in comparison with H1 2021. The enhance was attributable to onboarding of enormous new clients and common value will increase. The postage & parcel optimisation realised a gross margin of 10.3% for H1 2022, down 0.7percentpts from H1 2021. Likewise, this lower has been attributable to inflation.

H1 2022 end result impacted by peak in roll-out price

Both segments mixed, i.e. the digital processing income and postage and parcel optimisation providers, led to a gross revenue of €27.0 million at a complete income of €91.7 million. This resulted in a gross margin of 29.4% (H1 2021: 30.8%).

During H1 2022, the Group spent 17.9€ million on research and development (R&D), of which 57.2% was capitalised. The R&D spending is equal to 30% of digital processing income, which is the Group’s present focused charge for R&D investments.

General and Administrative (G&A) bills for the interval elevated by 22.0% y/y to a complete of €22.7 million. The enhance is principally because of the three acquisitions in Q2 2021 and contains operational bills for the pan-European construction. The operational prices associated to the roll-out of Banqup which peaked in H1 2022 are anticipated to say no within the coming intervals. Banqup demonstrates the numerous further growth potential of the Group. Unifiedpost has already obtained regulatory approval in 19 international locations to situation native fee accounts with their very own IBAN numbers. The Group is extending its European footprint by beginning up these international locations, launching department fee workplaces, getting the fee business accredited by native authorities and launching new business in international locations with a present restricted income. This course of includes one-off prices that may be thought-about investments within the additional scalability of Banqup as extra and extra international locations in Europe introduce necessary digital invoicing.

Sales & Marketing bills have been up 29.6% y/y for the interval and amounted to €14.6 million. This was attributable to the rising efforts in advertising and marketing and the extra price associated to the growth of the pan-European construction.

Unifiedpost has now introduced the important thing funding section of the European platform roll-out to a good finish. This units the Company in a novel place to make the most of the market growth within the coming years pushed by regulation. It additionally permits the administration to shift the main focus in the direction of turning into money stream optimistic.

The Group reported an EBITDA of -€6.5 million for H1 2022 (H1 2021: -€1.4 million). The EBITDA is impacted by €1.4 million non-recurring gadgets.

The loss from operations for the interval amounted to €21.1 million (H1 2021: €11.1 million).

Growth secured with funding

The money stream from financing actions amounted to +€51.6 million for the interval. Unifiedpost’s money and money equivalents elevated to €42.7 million at H1 2022. The enhance was realised by the Company by signing a dedicated €100 million five-year senior amenities settlement, offered by Francisco Partners, a number one world funding agency that focuses on partnering with technology-enabled companies. The facility is structured in a time period mortgage facility A of €75 million which has been drawn and an uncalled capex facility B of €25 million. It stays obtainable for twenty-four months from the cut-off date of the amenities settlement (7 March 2022).

This new granted mortgage facility was used for the refinancing of current monetary money owed for a complete quantity of €21.7 million and for the financing of the working capital wants of the Group (€6.8 million). The Group’s internet debt place at H1 2022 quantities to €50.5 million. Besides the undrawn capex facility of €25 million of the Francisco Partners settlement, the Group has €14.3 million of different undrawn financing amenities. Based upon the money forecast for the upcoming twelve months (interval: July 2022 till June 2023), the Group ought to be nicely geared up with enough liquidity.

Positive money stream anticipated for H2 2023

Throughout the rest of the FY 2022, Unifiedpost expects to generate further income by license offers for the B2B e-invoicing market. The pipeline for license sale is nicely stocked and may have a optimistic impact on the growth the Company is aiming for. These offers will help the growth charge to the focused natural growth of not less than 25% in digital processing revenues in FY 2022.

In FY 2023 Group administration expects to profit from the growth of key markets. The necessary digital e-invoicing that’s happening in a number of European international locations is a change imposed by authorities on Banqup’s end-users or last clients.

Due to the modified financial circumstances and business circumstances, the Company has determined to make the goal to turn into money stream optimistic its predominant precedence. The goal is to be money stream optimistic for H2 2023.

Investors & Media webcast

Management will host a dwell video webcast for analysts, buyers and media in the present day at 10:00 a.m. CET.

A recording will likely be obtainable shortly after the occasion. To attend, please register at https://onlinexperiences.com/Launch/QReg/ShowUUID=5D4FD600-F6FE-4EFA-82CA-6834FE36247F

A full replay be obtainable after the webcast at: https://www.unifiedpost.com/en/investor-relations

Financial Calendar 2022

• 10 November 2022                Publication Q3 2022 Business Update
• 30 November 2022                Investor Day 2022

Investor Relations & Media

Sarah Heuninck
+32 491 15 05 09
[email protected]

About Unifiedpost Group

Unifiedpost is a number one cloud-based platform for SME business providers constructed on “Documents”, “Identity” and “Payments”. Unifiedpost operates and develops a 100% cloud-based platform for administrative and monetary providers that permits real-time and seamless connections between Unifiedpost’s clients, their suppliers, their clients, and different events alongside the monetary worth chain. With its one-stop-shop options, Unifiedpost’s mission is to make administrative and monetary processes easy and good for its clients. Since its founding in 2001, Unifiedpost has grown considerably, increasing to workplaces in 32 international locations, with greater than 500 million paperwork processed in 2021, reaching over 1,600,000 SMEs and greater than 2,500 Corporates throughout its platform in the present day.

Noteworthy information and figures:

• Established in 2001, with a confirmed monitor document
• 2021 turnover €171 million
• 1400+ staff
• Diverse portfolio of purchasers throughout all kinds of industries (banking, leasing, utilities, media, telecommunications, journey, social safety service suppliers, public organisations, and so on.) starting from giant internationals to SMEs
• Unifiedpost Payments, a totally owned subsidiary, is recognised as a fee establishment by the National Bank of Belgium
• Certified Swift companion
• International M&A monitor document
• Listed on the regulated market of Euronext Brussels, image: UPG

(*) Warning about future statements: The statements contained herein might include forecasts, future expectations, opinions and different future-oriented statements in regards to the anticipated additional efficiency of Unifiedpost Group on the markets by which it’s energetic. Such future-oriented statements are primarily based on the present insights and assumptions of administration regarding future occasions. They naturally embody recognized and unknown dangers, uncertainties and different components, which appear justified on the time that the statements are made however might presumably develop into inaccurate. The precise outcomes, efficiency or occasions might differ basically from the outcomes, efficiency or occasions that are expressed or implied in such future-oriented statements. Except the place required by the relevant laws, Unifiedpost Group shall assume no obligation to replace, elucidate or enhance future-oriented statements on this press launch within the gentle of latest info, future occasions or different parts and shall not be held liable on that account. The reader is warned to not rely unduly on future-oriented statements.

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