EFECTE PLC  --  COMPANY ANNOUNCEMENT --  7 MAY 2024 at 16.30 EEST

Efecte Plc's business review on 1-3/2024 – SaaS +17%, adjusted EBITDA margin 8%

1-3/2024:

·       European 24 Bidco Oy announced it will complete the tender offer for all outstanding shares and stock options in Efecte

·       Total net sales grew by 12% to 6.8 million euro (6.0) 

·       SaaS grew by 17% and international SaaS by 11% 

·       EBITDA was -0.7 million euro (-0.3) and EBIT -1.1 million euro (-0.6) 

·       Adjusted EBITDA¹ was 0.5 million euro (-0.2)

·       EBITDA margin was -11% (-4%) and adjusted EBITDA¹ margin was 8% (-3%)

Guidance for 2024 (unchanged):

In 2024, Efecte’s net sales are expected to be approximately EUR 25 – 30 MEUR, SaaS net sales is expected to grow over 15% and adjusted EBITDA margin is expected to be 3 – 9%.

Group key figures

¹ Excludes following costs related to inorganic activities and other non-recurring costs: 1.3 million euros in Q1/2024, 0.1 million euros in Q1/2023 and 0.6 million euros in 2023.

CEO Niilo Fredrikson:

Efecte’s 2024 got off to a fast start with the announcement of the tender offer by Matrix42 in January. After completion of the offer, we have taken determined steps to plan our joint future with Matrix42. By joining forces, we aim to create the leading European provider of service management software. We will continue to support and develop the Efecte platform, and our customers and partners can benefit from the complementary product offerings, broader capabilities, and the support of a larger team.

While the tender offer was an important event, our primary focus in Q1 remained on helping our customers to digitalize and automate their work, building great software and finding new customers. We were able to grow in both existing customers and new ones, seeing a total SaaS growth of 17% and a net retention rate of 109%. Financially, we continued executing in line with our plan, and we reconfirm our guidance for the year 2024.

We made also progress in developing our products. AI continued to be a key focus area, with multiple customers taking Effie AI features into production use while our team continued to develop our AI offering.

The service management market is undergoing a significant shift: organizations across Europe are looking for solutions that help them digitalize and automate their work. They want to improve productivity, enhance employee experience, and save cost, while allowing them to leverage cloud in a way that meets their and their end users needs for data privacy and governance. And this is exactly the need that we at Efecte – a Matrix42 company – are committed to address as a European leader in our space.

Other developments

Our cash and liquid assets were 5.7 million euro (5.3) and interest-bearing financial debt of 1.5 million euro (1.8) at the end of the review period.

On a rolling 12-month basis, recurring gross margin was 77% (80%), gross churn 2.6% (4.7%), net retention rate 109% (112%), LTV/CAC ratio 7.4 (5.7) and total recurring revenue (SaaS and maintenance) amounted to 72% of net sales (70%). Net retention, gross churn, recurring gross margin, CAC and LTV are calculated based on Efecte and former InteliWISE businesses but exclude Requeste customers.

The number of full-time equivalent employees at the end of the review period was 194 (201). Of these, 121 (125) were in Finland, 49 (48) in Poland, 14 (19) in Germany, 8 (7) in Sweden and 3 (2) in Spain. The average number of full-time equivalent employees during Q1 was 195 (199). Our central team in Finland acts globally supporting customers, partners and sales in all markets.

Long-term financial targets

By 2025, grow organically to 35 MEUR total net sales, maintain an average SaaS growth of over 20% and reach a double-digit EBITDA margin.

Through organic growth and acquisitions, become eventually the largest European service management vendor with total net sales over 100 MEUR and EBITDA margin exceeding 25 %.

Guidance for 2024 (unchanged):

In 2024, Efecte’s net sales are expected to be approximately EUR 25 – 30 MEUR, SaaS net sales is expected to grow over 15% and adjusted EBITDA margin is expected to be 3 – 9%.

Next earnings release

Efecte will publish its half-year report on 1-6/2024 on 15 August 2024.

Additional information:

Interim CFO Tommi Mäkinen, +358 40 042 1659
CEO Niilo Fredrikson, +358 50 356 7177

Certified adviser: Evli Oyj, tel. +358 40 579 6210

This release is unaudited. The amounts in this report have been rounded from exact numbers.

Efecte Plc

Efecte helps people digitalize and automate their work. Customers across Europe leverage our cloud service to operate with greater agility, to improve the experience of end-users, and to save costs. The use cases for our solutions range from IT service management and ticketing to improving employee experiences, business workflows, and customer service. We are the European Alternative to the global goliaths in our space. Our headquarters is located in Finland and we have regional hubs in Germany, Poland and Sweden. Efecte is listed on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market Finland marketplace.

www.efecte.com