IXOS aims to increase sales and earnings by 10-15% after successful fiscal year 2000/2001
Munich/Grasbrunn (ots)
Good prospects for growth for 2001/2002 following substantial increase in earnings in past fiscal year - Group will profit from growth in the document management market
IXOS SOFTWARE AG (NASDAQ: "XOSY", NEUER MARKT: "XOS", German Securities Code Number (WKN) 506150), a leading global provider of solutions for eBusiness document management, confirmed that it expects to increase both revenues and earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) by 10%-15% in the current fiscal year 2001/2002. This was announced by IXOS's Executive Board at a press and analysts' meeting in Frankfurt today. The international specialist for document management systems (DMS) expects similar growth rates for the DMS market as a whole and believes that the company is well positioned to share in this expansion. Today's meetings were held to mark the official publication of IXOS' 2000/2001 annual report, where it reported a positive result and a significant rise in sales and earnings.
"Thanks to our successful product offerings and the completion of restructuring measures, we are aiming to further expand our market share and continue our profitable growth," said Chief Executive Officer Robert Hoog. Business will receive a major boost from sales of new products - in particular IXOS's eCON Solution Suite which was launched in February 2001. The company markets four fully integrated product lines under this umbrella brand, covering all aspects of inter- and intra-enterprise document management.
Hoog announced that IXOS will continue to pursue its successful corporate strategy, which is based on three pillars:
- IXOS focuses on software which enables firms to handle and archive all their electronic documents with a high degree of security and scalability.
- The company's solutions can be seamlessly integrated ith all major application environments such as SAP, Microsoft and IBM/Lotus Notes.
- In addition, IXOS offers strategic consulting, maintenance and other services from a single source, thus catering for all its customers' electronic document management needs.
Fiscal year 2000/2001: earnings increase, costs fall
"IXOS has a solid financial base which supports the implementation of our strategic goals," emphasized Chief Financial Officer Peter Rau. In 2000/2001, the company's sales grew by 9% to 117.0 million, with operating costs falling by 19% to 76.1 million due to a successful restructuring program. After the company's one-off loss in 1999/2000 when it recorded an operating result (EBIT) of -24.3 million, IXOS was able to return to profitability in 2000/2001 with an EBIT of 6.0 million. This corresponds to an EBIT margin of 6% and earnings per share of 0.34 (previous year -1.4).
IXOS's business has a broad geographic spread. As in previous years, sales continued to rise in the American region ( 37.7 million or 32% of total sales), in the region of Europe, the Middle East and Africa ( 30.0 million or 26%) and in the Asia-Pacific region ( 17.2 million or 15%). However, sales in Germany fell from 35.2 million to 32.1 million following a weak first quarter, and now account for 27% of total business. A breakdown by division reveals that license income makes up 50% of sales, service business 27% and maintenance 23%. The encouraging development of maintenance business is due to the increased number of installations implemented worldwide, which rose by 48% to 1550 in the past fiscal year. IXOS's workforce fell from 969 to 748 primarily as a result of the disposal of equity interests and non-core activities.
Goals: expanding market lead and product portfolio
IXOS's main goal for the fiscal year which began on July 1, 2001 is to expand its market lead in document management solutions for the SAP market. It will launch a new version of its flagship product IXOS-eCONtext for SAP by the end of 2001. The company also intends to increase and round off its range of products and services, for example by providing document management solutions for the CRM (customer relationship management) products offered by the two market leaders, SAP and Siebel. In addition, IXOS plans to develop integration solutions for the Microsoft Sharepoint Portal Server (SPPS), Microsoft Exchange and IBM's Lotus Notes, the worldwide leading groupware applications.
IXOS expects that growth in sales and EBIT for the first half will be in single digits, and expects this to increase to double digit figures in the second half (January 1 to June 30, 2002).
About IXOS
IXOS is a leading global provider of solutions for the management of eBusiness documents in inter-enterprise system environments. IXOS solutions drive the administration of all eBusiness documents and their seamless integration into digital business processes. Leading groups from a wide range of industries have selected IXOS SOFTWARE AG to be their strategic partner. IXOS has successfully implemented more than 1550 installations worldwide, and more than 940,000 users now work with the company's eBusiness document solutions. IXOS rounds off its product portfolio with a comprehensive range of services including worldwide 24x7 customer support and a global team of highly qualified consultants.
IXOS SOFTWARE AG's shares are traded on the Neuer Markt of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange under the symbol "XOS" (WKN 506150). In the USA, American Depositary Shares (ADSs) are listed on the NASDAQ National Market under the symbol "XOSY".
Contact:
IXOS SOFTWARE AG
Gala Conrad, Director, Investor Relations
Bretonischer Ring 12
D-85630 Grasbrunn / Munich
Germany
Tel: +49 89 46 29 2400
Fax: +49 89 46 29 33 2200
Email: ir@ixos.de