Financial year 2022 started off with consolidated revenue of € 27.2 million (prev. year: € 20.4 million) and gross profit of € 11.8 million (prev. year: € 10.7 million) as planned. Virtually the entire increase in gross profit of € 1.1 million was manifested as higher EBITDA, which emphasizes the high scalability of the new product and IT landscape. In the first three months of 2022 ecotel was therefore able to increase EBITDA by € 0.8 million to € 4.7 million. After deducting virtually unchanged depreciations, Group EBIT totaled € 2.9 million (prev. year: € 2.0 million) and after deducting minorities and taxes consolidated surplus totaled € 1.3 million (prev. year: € 0.9 million) with EPS of € 0.37 per share (prev. year: € 0.25 per share).

The continuing conflict in Ukraine and the related incidents as well as the global economic effects of this conflict, as well as the restrictions of global supply chains still resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, have had only minor consequences for ecotel so far. As a result of product demand, our customers’ solvency and the performance of our upstream suppliers, there have been no restrictions in our business operations. However, rising energy costs, especially for electric power for operation of the data center infrastructure and for special end customer devices, have caused higher prices and longer delivery times.

Development of the most important segments:
Revenue in the core segment »ecotel Business Solutions« decreased slightly in Q1 2022 as expected to € 11.3 million (prev. year: € 11.5 million), after termination of a major contract at the end of the year. Mean-while, these costs have been compensated by new key account projects, but will not generate significant revenue until the second half-year 2022.

Despite a temporary reduction in revenue, gross profit in this segment continued to increase to € 7.2 million (prev. year: € 6.7 million). The gross profit margin grew to just under 64 % (prev. year: 58 %). After deducting partner commissions, personnel and other expenses, EBITDA increased by € 0.3 million to € 2.1 million.

Last year’s expansion of the product portfolio to include innovative cloud services (e.g. cloud telephony, collaboration solutions, SD-WAN connections, etc.) is increasingly having a positive effect on the business development of the ecotel Business Solutions segment.

The »easybell« segment grew in the first three months of financial year 2022 in revenue (+ € 0.5 million to € 6.7 million) and gross profit (+ € 0.7 million to € 4.1 million) as well as EBITDA (€ 0.6 million to € 2.5 million). The business model with intelligent product bundles consisting of telephony and data connections as well as the cloud telephone system continues to result in this sustainable growth. The focus of further development will be on sustainable growth, both in the domestic market and, in the future, abroad.

Forecast for 2022 is confirmed:
In consideration of all currently known opportunities and risks, the Management Board confirms the forecast for 2022 and for the core segment »ecotel Business Solutions« expects revenue in a corridor from € 47 – 50 million, in the »Wholesale« segment from € 20 – 25 million and in the »easybell« segment from € 27 – 30 million. EBITDA is expected to be within a corridor of € 20 – 22 million, with expected EBITDA of € 8.5 to 10.5 million from the »ecotel Business Solutions« segment and expected EBITDA of € 9.5 to 11.5 million from the »easybell« segment.

The detailed forecast can be found in the group management report for financial year 2021 in the forecast, opportunities and risk report.

Note:
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