IMAGE RECOGNITION INTEGRATED SYSTEMS GROUP S.A.
(short form I.R.I.S. Group)
Embargo until 17:40 on 17 March 2009
2008 Annual Results
Gross margin +23.5%
EBITDA +8.7%
Net profit +7.9%
Dividend per share €0.80
Etienne Van de Kerckhove, CEO: “In 2008 I.R.I.S. saw its sales pass the €100 million mark for the first time to stand at €109.3 million, up 15.0% on 2007. The gross margin increased by 23.5% to €58.4 million. EBITDA came to €9.8 million, up 8.7%. After deducting tax of €2.2 million, the net profit for the year was €6.2 million, up 7.9%. 2008 therefore saw strong growth and new records at all levels. The increase in gross margin was spread evenly between organic growth and the contribution from our new subsidiaries in Germany and the Netherlands. Organic growth was the result of numerous initiatives including new product launches and the creation of new subsidiaries in Hong Kong and Scandinavia. I.R.I.S. is meeting sustained demand from the market for innovative solutions that enable customers to work more efficiently and reduce operating costs. Our products and technologies sold through our international partnerships meet these criteria, as do our IT infrastructures and electronic document, content and process management projects. These include in particular: securing of electronic archives, automated document sorting, electronic workflow management, automated invoice processing, and server, storage and desktop virtualisation. Once again, both our operational divisions contributed to growth in 2008.”
Denis Hermesse, CFO: “In the current turbulent period, it is important to stress that our financial position is robust. In particular, we have shareholders’ equity of €53.6 million (i.e. €29.74 per share), a net cash situation (after deducting short-term debt) of €14.1 million and credit lines available (undrawn at 31 December 2008) of €13.5 million. It is also worth noting that the 2008 figures do not include any contribution from CORISMO, since this company was acquired on 16 January 2009. In 2008, the operating costs of I.R.I.S. increased, following namely the additional budgets that were dedicated to our research and development as well as new organic growth initiatives. CORISMO specialises in optimising complex IT infrastructures and is expected to make a positive contribution to the Group’s 2009 results. At the beginning of February 2009, we announced the launch of several new products and new product versions, along with the signing of new strategic agreements with, for example, Canon, eCopy and Avnet.”
Shareholder's equity: € 53.6 Million
Net Cash position: € 14.1 Million
Undrawn credit facilities: € 13.5 Million
Pierre De Muelenaere, President & CEO: “Over the past few years, I.R.I.S. has successfully carried out many growth initiatives in complementary areas. Acquired companies have been integrated in a highly satisfactory way, in both human and financial terms. I.R.I.S. has a very high-quality technology portfolio and an extensive customer base. In our market, our activities are well-diversified from the viewpoints of geography, sector (type of customer) and technology (product range). I.R.I.S. provides its customers with solutions that enable them to make sizeable cost savings and productivity gains. In the current difficult economic climate, we are in a position to provide our various customers and partners with appropriate solutions. Our order backlog is growing, chiefly thanks to excellent contracts in both the public and the private sector. Our strengths are the value of our technologies, the expertise of our teams and our ability to succeed in implementing highly innovative solutions that increase our customers’ productivity. While it is difficult to make forecasts at this stage, management expects growth and good profitability in 2009.”
Given the results for the 2008 financial year and the favourable outlook for 2009, the Board of Directors will propose a gross dividend of €0.80 per share for approval by the General Meeting to be held on 19 May 2009.
The company auditor confirms that it has completed the key elements of its audit of the consolidated accounts and that this audit has not yielded any material corrections that are required to be made to the financial information included in this press release.
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IFRS accounting standards
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All the figures have been established in accordance with IFRS. These figures are a summary of the detailed financial results as presented in the annual report to be released at the end of April 2009.
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Financial calendar and financial information
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Annual General Meeting: 19 May 2009 at 9 a.m.
Annual report due out: last week of April 2009
Publication of the half-year results: 27 August 2009
I.R.I.S.’ mission is to increase our customers’ productivity and knowledge through helping them better manage their documents, data and information.
I.R.I.S. Products & Technologies develops technologies and products for Intelligent Document Recognition and markets its portfolio on a worldwide basis through strong partnerships.
I.R.I.S. Professional Solutions enables companies and administrations to find in one company the innovative expertise and hi-tech solutions to efficiently manage documents, information flows and IT infrastructure.
I.R.I.S. has more than 550 employees based in Louvain-la-Neuve,Brussels and Antwerp (Belgium), Orly (France), Windhof (Luxemburg), Amsterdam and Maastricht (The Netherlands), Aachen (Germany), Delray Beach (USA) and Hong- Kong (China) and Oslo (Norway).
Contact: Denis Hermesse, CFO - Tel: +32 (0) 10 487 460 - E-mail: investors@irislink.com
IMAGE RECOGNITION INTEGRATED SYSTEMS GROUP S.A.
Rue du Bosquet 10 – Parc Scientifique de Louvain-la-Neuve – B 1435 Mont Saint-Guibert
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