Berlin, March 24, 2021 – In financial year 2020, the PSI Group almost achieved the record sales of the previous year lacking a mere 3.3%. The year 2019 had also included 5 million euros first-time consolidation effects and 3 million euros in third-party goods. After risk provisions in several emerging markets, the EBIT of 14.9 million euros was a good 13% below the previous year's figure (31 Dec. 2019: 17.2 million euros). At 27.2 million euros, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) almost matched the prior year (31 Dec. 2019: 28.0 million euros). Net income declined by almost 28% to 10.3 million euros (31 Dec. 2019: 14.3 million euros) due to tax effects, and earnings per share decreased accordingly to 0.66 euros (31 Dec. 2019: 0.91 euros). At 229 million euros, new orders were 3% below the record level of the previous year (31 Dec. 2019: 236 million euros), while the order book volume at the end of the year increased by 4.9% to 149 million euros (31 Dec. 2019: 142 million euros).
- Sales, at 217.8 million euros, attains just 3.3% under previous year
- EBIT 13.1% below previous year at 14.9 million euros
- Operating cash flow doubles to 24.8 million euros
| Performance indicators (KEUR) | 1 Jan. – 31 Dec. 2020 | 1 Jan. – 31 Dec. 2019 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sales | 217,795 | 225,180 | -3.3 % |
| EBIT | 14,948 | 17,205 | -13.1 % |
| Group net result | 10,280 | 14,262 | -27.9 % |
| Earnings per share (EUR) | 0.66 | 0.91 | -27.5 % |
Energy Management (energy grids, energy trading, public transport) increased sales by 3.7% to 120.0 million euros (31 Dec. 2019: 115.8 million euros), but the segment's EBIT softened to 6.0 million euros (31 Dec. 2019: 7.2 million euros), impacted by risk provisions in emerging markets, restructuring in Malaysia, and order deferrals in Russia. In the electrical grids business, BTC Smart Grid, acquired in 2019, achieved a turnaround as market division for integrated utilities and industry. In gas grids and pipelines, some Russian orders were postponed due to weak energy prices in the summer. The acquisition of PSI Prognos strengthened the meteorological competence with more accurate feed-in forecasts of renewable energy, and the takeover of the Swiss network planning software NEPLAN in October added further network calculations and 500 customers worldwide. The public transport business is currently enjoying high demand for hardware and software for electric bus depots.
Sales in Production Management (raw materials, metals production, industry, logistics) declined by 10.6% to 97.8 million euros (31 Dec. 2019: 109.4 million euros), while the EBIT was stable at 11.8 million euros (31 Dec. 2018: 11.8 million euros) thanks to PSI platform products and despite risk provisions. Metals production was able to compensate for the weakness in Europe with orders from the USA and China and increase the new orders over the previous year. Automotive & Industry used the week markets in spring 2020 for pilot projects of the new manufacturing execution system based on the PSI Group platform. Demand for industrial and airport logistics software slowed, while demand for consumer and parcel logistics accelerated.
The group's headcount on 31 Dec. 2020 increased by 72 to 2,056 (31 Dec. 2019: 1,984) despite staff reductions in Malaysia, with new hires in Germany, Poland and the USA. Cash flow from operating activities almost doubled to 24.8 million euros (31 Dec. 2019: 12.5 million euros). The revenue share of maintenance and upgrade subscriber contracts has further increased to 36.4%. Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year increased to 40.5 million euros (31 Dec. 2019: 38.7 million euros) despite payment of the purchase price for NEPLAN AG. As approved by the Supervisory Board, the Executive Board will propose a dividend of 0.30 euros (previous year: 0.05 euros) at the annual general meeting.
In the reporting year, PSI once again increased its research and development expenditures to 27.8 million euros, around one third of which was spent on the platform strategy and a B2B multi-cloud technology which not only delivers from the App Store to the PSI Cloud, but also to over 100 different private clouds held by large customers. After delivery, the software products are adapted to the customer's operations by the customer's IT department and specialist departments, by partners and PSI consultants using intuitive workflow and dialog design tools at runtime, and then rolled out across all affected workstations and technical systems. Although this technology is only being marketed for one fifth of the portfolio, more than 20 million euros of project services had already been transferred to partners and end customers in 2020.
PSI software makes a significant contribution to the integration of renewable energy into power grids, the decarbonization of the heating and transport sectors, and the switch to more climate-friendly, efficient and flexible production and logistics processes. The Management Board therefore expects a continuation of the increasing demand for intelligent software products.
Provided there are no further shocks to the global economy, the PSI Group is aiming for an operating result of over 20 million euros and an increase in new orders and sales of around 5% in 2021. If the vaccination campaigns do accelerate and the economy recovers, PSI will grow more strongly in the second half of the year.
PSI Group develops its own software products for integrated solutions to optimize the flow of energy and materials for utilities (energy grids, energy trading, public transport) and industry (metals production, automotive, mechanical engineering, logistics). PSI was founded in 1969 and employs more than 2,000 people worldwide.
