10/31/2024 Corporate News PSI with Balanced EBIT in the Third Quarter

• Order backlog of EUR 188 million on September 30, 2024, 5.5% below the previous year's figure
• Sales in the third quarter at previous year's level of 65 million euros
• Group operating result balanced in the third quarter, in Production Management segment 23% above the same quarter of the previous year at 3.7 million euros

Berlin, October 31, 2024 – PSI Group achieved 3.8% lower sales of 177.4 million euros in the first nine months of 2024 (Sept. 30, 2023: 184.5 million euros). In the third quarter of 2024, sales were stable at 65.1 million euros (July 1–Sept. 30, 2023: 65.2 million euros). The operating result (EBIT) was balanced at 13,000 euros in the third quarter (July 1–Sept. 30, 2023: 2.6 million euros) and continued to improve compared to the first two quarters of 2024. In the first nine months of 2024, it was clearly negative at −19.4 million euros (Sept. 30, 2023: −2.7 million euros) following the negative impact of the cyberattack. The consolidated result was correspondingly −24.1 million euros (Sept. 30, 2023: EUR −7.1 million). Incoming orders decreased by 16.8% compared to the same period of the previous year to 198 million euros (Sept. 30, 2023: 238 million euros). In the previous year, the third quarter in particular was characterized by very large orders in the areas of electrical grids, logistics and in Malaysia. At 188 million euros, the order backlog as at Sept. 30, 2024 was 5.5% below the previous year's figure (Sept. 30, 2023: 199 million euros).

The Energy Management segment (energy grids, energy trading, public transport) achieved 7.6% lower sales of 84.8 million euros (Sept. 30, 2023: 91.8 million euros) and a significant deterioration in the operating result to −19.5 million euros (Sept. 30, 2023: −7.5 million euros). Although the segment's business continued to normalize, fixed-price projects in particular were still significantly impacted by the lower productivity following the cyberattack.

Sales in the Production Management segment (metals, industry, logistics) remained constant in the first nine months at 92.6 million euros (Sept. 30, 2023: 92.7 million euros). The segment's operating result deteriorated to 2.3 million euros (Sept. 30, 2023: 11.1 million euros), but in the third quarter the segment achieved a 23% year-on-year improvement in its operating result to 3.7 million euros. Due to the more product-based business, Production Management recovered much faster from the consequences of the cyberattack than Energy Management.

The number of employees in the Group increased slightly to 2,316 (Sept. 30, 2023: 2,279). Cash flow from operating activities was clearly negative at −34.2 million euros (Sept. 30, 2023: −6.5 million euros) as a result of the cyberattack and one-off working capital changes, which will be reversed in subsequent quarters. At 27.4 million euros, cash and cash equivalents were 19.6 million euros below the previous year's figure (Sept. 30, 2023: 47.0 million euros), offset by higher current financial liabilities of 24.7 million euros (Dec. 31, 2023: 2.1 million euros). The Group has sufficient funds available for financing and a significant improvement in cash and cash equivalents is expected in the fourth quarter.

Following the cyberattack in February 2024 and the restart of the renewed IT systems, productive operations have largely resumed since the beginning of May and are now almost completely back to normal. In the course of the restart, further measures were adopted that will significantly increase the security of the IT systems as part of a revised IT strategy and are currently being implemented. No further costs from the cyber attack are expected in fourth quarter of 2024. 

The simplification of the Group structures was already initiated in the middle of the year with the merger of the German subsidiaries into PSI Software SE. In future, PSI's business will be divided into the five industry segments Grid & Energy Management, Process Industries, Discrete Manufacturing, Logistics and Mobility, which will also form the basis for financial reporting from the fourth quarter of 2024. With the cloud transformation of the product portfolio, which was initiated with three specific proof-of-concept projects, PSI is laying the foundations for the future development of the SaaS business (Software-as-a-Service).

Taking into account the negative effects from the cyberattack, the PSI Executive Board continues to expect a reduction in sales of up to 25 million euros for the full year and a negative EBIT of up to −15 million euros.

The PSI Group develops software products for optimizing the flow of energy and materials for utilities and industry. As an independent software producer with more than 2,300 employees, PSI has been a technology leader since 1969 for process control systems that ensure sustainable energy supply, mobility and production by combining AI methods with industrially proven optimization methods. The innovative industry products can be operated on-premises or in the cloud.