The provisional figures for 2022 released today show that USU Software AG (ISIN DE000A0BVU28) and its subsidiaries (hereinafter referred to as “USU” or the “USU Group”) increased their consolidated sales by 13.1% year-on-year to EUR 126.5 million (2021 EUR 111.9 million). This upturn was driven primarily by software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions, which picked up by 31.5% to EUR 14.2 million (2021: EUR 10.8 million). License revenue also saw above-average growth of 19.0% to EUR 14.2 million (2021: EUR 12.0 million). Irrespective of the general trend toward rental software (SaaS), several customers opted to purchase one-time licenses (on-premise) in the year. This underlines the strong product business in the 2022 financial year with a positive impact on the result. USU increased EBITDA by 17.0% year-on-year to EUR 16.8 million (2021: EUR 14.4 million), exceeding projected figures and again reporting record sales and earnings.
Consolidated net profit came to EUR 7.6 million (2021: EUR 6.8 million). This corresponds to diluted earnings per share of EUR 0.72 (2021: EUR 0.64). Subject to approval by the Supervisory Board, the Management Board proposes increasing the dividend by 10% to EUR 0.55 (2021: EUR 0.50).
Taking account of the accelerated move from one-time licenses to SaaS, the Management Board has fixed the following guidance. Sales growth is now expected of EUR 134 - 139 million in 2023 with a sharp rise in the share of SaaS contracts concluded with new customers, strong growth in SaaS sales of over 25% and a trend towards declining license revenues. Accordingly, EBITDA should come to EUR 16.5 – 18 million. In the medium term, the Management Board expects to see average organic sales growth of approx. 10% per year, with the share of SaaS contracts among new customers rising to over 75%. The rise in the high-margin SaaS share of sales continually pushes up EBITDA margins, which are to be increased to 17% - 19% by the end of 2026.