DGAP-News: Nexway AG (formerly asknet AG) Reports First-Time Consolidated 6 Months Results and Specifies the Guidance for the Full Financial Year 2019

Nexway AG (formerly asknet AG) Reports First-Time Consolidated 6 Months Results and Specifies the Guidance for the Full Financial Year 2019

• Business volume more than doubled with gross revenues of EUR 95.7 million and gross profit of EUR 10.4 million
• Earnings on an EBITDA basis as expected still negative due to one-off integration and severance expenses
• Full year 2019 Guidance: Gross Revenues to exceed EUR 200 million, Gross Profit more than EUR 20 million, Earnings on EBITDA basis slightly positive

July 22, 2019, Karlsruhe (Germany) - Nexway AG, formerly asknet AG, is reporting preliminary unaudited financial results for the first 6 months period ending June 30, 2019. Given material changes following the acquisition of 100% of Nexway Group on January 31, 2019, Nexway AG expects to report gross revenues of EUR 95.7 million for the first 6 months period ending June 30, 2019, and gross profits of EUR 10.4 million (both before deduction of January 2019 revenues of Nexway SAS given that Nexway SAS had been consolidated as of January 31, 2019). The gross profit margin improved from 10.5% to 10.8% due to scale and synergies achieved through integrating asknet and Nexway businesses. This compares to gross revenues of EUR 42.1 million and gross profits of EUR 4.3 million for asknet AG for the same period in 2018, resulting in a margin of 10.5%.

For the full year of 2019, Nexway AG is expected to report consolidated gross revenues of over EUR 200 million and gross profits of more than EUR 20 million, both before deduction of January 2019 revenues of Nexway SAS given that Nexway SAS had been consolidated as of January 31, 2019. This compares to gross revenues of EUR 87.4 and gross profits of EUR 9.7 million reported for asknet AG for 2018, with the business effectively more than doubling in size thanks to consolidation of both Nexway Group acquisition and double-digit organic growth across key areas of the business.

As expected, Nexway AG remained moderatly loss-making on EBITDA basis in the first half of 2019, mainly due to various one-off integration and severance expenses. Nexway AG expects to become EBITDA positive in the second half of 2019. The cost base has already been significantly reduced in the current year. Going forward, the company will increasingly benefit from the bigger scale of operations and the visibility of the company on international markets, creating new opportunities and growth impulses. Depending on the further progress of the integration, a slightly positive EBITDA is expected on a full year basis, with the year 2020 being the first full year of stable operating profitability.

Nexway AG's consolidated net debt will remain between EUR 1-5 million throughout the year 2019, depending on seasonality of its business. The only significant external debt facility is a EUR 7.5 million long term bond issued on the level of Nexway SAS, maturing in 2023 and carrying 6.5% annual interest. With this facility, Nexway has further headroom of up to EUR 4.5 million should the group need to access further cash.

"Nexway AG is a technologically advanced, fast growing, pan-European ecommerce services company with increasing global reach and strong focus on digital marketplaces, software, content and gaming companies. Nexway's ecommerce clients benefit from our decades long experience in the complex business of payments, taxation, secure management of digital goods, and customer support, a rapidly growing industry in which Nexway is now in a leading position. With our business effectively more than doubling in size thanks to consolidation of the Nexway Group acquisition, we are now becoming a leading global Commerce-as-a-Service platform and merchant services provider", commented Aston Fallen, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Nexway AG.
 

About Nexway AG
Nexway AG (formerly asknet AG) is a leading e-commerce and payment player. Combining technology and managed services, the Nexway Group offers solutions to software, video games, services and retail companies to run and maximize their online sales worldwide. Furthermore the company provides software distribution services to the European academic institutions, students and alumni. Nexway clients leverage subscription models, local payment methods, fraud prevention, partner & reseller management and customer insights to transform their purchasing experience and grow their business. Nexway AG is a 51% owned subsidiary of the Swiss-listed integrated e-commerce services company The Native SA (CH0006326851) with other Nexway AG shareholders being Digital River and Softbank among others. The company is based in Karlsruhe and listed in Frankfurt (DE000A2E3707). The company's change of name from asknet AG to Nexway AG became effective with its entry in the commercial register on July 16, 2019. The change will be implemented step by step in the coming months, resulting in a further increase of visibility and stronger impact on our global markets.

For more information: www.asknet.com and www.thenative.ch
 

Media Contact
IR.on AG
Florian Kirchmann
+49 221 91 40 90
investorrelations@asknet.com