Quarterly statement first quarter 2022

Frankfurt/Main, 26 April 2022. The Amadeus FiRe Group was able to continue the positive momentum at the end of fiscal year 2021 and close the first quarter of 2022 very successfully.

The Group’s consolidated revenue increased by 17.3 percent year-on-year to € 102.8 million and operating EBITA by 19.3 percent to € 17.6 million. The operating EBITA margin also increased by 0.3 percentage points to 17.1 percent.

Revenues in the business segments developed as follows:

The Personnel Services segment performed particularly well at the start of the year, with gross profit up 34.5 percent to € 36.1 million and operating segment earnings up 74.8 percent to € 14.3 million.

At the same time, the branch organization is currently successfully expanding its workforce to further strengthen its position in the market. Overall, another absolute record quarter was achieved, with outstanding results in the permanent placement service in particular. The continuing shortage of qualified personnel is creating an unbroken positive market environment.

As expected, the start to the year in the Training segment was rather restrained with a slight overall decline in sales.

Following an already business slowdown in the area of publicly funded training in the second half of 2021, sales here fell by around 10 percent in comparison to exceptionally successful first months in 2021. The number of participants in publicly funded training in the first quarter of 2022 was in line with the last quarter of 2021, but well below the level of the first quarter of 2021. For the moment, the recently weaker market situation under pandemic uncertainty has continued.
By contrast, the training courses and seminars for private and corporate customers showed a good start to the year with rising sales.

The segment’s operating EBITA in the first quarter of 2022 was impacted by the weaker start to the year in publicly funded training, investments in new locations, IT and infrastructure, and the development of new training systems, and at €3.3 million was just over half of the result in the first quarter of 2021.

In the first three months, the Amadeus FiRe Group’s revenue and operating results were exceeded overall compared with its own planning. This applies in particular to the Personnel Services segment and, within the segment, to the high-margin permanent placement revenues. In the Training segment, the Group’s own operating targets were achieved in the first quarter, but earnings fell slightly short of the targets.

Despite the successful start to the year, the Management Board is leaving its forecast for the year as a whole unchanged. For the course of 2022, sales growth at Group level is still expected to be between 11 and 14 percent. Operating EBITA is forecast to grow by around 7 to 9 percent year-on-year.

The development of the personnel services business depends mainly on the labour market situation, but also on overall economic activity. Due to current developments in foreign and health policy and the associated economic consequences, it is currently very difficult to predict overall economic developments and they harbour uncertainties for the segment. The shortage of skilled workers will continue to play a significant and driving role in the demand situation.

In the training segment, demand is expected to be weaker in the first half of the year and to pick up in the second half. This will be driven in particular by publicly funded training and the reduced impact of the Corona pandemic at the end of the year. The planned lower earnings in the first half should be offset by higher earnings in the second half. The segment continues to forecast earnings growth.

General economic distortions due to sanctions, higher prices and supply chains disrupted by both the war and the Corona pandemic may lead to a selective drop in demand. However, this risk is significantly reduced for Amadeus FiRe due to its broad, cross-sector customer base and the associated substitution opportunities. Overall, the current economic development remains very dynamic, difficult to predict and holds risks.

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