2022 General Meeting: ORBIS SE considerably exceeds turnover expectations in the 2021 fiscal year

The Ordinary General Meeting of the Saarbrücken-based software and business consulting firm, ORBIS SE (ISIN DE0005228779), took place virtually again this year. The shareholders looked back on a good 2021 fiscal year.

Based on the positive business performance and the solid balance sheet structure, the Management Board and the Supervisory Board proposed a 20 cent-per-share dividend to the General Meeting. The General Meeting agreed to this proposal.

The ORBIS SE shareholders released the members of the Management Board and of the Supervisory Board for the 2021 financial year at the Ordinary General Meeting.

The shareholder meeting re-appointed RSM GmbH, Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaft Steuerberatungsgesellschaft, Georg-Glock-Straße 4, D- 40474 Düsseldorf as the auditor and group auditor for the 2022 financial year.

The shareholders also approved the compensation of the Supervisory Board and the compensation report.

The Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Stefan Mailänder, outlined the business development for 2021 at the General Meeting:

ORBIS can once again look back on 2021 as a financial year when it enjoyed a significant increase in Group turnover and an improvement in earnings. The range of services that ORBIS offers was further strengthened with the establishment of the subsidiary ORBIS People GmbH and investments made in new products.

ORBIS recorded a 14.6% year-on-year increase in turnover to €98,399 thousand at Group level in the 2021 financial year (2020: €85,897 thousand). The number of employees rose by 14.1% to 759 as at December 31, 2021 (2020: 665 employees).

The operating result (EBIT) grew by 3.6% to €4,437 thousand (2020: €4,283 thousand).

The share of the consolidated result attributable to the shareholders of ORBIS SE amounts to €2,369 thousand after taxes and minority interests, making it 22.0% higher than in the previous year (2020: €1,942 thousand).

Due to the positive cash flow from operating activities of €7,870 thousand, ORBIS has cash and cash equivalents of €24,107 thousand (2020: €26,063 thousand) despite the investments in expanding the site in Saarbrücken and investments in building on business operations, said Mr. Mailänder.

Mr. Mailänder also made clear that based on market orientation and financial strength, ORBIS is very well positioned in terms of the 2021 financial year and also for the future.

The international focus of ORBIS has also been strengthened with the change in legal form from AG to ORBIS SE.

Mr. Frank Schmelzer, Management Board member of ORBIS SE, then gave an overview of the operating activities of the SAP and Microsoft divisions. Mr. Schmelzer pointed out that ORBIS successfully won a number of new customers and projects in the 2021 financial year.

Due to further developments in cloud technologies, ORBIS customers would, in future, come to expect advice on more than just business applications, such as SAP ERP and MS CRM.

This gives ORBIS the opportunity to offer customers a cross-platform consultancy service based on its knowledge of Microsoft and SAP processes and technologies, thereby presenting ORBIS with an obvious competitive advantage and clearly setting it apart from competitors.

The Chairman of the Management Board of ORBIS SE, Mr. Thomas Gard, pointed out in his statements that ORBIS could further expand on the business in the previous year.

ORBIS is very well positioned for the future as a business process consulting firm through its partnerships with SAP and Microsoft.
The knowledge and solutions at ORBIS are also an excellent basis for driving forward future growth. Ongoing investments in innovations, in knowledge and in recruiting new employees, in spite of the challenging situation in the IT labor market, are vital for doing so.

Mr. Gard went on to say that despite the continued persistence of the Covid-19 crisis, ORBIS has great opportunities overall for developing the business sustainably. The impact of the Ukraine crisis on customers and therefore on ORBIS is, however, difficult to estimate.
In spite of all the uncertainty, ORBIS expects turnover growth in the single-digit percentage range. The EBIT margin is again likely to be between 4 and 5%. However, this depends on there not being any unexpected project delays or postponements during the year.

About ORBIS

ORBIS helps SMEs and international corporations to digitalize their business processes – from jointly developing the customer-specific big picture, to practical implementation in the project. The digitalization and automation of business processes across the entire value chain ensure our customers’ competitiveness. The profound process-related know-how and innovative strength of our 750 employees, combined with the expertise gained from 35-plus years of successfully undertaking international projects in various sectors, make us a competent partner. We rely on the solutions and technologies of our partners SAP and Microsoft, whose portfolios are rounded off by ORBIS solutions. Our focus in this regard is on SAP S/4HANA, customer engagement and turning the smart factory into a reality. Using smart cloud technologies such as machine learning, cognitive services or the IoT as a basis, we promote our customers’ innovative power in the development of innovative products, services and business models. Our expertise results from over 2,000 customer projects in more than 500 customers operating in the automotive supply industry, construction supply industry, electrical and electronics industry, mechanical and plant engineering, logistics, metal industry, consumer goods industry and trade. To name but a few examples, our long-standing customers include the ZF Group, Hörmann, Hager Group, Rittal, Andreas Stihl, BEUMER Group, NETZSCH Pumpen & Systeme, Paul Hartmann, Sick, Bystronic, Ferrum, Halter, Bruker, V-ZUG, Yanmar Marine International, Exerion Präzisionstechnik, CoreDux, Royal Avebe, Ottakringer and LiSEC.

For more information, please visit: www.orbis.de
or contact
Dr. Sabine Stürmer, Head of Investor Relations at ORBIS SE
Phone: +49 (0)681 99 24 605, Email: sabine.stuermer(at)orbis.de