COA Solutions Reports Strong Profitable Growth and Record Level of New Orders

August 29th, 2008 - UK business applications software provider, COA Solutions Ltd., has today reported strong profitable growth for the year ending March 31, 2008. Turnover has increased by 10.3% to £55.7m with earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation (EBITDA) increasing by 24% to £12.4m. COA Solutions also reports a record level of new orders with an order intake growth of 41%.

Mark Thompson, Managing Director of COA Solutions says, “Once again, we have achieved strong financial results, consolidating COA Solutions’ position as the leader in the UK mid-market segment for financial management, procurement, document management, BI and human capital management systems. In a time of economic uncertainty, COA Solutions is positioned strongly, remaining in the top quartiles of the UK software industry for revenue and EBITDA per head. Moving forward, we are well-positioned to build on this success, and by focusing on understanding our customers’ requirements, we plan to further strengthen COA Solutions’ market leadership.”

Financial year 07/08 highlights include:

• Acquisitions of eProcurement company Belmin (completed March 08) and HR specialist ASR Computers Ltd. (completed April 08), strengthening COA Solutions’ footprint in the healthcare sector and HR offering.
• Order intake growth of 41% and software licence order (margin) growth of 24%.
• New software licence sales accounted for 29% of annual revenues
• Service order growth of 62% year-on-year and service order backlog was up by 83% to £6.4m.
• Recurring revenues (maintenance and support) represented 44% of total revenue, providing COA Solutions with a high quality and predictable revenue stream.
• Billable staff utilisation averaged 73%, a 13 point increase which compares favourably with averages across the UK software industry.
• Revenue per head remains in the top quartile of the UK software industry at £120,000.
• Over 340 new customer wins.
• Days sales outstanding were 71 days and there was a positive cash movement of £8.1m