Lectra’s Board of Directors, chaired by André Harari, reviewed the unaudited consolidated financial statements for the third quarter and first nine months of 2013.
Highlights:
- Revenues: €150 million (+5%)
- Income from operations before non-recurring items: €13.2 million (+6%)
- Net income: €18.8 million
- Free cash flow: €16 million
- Net cash: €24.9 million
Q3 2013: Very Good Performance
Implementing the Transformation Plan
At the end of 2011, and despite the prevailing economic conditions, the company decided to accelerate its transformation over the period to 2015, giving precedence to its long-term strategy over short-term profitability.
This far-reaching plan, representing cumulative investments for the future of €50 million over the period 2012-2015, fully expensed over the period, while their benefits will only be felt progressively.
It comprises three components: a major recruitment plan devoted to strengthening sales and marketing teams, which will grow from 220 people at the end of 2011 to 330, and from 16% to 22% of the total workforce, with a doubling of the number of sales people; the addition of 40 software R&D engineers in Bordeaux-Cestas (France), bringing the total R&D workforce to 260 engineers; finally, accelerated investment in marketing.
Execution of the plan continued in Q3. Since January 1, 2013, there have been more than 110 recruitments, bringing the total of new hires since the end of 2011 to close to 230. The main priorities, in bolstering sales and marketing teams, have been North America, China, and the Germany and Eastern Europe region. Meanwhile, 170 people have left the Group under the transformation plan.
Growth in Orders, Revenues and Income from Operations
Despite persistently sluggish business conditions, orders for new software licenses and CAD/CAM equipment (€19.4 million) were up 4% compared with Q3 2012. They amounted to €18.7 million in Q2 2013 and to €16.2 million in Q1.
Revenues (€50.8 million) were up 11% (+6% at actual exchange rates). Revenues from new systems sales (€21.2 million) increased by 15% and recurring revenues (€29.6 million) by 8%. This confirmation of the acceleration of the growth in recurring revenues (in fiscal 2012, this growth amounted to 3%) is a remarkable performance and deserves special mention.
Despite the impact of investments for the future, income from operations amounted to €6.1 million. Like-forlike, it was up by €1.7 million (+32%) and the operating margin before non-recurring items (11.9%) increased by 2.2 percentage points. Net income (€4.2 million) was up by €0.5 million (+12%) at actual exchange rates.
