→ Birth of a new major player in enterprise software,
achieving critical scale with a bold 2025 ambition of c.€700m
revenue and c.€100m profit on operating activities1; → A
secured leadership position, with unique strengths in banking and
financial services, thanks to a diversified product portfolio
extending across geographies, clients, and industries, capturing a
variety of profitable niche markets; → A reaffirmed
pure-player vision founded on a shared DNA, driven by an
experienced management team and backed by a reference shareholding
base in support of an independent long-term company
project.
Regulatory News:
Axway (Paris:AXW) announces the successful completion of the
acquisition of Sopra Banking Software, establishing one of France's
top enterprise software publishers, with leading positions in
banking and financial services. This major step in the company's
development not only marks a change in dimension, but also
initiates a transformative alliance project aimed at delivering
substantial value to all its stakeholders.
First announced at the end of February, Axway's proposed
acquisition of Sopra Banking Software was made possible by the
successful execution of several critical operations in recent
months. With strong support from its shareholders and the addition
of new investors, over the summer the company carried out a share
capital increase with preferential subscription rights for a gross
amount of c.€131m, which it combined with the securing of new
credit facilities (c.€200m) from partner banks, in order to finance
the acquisition for an enterprise value of €330m.
The completion of Axway's acquisition of Sopra Banking Software
has received the approval of the relevant regulatory authorities
and the integration of the two entities is beginning. The latter
part of 2024 and into 2025 will be instrumental in the ramp-up of
the new Group and will enable the expected cost optimizations to
materialize.
The Group will be headed by Patrick Donovan, as CEO, and Eric
Bierry, who will take on the role of Deputy CEO.
Patrick Donovan, Chief Executive Officer, said:
" We are at a pivotal moment in our company’s history. The
completion of the tie-up between Axway and Sopra Banking Software
embodies a unique development opportunity, and the ambitious
industrial project we have been working towards can finally come to
life. We will be fully committed to this project and I am convinced
that, together, our teams will achieve outstanding success. Our
brands are strong, our flagship products are recognized among the
best in their markets, and our customer-centric business model,
refined over several years of transformation, has proven its
effectiveness. The operational work begins now, with the unwavering
priority for both Axway and Sopra Banking Software remaining, as
always, the success of our customers' projects.”
Eric Bierry, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, added:
" We are incredibly excited to be part of creating a new global
powerhouse in enterprise software. Our industry-leading technology
platforms and business software have a long and successful track
record of driving the transformation of some of the world’s largest
banking and financial institutions, and this alliance significantly
strengthens our positions, offerings, technologies and
perspectives. This operation provides a major opportunity to
accelerate our value creation for all our stakeholders through a
new Group of critical size with tenfold capabilities. I am
particularly pleased that our 5,000 employees, from 26 countries
around the world, are seeing our entrepreneurial culture thrive
through a project filled with compelling opportunities.”
Targets and Outlook
The consolidation of Sopra Banking Software is effective today
and Axway will therefore integrate the acquired activities for the
last 4 months of the 2024 financial year. On this basis, the Group
is targeting 2024 revenue of around €460m and an operating margin
of between 13% and 17%.
By 2025, pursuing its development at an annual organic growth
rate of between 2% and 4%, Axway targets revenue of around €700m
and a margin on operating activities of between 14% (around €100m)
and 16% which will reflect the full materialization of cost
optimizations, of the order of €15m, expected on a full-year 2025
basis.
By 2027, Axway ambitions to achieve revenue above €750m and a
margin on operating activities of more than 17%. By 2028, the Group
is aiming for a margin on operating activities at around 20% of
revenue.
At year-end 2024, Axway expects its net debt to EBITDA ratio to
exceed 2.5x. By the end of 2025, this ratio should be below 2.0x,
and by 2027 it is expected to be below 1.0x.
Financial Calendar
The Group will detail its medium-term strategic plan at a
Capital Markets Meeting to be held in Q1 2025, the date of which
has yet to be confirmed.
In the meantime, Q3 2024 revenue will be published on Thursday
October 24, 2024, before market opening.
About Axway
Axway enables enterprises to securely open everything by
integrating and moving data across a complex world of new and old
technologies. Axway’s API-driven B2B integration and MFT software,
refined over 20 years, complements Axway Amplify, an open API
management platform that makes APIs easier to discover and reuse
across multiple teams, vendors, and cloud environments. Axway has
helped over 11,000 businesses unlock the full value of their
existing digital ecosystems to create brilliant experiences,
innovate new services, and reach new markets.
About Sopra Banking Software
Sopra Banking Software (SBS) is a global financial technology
company that is helping banks and the financial services industry
to reimagine how to operate in an increasingly digital world. SBS
is a trusted partner of more than 1,500 financial institutions and
large-scale lenders in 80 countries worldwide. Its cloud platform
offers clients a composable architecture to digitize operations,
ranging from banking, lending, compliance, to payments, and
consumer and asset finance. SBS is recognized as a Top 10 European
Fintech company by IDC and as a leader in Omdia’s Universe: Digital
Banking Platforms.
Forward-looking statements
This document contains certain forward-looking statements about
Axway Software and its subsidiaries. These statements include
financial projections and estimates and their underlying
assumptions, statements regarding plans, objectives, intentions and
anticipated results as well as events, operations, future services
or product development and potential or future performance.
Forward-looking statements are generally identified by the words
“expects”, “anticipates”, “believes”, “intends,” “estimates,”
“anticipates,” “projects,” “seeks,” “endeavors,” “strives,” “aims,”
“hopes,” “plans,” “may,” “goal,” “objective,” “projection,”
“outlook” and similar expressions. Although the management of Axway
Software believes that these forward-looking statements are
reasonably made, investors and holders of the group’s securities
are cautioned that these forward-looking statements are subject to
a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other
factors, a large number of which are difficult to predict and
generally outside the control of Axway Software, that may cause
actual results, performance or achievements to be materially
different from any future results, performance or achievement
expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These
risks and uncertainties include those developed or identified in
any public documents approved by the French financial markets
authority (the Autorité des marchés financiers – the “AMF”) made or
to be made by the group, in particular those described in Chapter
2.1 “Risk Factors” of the 2023 universal registration document
filed with the AMF under number D. 24-0175 on March 25, 2024 and in
Chapter 3 of the 2023 universal registration document amendment
filed with the AMF under number D. 24-0175-A01 on July 22, 2024.
These forward-looking statements are given only as of the date of
this document and Axway Software expressly declines any obligation
or commitment to publish updates or corrections of the
forward-looking statements included in this document in order to
reflect any change affecting the forecasts or events, conditions or
circumstances on which these forward-looking statements are based.
Any information relating to past performance contained herein is
not a guarantee of future performance. Nothing herein should be
construed as an investment recommendation or as legal, tax,
investment or accounting advice.
__________________________________ 1 Profit from recurring
operations adjusted for the non-cash share-based payment expense,
as well as the amortization of allocated intangible assets.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240902158252/en/
Investor Relations: Arthur Carli – +33 (0)1 47 17 24 65 –
acarli@axway.com
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