0710 schreef op 23 februari 2012 09:59:
LBi voldoet aan mijn verwachtingen:LBi reports record 2011 net revenue and profits
Posted by amdebont February 23rd, 2012
Business model transformation and rigorous strategy execution continue to pay offAmsterdam (the Netherlands), 23 February 2012 – LBi International N.V. (NYSE Euronext: LBI), the world’s largest independent marketing and technology agency, today reports its full year 2011 results for the period ended 31 December 2011.
Key highlightsFY 2011 net revenue up by 12.0% (13.0% at constant rates) to EUR 196.6 million reflecting continued demand for digital branding, social media and mobile offerings;
Adjusted EBITDA increased 13.1% to EUR 31.9 million, good underlying operational progress and margin improvement;
Recorded net result of EUR 18.1 million in 2011 vs. a negative EUR 6.5 million in 2010;
Strong accelerating sales momentum in Q4 2011 with net revenue up 18% YoY at EUR 53.7 million and EBITDA up 16% to EUR 8.7 million;
Strong financial position with positive operating cash flow of EUR 25.9 million for the year (EUR 11.0 million last year) of which EUR 28.8 million in the second half year;
Continued double digit organic growth in revenue and EBITDA expected for 2012.
Luke Taylor, CEO of LBi, commented: “2011 marked the most successful year in our history as a public Company with record sales and adjusted EBITDA of EUR 196.6 million and EUR 31.9 million, respectively. And while 2011 could be characterised as a transition year, we were nevertheless able to slightly improve our operating margins, illustrating on-going structural change within our agency.
Our 2011 performance reflects the most visible evidence of the strategic progress we’ve made in transforming our business model. We have built a blended portfolio of strategic, media, social, creative and technical skill sets tailored to international brands who want to lead in the digital space and capture the opportunities it offers to further create business value, drive brand reputation and sales in multiple markets.
In the past year, we have continued rigorously to connect, share and leverage all our skill sets, platforms and products across the regions and make them available to our clients. We have clearly seen the merits of the merger with bigmouthmedia (BMM) which contributed to a sales uplift as we are now fully integrated and equipped to even better assist large multinational accounts as their business continues to shift from off line to online. We are also very excited about the social media, experiential and word of mouth marketing capabilities of New York based Mr. Youth, which we acquired in November 2011. The acquisition perfectly fulfils our strategic need and delivers breadth and depth and tools to an already significant social media offering which was nevertheless struggling to cope with global client demand.
LBi will continue throughout 2012 to benefit from the on-going acceleration in interest in all things social, the trend for roster consolidation and the aggregation of digital services into single supplier multi-market mandates. We of course remain sensitive to macroeconomic events and in the Q4 period we institutionalised a small increase in contractor usage as a hedge against uncertainty. For this reason we do not anticipate any significant margin expansion in the short term but this will start to flow through as the contractor ratio becomes better optimised through the first half of this year. We recorded solid organic sales growth of 13% in Q4 (18% inclusive of 6 weeks Mr. Youth) and at the moment we continue to see good double digit organic growth developing throughout 2012.”