DGAP-News: ecotel communication ag / Key word(s): Quarterly / Interim Statement/9-month figures 2016-11-10 / 08:00 The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Q3 consolidated revenue grows by EUR 6.9 million to EUR 31.3 million - Q3 EBITDA: EUR 1.6 million (previous year: EUR 1.8 million) - New orders driven by three new major customer projects clearly better than planned - Q3 Free Cash Flow: EUR 0.7 million - net financial assets: EUR 2.8 million - Clarification of forecast for 2016 financial year Düsseldorf, 10 November 2016 ecotel was able to continue sustainable growth in the third quarter of 2016. In particular, since the middle of 2015, the profitable core segment of Business Customers (B2B) has seen sustained growth. The consolidated revenue amounted to EUR 31.3 million in the third quarter (previous year EUR 24.4 million). In addition to increased revenue of EUR 6.8 million in the Wholesale Solutions segment, ecotel's high-margin Business Customers (B2B) segment also improved significantly by EUR 0.4 million to EUR 11.2 million. In the New Business segment, revenue decreased slightly by EUR 0.3 million to EUR 4.1 million. In the first nine months of the year 2016, the consolidated revenue increased altogether by EUR 16.4 million to EUR 90.4 million. Consolidated gross profit in the third quarter 2016 increased from EUR 6.9 million to EUR 7.1 million. The gross profit margin amounted to more than 48%, this was essentially achieved by Business Solutions (B2B) with an increase of EUR 0.2 million EUR 5.4 million. Gross profit in the New Business segment remained constant at EUR 1.6 million (previous year: EUR 1.7 million) despite the lower revenue. Altogether, in the first nine months of 2016, ecotel earned gross profit of EUR 21.3 million (previous year: EUR 20.7 million). Of this amount, 76.5 % is attributed to the Business Customers segment. In the third quarter of 2016, ecotel consolidated an EBITDA of EUR 1.6 million (previous year: EUR 1.8 million). Free cash flow amounted to EUR 0.7 million (previous year: EUR 1.5 million). Earnings per share amounted to EUR 0.04 (previous year: EUR 0.06). Despite a dividend payout, by the end of 30 September 2016 there was an increase of net financial assets of EUR 0.8 million to EUR 2.8 million (previous year: EUR 1.6 million). Additional good news was the equity which increased by EUR 0.5 million to EUR 22.0 million (previous year: EUR 21.5 million), this relates to an equity ratio of 47.0%. ecotel is very satisfied not only with the business year to date, but also with the future prospects. Very promising, were new orders in which three new major customer projects were acquired, thus activities going clearly better than planned. One of the projects entails the networking of more than 1000 locations; furthermore we were able to secure a contract renewal with an important existing client. A further opportunity for growth is in the sector, NGN-Voice product and the Ethernet-fiberglass-marketing, we can achieve this as an alternative network operator; we have already taken our first orders. The successful impact on expectant revenues and results will gradually be able to be seen in 2017. Capital spending in 2016 has largely already taken place in the form of purchasing technical IT-equipment, such as router components and resources for the staff in process adaptions and system development. This has resulted in an unforeseen effect on the result and the Free Cash Flow in 2016. Due to the aforementioned business performance and thus the resulting extraordinary effects, the Board would now like to present the forecast of 2016 as announced in 2015 as follows: The Board is expecting a consolidated revenue of approximately EUR 117.0 million and a EBITDA of about EUR 7.0 million. Furthermore, the revenue for the core segment, Business Solutions (B2B), of about EUR 45.0 million, the revenue for the segment New Business to be about EUR 17.0 million and the revenue for the segment Wholesale Solutions of about EUR 55.0 million. About ecotel communication ag: The ecotel Group (hereinafter »ecotel«) is a telecommunications company operating throughout Germany since 1998 that specialises in meeting the information and telecommunication (IT/telecom) requirements of customers. The parent company is ecotel communication ag. The shares are traded in the Prime Standard segment of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. ecotel markets products and services in the following business segments: »Business Solutions (B2B)«, »Wholesale Solutions«, »Private Customer Solutions (B2C)« and »new media solutions«. ecotel's core segment is represented by »Business Solutions (B2B)«. Here ecotel offers 18,000 small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as large-scale customers throughout Germany, an integrated product portfolio of voice and data services (IT/telecom solutions) from a single source. In »Wholesale Solutions« ecotel integrates the services offered to other telecommunications companies. In addition, ecotel is active in cross-network trading of telephone minutes (Wholesale) for national and international carriers; for this purpose, ecotel maintains network interconnections with approximately 100 international carriers. The »Private Customer Solutions (B2C)« of ecotel include the services of the easybell Group. The Berlin-based subsidiary markets high-quality yet low-priced Internet and telephone services. For this purpose easybell provides rate-adaptable ADSL2+ and VDSL services nationwide. easybell is also one of the market leaders in the provision of classic call-by-call and Internet-by-call access. With its »new media solutions« nacamar GmbH offers streaming services for media enterprises on the basis of its own Content Delivery Network (CDN), which is hosted in the ecotel computer centre. The company also markets customised solutions for content management systems, online representation and technical developments (apps) for access by end devices (smartphones, tablet PC and smart TVs). The corporate group, with its main office in Düsseldorf, currently has about 270 employees, including subsidiaries and holdings. Note: This publication is neither an offer for the sale nor an invitation for the purchase or subscription of securities. This publication is not a securities brochure. This publication and the information contained therein are not intended for direct or indirect dissemination to or within the United States of America, Canada, Australia or Japan. PR office: Business and Financial Media Annette Drescher (Assistant to the Managing Director) Tel.: 0211-55 007-740 Fax: 0211-55 007 5 740 E-mail: presse@ecotel.de Business media Bernadette Loosen-Flanz (PR) Tel.: 0211-55 007-316 Fax: 0211-55 007 5 316 E-mail: presse@ecotel.de For more information, please visit us on the web at www.ecotel.de --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2016-11-10 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases. Archive at www.dgap.de --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Language: English Company: ecotel communication ag Prinzenallee 11 40549 Düsseldorf Germany Phone: +49 (0)211 55 00 70 Fax: +49 (0)211 55 00 7 222 E-mail: info@ecotel.de Internet: http://www.ecotel.de ISIN: DE0005854343 WKN: 585434 Listed: Regulated Market in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Regulated Unofficial Market in Berlin, Dusseldorf, Munich, Stuttgart, Tradegate Exchange End of News DGAP News Service