LONDON, Feb. 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Avast
(LSE:AVST), Avast plc, together with its subsidiaries ('Avast',
'the Group' or 'the Company'), a leading global cybersecurity
provider, announces its results for the year ended 31 December 2019.
Ondrej Vlcek, Chief Executive of
Avast, said:
"I'm pleased to report another year of good performance for
Avast in 2019, with results in line with the Board's
expectations. Group Adjusted Revenue was $873.1m, with organic growth of 9.1%1,
driven by double-digit growth in our Consumer Direct Desktop
business. We also sustained a high level of profitability with
Adjusted EBITDA margin2 at 55.3%.
"The core of the Avast business and our fundamental strengths
remain unchanged. Our focus on cross-sell and upsell, our
localisation strategy, and new product releases continue to drive
good growth. There is an exciting pipeline of product launches for
the year ahead. We continue to expect healthy growth in 2020 and
remain confident in the long-term prospects for the business.
"For the full year 2020 we expect Group mid-single
digit organic revenue growth, and a stable EBITDA margin
percentage."
FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS
- Strong overall performance in line with expectations
- Adjusted Billings at $911.0m up
5.7% at actual rates, with organic growth of 10.2%
- Adjusted Revenue at $873.1m up
5.6% at actual rates, with organic growth of 9.1%
- Consumer Direct Desktop Adjusted Revenue at $632.9m, up 9.1% at actual rates, with organic
growth of 10.7%
- Adjusted EBITDA up 7.9% to $483.0m; Adjusted EBITDA margin at 55.3%, up
119bps
- Adjusted fully diluted earnings per share ('EPS') up 14.1% to
$0.32 (versus $0.28 at YE 2018)
- Proposed final dividend payable in June
2020 of 10.3 cents per share;
total dividend for the year of 14.7
cents per share, up 8.1%3
- Continued strong cash generation with Unlevered Free Cash Flow
up 7.9% to $424.6m and Levered Free
Cash Flow up 14.0% to $370.4m
- Net debt / LTM ('last twelve months') Adjusted EBITDA at 1.8x
at year end
- On a statutory basis, Revenue up from $808.3m to $871.1m,
Operating profit up from $248.3m to
$344.6m, fully diluted EPS at
$0.24.
OPERATIONAL AND STRATEGIC HIGHLIGHTS
- Customer retention rates on Consumer Direct Desktop have
increased to 67%, driven by lower churn in paid anti-virus and
CCleaner products, and APPC growth. Desktop operating KPIs tracked
positively, with customers4 up 3.5% to 12.62m, APPC5 up 4.2% to 1.45 and
ARPC6 up 3.6% to $51.02
- Strong growth in the Desktop business was driven from the
cross-selling of Privacy products such as VPN and AntiTrack, and
Performance products such as Cleanup and Driver Updater
- There has been continued expansion of multi-device
subscriptions, with Consumer Desktop an important channel for
transactions of mobile-enabled products
- Customer numbers and penetration has risen in both established
markets such as the US, and new target countries, including an
increase in customer numbers by 19% in South East Asia and 13% in Central and
Eastern Europe
- Avast announced the termination of the provision of data to
Jumpshot from January 2020, aligning
our customer offering to the company's core values of privacy and
protection.
($'m)
|
FY 2019
|
FY 2018
|
Change %
|
Change %
(excluding FX) 7
|
Adjusted
Billings
|
911.0
|
862.1
|
5.7
|
8.1
|
Acquisitions
|
1.4
|
0.0
|
n/a
|
n/a
|
Disposal Managed
Workplace (SMB) 8
|
0.0
|
10.5
|
n/a
|
n/a
|
Discontinued
Business9
|
8.9
|
15.5
|
(42.6)
|
(41.7)
|
Adjusted Billings
excl. Acquisitions, Disposals and Discontinued
business
|
900.7
|
836.2
|
7.7
|
10.2
|
|
|
|
|
|
($'m)
|
FY 2019
|
FY 2018
|
Change %
|
Change %
(excluding FX)
|
Adjusted
Revenue
|
873.1
|
827.0
|
5.6
|
7.0
|
Acquisitions
|
1.4
|
0.0
|
n/a
|
n/a
|
Disposal Managed
Workplace (SMB)
|
0.0
|
10.5
|
n/a
|
n/a
|
Discontinued
Business
|
8.9
|
15.5
|
(42.6)
|
(41.7)
|
Adjusted Revenue
excl. Acquisitions, Disposals and Discontinued
business
|
862.8
|
801.0
|
7.7
|
9.1
|
($'m)
|
|
FY 2019
|
FY 2018
|
Change %
|
Adjusted
EBITDA
|
|
483.0
|
447.7
|
7.9
|
Adjusted EBITDA
Margin %
|
|
55.3
|
54.1
|
1.2 ppts
|
Adjusted Net
Income
|
|
322.3
|
270.8
|
19.0
|
Net Debt
10
|
|
884.5
|
1,138.2
|
(22.3)
|
Statutory Results:
($'m)
|
|
FY 2019
|
FY 2018
|
Change
%11
|
Revenue
|
|
871.1
|
808.3
|
7.8
|
Operating
profit
|
|
344.6
|
248.3
|
38.8
|
Net Income
|
|
248.9
|
241.2
|
3.2
|
Net Cash Flows from
operating activities
|
|
399.1
|
376.0
|
6.1
|
PRESENTATION OF RESULTS
A presentation for analysts and investors will be held at
9:00 AM GMT today (26 February) at
UBS, 5 Broadgate, London, EC2M
2QS. To register your attendance please contact ir@avast.com. The
presentation will also be accessible via a conference call and live
webcast. Please register for the call or webcast on the Company
website at https://investors.avast.com. A Q&A facility will be
available for conference call participants.
PUBLICATION OF ANNUAL REPORT
The Company today published its Annual Report and Accounts 2019.
The document will be available to view on the Company website at
https://investors.avast.com and is also being submitted to the
National Storage Mechanism for inspection at
www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/nsm.
ESG BRIEFING
Avast's Chairman and Senior Independent Director will today hold
a briefing and Q&A session on Environmental, Social and
Governance issues relevant to the Company. The event, intended for
investors and ESG rating agencies, will be held at 1:00 PM GMT in London. For further information please contact
ir@avast.com.
ENQUIRIES
Investors and analysts:
Peter Russell, Director of IR
IR@avast.com
Media:
Stephanie Kane, VP PR and Corporate
Communications
mediarelations@avast.com
Tavistock
+44 20 7920 3150
CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING
STATEMENTS
This announcement contains certain forward-looking statements
that are subject to the usual risk factors and uncertainties
associated with the Company's business. Whilst the Company believes
the expectations reflected herein to be reasonable in the light of
the information available to them at this time, the actual outcome
may be materially different owing to factors beyond the Company's
control or within the Company's control where, for example, the
Company decides on a change of plan or strategy. Accordingly, no
reliance may be placed on the figures contained in such
forward-looking statements.
Notes:
Throughout the Full Year Report a number of alternative
performance measures are used to provide users with a clearer
picture of the performance of the business. This is in line with
how management monitor and manage the business day-to-day.
Definitions and details are provided below. Further definitions
(see 'PRESENTATION OF RESULTS AND DEFINITIONS') and reconciliations
(see 'FINANCIAL REVIEW') of non-GAAP measures are included in the
notes to the financial statements.
All dollar figures throughout the report are at actual currency
rates unless otherwise indicated.
1 Organic growth rate excludes the impact
of FX, acquisitions, business disposals and discontinued business.
It excludes current period billings and revenue of acquisitions
until the first anniversary of their consolidation.
2 Adjusted EBITDA margin percentage is defined
as Adjusted EBITDA divided by Adjusted
Revenue.
3 Growth rate calculated
on an annualized basis. In June 2019
the Group paid dividend of 8.6 cents
per share in respect of the period 15 May
2018 to 31 December 2018
(13.6 cents per share on an
annualized basis).
4 Users who have at
least one valid paid Consumer Direct Desktop subscription (or
licence) at the end of the period.
5
APPC defined as the Consumer Direct Desktop simple average valid
licences or subscriptions for the financial period presented
divided by the simple average number of Customers during the same
period.
6 ARPC defined as the Consumer
Direct Desktop revenue for the financial period divided by the
simple average number of Customers during the same
period.
7 Growth rate excluding
currency impact calculated by restating 2019 actual to 2018 FX
rates (see "Principal exchange rates applied "). Deferred revenue
is translated to USD at date of invoice and is therefore excluded
when calculating the impact of FX on
revenue.
8 On 1
February 2019 Avast plc sold the non-core asset of Managed
Workplace, its remote monitoring and management product, to
Barracuda Networks, Inc. ('Barracuda'). Managed Workplace was
Avast's solution in the Remote Monitoring and Management ('RMM')
space, which is sold to Managed Service Providers ('MSPs'). This
business was not core to our SMB strategy, which focuses on
securing the workplace. Barracuda, which has a large existing MSP
base but did not offer an RMM solution, provides a better long-term
solution for this business. In addition, Barracuda has signed a
reseller agreement with Avast under which it now resells Avast's
business security solutions to MSPs. In the year ended 31 December 2018 the asset generated low teen
revenue (USD million) with a materially lower margin profile than
the Group.
9 As the company is exiting
its toolbar-related search distribution business, which had
previously been an important contributor to AVG's revenues
(referred to above and throughout the report, with the Group's
browser clean-up business, as 'Discontinued Business'), the growth
figures exclude Discontinued Business, which the Group expects to
be negligible by the end of 2020. The Discontinued Business does
not represent a discontinued operation as defined by IFRS 5 since
it has not been disposed of but rather it is being continuously
scaled down and is considered to be neither a separate major line
of business, nor geographical area of
operations.
10 The Group applied the
IFRS 16 standard as of 1 January 2019
using the modified retrospective approach and did not restate
comparative amounts for the year prior to first adoption. Net Debt
as of 31 December 2019 includes the
balance of IFRS 16 lease liabilities. No lease liabilities are
included in the Net Debt as of 31 December
2018. Net Debt as of 31 December
2018 adjusted for opening balance of IFRS 16 lease
liabilities would be $1,209.9m.
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SOURCE Avast