Future outlook

Operating environment and market outlook

According to independent research institutions’ most recent market estimates the software market is expected to grow by 6.4 percent globally in 2013. The entire IT services market is expected to grow by 5.2 percent globally.

The company’s transition process is expected to reach a point where the investments will begin to pay themselves back in the form of increasing net sales and improved profitability during the latter half of the year. The share of R&D expenses of net sales is expected to decrease during 2013 compared to the level in 2012. The emphasis of the overall R&D expenses will move from Alusta product development towards the service development of Automation Services.

The need for continuous services is expected to remain good in our customer base regardless of economic cycles and the challenging economic situation. The predicted development of profitability is particularly based on the adoption of a scalable sales and delivery model and launching a global efficient service production network at full steam. The growing and developing e-invoice market offers good growth opportunities for Basware, which is already the industry-leading independent player worldwide.

The world economy and markets are unstable, which may result in a decrease in the demand for license sales and services. The conversion of license sales to SaaS solutions will reduce net sales growth over the short term. The shift of demand for license sales towards the SaaS solution will support the growth target of the Automation Services business.

Outlook 2013

Basware expects its net sales for 2013 to grow by more than 15% and operating profit (EBIT) to grow compared to the previous year. The operating profit includes estimated one-off restructuring costs of approximately EUR 2.3 million related to an acquisition that was completed in January.

The operating profit (EBIT) for the first quarter of 2013 is expected to be negative due to one-off restructuring costs.