Výsledky Avast za 1H s mírným růstem tržeb na 472 mil. USD

Skupina Avast dosáhla solidních výsledků, organický růst objemu fakturace a úrovně ziskovosti byly v souladu s výhledem. Objem fakturace činil 483,7 mil. USD a vzrostl o 0,2 % při aktuálních měnových kurzech, přičemž organický růst činil 6,9 %, což je v souladu s naší celoroční prognózou středních jednotek procent organického růstu. Tržby činily 472 mil. USD a vzrostly o 0,2 % při aktuálních měnových kurzech, přičemž organický růst tvořil 2,7 % v souladu s celoročním výhledem organického růstu v nižších jednotkách procent. Podnikání v segmentech spotřebitelů (Consumer) a malých a středních podniků (SMB) přispěla do celkových tržeb 446,7 mil. USD a 25,3 mil. USD. Upravená marže EBITDA se důsledkem významných investic snížila, ale zůstala silná na úrovni 52,9 % (FY2021: 55,0 %). Marže je ovlivněna vysokými investicemi do získávání a udržení zákazníků, segmentu Digital Trust Services (DTS) a akvizice společnosti SecureKey.

Vybráno z TZ:

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS
● Billings at $483.7m up 0.2% at actual rates, or 6.9% on an organic basis
● Adjusted Revenue2 at $472.0m up 0.2% at actual rates, or 2.7% on an organic basis
● Consumer Direct Revenue at $407.1m up 1.4% at actual rates, or 2.7% on an organic basis
● Adjusted EBITDA down 7.6% to $249.7m; Adjusted EBITDA margin3 at 52.9%, down 4.4 ppts, primarily driven by investment into Digital Trust Services (‘DTS’)
● Strong cash generation, with Unlevered Free Cash Flow of $217.1m (cash conversion4 of 83%) and Levered Free Cash Flow of $204.3m
● Adjusted fully diluted earnings per share (‘EPS’) down 14.1% to $0.17 (versus $0.20 at HY 2021)
● The second interim dividend in respect of 2021 paid in February 2022 of 11.2 cents per share; total dividend for 2021 of 16.0 cents per share. Declared conditional interim dividend in respect of 2022 payable in August 2022 of 4.8 cents per share
● Resilient balance sheet with $378.0m of cash and available liquidity5
● Leverage remains low, Net debt / LTM (‘last twelve months’) Adjusted EBITDA at 1.3x at half year
● On a statutory basis, Revenue down 0.2% due to disposal of Family Safety mobile business in 2021, Operating profit down $(54.2)m from $226.7m to $172.6m driven by higher exceptional costs of $25.3m and higher other costs of $27.8m, fully diluted EPS at $0.13 (versus $0.20 at HY 2021)

OPERATIONAL AND STRATEGIC UPDATES
● Consumer Direct KPIs in the half reflect challenging global and competitive environment offset by Avast initiatives
○ Average Products Per Customer6 increased 1.2% to 1.45
○ Average Revenue Per Customer7 was up 2.2% to $50.54
○ Number of Customers8 was down 4.4% to 15.64m

● Key product initiatives in the first half of 2022
○ Avast One saw the introduction of features that support making Privacy easy (Private Mode, Smart VPN, VPN Kill Switch) and provide advanced Scam Protection (Email Guardian, Scam Protection for Android), as well as Online Safety Score, to drive customer engagement ○ SecureLine VPN saw the release of a beta version with the WireGuard VPN protocol, considered by many experts to be the fastest and most secure VPN protocol available
○ In terms of privacy, the team is experimenting with intelligent “scan lander” web pages that quickly show users a variety of privacy-related threats they may be vulnerable to
○ On SMB, Avast introduced three new product suites: Essential, Premium, and Ultimate Business Security, to simplify the buying experience, and launched USB Protection, a new service that safeguards company data by preventing employees from using unauthorised removable storage devices

● Awards
○ In a study performed by AV-Comparatives, Avast Secure Browser has been ranked first with a 97% block rate (a two percent increase on the previous test in January) 3
○ Avast Business Antivirus Pro Plus was ranked ‘Top Product’ by AV-TEST, earning top scores on protection, performance, and usability

● In March, Avast announced the withdrawal of the availability of all products from Russia and Belarus and suspended all marketing and sales operations in these countries

● Avast completed the acquisition of SecureKey in April, a global provider of digital identity and authentication solutions. SecureKey complements Evernym’s self-sovereign identity solutions and together they represent the foundation of Avast’s DTS business.

RECOMMENDED MERGER OF AVAST PLC WITH NORTONLIFELOCK INC.

On 10 August 2021, the Boards of NortonLifeLock, Inc. ("Norton") and the Company reached agreement on the terms of a recommended merger of the Company with Norton, in the form of a recommended offer by Nitro Bidco Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Norton, for the entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital of the Company (the “Merger”). It is intended that the Merger will be affected by means of a Court-sanctioned scheme of arrangement under Part 26 of the Companies Act 2006. Further details relating to the offer by Norton is set out in the announcement made by Norton on 11 August 2021 pursuant to Rule 2.7 of the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers (“Code”) and the scheme document published by the Company on 28 October 2021.

On 3 August 2022, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (the “CMA”) published its provisional findings that the Merger was not expected to give rise to a substantial lessening of competition in the UK and Norton and Avast published their response to the CMA’s findings. As stated in that announcement, Norton intends to continue to work with the CMA and with Avast to enable the CMA's final report to be issued as soon as 4 practicable. The statutory deadline for publication of the CMA's final report is 8 September 2022 (unless extended).