Asseco Poland still looking for entities to acquire; in talks with cybersecurity companies

"There is a lot of talk about cybersecurity, whereas if you lean into the companies that do cybersecurity and the companies that have implemented cybersecurity solutions you don't see it yet in the financial results," said the group's deputy CEO Artur Wiza.

"We realise that the cybersecurity market is going to be an incredible market, because the more digital channels are open, the more companies digitise (...)the more they have to bet on cybersecurity," he added.

Asseco Poland's deputy CEO pointed out that the group still sees great opportunities in the cybersecurity market, but at the moment it remains to be unseen whether this is followed by revenues, profits.

"We are currently looking for companies to acquire and we are also analysing companies in the cybersecurity area. The problem often breaks down into valuations, because companies with interesting projects and experience coming from overseas have big ideas about their value - and we don't want to overpay. On the other hand, we do hold such talks - we hope it will have some effect," said the deputy CEO Marek Panek.

"We would dream of being an integrator that combines several solutions and services related to cybersecurity, because there are two aspects in this area - one aspect is products, and the other aspect is services. We would like to have as many experts and companies as possible - and try to combine that, because we see that this is an area that will ultimately be very important - just like the cloud is now," Artur Wiza added.

The Asseco's consolidated order backlog for 2024 in the area of software and in-house services is currently worth PLN 13.2 billion (EUR 3.1 bln). In constant exchange rates, at which the backlog for 2023 has been converted, it is 10 percent higher than in the prior year period.

Asseco Poland's deputy CEO Karolina Rzonca-Bajorek pointed out at the press conference that the growing backlog will contribute to a slight increase in employment.

"We are improving profitability, both on a year-to-date basis and on a quarter-on-quarter basis - this is particularly evident here. We improved profitability by more than one percentage point in the last quarter and by half a point cumulatively," Rzonca-Bajorek said.

"We are very pleased about this, because it shows that the level of cost management - especially labour costs, which are the highest in our company - is better. This is due to objective indicators - the labour market has become more favourable for employers, the pressure is lower, and wage growth is in single digits, dynamics have slowed down a lot," she added.

Asseco Poland posted PLN 134 million (EUR 31.1 mln) attributable net profit in the third quarter of 2024, up from PLN 114 million (EUR 26.5 mln) in the prior year period. PAP Biznes consensus was for a net take of PLN 122.7 million (EUR 28.5 mln). EBITDA amounted to PLN 667.4 million (EUR 154.9 mln), above the PLN 630.9 million (EUR 146.4 mln) expected.

Revenues exceeded PLN 4.18 billion (EUR 970.2 mln), up from nearly PLN 4.1 billion (EUR 951.6 mln) in the prior year period. Analysts had expected revenues of more than PLN 4.17 billion (EUR 967.9 mln).

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