OREANDA-NEWS. Armada Group (MICEX-RTS: ARMD) releases preliminary financial results for Q4 2012 (October 1 – December 31, 2012) and FY2012.

“Armada had a good year in terms of organic growth. Revenue climbed 22% in Q4, which was the strongest growth seen last year. FY 2012 revenue outperformed the IT market almost three-fold and EBITDA margin remained high. In 2013, the company also plans to grow at the pace in 2012 - significantly outperforming the market, while maintaining a high level of profitability.” - Alexey Kuzovkin, chairman of Armada’s board of directors, said.

“At the same time, the company’s board of directors is concerned about the fact that the stock price does not reflect the company’s actual value. Shares trade at historically low multiples, despite strong financial results and cash position amounts to more than a third of the company’s value. The board of directors will closely monitor the situation surrounding the company’s share price and based on the Q1 results on the stock market will consider a possibility of partial buyback of shares.” he said.

Many of the systems designed by Armada have become part of everyday life for many Russian citizens and organizations. The Medialog program manages access to services provided by healthcare institutions; Gosuslugi.ru state services portal, the portals of the Moscow government (mos.ru) and the governments of other regions are used to enroll children in nursery or secondary school and a number of other social services; Armada developed special systems for registering vehicles and taking out driving licenses, and more than 10 other systems for the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate; portal for accessing Russia’s digitized cultural heritage - culture.ru (Ministry of Culture); e-banking services provided by the country’s largest banks, including Sberbank, Raiffeisenbank, Vnesheconombank and more than 20 other major banks; and other solutions.

Armada’s revenue is estimated at RUB 3.2 bn in Q4 2012, 22% growth y-o-y. Armada’s preliminary consolidated IFRS revenue for FY 2012 therefore will exceed RUB 5.5 bn, up 19%-20% from FY 2011 in RUB terms (that is about 25% growth in USD). EBITDA margin in 2012 is expected to be at the level of 11%. Cash position exceeds RUB 1 bn and the company has no loans and borrowings as of December 31, 2012.

Russia’s IT market expanded by 7% in 2012, according to the Telecommunications Ministry [1]. Armada outperformed the market almost three-fold. Armada’s business has been growing at a faster pace than the overall market year in, year out owing to the fact that the company is focused on the areas where extensive expertise is obligatory. While companies not focused on the Russian market for information and management systems for government (which accounts for more than half of the IT market), are losing out to competitors, Armada manages to generate revenue growth as well as achieve high margins.

Armada plans to release audited FY 2012 financial results under IFRS in the first half of April 2013.

Armada’s auditor under IFRS is Delovoy Profil, which is rated as Russia’s 9-th largest auditing and consulting group by Expert RA as for results of 2011.

Armada’s management will take part in investment conferences arranged by Aton on March 18 and by Sberbank CIB on April 16-17 in Moscow.