TRANSCOM REPORTS FINANCIAL RESULTS FOR THE FIRST QUARTER ENDED 31st MARCH 2008 Luxembourg, 21st April 2008 - Transcom WorldWide S.A. (‘Transcom' or ‘the Company') (Nordic Exchange: ‘TWW SDB A', ‘TWW SDB B'), the global outsourced services company, today announced its financial results for the first quarter ended 31st March 2008. FIRST QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS • Net sales up 16% to €173.3 (€149.3) million • Gross margin improves to 21.2% (19.2%) • EBITA up by 17% to €11.0 (€9.4) million • Net income down by 4% to €6.5 (€6.8) million after amortisation of €0.7 million • EPS stable at €0.09 • Organic External sales up 38%, excluding Tele2 divestments in 2007 • New disclosure: 3 tables appended covering quarterly Regional, CRM & CMS performance • CMS revenues represented 13% of total revenues, with an EBITA margin of 15.2% • Launch of new Manila centre on the back of strong new business development • Sales to Tele2 represented 28% of total revenues • Bank facility extended by €50 million to €200 million CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER'S STATEMENT Keith Russell, President and Chief Executive Officer of Transcom, commented: “We saw a number of positive developments in the first quarter. Our strong revenue growth of 16% was complemented by EBITA growth of 17%. Furthermore, our organic sales outside of the Kinnevik group grew by 38% in the quarter (excluding the Tele2 divestments made in 2007), underlining our ability to generate strong growth in competitive markets. “Credit Management Services (‘CMS' or ‘Collections') continues to be our fastest growing line of business, with sales increasing by 50% in the first quarter compared to the same quarter last year. What is even more pleasing is that the bottom line growth for CMS was 94% in the same period. We are pleased to disclose the full detail of our CMS business in this report for the first time, and will continue to do so moving forward in each quarterly announcement. For the first quarter, CMS represented 13% of Transcom's total sales, with an EBITA margin of 15.2%. In line with our strategy, we will continue to focus on growing this business to drive an increase in our overall margins. “Significant progress is being made on our commercial partnership with Tele2, which now only represents 28% of our total revenue. We have launched a new ‘value based' proposition which is based on a potential margin development for Transcom through the reduction of costs and improvement in quality for Tele2. This new model is now live in a pilot market and is expected to be implemented in all countries going forward. The benefits to Transcom will be improved economic visibility and enhanced margins where cost reductions and quality improvements can be achieved. “We continue to work hard on aligning our operations around Tele2's changing European businesses and have experienced significant volume decreases in several countries, most notably in Germany. This resulted in a €1.3 million reduction in profit during the first quarter. As announced in our last results statement, this situation will require a realignment of services and, as such, we are forecasting decreased profit of between €4 million and €6 million for 2008. “In the South region we continue to work with our new clients to align our activities with their new requirements. Going forward we do expect some investment in these areas to secure long-term stability and future business growth. “In Denmark, Telenor continued to migrate work to their in-house facilities during the quarter and we expect to see continued volume declines in this business throughout the year. The impact of this is expected to reduce revenues by €7 million and profit by €500,000 for the year, however strong efforts are in place to establish replacement business for this decline. “In spite of the challenges relating to Tele2's European transformation, we continue to see positive signs for the future. Our sales development continues to be strong with the addition of some important new long-term clients and our margin development strategy, driven predominantly by offshore CRM and CMS growth, is working well. We opened a new centre in Manila in the quarter and expect to have sufficient volumes to further expand our business there later in the year. Our second Chilean centre continues to grow and we expect to further expand near shore solutions in other European markets in 2008. “The key acquisitions that we carried out in 2007 continue to perform well, with above expected performance from both IS Inkasso and NuComm. We are taking steps to secure cost synergy benefits with NuComm and reiterate an expected upside in 2009 of €5 million on the bottom line. This, combined with the business growth, will serve to strongly justify the NuComm acquisition. “Transcom is now at an important junction in its strategic development. We are investing in the creation of new client propositions that focus on the future market requirements of both CRM and CMS which, over time, will enable us to establish ‘value based' solutions for new clients where our operational excellence combined with our human and technology capital will serve to drive the growth of higher margin and more stable opportunities. In 2008 this is becoming a reality with some important client based implementations. “The macro-economic concerns facing the world economy at present generate both risks and opportunities for Transcom. In a recession, organisations will look to reduce costs which will include the outsourcing of non-core activities. The Collections market requirements will also grow and the debt portfolio market should become less competitive. In addition to this, the customer interaction activity in the Communications and Financial Services vertical markets are less likely to be damaged by consumer spending cuts. As the vast majority of Transcom's business lies in these sectors we are well placed in comparison to other businesses. We will take an opportunistic approach and will look for new ways of developing debt portfolio work but without taking large positions on our balance sheet. “The rest of 2008 will be challenging as we expect continued volume declines in some of Tele2's businesses in the West & Central region. However, we expect our acquisitions to continue performing strongly and to drive margin expansion through greater operational efficiency and the continued development of our offshore solutions and CMS business. Thus, in spite of the challenges we face with Tele2 and their recently divested operations, we still expect to deliver a good improvement in EBITA compared with 2007. The long-term outlook is very encouraging and our opportunity, as one of the only organisations capable of adapting to the changing global market, places us in pole position for long-term success.” GROUP OPERATING & FINANCIAL REVIEW Strong New Business Development Continues in Q1 In spite of Tele2 revenues declining by 16.7% (including divested businesses) in the first quarter, Transcom delivered overall sales growth of 16.1%. During the first quarter, the Company signed a number of new CRM contracts and extended many existing contracts. CRM signings during the quarter included Warner Brothers in North America, Kabel Deutschland Vetrieb und Service in Germany, and Fasteweb and Dun & Bradstreet in Italy. Transcom has also signed a significant and long-term CRM client, which is a major financial institution in the Iberian region. This business is expected to generate strong contributions in 2008 however the details cannot be disclosed due to client confidentiality. Transcom also signed a number of new contracts in the CMS business during the quarter, including KLM in Sweden and Hi3G Danmark in Denmark. Key Acquisitions Continue to Perform Well NuComm and IS Inkasso continued to exceed Transcom's expectations in all areas in the first quarter. The integration of NuComm is progressing well, and it is still the Company's expectation to generate cost savings of €5 million through this process in 2009. The benefits of these cost savings were initially expected to be neutral in 2008, however given the positive progress that has been made on the integration to date, some benefits are also likely to be realised towards the end of the current fiscal year. On 19th March 2008, Transcom announced the launch of its new site in Manila. The centre has a total of 950 operational seats spread over two floors and Transcom expects these production seats to be fully utilised in 2008 on the back of new contracts such as Tiscali in the UK and a continued strong sales pipeline. Transcom has consolidated its two existing facilities in the Philippines into the new site, creating a stepping stone for further growth in the region. IS Inkasso also continued to perform well in the first quarter, contributing incremental sales growth and high profitability to the West & Central region. Over the course of the year, IS Inkasso will serve as the catalyst for further new business development in Eastern European countries. CMS Delivers Growth of 50% in the Quarter During the first quarter, Transcom's CMS business continued to perform strongly, delivering 50.0% sales growth year-on-year and an EBITA margin of 15.2%. Transcom CMS currently serves 21 markets from an operational base of 18 countries, giving it one of the largest geographic footprints in the industry. The Company will be deploying the first stage of its CRM and CMS workflow integration technology in the coming months in two countries. Further deployments are scheduled for the second half of the year, and the new technology is expected to bring greater efficiency to both activities. This in turn delivers a market advantage for the capture of greater market share. The Company expects greater opportunities to purchase debt portfolios during the rest of the year as prices decline in line with global credit concerns. This is expected to place Transcom in more of a buyer's market with less competition. The Company will, however, continue to exercise caution in this area and will prefer to purchase debt in conjunction with financial institutions wherever possible. Financial Review Depreciation in the first quarter increased by €1.5 million to €4.3 million (€2.8 million), €0.9 million of which was due to the acquisition of NuComm. The remaining €0.6 million increase was largely the result of higher levels of CAPEX-related depreciation. Transcom had an amortisation cost of €0.7 million related to the amortisation of intangible assets of NuComm and IS Inkasso. The Company expects CAPEX to be slightly higher than it was in 2007 and is forecasting CAPEX spend of between €20 million and €25 million for 2008. SG&A as a percentage of revenue was 14.8% compared to 12.9% in the first quarter of 2007. This increase is due to the following factors: Transcom's CMS business, which has an SG&A ratio of 17.7%, continued to grow rapidly in the first quarter; a higher level of SG&A from the Company's North American business, which will be improved over the course of the year through the NuComm integration plan; and a reduction of €7.6 million in overflow telemarketing activities in the South region which bears no overhead costs. For the first quarter the Company had net interest payments of €1.5 million due to the interest payable on its corporate loan facility. The tax rate decreased by 1% year-on-year to 26% in the first quarter, and the Company expects to retain a similar tax rate for the rest of the year. Transcom had net debt of €46.8 million as at 31st March 2008 compared to a net debt position of €42.6 million at the close of 2007. The increase in net debt is primarily due to the payout of the first tier of NuComm's earn-out, which was paid in full. SEGMENTAL OPERATING REVIEW North Revenues in the North region declined by 1.6% in the first quarter. This was due primarily to a reduction in volumes in Denmark on account of Telenor's strategy to migrate work to in-house facilities. The impact of this is expected to reduce revenues by approximately €7 million for the full year however this will be balanced by strong CRM performance and external growth in Sweden and overall margin improvement in CMS in the region. It is therefore expected that the performance for the full year in the region will be similar to 2007. The CMS margins have been significantly impacted by the re-launch of the business in Norway and the changes in the pricing structure in Sweden with a major client. With the implementation of new technology and operational improvements, margins are expected to return to industry standards by the end of the year. West & Central The West & Central region delivered revenue growth of 32.8% in the first quarter. Contributing to this performance was the continued rapid growth in CMS, including strong contributions from Dr. Finsterer + Koenigs and IS Inkasso, the Tiscali UK contract and the ramp-up of the Emmen centre. Volumes in Germany continued to decline in the first quarter due to a reduction of marketing activities with Tele2. The resulting impact was a year-on-year reduction of €1.3 million in profit. Because this issue will require a realignment of services, the Company reiterates its forecast that it is expected to generate a reduction in profit of between €4 million and €6 million in 2008. Additionally, performance in Belgium decreased year-on-year in the first quarter, mainly due to volume reductions and poor efficiency. In spite of the significant forecasted impact of Germany on the region's results and the downturn in Belgium, Transcom expects to deliver bottom line growth in the West & Central region for the full year due to the continued rapid expansion of its CMS business and strong new client development. South Sales in the South region decreased by 21.0% in the first quarter. This was due to a year-on-year reduction in overflow telemarketing services of €7.6 million and also a decrease in volumes with key clients in France and Italy. These reductions are related to client changes in marketing strategy and the introduction of process synergy within the clients' businesses. Ongoing changes are being negotiated to align the future services in both France and Italy for SFR and Vodafone respectively. The results of this work are likely to impact margins negatively in the short-term however will facilitate the development of future business and long-term margin development. Iberia The Iberian region continued to deliver further improvements in the first quarter, with sales increasing by 16.1% year-on-year largely on the back of an important new client development in the Financial Services sector. The region also reported an operating profit of €0.5 million compared to a break-even performance in the first quarter of 2007. The Company's second site in Chile is continuing to ramp-up in capacity and Transcom has a positive outlook on the ongoing recovery of the region for the remainder of the fiscal year. North America & Asia Pacific Sales in the North America & Asia Pacific region continued to develop in line with Transcom's expectations during the first quarter. The integration of NuComm is continuing to progress well and the Company has a strong pipeline of business for its offshore services in the Philippines. Cloud10, Transcom's North American home-sourced solution, generated revenues of €1 million for the quarter and also contributed a small profit in the first quarter after having broken even at the end of 2007. Cloud10 now has 700 agents serving clients across North America. Transcom forecasts continued strong top and bottom line development in the region for the rest of 2008 on the back of strong new client growth, the continued ramp-up of the new Manila centre and improved performance from Cloud10 over the course of the year. OTHER INFORMATION Notice of Financial Results Transcom's financial results for the second quarter ended 30th June 2008 will be published on 21st July 2008. Keith Russell, President & Chief Executive Officer 21st April 2008 Transcom WorldWide S.A. 177 rue de Luxembourg L-8077 Bertrange Luxembourg +352 27 755 000 www.transcom.com Company registration number: RCS B59528 Notes to Editors: The following provides a breakdown of which countries are included in each geographical region. - North: Denmark, Norway and Sweden - West & Central: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom - South: France, Italy, Tunisia - Iberia: Chile, Portugal, Spain - North America & Asia Pacific: Canada, Philippines, USA For tabular financial information, please visit Transcom's website at www.transcom.com, contact Shared Value on +44 (0)20 7321 5010, or see the attached PDF file. # # # For further information please contact: Keith Russell, President and CEO +352 27 755 000 Noah Schwartz, Investor & Press Enquiries +44 20 7321 5032 transcom@sharedvalue.net About Transcom Transcom WorldWide S.A. is a rapidly expanding Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution provider, with 72 sites delivering services from 29 countries - Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, the UK and the USA. The company provides CRM solutions for companies in a wide range of industry sectors, including telecommunications and e-commerce, travel & tourism, retail, financial services and utilities. Transcom offers clients a broad array of relationship management services, including inbound communication; telemarketing and outbound; Administrative Tasks; Web servicing; CRM Consultancy Service; Contract Automation; Credit Management Service; Legal Services; and Interpretation Services. Client programs are tailor-made and range from single applications to complex programmes, which are offered on a country-specific or international basis in up to 33 languages. Transcom WorldWide S.A. class A and B shares are listed on the Nordic Exchange Mid Cap list under the symbols ‘TWW SDB A' and ‘TWW SDB B'.
TRANSCOM REPORTS FINANCIAL RESULTS FOR THE FIRST QUARTER ENDED 31st MARCH 2008
| Source: Transcom WorldWide S.A.
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