On the heels of a good fourth quarter, with sales of over EUR 100 million for the first time (EUR 102.8 million) and EBITDA of EUR 8.7 million, adesso AG has finished 2018 on a successful note. Multiple new contracts related to the in|sure family of products for insurance companies also helped fuel this development. The nearly entirely organic growth rate for the year as a whole stood at 17 % and underscores adesso's innovative strength and performance. Operating earnings (EBITDA) increased disproportionately by 22 % to reach EUR 31.1 million. The Executive Board and Supervisory Board will propose a dividend increase to the Annual Shareholders' Meeting for the sixth year in a row, resulting in a dividend distribution of EUR 0.45 per share (+ 13 %) for the reporting year. Given the continuation of the ambitious growth strategy and a further rise in in-house product development investments, the company expects to see sales growth of at least 9 % to over EUR 410 million and EBITDA of between EUR 40 million and EUR 45 million in 2019 (corresponding to EBITDA of EUR 30 million to EUR 35 million prior to the first-time effect from IFRS 16).

adesso is now operating out of Düsseldorf. This new office is the IT service provider’s 16th location in Germany. The adesso Düsseldorf location increases the company’s number of offices in North Rhine-Westphalia to five, alongside Dortmund, Cologne, Essen and Aachen.

adesso now offers a wide range of IT services specifically for the manufacturing industry as part of its new Manufacturing Industry business segment. The kind of information technology provided by adesso is an important stepping stone in retaining the innovative capabilities in this industry.

adesso continues to expand its industry-specific services. Alongside its regular core industries, the IT service provider is now also focusing on the manufacturing industry and life science segments in separate organisational units.

Volker Gruhn, Chairman of the Supervisory Board and founder of adesso AG, will become an active member of the University Council of Leipzig University as of 1 March 2019.

adesso is significantly expanding its newly established competence centre for Salesforce applications this year. With the global CRM market leader’s applications, the IT service provider is now offering its corporate clients support in another leading technological field. It particularly facilitates the successful realisation of digitalisation projects that are highly customer-oriented and geared towards positive customer experience.

adesso will now be concentrating its digitalisation know-how for the pharmaceutical industry, medical technology and laboratory diagnostics fields in a separate Life Science business area. adesso will offer consulting and software development services that facilitate successful digital transition in the highly regulated healthcare sector.

adesso has successfully completed a lottery consultancy project in Morocco. The Moroccan National Lottery (SGLN) again placed its trust in the extensive industry experience of the IT service provider adesso as it switched to a new lottery system operator. The new central lottery system was developed by the Italian Sisal Group and went into operation in Casablanca at the start of January as planned.

Today, on European 112 Day, the Björn Steiger Foundation and the association Mobile Retter announced that they would merge. In the future, both organisations will work together to improve emergency services in Germany. The technical solution and the platform for Mobile Retter are provided by adesso.

Tessloff Verlag will be presenting its BOOKii digital audio pen with new products at the toy fair in Nürnberg today. The software for the audio pen, which has been available from retailers since last summer, was developed by the IT service provider adesso.