RS2 plc - Full-Year Results

On 28 April 2022, RS2 Software plc published its Annual Report & Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2022.

Performance Overview

Total revenue fell by 3% to €37.5 million (2021: €38.7 million) as the decline in ‘Software (Licensing) solutions’ (-21% to €14.1 million) outweighed the higher income from ‘Processing solutions’ (+11.1% to €20.8 million) and ‘Merchant solutions’ (+24.2% to €2.57 million).

Despite the lower income, total operating costs increased by 11.1% to €35.7 million (2020: €32.1 million) driven by higher cost of sales and administrative expenses. As a result, RS2 achieved an operating profit of €1.81 million compared to €6.56 million in the previous financial year. Excluding depreciation and amortisation charges, EBITDA amounted to €3.80 million compared to €8.76 million recorded in 2021 and the EBITDA margin dropped to 10.2% from 22.6% in the previous year.

After taking into account net finance costs of €0.36 million, tax charges of €2.03 million, and a loss of €0.19 million attributable to minority interests, the net loss attributable to the shareholders amounted to €0.06 million (2021: profit of €3.01 million).

The Statement of Financial Position as of 31 December 2022 shows that total assets dropped by 8.9% to €43.4 million as the lower cash balance (-€4.72 million to €3.49 million) outweighed the increase in intangible assets and goodwill (+€3.07 million to €18.8 million). Total liabilities decreased by 13.4% to €19.2 million reflecting lower levels of trade and other payables and accruals. Shareholders’ funds contracted by 7.8% to €27.9 million (2021: €30.2 million).

Outlook

In his commentary, RS2’s CEO explained that the company made strong progress and executed its key strategic priorities, which positioned RS2 to increase the pace of growth in 2023. The Group is ramping up its business by initially cross selling acquiring services into the portfolio of RS2 Zahlungssysteme GmbH. Eventually this is expected to increase through organic growth via on boarding of sales partners, and potential selective add-on acquisitions of profitable merchant portfolios. This new acquiring business line will provide the Group with a higher profit margin as compared to the processing model, by charging a percentage of each individual transaction.

The CEO stated that business is expected to ramp up with a stronger pipeline, which together with the launch  of  several  exciting  new  products  for  the  Group,  including  merchant reconciliation modules, merchant and partner portals and tokenisation for issuing services, amongst others, will lead the Group to a successful 2023 and beyond.