F-Secure Continues Strong, Solid Growth
F-Secure has succeeded in its growth strategy. During the first quarter in 2005 the anti-virus and intrusion prevention revenues increased by 39% to12.5 m euro and total revenues grew by 28% to a record level of 13.3 m euro.
The Group’s equity ratio is one of the strongest on the Helsinki Exchanges, and was 84% with growth at 6 % compared with the same period in 2004 and the company is debt-free. The EBIT grew 17%.
Fastest growth was seen in the consumer segment where sales were up 150%. In the consumer segment, the growth in this sector has been driven by the increasing number of high-speed Internet connections and a growing threat awareness. F-Secure Internet Security 2005 product continues to win awards in product reviews in the field. In April 2005 alone, the product won test comparisons, among others in Computeractive in the UK, in Italian and Spanish PC Pro magazines, in PC World Komputer in Poland, in the Austrian CD Info/CD Austria -publication, in Serbian PC Magazine and PC World in Norway. In addition, F-Secure Anti-Virus 5.43 has been awarded the prestigious VB 100% award in the February 2005 edition of the Virus Bulletin. Once again F-Secure Anti-Virus was able to detect all the viruses used in the test set and outperformed several other antivirus products. The product awards and VB 100% are proof of F-Secure’s product reliability which ensures secure data security environment to the customers.
Service provider business grew 102 % and F-Secure announced new operator agreements with Kabel Deutschland (Germany), Telenet (Belgium) and Bredbandsbolaget (Sweden). In addition F-Secure announced agreements with mobile operators T-Mobile and Swisscom. F-Secure has won over half of deals announced so far globally in the domain.
The company’s sales continued to make positive developments in the corporate sector thanks to steady channel growth. Input in channel growth and the channel market continues to be one of the company’s main focus areas.
“We are proceeding according to our strategy and have been able to strengthen our position in the most important European market. It is particularly pleasing to se that we are clearly the market leader in the provision of security services to Europe’s ISP channels,” said Risto Siilasmaa, President and CEO of F-Secure Corporation. Our strong focus on developing the reseller channel and products have proven to be good choices. We have also been the first antivirus company to launch solutions against new rootkit threats, which are difficult to detect and continue to develop our product offerings. Our aim is to continue to grow faster that the field”.
Financial Reporting
A press and analyst conference will be arranged today at 11 am Finnish time at the Group’s Headquarters, Tammasaarenkatu 7, Helsinki. A conference call for international investors and analysts will be arranged at 1530 Finnish time (1430 CET, 1.30 pm UK time). Instructions can be found at http://www.europe.f-secure.com/investor-relations/
Quarterly reports for 2005 will be published on August 2 (Q2) and October 25 (Q3). A Stock Exchange bulletin will be sent at 9 am Finnish time to the Helsinki Exchanges, a press and analyst conference will be arranged at 11 am Finnish time in Helsinki, and an international conference call will be arranged in the afternoon. Full details will be provided later in the Group’s web site.