Avast plc Full Year Results For The Year Ended 31 December 2018

LONDON, March 13, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Avast (LSE:AVST), Avast plc, together with its subsidiaries ('Avast', 'the Group' or 'the Company'), a leading global cybersecurity provider, announces its results for the year ended 31 December 2018.

Vincent Steckler, Chief Executive of Avast, said:

"I'm pleased to report a successful year for Avast. The business delivered a strong financial performance in line with expectations. Group Adjusted Revenue increased 8.3% on a like-for-like basis, driven by double-digit growth in our Consumer Desktop business. We also sustained high levels of profitability with full year Adjusted EBITDA margin at 54.1%.

"In November, Avast hit the milestone of 12 million paying customers for our PC products, enabled by the success of our monetisation platform, and up-sell and cross-sell campaigns. Alongside continued good growth in traditional markets, we achieved strong momentum in new target countries through our localisation strategy. In 2018 we continued to invest in the breadth and quality of our offerings. We have another healthy pipeline of product launches for 2019, including our new Smart Home security solution.

"Looking ahead, we are confident of another good year. Underlying market dynamics remain supportive of Avast's strategy and growth outlook. For the full year 2019 our expectation is high single digit growth for Group Adjusted Revenue, excluding Discontinued Business and FX, and a stable EBITDA margin percentage."

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

• Good full year performance in line with expectations
• Adjusted Billings excluding FX¹ and Discontinued Business² up 8.6%, 9.6% in actual rates to $846.7m
• Adjusted Revenue excluding FX and Discontinued Business up 8.3%, 9.5% in actual rates to $811.5m
• Adjusted Revenue in Consumer Desktop excluding FX up 12.0%, 13.5% in actual rates to $580.0m
• Adjusted EBITDA up 6.7% to $447.7m; Adjusted EBITDA margin³ at 54.1%, up 33bps
• Adjusted fully diluted earnings per share ("EPS") flat at $0.28
• Proposed ordinary dividend for the period 15 May 2018 to 31 December 2018 of 8.6 cents per share, in line with the dividend policy articulated at IPO
• Continued strong cash generation with Unlevered Free Cash Flow up 14.0% to $394.0m and Levered Free Cash Flow up 21.4% to $324.9m
• Net debt / LTM ('last twelve months') Adjusted Cash EBITDA at 2.4x at year end and 2.5x on net debt to Adjusted EBITDA basis
• On a statutory basis, Revenue up from $652.9m to $808.3m, Operating profit up from $124.3m to $248.3m, Net Income up from $(33.8)m to $241.2m and statutory fully diluted EPS up to $0.25

OPERATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

• Continued strong performance in the core Consumer Desktop business, driven by growth in Utilities and VPN. Since year end FY17, KPIs have tracked either in line or ahead of guidance with the number of customers⁴ up 7.2% to 12.19m, an increase of 823k; Average Products Per Customer (APPC⁵) up 6.0% to 1.40; Average Revenue Per Customer (ARPC⁶) up 8.6% to $49.24
• Expansion of the Group's consumer product portfolio with successful launch under both Avast and AVG brands of Secure Browser, AntiTrack and Driver Updater, plus release of Avast Hack Check and AVG Secure VPN
• Launch of three new integrated family safety products with mobile carrier partners, Verizon, AT&T and Wind
• Good execution on strategy of localisation, delivering strong customer growth in target markets including Japan +56%, Russia +23% and Argentina +22%
• Development of Smart Home initiative continues to progress well. Launch of mobile carrier solution expected around 1H 2019
• In the SMB business, the first of our new Network Security Solutions, Avast Secure Web Gateway (SWG), was soft launched in late FY 2018 and fully released in March 2019

PRESENTATION OF RESULTS

A presentation for analysts and investors will be held at 9:00 AM GMT today (13 March 2019) at UBS, 5 Broadgate, London, EC2M 2QS. To register your attendance please contact [email protected]. The presentation will also be accessible via a conference call and live webcast. Please register for the call or webcast on the Company website at https://investors.avast.com.

PUBLICATION OF ANNUAL REPORT

The Company intends to publish its Annual Report and Accounts 2018 on 4 April 2019. This document will be available to view on the Company website at https://investors.avast.com and is also being submitted to the National Storage Mechanism for inspection at www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/nsm.

ENQUIRIES

Investors and analysts:
Peter Russell, Director of IR
[email protected]

Media:
Stephanie Kane, VP PR and Corporate Communications
[email protected]

Tavistock
+44 20 7920 3150

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This announcement contains certain forward-looking statements that are subject to the usual risk factors and uncertainties associated with the Company's business. Whilst the Company believes the expectations reflected herein to be reasonable in light of the information available to them at this time, the actual outcome may be materially different owing to factors beyond the Company's control or within the Company's control where, for example, the Company decides on a change of plan or strategy. Accordingly, no reliance may be placed on the figures contained in such forward-looking statements.

Notes:

Throughout the Full Year Report we use a number of alternative performance measures to provide users with a clearer picture of the performance of the business. This is in line with how management monitor and manage the business day to day. Definitions and details are provided below. Further definitions (see "PRESENTATION OF RESULTS AND DEFINITIONS") and reconciliations (see "FINANCIAL REVIEW") of non-GAAP measures are included in the notes to the financial statements.

All dollar figures throughout the report are at actual currency rates unless otherwise indicated.

¹ Growth rate excluding currency impact calculated by restating 2018 actual to 2017 FX rates (see "Principal exchange rates applied"). Deferred revenue is translated to USD at date of invoice and is therefore excluded when calculating the impact of FX on revenue.

² As the company is exiting its toolbar-related search distribution business, which had previously been an important contributor to AVG's revenues (referred to above and throughout the Full Year Report, with the Group's browser clean-up business, as "Discontinued Business"), the growth figures exclude Discontinued Business, which the Group expects to be negligible by the end of 2019. The Discontinued Business does not represent a discontinued operation as defined by IFRS 5 since it has not been disposed of but rather it is being continuously scaled down and is considered to be neither a separate major line of business, nor geographical area of operations.

³ Adjusted EBITDA margin percentage is defined as Adjusted EBITDA divided by Adjusted Revenue.

⁴ Users who have at least one valid paid Consumer Direct Desktop subscription (or licence) at the end of the period.

⁵ APPC defined as the Consumer Direct Desktop simple average valid licences or subscriptions for the financial period presented divided by the simple average number of Customers during the same period.

⁶ ARPC defined as the Consumer Direct Desktop revenue for the financial period divided by the simple average number of Customers during the same period.

⁷ Growth figures exclude the impact of prior year Piriform acquisition through the inclusion of Piriform pre-acquisition results in 2017. Had Piriform, acquired on 18 July 2017, always been a part of the Group, it would have contributed an additional $10.9m to Adjusted Billings, $15.6m to Adjusted Revenue and $10.9m to Adjusted EBITDA in 2017. These amounts are included in the Group's 2017 baseline figures.

⁸ "Fav" in change % represents favorable growth rate figure over 100 per cent, "Unf" represents unfavorable decline greater than negative 100 per cent.

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SOURCE Avast