Earnings: Slight increase from the previous year; considerable increase from the previous quarter
Despite declining revenue, the GFT Group was able to slightly improve earnings before taxes in the first nine months of the current fiscal year, compared to the same period in the previous year, from EUR 4.34 million to EUR 4.35 million. Of this, EUR 2.07 million was earned in the third quarter. This means a significant increase of 36 percent compared to the second quarter (EUR 1.31 million). The Services division contributed the most to the operating income with EUR 4.60 million (previous year: EUR 5.22 million). The Resourcing division contributed EUR 1.74 million to the consolidated earnings (previous year: EUR 2.30 million). The Software division generated a loss of EUR -1.23 million for the period ending 30 September 2009, which was an improvement compared to the previous year’s loss of EUR 1.65 million (previous year: EUR -2.88 million).

Revenue: The globally difficult economic conditions resulted in a 9 percent decline
For the first nine months of the current fiscal year the GFT Group generated revenue of EUR 162.25 million, thereby showing a drop in revenue by 9 percent from that of the comparable period of the previous year. In contrast to the second quarter, in which revenue was EUR 52.92 million, the revenue for the third quarter 2009 rose by EUR 1.85 million to EUR 54.77 million.
The Services division was able to produce favourable results regardless of the economic difficulties and achieved revenue of EUR 66.02 million, which nearly matched that of the previous year (EUR 67.15 million). In the company’s Resourcing division, revenue fell by 13 percent in comparison to the previous year to EUR 92.88 million. The cause of this fall was primarily the decreased demand in the lower margin area, Third Party Management. The hesitant demand for freelance IT specialists across all industries and countries was still noticeable in the third quarter. The licensing revenue generated in the company’s Software division of EUR 3.36 million was 18 percent lower than that of the previous year’s EUR 4.02 million.

Further key data
The GFT Group achieved a net income for the nine months ending
30 September 2009 of EUR 3.04 million after deduction of all expenses. This corresponds to a growth of 18 percent in comparison to the same period of the previous year (EUR 2.58 million).
The earnings per share for the reporting period improved to EUR 0.12 against EUR 0.10 in the same period of the previous year.
The number of employees rose by 46 from the previous year. This can be attributed above all to the good personnel capacity utilisation in the Services division that led to an increase in personnel. The GFT Group, including part-time employees on a proportionate basis, employed 1,061 individuals as of the record date on 30 September 2009 (previous year: 1,015).

Outlook: Forecast for the entire year 2009 confirmed, further positive stimuli expected amid the background of a stabilising market environment
“We are assuming that the trend towards economic recovery will continue to have a positive effect on our business. A quick stabilisation of the financial sector could, at the same time, stimulate the demand for IT services more strongly than expected,"says Ulrich Dietz. Nevertheless, according to Dietz, the business environment will still remain challenging this year. For this reason, the GFT Group embraced measures early on to lower costs and increase efficiency and remains firmly committed to its forecast for the entire year of 2009. Further, the GFT Group adheres to the revenue forecast of EUR 220 million and expects pre-tax earnings of between EUR 6 and EUR 8 million.