Meet the investor profile of GFT Technologies, a German consultancy specialising in IT solutions for the international financial and insurance industry.
Meet the investor profile of GFT Technologies, a German consultancy specialising in IT solutions for the international financial and insurance industry.
About GFT Technologies
Founded in 1987 in St. Georgen and headquartered in Stuttgart (Germany), GFT Technologies is a company specialising in the development of customised IT and business consulting solutions for financial institutions: capital markets, retail banking, private equity and insurance.
The company is a pioneer in offering nearshore services since 2001 and has a team of 5,500 collaborators (4,700 employees and more than 600 freelance IT experts) in 11 countries: Germany, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Spain, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Switzerland, United Kingdom and USA. GFT has been operating in Spain since 2001 and has offices in Alicante, Lleida, Madrid, Sant Cugat del Vallés (Barcelona), Valencia and Zaragoza.
In its 30 years of history, GFT has had reference clients in the global financial and insurance sector, such as BBVA, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Banco Sabadell, Barclays, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Catalana Occidente Seguros, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC and Mapfre, among others.
GFT's economic and financial performance
About half of GFT's revenues come from its investment banking business, the other half from retail banking. On the other hand, the German consultancy achieves approximately 50% of its revenues from onshore operations and the remaining 50% from nearshore.
Since 2013, GFT has achieved stable growth in key financial variables, a sign of the Group's strong position. The German company achieved revenues of €316.52m in the year to September 2017, achieving dynamic growth thanks to its digital solutions for retail banking customers in Continental Europe. Despite increased cost-saving measures for its investment banking customers, total revenues were slightly higher than in the same period last year (€314.28m). GFT Spain led this growth with revenues 15% higher than in 2016, driven by demand for digital transformation projects from local financial institutions.
However, its consolidated ebitda declined compared to 2016: €29.1m profit in the year to September 2017, down 14% from the same period last year (€34m), affected by exceptional factors such as restructuring, currency fluctuations and increased capital expenditure.
This has forced GFT to adjust its forecasts for the full year 2017. The cuts made by two of its investment banking clients will continue in the fourth quarter of 2017 and, at the same time, GFT is investing to expand into the industrial sector. Taking this into account, the company expects ebitda of €34m in 2017. Revenues are expected to remain stable at €415M.