Avast plc (LON:AVST), together with its subsidiaries, a leading global cybersecurity provider, has issued the following scheduled trading update for the first quarter of its current financial year, comprising the period from 1 January 2022 to 31 March 2022.
Financial Summary
| ($’m) | Q1 2022 | Q1 2021 | Change % | Change % (excl. FX)2 |
| Revenue | 234.6 | 237.1 | (1.0) | (0.5) |
| Revenue excl. Acquisitions, Disposals and Discontinued Business3 | 230.8 | 223.9 | 3.1 | 3.6 |
| Adjusted EBITDA | 127.9 | 133.7 | (4.3) |
For the first quarter, Revenue of $234.6m was up 3.6% on an organic basis and down 1.0% at actual rates, due to sale of the Family Safety business in 2021. Billings saw good organic growth at 5.9%. The rollout of our new integrated solution, Avast One, continues to gain good traction, with the product release expanding into France and Germany. Avast One has received positive reviews since last year’s launch.
For the first quarter, Adjusted EBITDA was $127.9m, resulting in an Adjusted EBITDA margin4 of 54.5%. On 31 March 2022, net debt / LTM (“last twelve months”) Adjusted EBITDA per the banking covenant was 0.8x.
Further investment for growth in Digital Trust Services
Our vision for the Digital Trust Services business (DTS), formerly Identity, is to provide our current and future users with a service to improve the convenience, privacy, and security in digital interactions. Avast has made two recent acquisitions to underpin future growth in this area. The first, in December 2021, was US-headquartered Evernym, who are a pioneer in the field of decentralised digital identity. The second, in March 2022, was Canada-headquartered SecureKey, who are a provider of federated digital identity and bank-centric identity and authentication services. The SecureKey transaction completed on 1 April 2022.
These acquisitions form the infrastructure foundation for the business and the basis for new services to be launched by Avast in the future.
FY 2022 Guidance
Avast continues to demonstrate resilience against a challenging global backdrop. In March, Avast announced that it is suspending its operations in Russia and Belarus. The impact has been adjusted in organic growth rates shown.
The Group expects to deliver low single-digit organic revenue growth and mid-single-digit billings growth for the full year. Organic growth rates exclude the recent Evernym and Securekey acquisitions, as well as sales from Russia and Belarus. The Google Chrome Distribution business has been reclassified as discontinued.
Adjusted EBITDA margin for the year is expected to be slightly below 50%. This reflects 10 months with zero sales in Russia, the continued investment in various customer initiatives, increased customer acquisition costs, and the impact of the recent strategic investments in DTS.
Avast’s next scheduled update to the market will be the Half Year Report for the six months to 30 June 2022.
