Avast's EBITDA up 2.6 pct at USD495.5m in 2020

Prague, March 3 (CTK) - Cybersecurity company Avast raised its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) by 2.6 percent to USD495.5m (about Kc10.75bn) in 2020, and its adjusted net profit grew by 11.8 percent to USD360.2m (roughly Kc7.8bn), the company said today.

Sales went up by 2.3 percent to USD892.9m (about Kc19.4bn).

The final dividend payable in June 2021 is proposed at 11.2 cents per share. As a result, the total dividend for 2020 would amount to 16 cents per share, which is an 8.8 percent annual rise.

Avast's growth was driven by the main consumer segment, accounting for 78 percent of sales. The number of paying desktop customers went up by 7.9 percent to 13.6 million. The US showed a 6 percent rise in customer numbers, Italy a hike of 13 percent, Mexico of 33 percent and Russia of 6 percent.

"In a year when more people and businesses turned to technology to keep their lives and their work enabled, Avast has played a vital role in safeguarding our customers' digital data and privacy," CEO Ondřej Vlcek said.

"The core of the Avast business and our fundamental strengths remain unchanged as we continue to effectively leverage the scale and sophistication of our platform in consumer and SMB markets," he said. "Underpinned by a strong prior year billings performance, we expect to deliver FY 2021 organic revenue growth in the range of 6 percent to 8 percent," Vlcek added.

The group expects its adjusted EBITDA margin to remain roughly unchanged yr/yr in 2021 despite an increase in operating costs arising from the planned on-premises to cloud migration and higher wage inflation.

The group should sustain strong organic cash generation thanks to lower capital expenditures and lower interest costs.

Avast was founded in 1988 by Czech software engineers Eduard Kucera and Pavel Baudis, and is one of the trailblazers in computer security. In 2016, it bought rival Czech company AVG.

Avast is the world's second largest security software company by sales after Symantec.

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