| Citilog acquisition strengthens Axis’ offering in transportation segment and its opportunities in the growing market for traffic analytics |
The first quarter
- Net sales increased during the first quarter by 16 percent to SEK 1,567 M (1,354). Net sales increased by 13 percent in local currencies.
- Operating profit increased to SEK 153 M (145), which corresponds to an operating margin of 9.8 percent (10.7).
- Profit after tax amounted to SEK 114 M (104).
- Earnings per share amounted to SEK 1.64 (1.50).
- On February 1, Axis announced the acquisition of the French company Citilog, which is specialised in intelligent transport solutions.
President's comments on Q1
“The first few months of 2016 were dominated by several releases of new products and solutions, and by the acquisition of the French transport and video analytics company Citilog. Both the acquisition and the product releases show how we are broadening our offering, which is important for our future performance and in order to capitalise on the opportunities available in the growing market.
"For example, AXIS Site Designer Tool is a strategically important application that simplifies planning and design of video surveillance solutions. The continued advancement of our Zipstream technology, which lowers bandwidth and storage requirements, is also important as it can be applied in more and more camera models.
"On February 1, we announced the acquisition of Citilog, which has specialist competence in intelligent video monitoring of traffic and transport. The acquisition strengthens both our offering in the transportation segment and our opportunities in the growing market for traffic analytics. We can now offer our customers an overall solution, which meets the strict demands of the traffic market.
"Overall growth during the first quarter was in line with the expected development, but with some variation among the regions. We saw the best performance in EMEA, and particularly in Northern Europe and the Middle East.
"We will also continue to develop and broaden our offering going forward. The market for network surveillance still has great potential. We have a clear ambition to strengthen our market leading position by developing our partner network, attracting skilled employees and releasing leading security solutions.” comments Ray Mauritsson, President, Axis Communications.