ESI: 2010 was “buoyant”

ESI Group reported unaudited results today that highlight 30% growth in new business intake in the fourth quarter and what the company described as a “surge” in the emerging BRIC markets. In all, ESI described 2010 as exhibiting “buoyant” growth.

The details:

• Total revenue for the year ended January 2011 was €84 million, up 12% as reported or 6% in constant currencies.
• Licenses revenue was €61 million, up 14%. The company reports that all of its products contributed to this growth “with a good balance between Virtual Performance and Virtual Manufacturing solutions.”
• Services revenue €22 millions for the year, largely due to Q4 (see below).
• As is typical for ESI, sales were very heavily weighted towards Q4, with total revenue of €35 million (up 16%) and license revenue of €29 million, up 15%. ESI characterized the quarter as “driven by both increased business in the installed base, which rose by 14% to €26 million and … the surge in new business, which grew by +20.1% to €5.5 million”.
• In addition, in Q4, services revenue finally rebounded from the relatively flat levels seen in 2009 and 2010. Q4 services revenue was €7 million, up 23% from a year ago. ESI says this growth was due to the return to higher license revenue levels and “in particular the [purchases] of high value-added services related to our End-to-End Virtual Prototyping solution licenses.”
• ESI reports growing demand from emerging economies, as global companies headquartered there adopt more of its offerings. This growth shifted the revenue picture for the year, so that 42% of revenue (€35.4 million) came from Europe; 35% (€29.5 million) from Asia and 22% (€18.5 million) from the Americas. This represents a decline of 2% in the Americas, growth of 22% in Asia and 5% in Europe when compared to a year ago.
• The company reports that BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) now represent just over 10% of revenue, up from just under 9% two years ago.

One other interesting point: It would appear that ESI’s largest accounts are increasing their spend with ESI. A bit of mental math using the data in the earnings release lets us infer that its top 25 clients spent €1.5 million each on average with ESI in the year just concluded, as compared to about €1.2 million last fiscal year. That’s a 25% increase — very notable. (Yes, some customers clearly spend far more and others less. But this average is comparable to the deal sizes mentioned by other public vendors.)

The company will publish its annual accounts at the end of April, when we’ll be able to gather more details.