ESI Q2: strong BRIC, Europe can’t offset Asia & Americas

ESI Group reported second quarter results yesterday that highlight some of what we heard from other vendors as the summer progressed: currency movements continue to wreak havoc on year/year (y/y) comparisons and mixed global markets — with pockets of strength and weakness— make for a confusing picture. Add it all up, and ESI reported total revenue of €22.7 million in Q2 2013, up 5% sequentially but down 4% y/y as reported.

The details:

• License revenue was €15.3 million, up 5% sequentially and up 7% y/y in constant currencies (cc) — but down 3% as reported when compared to last year. ESI CEO Alain de Rouvray said in a prepared statement that this is due to currency fluctuations and the tough comparable with Q2 2012.
• Services revenue was €7.4 million, up 4% sequentially but down 5% as reported and essentially flat y/y in constant currencies.
• ESI reports that activity was strongest in Europe, with revenue of about €9.3 million, up 11%. [Recall that ESI gives geo data in percentages, so these are estimates. — Ed.] ESI says that results in Europe were buoyed by Southern Europe and “by the good performance recorded by Services activity in France”.
• Revenue from Asia was €9.4 million, down 8%, as a result of the depreciation of the Japanese Yen. In constant currency, licenses revenue was up 9% for the year to date.
• ESI continues to struggle in the Americas, where revenue was €4 million, down 18% or so. ESI said these results were a reflection of “a catch-up effect during the 1st quarter”, which didn’t carry over into Q1. Indeed, activity “slipped … over the 2nd quarter in association with the decrease in [Services].”
• The BRIC countries, Brazil, Russia, India and China, continued to do well. ESI says that 14.7% of half-year revenue came from BRIC countries, up from 13.9% in a year ago. That’s up roughly 5% (presumably as reported), so BRIC is growing faster than overall revenue. But, again, it’s pockets –one of the B-R-I-C can’t lift an entire region– and off a small base.

ESI doesn’t give forward-looking guidance but is hosting an investor event next week. Perhaps we’ll learn more then about how OpenCFD and the rest of the portfolio are faring.