* Sales up 16 % to EUR 65.3 million

* EBITDA increases by 113 %, from EUR 1.4 million to EUR 2.9 million

* EBITDA in the second quarter on par with previous quarter

* Earnings per share rises from EUR -0.43 to EUR 0.19

* Forecast for sales and operating results in 2013 is maintained

adesso Group increased sales in the first half of 2013 by 16 % year on year to a new high of EUR 65.3 million. Of this growth, 10 percentage points related to the organic expansion of existing business activities, meaning that adesso once again had higher growth than the market. Consulting and tailor-made software development in Germany were chiefly responsible for this growth. In a market environment that remains positive overall, adesso won a great many significant orders, including a long-running project by Helvetia Versicherung to develop a broker sales solution, and established itself as the key framework contract partner of BITMARCK - adesso's largest customer - after making a successful bid in a Europe-wide application process for up to four more years. In the second quarter, sales rose by 14 % year on year to EUR 33.0 million, and by 2 % against the first quarter of 2013.

Despite investing in internationalisation and lower product sales, growth and increasing capacity utilisation in the IT Services business in Germany resulted in a considerable rise in operating earnings (EBITDA) and the operating margin. EBITDA increased by 113 % year on year in the first half of 2013 to EUR 2.9 million; the EBITDA margin rose from 2.4 % to 4.5 %. EBITDA in the second quarter of 2013 amounted to EUR 1.4 million compared to EUR 1.5 million in the first quarter. Consolidated earnings rose even sharper, by 140 % to EUR 1.2 million, mainly due to the drop in amortisation from company acquisitions as well as the negative effects incurred in the previous year. Earnings per share climbed by EUR 0.62 to EUR 0.19.

On 30 June 2013, adesso held liquid assets of EUR 13.4 million (previous year: EUR 15.6 million; 31 December 2012: EUR 21.4 million); net liquidity (liquidity less interest-bearing liabilities) amounted to EUR 6.9 million (previous year: EUR 6.7 million; 31 December 2012: EUR 13.7 million). The drop in the first half of 2013 was due to the payment of variable salary components for the previous year as well as to dividend and redemption payments. Equity increased to EUR 34.2 million (previous year: EUR 31.3 million; 31 December 2012: EUR 34.1 million) and the equity ratio rose from 44.6 % on 31 December 2012 and 42.8 % in the previous year to 47.2 %.

As expected, earnings in the first half of 2013 are less than half of the forecast for the full year due to the seasonality in the product business in particular as well as to the lower number of working days. Further progress in the restructuring of the Utilities business area and rising license sales revenues in Germany and abroad are expected in the second half of the year; in light of the current capacity utilisation and order situation, the company maintains its forecast for the full year.

The complete Half-year Report and an overview of the key performance figures in table form are available under Investor Relations on the adesso website: http://www.adesso-group.de/en/investorrelations/.

The Executive Board