SoftwareOne H1 Revenue Reaches CHF818 Million as Crayon Synergies Help Lift Margins

SoftwareOne reported first-half 2026 revenue of CHF 818.3 million, up 68.2% on an IFRS-reported basis from a year earlier, as the consolidation of Crayon reshaped the Swiss software and cloud provider’s financial profile. Profitability also improved, with reported EBITDA reaching CHF 185.4 million and the reported EBITDA margin rising to 22.7% from 17.5% in the prior-year period.

The cleaner comparison is the combined like-for-like view, which treats Crayon as though it had been part of SoftwareOne since the start of 2024. On that basis, revenue grew 11.6% year over year at constant currency in the first half, and adjusted EBITDA rose to CHF 203.8 million. The adjusted EBITDA margin reached 24.9%, 4.5 percentage points above the comparable H1 2025 level. In the second quarter alone, the margin climbed to 28.9%, up 5.4 percentage points on the same basis.

SoftwareOne said in its H1 2026 results that it had reached CHF 100 million of run-rate cost synergies from the Crayon combination, the top end of its previously announced target range. It also identified a further CHF 5 million to CHF 10 million of potential synergies that it expects to realize in the second half of 2026. Management described the integration as substantially complete, although some legal-entity, IT-system and process work will continue.

Crayon changes the reported comparison

SoftwareOne completed its acquisition of Crayon on July 2, 2025, so the first-half 2025 IFRS figures did not include the Norwegian business. That timing explains much of the 68.2% jump in reported revenue to CHF 818.3 million. Excluding Crayon, SoftwareOne said organic revenue increased 5.0% at constant currency in H1 2026, giving a more modest view of the underlying expansion in the legacy business.

Currency movements also mattered. The strengthening of the Swiss franc against currencies including the U.S. dollar, euro, British pound, Indian rupee and Norwegian krone reduced reported growth. SoftwareOne put the negative foreign-exchange translation effect on group revenue at 5.5 percentage points for the half. On the combined like-for-like basis, revenue increased 7.8% in reported currency versus the 11.6% constant-currency gain.

The earnings improvement went beyond the enlarged revenue base. Reported EBITDA more than doubled from CHF 85.0 million to CHF 185.4 million, while net profit rose to CHF 54.3 million from CHF 9.9 million. Adjusted net profit was CHF 70.6 million, compared with CHF 29.6 million a year earlier. SoftwareOne recorded CHF 18.4 million of EBITDA adjustments, with CHF 16.2 million related to the Crayon acquisition and integration.

The company said about CHF 37 million of realized synergies over the last twelve months contributed to the like-for-like cost performance. Those benefits were partly offset by investment in sales and delivery capacity, personnel-cost inflation, higher performance-related compensation and higher third-party delivery costs. Even with those offsets, like-for-like reported operating expenses were down 0.6% from H1 2025, supporting the margin expansion.

Channel and services carry most of the growth

SoftwareOne’s three operating lines produced very different growth rates. Software & Cloud Direct generated CHF 336.8 million of first-half revenue and grew 1.5% at constant currency. The company said growth in Microsoft business was helped by the continuing shift from Enterprise Agreements to Cloud Solution Provider contracts, although Direct revenue slipped 1.8% in constant currency in the second quarter against a comparison period that included several larger deals.

Channel was much faster. Revenue rose 35.6% at constant currency to CHF 76.9 million, supported by CSP demand, other independent software vendors and the expansion of the Cloud-iQ platform into additional countries. Adjusted EBITDA for the segment increased to CHF 43.9 million, and its adjusted EBITDA margin rose to 57.2% from 47.8% on the comparable combined basis.

Services was the largest growth engine in absolute revenue terms. H1 revenue reached CHF 404.6 million, up 17.4% at constant currency, with second-quarter growth of 19.8%. SoftwareOne pointed to CSP-related services, AWS and Google Cloud work, data and AI projects, and cybersecurity as areas of strength. The segment’s contribution margin improved to 42.3% from 40.0%, while adjusted EBITDA increased to CHF 34.4 million from CHF 11.7 million.

Regional growth was broad but uneven. APAC revenue rose 23.0% at constant currency to CHF 151.0 million, and the Nordics grew 26.0% to CHF 133.5 million. North America increased 8.6% to CHF 92.6 million after the business had previously faced go-to-market disruption. DACH, SoftwareOne’s largest reported region in the half, grew 6.8% at constant currency to CHF 180.4 million.

The second quarter showed that the higher margin was not solely a first-quarter effect. Group revenue reached CHF 430.6 million in Q2, up 10.4% at constant currency on the combined like-for-like basis. Adjusted EBITDA was CHF 124.4 million, and the 28.9% adjusted EBITDA margin was well above the 23.4% comparable level a year earlier. That performance gave SoftwareOne more room to keep its full-year profitability target unchanged.

Integration moves into execution as guidance holds

Leadership and organizational integration with Crayon is now finished, according to SoftwareOne, and the combined group is operating under a unified go-to-market model. Finance-process integration is complete for reporting purposes, and the core commercial and operating structure is in place. Remaining work includes country-by-country legal-entity mergers, IT-system integration and process harmonization, which the company expects to finish by the end of 2027. It forecasts about CHF 20 million of integration costs in the second half of 2026.

The operating structure is also changing. Raphael Erb became sole chief executive on August 1 after the board named him to the role in July. From September 1, SoftwareOne plans to organize its regions under three presidents covering the Americas, EMEA and APAC, with additional changes to the executive board. The reorganization follows the company’s shift from combining the two businesses toward commercial execution across the larger platform.

Cash generation improved only modestly despite the stronger profit result. Net cash from operating activities was CHF 90.1 million in the first half, compared with CHF 87.1 million a year earlier, while capital expenditure was CHF 36.5 million. The last-twelve-month cash conversion ratio stood at 69%. Net debt was CHF 408.0 million at the end of June, compared with net cash of CHF 36.2 million a year earlier, a change SoftwareOne attributed primarily to the Crayon acquisition. Net debt was 1.1 times last-twelve-month adjusted EBITDA.

For 2026, SoftwareOne reiterated its expectation for mid- to high-single-digit revenue growth at constant currency on a combined like-for-like basis, an adjusted EBITDA margin above 23%, and cash conversion above 60% of reported EBITDA. The company is also maintaining a dividend payout range of 30% to 50% of adjusted profit for the year. Its longer-term ambitions, set out at a June capital-markets event, call for high-single-digit revenue compound annual growth through 2030 and a reported EBITDA margin above 28%.

The next scheduled financial checkpoint is SoftwareOne’s Q3 2026 trading update on November 11. By then, investors will have another quarter of evidence on whether the faster-growing Channel and Services businesses can sustain their pace and whether the additional CHF 5 million to CHF 10 million of identified synergies are beginning to show up in the cost base.