Totvs (pronounced ‘totus’), the leading ERP software player in Brazil (and therefore in Latin America), added a useful 14% to headline revenues in 2013 to reach R$1.61bn (c.US$750m) including acquisitions. However, operating margins trimmed back slightly to 19.8% (2012: 21.0%).
Growth was mainly driven by maintenance revenues which increased by 17% to R$783m, almost half the total. Licence fee revenues grew by a statelier 5.6% to R$348m. Services revenues had a good run, up 16% to R$481m, though with a 2.9% gross margin (2012: 3.4%) these are clearly an even greater drag on profitability.
While Totvs is the undisputed market leader in its own region (see BrazilViews January 2013), it really has made no meaningful impact outside of Latin America. ‘International’ revenues stood at R$28m (US$13m) – 37% higher than in 2012 – but these operations are still in loss. Founding CEO Laércio Cosentino has made some interesting moves beyond their national boundaries (e.g. see Brazilian Totvs takes stake in US 'big data' GoodData) but I have to say the ‘grand design’ is not really clear to me. I hope to meet the company again on my next trip to the ‘land of the samba sun’ in March and perhaps all will become clearer!