Avast CEO Steckler to retire in June

Vince Steckler will retire as chief executive of Avast later this year, the cybersecurity specialist announced alongside a solid set of full-year results.

Steckler will step down in June and hand the reins to consumer division boss Ondrej Vlcek, who has been his right-hand man over the past 10 years.

Chairman John Schwarz hailed the 40-fold reveune growth under Steckler and his leading of the IPO, while also pointing to Vleck's "background of more than 20 years of innovation and growth at Avast"."

In what were the Czech-born group's first annual numbers since floating last May, adjusted earnings per share were flat at $0.28 as adjusted revenue increased 8.3% to $811.5m, helped in no small part by Vleck's consumer arm.

The world's largest antivirus provider by the number of customers saw continued strong performance in the core consumer desktop business, driven by launches under its paid Avast and free AVG brands of a secure browser and AntiTrack products, plus updated releases of its Hack Check and Secure VPN products. There were also launches of three new integrated family safety products with US mobile carrier partners, Verizon, AT&T and Wind, with further lauches for smart-home and mobile carriers in the coming months.

Customer numbers increased 7.2% to 12.19m, with the average products per customer up 6% to 1.4 and average revenue per customer up 8.6% to $49.24.

Adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 6.7% to $447.7m with a margin swelling 33 basis points to 54.1%.

On a statutory basis, revenue jumped 24% to $808.3m, operating profit doubled to $248.3m and there was a swing to a positive net income of $241.2m, with statutory fully diluted EPS of $0.25.

With free cash flow improving 14.0% to $394.0m, the board proposed an ordinary dividend of 8.6 cents per share.