According to Softline experts, the experience gained during the emergency transition to home-office work will remarkably accelerate the development of the cloud market and the IT services market in general. In countries with low cloud penetration, the restrictive measures have created a steady trend of transition to the cloud, and it is not a temporary solution, but a new business framework. In particular, Softline forecasts annual business growth in the cloud segment that is ahead of plan. The services and software for teamwork and remote access security also continue to demonstrate high growth rates.

Softline Group has announced and welcomed Gareth Tipton as Global Chief Compliance Officer in charge of leading the Ethics and Compliance team across the Softline Group, based in our London office.

Softline has earned Microsoft advanced specialization in change management — Adoption and Change Management Advanced Specialization (ACM). Softline has become one of the first Microsoft partners to confirm this status. This is evidence of Softline's extensive experience in promoting and implementing Microsoft 365 services to optimize the business processes of our customers, as well as to facilitate the digital transformation of customers at the corporate level.

Softline Holding, a leading global provider of IT solutions and services, has announced the acquisition of the software development outsourcing business of the Aplana Group. The parties have not disclosed the financial details of the transaction. The Aplana brand will be still owned by the Aplana Group.

The Order book for series 001P-04 stock obligations of SoftLine Trade JSC was closed on October 20, 2020. Investors were offered that stock obligations be issued with a circulation period of 3 years and 2 months, with a starting volume of 4 billion rubles, and provided with fixed quarterly coupons. The demand was almost double the supply, and amounted to 7,3 billions rubles. The final coupon rate was set at annual 8.9%; due to high demand, the company offered 4.95 billion rubles worth of stock obligations to the investors.

Softline has created a single "entry point" for clients planning to implement projects using low-code platform Creatio from Terrasoft Russia: the company has merged with the Aflex Distribution team into a united Softline Business Solutions Department, allowing it to provide a full range of services within a single business division – from the supply of the solution to the implementation of turnkey projects.

Softline is among the top three in the ranking of cybersecurity solutions and services providers compiled by CNews. At the end of the 2019 calendar year, the company's revenue from the implementation of cybersecurity projects amounted to 17,460 million rubles, which is 10.5% more than a year earlier.

Softline and Huawei sign a cooperation agreement to strengthen their partnership. This is a natural development of the long-term partnership between these two IT companies advancing it to its next level. The parties plan to join forces to power the Smart Hardhats developed by Softline with Huawei technology and Wi-Fi 6 solutions. The agreement envisages closer cooperation between partners in the hardware business development and extension of the special partnership options in order to boost sales of Huawei storage systems. The document was signed by Haijun Xiao, President of Eurasia Region Enterprise Business Group, and Sergey Chernovolenko, Global CEO of Softline, during the 2020 Huawei Digital Community Conference in Moscow.

Softline has opened a new office in London to support the continued growth and expansion of Global business.

Expert RA, a rating agency, has upgraded Axion Holding (Softline Group) credit rating to ruBBB+ with a stable outlook.