THE IMPORTANT GROWTH OF DEFENCE TECH HOLDING S.P.A. CONTINUES WITH THE IMPLEMENTATION OF GROWTH STRATEGIES IN THE DATA INTELLIGENCE AND CYBER SECURITY MARKETS, THROUGH THE LAUNCH OF NEW PROPRIETARY SOFTWARE PRODUCTS
- Revenues: EUR 17.3 million (EUR 13.4 million)1 + 29% compared to the 2020 budget
- EBITDA Adj2: EUR 6.7 million (EUR 3.5 million), + 90% compared to the 2020 budget
- EBITDA Adj Margin: 35% (20% in 2020)
- EBIT Adj3 at EUR 5.7 million with an EBIT Adj Margin 30%, up 80% compared to the 2020 budget
- Net profit sharply accelerated to EUR 3.7 million (+370% YoY)
- Positive NFP (net cash) of EUR 12.3 million (vs EUR -9.6 million as at 31 December 2020)
- Investments of EUR 5.5 million (EUR 3.7 million in 2020)
Rome, 30/03/2022 - The Board of Directors of Defence Tech (EGM: DTH), a leading industrial group in the Cyber Security and Data Intelligence market with proprietary solutions, National Defence and Space with regard to the implementation of complex systems, met today to approve the draft financial statements and consolidated financial statements as at 31 December 2021, currently being audited by PWC.
Emilio Gisondi, CEO of the Defence Tech Group: "2021 was an extremely important year, decisive for the Group's history and full of satisfaction, where the IPO transaction on the Euronext Growth Milan market, was a strong accelerator for the implementation of our Business Plan. We closed the year with a significant growth in revenues, but above all with an extraordinary performance with respect to our ability to create profitability. These results confirm that the strategic nature of the Group, also emphasised by the various Decrees of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, is evident in the challenge taken up and aimed at a business model focused on the scalability of new software solutions for the Data Intelligence and Cyber Security market".
Gisondi concludesThe peculiarities of our business, the strategic importance that we are recognised by our customers and institutional partners, the recent accreditations received for CEVA and LVS, combined with the actions taken during the year, make me confident that we will not only achieve all our planned targets, but will also be able to grow our Group even more than expected in the coming years.
***
The statutory and consolidated financial statements as at 31 December 2021 have been prepared in accordance with Italian GAAP. The figures are fully comparable to those for the financial year 2020, which were prepared according to the same accounting principles.
ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL DATA AS AT 31 DECEMBER 2021
Revenues from sales and services amounted to € 17.3 million compared to € 13.4 million in the previous year. This increase is due to an increase in the Corporate customer segment and a strengthening in terms of competitive positioning for Government customers.
The Defence Tech Group operates on business lines:
Cyber security & data intelligence.
Proprietary secure communications solutions, critical infrastructure vulnerability detection and intelligence-enabling big data & analytic solutions.
Communication & Control System.
Complex application solutions in the defence (CMS, Radar, SAR), space (Satellite Navigation and Earth Observation) and avionics (Air Traffic Control) domains.
Microelectronics.
Realisation of highly complex single-board computers with focus on the naval market.
Our services are provided through the Group's three operating companies, with competence centres dedicated to the different business lines and markets.
EBITDA Adj is EUR 6.7 million (EUR 3.5 million the previous year) and shows an EBITDA Adj Margin of 35%. The attractive margins resulted from revenue growth and the effects of the implementation of the business model with highly scalable proprietary software products.
The different composition of the product/service sales mix also favourably affects the EBITDA Adj Margin.
L'EBIT Adj amounted to EUR 5.7 million (EUR 3.2 million as at 31 December 2020), an increase of EUR 80% compared to 2020, and this despite the fact that depreciation and amortisation amounted to EUR 1 million (EUR 0.4 million).
This stems from the completion of some of the products the Group owns, in line with the Business Plan forecasts.
L'NET PROFIT amounted to EUR 3.7 million (EUR 0.8 million), an increase of 370% over the previous year.
Next’s Shareholders' Equity stands at EUR 33.4 million (EUR 4.6 million in 2020) with an increase of EUR 28.8 million attributable to the growth of the 2021 profit and the conclusion of the IPO transaction, which allowed for a large amount of resources to be raised and entirely allocated to a capital increase.
La Net Financial Position is positive (net cash in) in the amount of EUR 12.3 million (vs. net debt of EUR 9.6 million) due to the Working Capital dynamics and the 'cash in' from the conclusion of the listing on EGM.
SIGNIFICANT EVENTS IN THE FINANCIAL YEAR 2021
- – On 14 May 2021 all Group companies have approved a new Organisational and Management Model pursuant to Legislative Decree 231/2001, in order to avoid gaps in the internal organisational system and decisively counter any risk of offences related to their activities.
- – On 11 October 2021 the new Board of Directors was appointed, consisting of five members, two of whom are independent.
on 26 October 2021 Defence Tech Holding S.p.A. received notice of admission of its ordinary shares to trading on the Euronext Growth Milano (formerly AIM Italia) market, with trading commencing on 29 October 2021. The admission took place following the conclusion of the placement of a total of 7,142,857 newly issued ordinary shares for a total value of EUR 25 million, against a total demand of more than EUR 118 million, equal to approximately five times the offer. The overall demand came from leading Italian institutional investors.
– on 1 December 2021 the CEO, Emilio Gisondi, has announced that he will amend the Holding's articles of association in 2022 so that it can acquire the status of a Benefit Corporation with the aim of putting the good of the local community, employees and their well-being at the centre, enhancing the human aspect and promoting a more inclusive environment. This will mean orienting investment choices also towards policies of social relevance and strengthening sensitivity to ESG issues thanks to a strategic plan that will integrate its guidelines with those of the sustainability programme plan.
SIGNIFICANT EVENTS OCCURRING AFTER THE END OF THE FINANCIAL YEAR 2021
- – on 11 January 2022 Defence Tech successfully passed, through its subsidiary Next Ingegneria dei Sistemi SpA, the accreditation process of the Evaluation Centre (CE.VA.)which is responsible for verifying the security conditions and absence of vulnerabilities of products, equipment and systems used in infrastructures and networks deemed critical to the national interest. The centre, which is already operational, is in negotiations for several orders in the Aerospace and Defence sectors. For Defence Tech, this is an important recognition that rewards the investments made in recent years for the provision of technologically advanced areas and the hiring of highly qualified personnel.
- – 16 February 2022 Defence Tech, through its subsidiary Next Ingegneria dei Sistemi S.p.A, after making operational the Computer Security Assessment Laboratory (LVS), which carries out verification activities in all phases of analysis, implementation and management of products and systems that are relevant from an Information Security point of view, obtained accreditation by theOCSI, Information Security Certification Bodyat the Ministry of Economic Development, having verified compliance with international standard ISO/IEC 17025 (general requirements for verifying the competence of laboratories) and ISO/IEC IS-15408 (Common Criteria). This for Defence Tech represents a further step in the growth of revenues in the corporate market, being able to offer increasingly broader services in the field of Cyber Security.
FORESEEABLE EVOLUTION OF OPERATIONS
The Defence Tech Group intends to continue its path of organic growth through the implementation of the '21-'23 business plan, seizing M&A opportunities in the case of enablers to new technologies and skills.
The context of reference, which has seen increasingly frequent cyber attacks combined with the conflict between Russia and Ukraine with an uncertain future, has led to growing attention on the part of organisations and, before that, institutions to the issue of the security of our country's critical infrastructure. The objective is not only related to the system's ability to resolve the crisis following a cyber attack, but, above all, to make organisations increasingly resilient to attacks and Italy, as a country system, increasingly independent from a technological point of view.
Completing the scenario is the willingness on the part of Italian and European institutions to seize all direct and indirect opportunities arising from the space sector with continuous and increasing investment.
This not only confirms a favourable market scenario for our Group, but also demonstrates that our strategic direction, focused on helping organisations achieve greater technology independence from foreign vendors through proprietary products, is the right way to go.
Below are the objectives the Group has set itself for the coming period:
- - Presentation to the corporate market, represented in part by the National Cyber Perimeter, of our Cyber Communication (PYN, GOT, X-BOX and MYID) and Data Intelligence (Next Data and Webeye) solutions;
- - Evolution and launch of new Cyber products in EPP, EDR, VA (Cyber Angel, Vulscan, Cerberus);
- - Presentation of the services offered by our Malware Lab, whose purpose is to analyse all the most relevant cyber campaigns underway, characterising their modus operandi and the technologies used, as well as profiling the 'threat actors' active on the scene.
- - Recruitment of key resources in order to strengthen engineering and specialised skills in the cyber field.
- - Consolidation of our role as Prime Contractor in the Defence electronic systems market on the most important national programmes.
- - Participation in PNRM-funded Earth observation programmes related to the Space market.
- - Development of the M&A plan with a focus on start-ups, academic spin-offs, middle-sized companies in the cyber, space and microelectronics sectors, characterised by proprietary technology/products or distinctive high-potential competencies.
Lastly, the Group will continue to implement the Marketing & Communication actions envisaged in the plan in order to increase the visibility of the brand and its products on the corporate market, increasingly accrediting it as a national player of excellence.
