Earnings call transcript: Tinexta’s Q1 2025 results show robust growth

Tinexta SpA reported strong financial results for the first quarter of 2025, surpassing revenue expectations with a 17% year-over-year increase. The company’s stock responded positively, rising 3.76% following the announcement. According to InvestingPro analysis, Tinexta maintains a "GOOD" overall financial health score, with particularly strong momentum in recent months. The company’s strategic focus on cybersecurity and digital trust appears to be paying off, positioning the company for continued growth in these sectors.

Key Takeaways

• Tinexta’s Q1 2025 revenue grew by 17% year-over-year, reaching €115.5 million.
• The company’s adjusted EBITDA increased by 24%, with a margin improvement of nearly 100 basis points.
• Stock price rose by 3.76% post-earnings announcement.
• Tinexta’s cybersecurity division expanded with a new EU tender win.
• The company targets 11-13% revenue growth for 2025.

Company Performance

Tinexta’s performance in Q1 2025 highlights its strategic success in the digital trust and cybersecurity sectors. The company’s revenue increased by 17% compared to the same period last year, driven by strong demand across its business units. Tinexta’s cybersecurity division, in particular, reported a 33% increase in revenue, bolstered by winning a significant EU cybersecurity tender. The company’s efforts to streamline operations and reduce costs have also contributed to its improved financial health.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: €115.5 million, up 17% YoY
• Adjusted EBITDA: €19 million, up 24% YoY
• EBITDA Margin: 16.2%, increased by nearly 100 basis points
• Net Profit Adjusted: €4 million
• Free Cash Flow Adjusted: €34 million, up 24% YoY

Market Reaction

Following the earnings announcement, Tinexta’s stock price increased by 3.76%, closing at €10.75. The stock’s movement reflects investor confidence in the company’s growth trajectory and its ability to capitalize on opportunities in the digital trust and cybersecurity markets. InvestingPro analysis suggests Tinexta is currently undervalued, with a 36% price return over the last six months. The stock trades at a P/E ratio of 26.7x, with analyst consensus remaining strongly bullish. Detailed valuation metrics and comprehensive analysis are available in the Pro Research Report, part of InvestingPro’s coverage of 1,400+ top stocks.

Outlook & Guidance

Tinexta has set ambitious targets for 2025, expecting revenue growth of 11-13%, with 7-9% coming from organic sources. The company also projects adjusted EBITDA growth of 15-17%, driven by continued demand in its core sectors and operational efficiencies. Tinexta aims to maintain a net financial debt to EBITDA ratio of 2.2-2.4x, suggesting a focus on maintaining financial stability while pursuing growth.

Executive Commentary

CEO Joseph Mastroblastino expressed optimism about the company’s performance, stating, "The first quarter started well," and highlighting the importance of operational leverage in achieving these results. He also noted the company’s strategic emphasis on collaboration, saying, "We are utilizing now a year’s worth of collaboration," which has been instrumental in driving growth.

Risks and Challenges

• Potential declines in legacy cybersecurity business could impact growth.
• Market fragmentation in the digital trust sector may pose competitive challenges.
• Economic uncertainties in Europe could affect demand for Tinexta’s services.
• Integration of recent acquisitions and restructuring efforts may present operational hurdles.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about the slight organic decline in the legacy cybersecurity business and the company’s plans to address this issue. Tinexta’s management acknowledged the challenge and outlined plans for sales team restructuring and potential bolt-on mergers and acquisitions to enhance growth. The company also emphasized ongoing integration and cross-selling efforts to maximize synergies across its business units.

Full transcript - Tinexta SpA (TNXT) Q1 2025:

Conference Operator: Good morning. This is the Chorus Call conference operator. Welcome and thank you for joining the Tenexta Group Consolidated Results at the 03/31/2025 presentation. As a reminder, all participants are in listen only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions.

At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Joseph Mastroblastino, Chief Investor Relations Officer. Please go ahead, sir.

Joseph Mastroblastino, Chief Investor Relations Officer, Tenexta Group: Good morning to all of you, thank you, operator, and thank you for being here today. Thank you for joining Tenexo’s first quarter results presentation. Here with me today are Otonepo, Citigroup Chief Financial Officer. Good morning, everybody. As a reminder, the relevant documentation on the first quarter twenty twenty five results can be downloaded from our company website in the Investor Relations section.

For the purpose of this call, I will cover some key strategic items of the call, Odon instead will go over the first quarter twenty twenty five financial results as well as the business unit’s performance, providing us with a deep dive. The last part of the call will be dedicated to Q and A. A recording of this conference call will also be available on our company website, and it will be posted upon completion of this call. At this point, I will kick it off by turning to Page five of the presentation. On Page five, we highlight some of the key group financial data starting from revenues, which reached million dollars growing 17% versus prior year.

Even more importantly was EBITDA adjusted and reached BRL 19,000,000, growing 24% versus prior year. We would like to stress the fact to the market that we are back to operating leverage in terms of EBITDA adjusted. EBITDA on a reported basis reached BRL 17,000,000 also thanks to a low level of nonrecurring and net profit on an adjusted basis reached R4 billion dollars in the first quarter. Noticeably, net financial position went down from R322 million dollars registered in fiscal year twenty twenty four as of December ’30 ’1 to $291,000,000 as of the first quarter of twenty twenty five. Still another impressive data point is also free cash flow on adjusted basis, which grew 24% versus the prior year at around EUR 34,000,000.

Let me turn to Page six of the presentation. Starting again from revenues. Revenues reached EUR 115,500,000,000.0, growing 17% with the contribution of all of the business units to the achievement of the guidance. In fact, the first quarter results represents the first step towards meeting fiscal year targets on a 2025 basis. EBITDA adjusted reached, as I said, dollars 19,000,000, growing 24% with tangible signs of rebound from both the cybersecurity and the business innovation business units, where we expect an acceleration also in the second H, which is accustomed to the business model.

EBITDA on a reported basis grew tremendously, growing more than 100% versus the prior year at reaching $17,000,000 which is considerably due to the lower impact of non recurring and EBITDA on an adjusted margin base reached 16.2% growing almost 100 basis points versus the 15.4% recorded in the prior year. EBIT adjusted reached $8,500,000 with a margin of 7.4%. And again, net profit adjusted reached almost $4,000,000 and net profit on a reported basis improved noticeably versus the loss of million dollars recorded in the prior year. Net financial position was strong at R290 million dollars versus the R320 million of the prior year. The decrease in net financial debt in the quarter was driven by cash generation and favorable net working capital dynamics and also the positive put call option adjustments, which we will discuss later in the call.

Free cash flow adjusted reached 34,000,000 Noticeably, it is important also to highlight that on a twelve month LTM base on 03/31/2025, the LTM number is close to EUR50 million or EUR48.3 million. Net financial position over LTM adjusted EBITDA went down from the 2.8 times on a pro form a basis or the 2.9 on a reported basis to EUR 2 point 5 4 percent as of the first quarter of twenty twenty five. The middle slide of this slide, we have the three business units. Let’s give a nice flash with Digital Trust growing 6% in revenue, flattish EBITDA or slightly growing with margins growing at $29,100,000 We’ll discuss heavily in the business unit deep dive when Adone will reach the digital trust section. Cybersecurity did a very good registered a very strong result growing 33% on top line and even more on the EBITDA, which reached 88.5% growth versus the prior year with a very strong margin at 13.8%.

Another very strong performance was also registered in the business innovation department with revenues growing close to 26% and EBITDA more than doubling versus the prior year with margins rebounding back at around 9%. In terms of recent events and updates, I think it’s worthwhile highlighting the group wide rebranding, which has happened at the April. The aim here is to foster integration and improve the recognition of Tenexo subsidiaries. Today, the group has still three business units as we all know them, but now these three business units oversee five operating companies, namely Tenexa Infochet, Tenexa Visura, Tenexa Cyber, Tenexa Defense and then Tinexta Innovation Hub. In terms of the most recent information, in terms of the approval of the distribution of the dividend of $0.3 per share by the ordinary shareholders meeting held in 04/14/2025.

The payment date is starting 06/04/2025, and the record date will be 06/03/2025. We also have the approval and the authorization proposal of purchase and disposal of Cerbergy shares as per the ordinary shareholders’ meeting. Turning to Page seven, I briefly gave an introduction, but we did an extensive, I would say, work behind the rebranding of the company. It went live at the April. The concept here is One Group, One Brand, which will foster integration process aimed at maximizing, first of all, Tenexus identity and perception in terms of visibility towards the subsidiaries.

So obviously, there will be strong collaboration in terms of creating a unified corporate culture as well as promoting infra group synergies and collaborations, which are now a priority for the group. Together with the one group approach, we are focusing mostly on five pillars, an integrated offer, increased awareness, stronger synergies, unified strategies and also centralized locations given the very strong investments that we did in the past two years by unifying, for example, the headquarters both in Rome and Milan and now also in France. Going to Page eight, I’ll just give some flashes here. Revenues and EBITDA adjusted were commented. We’re back to operating leverage, which I think is the main takeaway from this slide.

And even the net profits of continuing operation strongly improved versus the number registered in the prior year. Turning to Page nine, maybe just to give a recap and also to provide a reminder to the market, our business model provides for EBITDA to be strong in the latter part of the year, mostly in the second H and even more particularly in the end of Q3 and all of Q4. As you can see here, we have more than three years history data where the 2H, as you can see, has strongly been growing from 61% of total EBITDA back in 2022 to 63% in 2023 and to 69% of relative weight of the second H in 2024. This year, the first quarter started well. We are now at the first milestone or first quarter of the year with 15% of the midpoint of the EBITDA adjusted guidance already achieved with close to 19,000,000 of EBITDA.

Let me pause and leave the floor to Adone, which will go over the financial results. Adone?

Adone, Chief Financial Officer, Tenexta Group: Okay. Thank you, Joseph. Good morning, again, everybody. So as anticipated by Joseph, this Q1 basically was better than the Q1 last year, both on a like for like basis and on a total basis. As you have seen, we are growing double digit both in revenues and even more in EBITDA that accounted for couple of things, the increase of EBITDA margin from 15% to 16%, almost 100 basis points increase.

And also on a like for like basis, we started well with an increase of 8%. Definitely, as you may see here, the EBITDA landed at close to CHF90 million, growing 24% compared to previous year. We have a slightly different incidence of different costs also driven by the new revenue mix with the introduction of DefenseTech during Q1. Non recurring costs dropped significantly over the first quarter. As anticipated, last year, we were investing quite a lot in costs for delivering the acquisition that occurred last year.

This year, the amount is definitely much lower. CapEx were back to a flattish situation compared to previous year, including also the part of defense tax. So if we are going to remove the FedTech impact, so basically the CapEx were down on a like for like basis compared to previous year. And this was one of the major statement and goals we have for the year 2025 after a year of 2024 where we invested significantly in order to renew and to upgrade our platforms and solutions. Financial income and net financial charges increased over last year.

Obviously, we have a couple of things here. For sure, the change of perimeter with the acquisition of ADF and DefenseTech has impacted this amount. But still, we are having a very interesting tax very interesting interest rate in the P and L. At the end, net profit is a slight improving compared to previous year. If we go on a let’s say on an adjustment basis, you can see here that on the change of previous year of adjusting results in terms of EBITDA is improving as well as the operating profit is improving by 7%.

Like I said, this was driven by higher amortization, including the amortization of the PPA of ABF that has been restated for twenty four and this is the results. If we move to balance sheet, all the indicators are positive. The invested capital is dropping by 4%. We have an organic decrease in working capital that helped a lot the decline of the net financial position. And also, we have an organic decrease in net fixed assets as a result of lower investment compared to the amortization we had during Q1.

Net financial position that is not impacted by the dividend distribution that will occur in June definitely is was helped significantly by the strong increase of adjusted free cash flow of the continued operation that peaked at €34,000,000 result. Non recurring components were very low and no acquisition occurred during Q1. And I would anticipate here the fact that at the end of Q1, we reduced by more than €6,000,000 the debt for put linked to Achetia, as I will explain later on. Basically, very interesting that Page 14 is definitely the increase of the free cash flow. Like I said, CapEx remained stable at €6,300,000 compared to previous year, but with a different perimeter.

And overall, we have a growth of the adjusted free cash flow basically aligned with the growth in terms of percentage of the EBITDA. I think there are you can see the following page. If we go to the net financial position bridge, at Page 16. Basically, here is what I just stated before. Let’s move now on LTM basis.

I think that free cash flow of adjusted or continuing operation is very close to €50,000,000 and this is a very positive result also supported by the results of Q1. We distributed last year in the last twelve months more than €30,000,000 dividend. And the net result of the acquisition we performed that is basically DefenceTech plus the reduction of put adjustment were one of the most important parties ADF, but also Hachette accounted for €57,000,000 total cost total impact on the net debt. There are no other significant amount. But now let’s deep dive in the more business driven situation.

Digital trust, anticipated by Joseph, if we exclude the impact of Achertia that I will explain later very well, basically was in the position to fully confirm the results of the last twelve months of the last twelve quarters, I would say. So Digital Trust continued a positive growth in the main part of its business with double digit growth in a lot of segment of its business with the percentage of profitability that still was growing. The results on overall basis was impacted from a different timing of sales of Acesia. Acesia last year delivered a very strong Q1. This year was not the case, but for people who know the business of Acesia, the business has a recurring base of revenues, but is really important the sale that we deliver on our product and license that may differ year on year on a quarterly basis.

The management of both the infrastructure assets are absolutely confident that the sales that were performed last year in Q1 and not performed this year in Q1 ’twenty five will look good down the road and they will achieve the budget with a different calendar year. So again, if we exclude Asccia, the business of Infosys continued as the last twelve quarters with a growth in the range of slightly below 10% and the EBITDA growing by more than 10%. The impact of Acercia on the EBITDA here has been in the range of €1,500,000 profitability in one single quarter. And so this will be recovered during the I would also point it out here that as clearly stated when we presented the plan, the CapEx went down from €4,200,000 to €3,300,000 ex slightly ly aligned with what we were expecting. On the cybersecurity overall, we have a bunch of very good news.

The first important thing is that and I think everybody was really interested in this, is the result of DefenseTech, the newly acquired company of our That’s step delivered a very strong Q1, totally aligned with our expectation. I would say slightly better in terms of revenue and slightly also in terms of EBITDA. The company is meeting the goals and the targets that we set at the beginning of the year. The company is properly delivering the backlog. As I shared during the conference call of the presentation, the plan is well above last year.

And as last year, the results of asset sorry, of the best tech were public, even though in a different accounting principle. In the case, the results in terms of EBITDA was tripled compared to previous year. So we have a growth of revenue in excess of 50% and the EBITDA basically tripled. Also, the cash generation of our shares is positive. So we are very glad of these results and we are aiming to continue on the same path.

Also good news came from the business of cybersecurity is in the perimeter since three, four years of the group. Revenues on a like for like basis were slightly down. This was not basically a surprise for us. And as is very clear stated here, the decline is more in product distribution in security solution that were carrying a very low margin. Overall, so the company delivered a contribution slightly above last year.

But as clearly anticipated during the planned presentation, the company is working very well in cost reduction. And so the profitability went up more than 16% that is aligned with our expectation and with our goals. Definitely, we are talking about Q1 that everybody knows is not the stronger quarter of the year, But the start and the kickoff of the year has been positive, aligned and basically the result of the action that we put in place in cost management has contributed to the results. So cybersecurity, very, very good move, good start. Let’s move to business innovation.

Also, business innovation on overall view is delivering an improvement versus the previous year. Definitely, as we know, it’s the lower quarter of the year. So it’s not the weight of this quarter is not so significant compared to the full year. But any case, the good start is encouraging towards the results that we are aiming to achieve. First of all, we have a recovery in the area of financing grants and this is very important.

Still four point zero and five point zero industries are not are in line overall with the expectation of Q1, but there is a long way to go to achieve the results. We are ready. The level of incoming satisfactory for us. Probably the complexity of the overall situation in term of regulatory issues as well as in term of what is going to be expecting from the Italian government is putting some kind of a little bit of uncertainty. But this was partially already factored, I would say, in our plan.

If we talk about ABF, both revenue and margins are improved compared to previous year. So this is still a good news. The overall picture in France is not improved from the government standpoint. The incentives related to France Two Thousand Thirty are still under review from the government. And this had an effect as the success rate this project the success rate of the filing of this project has been lower than previous year, but the company was able to brought to filing more projects and more value compared to previous year.

Obviously, we are following strictly the situation. We put in place also action to for cost containment, while we are pushing a lot in our capability to get mandate and orders from the customer. And also, I would say, this is improving time by time. Overall, like I said, we were able to more than double the result also with the help of a small change of perimeter at very low cost basically. And this is the result of the first quarter.

So I leave now to Josef for the closing remarks. Frisio?

Joseph Mastroblastino, Chief Investor Relations Officer, Tenexta Group: Thank you, Donovan. So going to Page 23, as already approved by the Board of Directors yesterday and published on the press release, which was issued yesterday. We confirm 2025 target, and therefore, the guidance. Let’s on Page 23, let’s go over some of the numbers. Revenues for the year at a group level consolidated, therefore, are expected to be 1113%, of which 7% to 9% organic.

EBITDA adjusted, again, back to operating leverage, 15% to 17% growth expected versus the prior year, of which 10% to 12% organic and net financial debt over EBITDA adjusted or leverage ratio anywhere between 2.2 to 2.4 times. Let me close and wrap up the call and then open up the call to Q and A with some closing remarks on Page 24. I would say that there was strong recovery of operational efficiency at a group level with first quarter results with strong contribution driven by the cybersecurity as well as the BIs rebound. We went over extensively what happened to Digital Trust. These are momentary temporary effects with contracts to be having their effect in the later quarters of the year, thanks to Acesia.

But as we said, ex Acesia, Digital Trust still performed very well. Decrease in net financial debt was driven by strong cash generation and favorable net working capital as well as the positive put call adjustments. We still have very strong and this is, I think, more of a high level comment, which supports the Capital Markets Day and therefore the plan regulatory tailwinds in building momentum in the relative relevant markets as a leverage to establish us as a pan European ICT player. And then also very strong tangible results from the Infra Group synergies, specifically in the cyber security business units, which reinforce our single corporate strategy and culture that we just mentioned in terms of branding. I will leave it to the operator to open please the Q and A, please.

Conference Operator: Thank you, sir. This is the conference call conference operator. We will now begin the question and answer session. The first question is from Izako Brambilla of Mediobanca.

Izako Brambilla, Analyst, Mediobanca: Good morning, everybody. Thanks for the presentation. That was very comprehensive. Two questions on my side. The first one is on cybersecurity on the legacy business.

Can you elaborate a bit more on the strategy to turn first quarter organic decline into the top line organic growth embedded in your guidance? Second question is on Business Innovation. The segment had an impressive rebound in turnover in the first quarter. That said, profitability remains below the levels we were used to see until 2023. Can you elaborate a bit more on the reasons for that?

Was sorry if I missed it during the presentation. Did you mention the EBITDA in absolute terms of ABF? Is it a burden for profitability of the division?

Adone, Chief Financial Officer, Tenexta Group: Izako, thank you for your question. I start from the first one related to the revenue of legacy business. Probably, I was not able to make myself clear during the presentation. Like I said, the decline compared to the previous mostly related at this I go to Page, George. In the page of the there is an indication that security solutions were down by 15% with contraction of services and products.

So the contraction of products, 25% was the main driver. Obviously, we are not at all happy of the contraction of the services part. I would say that on the recurring revenue, we are still fine. We have been a little bit lower in advisory services during Q1. This is something for that was disappointed definitely for us.

There are the pipeline is quite interesting. We have a lot of opportunity there on the market. So we were down by 4%. Like I said, it’s not a good news. But again, the Q1 is the lower quarter of the year.

So we have all the opportunity and rooms to recover here. We increased the capabilities of the sales part of the cybersecurity, a new manager in sales, a sales director has been appointed just early last week. And we are expecting that a lot of offers that we have outside will be turning to orders very quickly. But any case, Zako, you are right, this is a point of attention, but we have been very capable to counterbalance this with a significant cost containment. On the business innovation, definitely, the margin is down is low in Q1, but here is basically a matter of I would say, it’s a matter of seasonality.

The fixed cost that we have cannot be covered as the Q2 and Q4 that are the main quarters of the division. Any case, the profitability has improved in terms of marginality compared to previous year. On ABF, ABF, we had an increase of revenue compared to previous year. Part of this came from a delay of Q4 twenty twenty four. And the profitability is improved, still negative in terms of EBITDA in Q1, but this is seasonality that we were expecting.

In any case, it’s improving by like of EUR 5,000,000 compared to previous year.

Conference Operator: The next question is from Andrea Bonfa of Banco Acros.

Andrea Bonfa, Analyst, Banco Acros: Very quickly, most of my questions have already been answered by your presentation. Just a technical curiosity, the benefit in the cash flow from the lower put, let’s say, potential outflow on a share, the €6,000,000 or something, will that be permanent? Or how does it work? If Akerciat recovers the performance, do you need to add that back? If you can comment on that.

Izako Brambilla, Analyst, Mediobanca: Thank you very much.

Adone, Chief Financial Officer, Tenexta Group: Okay. Thank you, Andrea. Very good point here because I didn’t comment in-depth on this. Like I was saying, so basically, we were missing EBITDA in Q1 twenty twenty five, but March 2025 was the expiring date of the put and call. So if from one side we miss good results in Q1, from the other side we had a permanent benefit of €6,000,000 So we are going to exercise in the next weeks the coal and the coal will cost allow me to use this term, will cost €6,000,000 less than in the past.

If the company would have delivered that €1,500,000 more EBITDA, we will have the cost that we had at the end of Q4 twenty twenty four. So it’s a permanent benefit. Obviously, it’s not in the free cash flow because the free cash flow is just from the operation. This is on the other part of the debt.

Andrea Bonfa, Analyst, Banco Acros: The

Conference Operator: next question is from Russell Ponton of Edison Group.

Russell Ponton, Analyst, Edison Group: I have three questions, if that’s okay. First of all, on cybersecurity, apologies if I should know this already, but, I’m interested in the press release. You talk about the success in the tender for cybersecurity services in Italy. Could you just talk about the implications of that for the business positioning and from a financial perspective going forward? And then two more general at the corporate level.

First, on the corporate rebrand. There’s obviously been a big focus on cross selling between the divisions for some time now. But could you just talk about what has changed that will enable you to better coordinate cross selling activities across the divisions? And the third question is on the working capital, the organic decrease that you saw in Q1. Could you just talk a bit more about what drove that specifically?

And should we expect to see that to continue for the rest of the year?

Joseph Mastroblastino, Chief Investor Relations Officer, Tenexta Group: So let me take the first two, and then Aldona will go over the last one related to some net working capital, etcetera. So let’s start with the cybersecurity part. You mentioned Defender. We were as you can see, we are reporting both on one side business as usual, which means that the Nexa Cyber business unit and also the Nexa Defense, which is now fully under our control. I would start by saying that the first quarter actually saw first tangible results in terms of group synergies, which is a bit also the answer to the second question that you had, where are these synergies?

Cybersecurity, in particular, Defense Tech was able to be awarded a tender called the Next Ingenieira de Cistemi, which as you probably know, entails European Union Agency for cybersecurity matter. And in this case, we will supply cybersecurity services. I think the market is very accustomed also to what was defense tech when it was listed. A lot of the projects coming from defense tech have national security clearance. We wanted though to give you some color on a qualitative basis and also on the process on the tendering side of Nexa Defense.

And therefore, now that is under the perimeter of Tinexas Defense. So we can see that there have been some strong contributions also from the tendering part. Now when we talk about synergies and the idea of one brand, one corporate culture, I think one of the divisions that is mostly showing the results of some first tangible synergies is, in fact, the cybersecurity because thanks to the access that we have to the public administration given, I would say, defense tax role and also the providing of services and products of Tinixa Cyber, we are able today to sit down and be considered in certain, I would say, tenders that before were they were potential, but they definitely were much harder to achieve. So there is work in progress, but I think the fact that we are utilizing now a year’s worth of collaboration and also pulling together resources as well as know how can help us get into a much more, I would say, tendering process probability in the near future. The rebranding part, as you were saying, focuses on that, but it also focuses on creating, I would think, some rationality, right?

I mean, this is a group that has grown tremendously in the past years. We grew both organically, but mostly also through M and A. So now we needed also to come out with a more unified, more identifiable and greater awareness in terms of also brand, right? So you can see that Kinecta brand is now everywhere. And it helps also in the outside market to be much more recognized and also be identified as a more cohesive group.

More will come definitely. We are very convinced and committed on that. It will take some time. I mean the rebranding was a lengthy process, came in came live in April. But I think going forward, we can represent a one stop shop, I would say, both of cyber, digital trust and consultancy and services that can address the market needs.

Let me stop there. Think, Donovan, did you want to go

Adone, Chief Financial Officer, Tenexta Group: over the last one? Absolutely.

Russell Ponton, Analyst, Edison Group: Sorry, Joseph, may I just before Adonis starts on the the working capital, so does that mean divisional people are now more incentivized to cross sell?

Joseph Mastroblastino, Chief Investor Relations Officer, Tenexta Group: We do have we already have a cross selling committee, which closely monitors the different projects. I mean, it goes back to the different souls of the companies that we bought in the past. I mean, let’s just look at the three business units that we had under cyber. I mean, we bought three companies. There were three different corporate closures.

It took some time. We were very frank with the market and we came out by saying, it takes it’s going to take longer period of time. And we extensively worked on this. And today, these three corporate cultures are one, right? There is, as Luzon just mentioned, the new Director of Sales.

So I don’t think it just stops the commitment. It goes beyond commitment and it goes to being identified as a one group, right, rather than being, oh, I’m company A versus company B or company C that was bought in 20x or 20y, you know what I’m saying? It’s not just the incentive part, it’s just being more in a cohesive group. I also want to take the chance to highlight that some of you guys have also present during our Capital Markets Day. And having unified under one headquarters in Milan and one in Rome, all the people are is fostering collaboration by definition.

Is that in a meeting room? Is that in a phone booth? Or is that having lunch together? So it took time. It was an extensive job for Modonin first to go over and stress the fact that we needed to be under one building, and that’s where we’re actually going.

So I think it goes over beyond the commitment part. At the same time, maybe I think one last word that needs attention is accountability. Being part and being committed is one thing, Being incentivized is one thing, but being also accountable for what our group results specifically after last year’s performance, I think is even more of a priority today.

Adone, Chief Financial Officer, Tenexta Group: Let’s move to the third question, Russell. Two things are important here. Q1 generally in term of working capital decline compared to the end of Q4 is like I said really physiological. During Q4, we have the peak of the revenue of the group. And as in Italy, we have a delay from invoicing to cash in.

Q1 is the best quarter of the year in term of cash in because we are cashing what we have built to customer in Q4. What is important is for us to compare quarter on quarter compared to the previous year. As you can may see at the page of where we are comparing the Q1 ’twenty four to Q1 ’twenty five in terms of free cash flow, adjusted free cash flow, it’s very important that we are able to improve by 24% compared to previous year. So this is even slightly better than our expectation in Q1 and we are very glad of it. And then we are trying to improve quarter over the same quarters of the previous year, the management of the working capital.

Russell Ponton, Analyst, Edison Group: Thank you, Tony.

Conference Operator: The next question, sir, is from Aleksandra Arsova of Equita.

Aleksandra Arsova, Analyst, Equita: Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. Have three questions. The first one is maybe a very general one on how do you see if we have changed in the general, let’s say, competitive scenario and perspective of the digital trust in Italy. Recently, we saw this transaction where Namurial, one of the other main players in digital trust in Italy, was acquired by Bain.

Just a guess on it on your side and if you see some potential changes in how Namibia will in its strategy and in the general competitive scenario? It’s the first one. The second one is on Germany, which is not a core market where you are active in. But since now, there will be there is a new government, and they are launching this fiscal stimulus. So I was wondering if in your business innovation division, you are planning to do something to target this market.

I know that you’re on a deleverage path on so maybe new acquisitions is not the way, but I don’t know. Any guess on this? And the third one, just to understand better when you were speaking before of generally synergies or cost efficiencies, on the revenue part, so cross selling, the new brand and everything is very clear. But maybe on the cost side, since your business is mainly a people business, so with cost efficiencies and synergies, do you imply, I don’t know, a personnel restructuring plan or some other kind of cost efficiencies? Thank you.

Joseph Mastroblastino, Chief Investor Relations Officer, Tenexta Group: Okay. Let take a stab and then Alona will kick in whenever he wants. Digital Trust, yes, great market as we all know. I think the fact that we are that we’ve seen this very important transaction, I think, actually justifies and confirms the business model, right? Now you’re to get into the numbers, but I think the fact that such an asset was valued at that number or presumably at that number is, I think, also confirmation of the fact of how important these assets are.

Now Infochester, beyond any doubt, represents today the leading company in Europe by far. As we’ve said, I think many years ago, and this is still Valcom today, this is a very, very fragmented market. And fragmented market means many operators are out there. There are some high barriers of entry to a certain extent when you look at jurisdictions, geographies, etcetera, and also because there is a different level and speed of visualization around and across Europe. Say, country A is much more advanced than country B, great.

Therefore, valuations may vary and differ very much. Now all this to say that there is sufficient space out there. We are very happy of what goes on if the market is, I would say, healthy and interesting by far because that means that there is a close attention also to these types of assets. They don’t come cheap. They never have and probably still will not come cheap.

But it actually testifies the fact that we are in a market that is still very strongly growing. And that is even more supported by the continuous we have now done countless quarters of high single digit, low double digit organic growth in terms of InfoJets. So this is definitely a market that is growing. Competition can be healthy because it drives innovation. For that matter, if you all might recall, during 2024, Digital Trust was already at the head of the curve.

They were they spent more CapEx than we actually had we’re looking at in a normalized year. And that was because we also want to be ahead of the curve, right? Ahead of the curve means technology, ahead of the curve means the right services. And also driving to a certain extent market. I’m thinking about the evolution of the certified emails.

I’m thinking about the evolution also of developed signatures that are a blockbuster in Italy, but may have a strong application. Just look at France. We always consider France a very interesting market. This year during the Capital Markets Day, we highlighted the importance of e invoicing becoming mandatory in certain countries. For example, France, while it has been mandatory in release since 2018.

So there are a lot of also, I would say, regulatory tailwinds that help us, right? And a more efficient market means a better space to work with. We still have a competitive edge of being where we are in terms of competition and market share and positioning, but markets are always there. Germany and BI, honestly, Alexandra, no real comment on that, to be honest. We don’t really comment on that.

We have a focus on BI going back to marginality, strongly emphasizing our local presence in Italy and we’ve already seen and I was going to just comment on the fact that we have a fixed cost structure to a certain extent in BI. We need top line to grow. We are in the midst of five point zero to four point zero. So now four point zero is to a certain extent more appealing or more applicable, let me put it this way, than we had thought. So it’s a changing environment.

So I would still say to stay focused on that. Me give you give us a second for your last question on synergies, right? Alexandra, you were asking more of how they will play out given that we have cost structure in terms of synergies for the group in general or for a specific business? This is the point.

Adone, Chief Financial Officer, Tenexta Group: In general, as a So very clear. So let’s start from digital trust. Digital trust is continuing to grow at very high pace. Nevertheless, the management of digital trust is addressing since last year a lot of plans in order to trying to synergize among different companies of the business unit.

I can tell you that especially on international level now all the projects of application, software development, solution development are under the same umbrella and manage. And this is bringing definitely a lot of synergy and cost saving. And this is basically how one of the tools that digital trust and infrastructure are utilizing in order to improve the margin in parity that as you can see is growing much faster than the rest. Second, if we go to digital trust, I’m talking about the legacy cyber business because on the cyber business, definitely we as you have seen in our comments of results, we were able to strongly reduce the impact of SG and A. And this is action that has been taken place over the last six months by the management of the view, and the results are really satisfactory and positive.

On the and this is a very balanced manager of the situation because we have some segments that are growing very fast. On the business innovation, as you can see, we are definitely lowering a bit the replacement of the turnover and this is something that is happening. But as you can see here, the revenue is started to grow again. So when we are playing in the services environment, the revenue is growing if you have people that are delivering the services. So it’s a very balanced management on this.

But the most important thing that the group on a year on year on a quarter on quarter basis was able to improve by almost 100 basis points. And this is part of the cost management and control of the company.

Conference Operator: The next question is from Carlo Maritano of Intermonte.

Carlo Maritano, Analyst, Intermonte: Hi. Good morning, Don and Jose. I just have one question. This is related If I remember correctly, since it’s been three years since Bregal acquired the minority stake, I was wondering if you intend to exercise eventually this option and to buy back the minorities?

Or what’s your strategy Okay.

Adone, Chief Financial Officer, Tenexta Group: Very clear question.

Joseph Mastroblastino, Chief Investor Relations Officer, Tenexta Group: We

Adone, Chief Financial Officer, Tenexta Group: are not yet in the phase where this will occur next year. We are not yet in the phase where we are going to take this decision. I think several points are on the table. And we, the Board of Directors and the shareholders of Infosur, InferShare, we are going to take the decision at the proper moment.

Carlo Maritano, Analyst, Intermonte: Okay. Just a quick follow-up. There a formula that is already clear on how to calculate eventually the value in case you decide the exercise or is there a lot of negotiation with the counterpart? Thank you.

Adone, Chief Financial Officer, Tenexta Group: Let’s say that it’s something very standard as when they acquired the first the stake in Ipirate. There are some adjustments that we will be managed down the road from in the proper moment.

Carlo Maritano, Analyst, Intermonte: Okay. Very clear. Thank you,

Conference Operator: We have a follow-up question from Izako Brambilla of Mediobanca.

Izako Brambilla, Analyst, Mediobanca: Just a quick follow-up. Considering the strong free cash flow generation of the first quarter, net financial position in absolute terms already stands increasing of the level implied by your guidance for full year ’twenty five. In light of the confirmation of leverage guidance today, should we think that if the solid trends in free cash flow generation continue, this may leave room for some bolt on M and A from the hotel within the end of the year?

Adone, Chief Financial Officer, Tenexta Group: Okay. Let’s put it this way. We are very glad of the results of Q1, but the year is very long and a lot of things have to occur. Obviously, we have the proper tools and strategy to be in a position to achieve the guidance. And probably, we may have the opportunity to be in the lower part of the guidance of the ratio.

But again, we are at the beginning of the year and still a lot of things have to happen. In terms of acquisition, let’s say that Tinex is always open in some specific area to look at potential acquisition. If you are aiming as we are aiming at 2.2 leverage by the end of the year, I would say that the situation is quite safe and the company has restarted this quarter in the previous quarter to generate cash and generate an increase in revenue and EBITDA. It’s up to the Board of Directors to decide if they want to raise and increase the leverage. But you know the market and you know that there is room for increased dispatch.

Again, it’s a matter of the Board of Directors.

Conference Operator: Gentlemen, at this time, there are no more questions registered.

Joseph Mastroblastino, Chief Investor Relations Officer, Tenexta Group: Thank you very much. So we would like to thank you again for connecting to our conference call. If you need any additional information, don’t hesitate to contact me, and we will be available. Have a good afternoon. Bye.

Conference Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over, and you may disconnect your telephones.

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