The quarterly reports warmed up Piazza Affari which, after the strong sales in the morning, attempted to recover and went positive (+0,07%) led by Nexi and Prysmian. On the other hand, Azimut shares were below parity despite the fact that the company managed to double its profit in the three months ended March 31st.
nexi
Le Nexi shares, after spending a few minutes in the volatility auction, shot to the top of the Ftse Mib and recorded an increase of 4,39% to 15,825 euros. Purchases on Nexi are driven by the accounts for the first quarter but above all by the company's decision to revise upwards its estimates for 2021, with revenues expected to grow in "high-single/double digit" and a stable Ebitda Margin year on year , up 3 percentage points compared to 2019, "with potential upside".
As regards the accounts, Nexi closed the first quarter with revenues up by 4,1% to 258,7 million euros and an EBITDA up by 2% to 139 million. The value of transactions (acquiring + issuing) amounted to 99 billion, +1,1% on the first quarter of 2020 and -7% on the same period of 2019. Costs rose by 6,6% compared to last year, settling at 118,8 millions. The net operating financial position at the end of March was negative by 1,9 billion, equal to a ratio of 3,2 times the EBITDA, an improvement compared to December 2020.
Nexi has confirmed the timing for the acquisitions in progress: the closing for Nets is expected in the second quarter, that for Sia – for which the Italian Antitrust filing was carried out yesterday – is expected in the third quarter. At the same time, the company announced an agreement with Intesa Sanpaolo for the transfer to the payments company of the management of the merchant acquiring activities previously held by UBI and its subsidiaries and merged into Intesa. In 2021, the transaction will generate an increase in the expected group ebitda of approximately 16 million and these assets have been valued for an amount equal to 170 million, for a multiple of 10,5 times the 2021 ebitda. The transaction will be financed entirely through cash already available and the closing is expected during the second half of 2021.
PRYSMIAN
In the mid-afternoon, Prysmian shares rose by 2,91%, driven by the accounts for the first quarter, archived with a sharp increase in net profit attributable to the shareholders of the parent company to 76 million compared to 23 million in the corresponding period of 2020. Ebitda is rose to 199 million euros (from 183 million) while the operating result was 123 million compared to 58 million in the first quarter of 2020. The adjusted ebitda grew from 197 to 213 million and revenues reached 2,81 billion, recording a organic change of 4,6% excluding the Projects segment.
“In the light of the first quarter results, we can look with increased confidence at the goals we have set ourselves for the full year and we are confident that we have technology and assets as well as a well-designed organization to seize the opportunities of the energy transition and digitization in the medium term”, said the CEO Valerio Battista commenting on the data.
Moving on to the guidance, for 2021, Prysmian confirms the result forecasts announced in March 2021″, i.e. for 2021 an adjusted EBITDA of 870-940 million. In addition, the company estimates cash flows of approximately 300 million (plus or minus 20%).
AZIMUT
Even Azimut shares are trying to recover from the lows reached in the morning and in mid-afternoon they travel just below parity driven by the doubling of consolidated net profit, which in the first quarter rose to 96,812 million from 48,51 million in the same period a year ago . Consolidated revenues rose from 228 to 273,52 million, while consolidated operating income was 114 million (from 75,9 million).
The company also underlined that it recorded the best results ever in terms of recurring fees (+13% compared to the first quarter of 2020 at €219 million), net inflows (€10,3 billion at the end of April, €3,4 billion excluding the acquisition of Sanctuary Wealth) and total assets (72,3 billion at the end of March and 72,9 billion at the end of April, +36% compared to April 2020).
Finally, the shareholders' meeting approved the distribution of a total ordinary dividend of one euro per share (equivalent to a yield at current prices of 5%), which will be paid in full in cash.
In the first four months of the year Azimut "had a significant acceleration in the collection of asset management, which reached 1,8 billion euro compared to 320 million in the same period of 2020", highlighted the CEO Gabriele Blei, underlining that “the excellent work of our distribution channels, strongly integrated with our Global Asset Management Team, will allow us to continue, under normal market conditions, our growth in the coming quarters by bringing new innovative investment solutions to our clients”. “The nearly 100 million net profit in the first quarter, he added,“ represent a solid foundation for the rest of 2021 ”.
