Strong growth in revenues and profits for Nexi in 2019. The company led by Paolo Bertoluzzo closed the year with a normalized profit up by 18,7% to 222,7 million euro and revenues up by 7,1% to 984,1 million euros "net of zero-margin hardware resale contracts (+5,7% nominal growth)". Double-digit increase in EBITDA, equal to 502,5 million euros, with organic growth of 18,5%.
In 2019 operating costs fell by 2,9% to 481,6 million, while the net financial position amounted to 1,47 billion compared to 2,45 billion at the end of 2018 thanks to "the repayment and refinancing of previous debt and the generation of period cash”, explains the company in a note.
From a sector point of view, the Merchant services & solutions segment, which represents 49% of total revenues, recorded a turnover of 479 million (+8,1%) and managed 3,548 billion transactions (+11,1%) . The Cards & digital payments branch (39% of total revenues) recorded revenues of 387,4 million (+7,4%) and, lastly, the Digital banking solutions area (12% of total revenues) achieved of 117,7 million (+1,8%). Total Capex amounted to 167 million (equal to 17% of revenues).
In the fourth quarter alone, Nexi recorded an ebitda growing to 134,1 million (+16,4%) and revenues of 265,7 million, up 7,7% net of zero-margin hardware resale contracts ( +6,1% nominal).
The company confirmed the business growth estimates provided on the occasion of the IPO which foresee an average annual increase in net revenues between 5% and 7%, aiming for the high end of the range, with an annual growth in EBITDA of 13 -16% over the medium term The information provided when presenting the 2019 accounts are to be considered net of the impacts of the purchase of merchant acquiring activities from Intesa Sanpaolo.
"The extraordinary transactions that took place during the year also allowed us to give the company even further scale, perspective and investment capacity, all elements necessary to seize the opportunities offered by an increasingly dynamic market undergoing international consolidation", he commented the managing director Paolo Bertoluzzo. "We will continue on this investment path - he assures us - alongside the banks, with the belief that digital payments represent a strategic platform for the development of our country".
In 2019, concludes Bertoluzzo, "we invested more in technology and skills than anyone else in Europe in our sector and this has allowed us to continue on our path of growth and sustainable development".
Answering a question about Sia, the CEO stated that “the hypothesis of a consolidation between Nexi and Sia has remained at the stage of conversations between shareholders. "As regards consolidation, we have commented in the past on potential conversations with Sia at shareholder level: we are still at that stage", said Bertoluzzo, confirming Nexi's attention to the evolution of the foreign market, for a possible consolidation, "without lose focus on Italy”.
Finally, the manager underlined that Nexi "will remain open to similar opportunities" to the one announced in December with Intesa Sanpaolo relating to the acquisition of the merchant acquiring business.
In Piazza Affari, the Nexi share rose by 0,7% to 14,162 euros after reaching an all-time high of 14,178 euros.
