The Board of Directors reviewed certain financial data concerning the first quarter of 2023
Revenues +14% at 24.2M EUR
Gross Profit +24% at 7.8M EUR
EBITDA -27% at 0.8M EUR for R&D boost
BEE, the Business Unit on which future investment will focus, posts highest top line growth (+25%)
Update of Internal Dealing Procedure
Milan, 9 May, 2023 – Growens S.p.A. –GROW (the “Company” or the “Issuer” or “Growens”), a company admitted to trading on the multilateral trading facility Euronext Growth Milan and operating in the cloud marketing technology field, announces that today the Board of Directors examined certain consolidated financial data concerning the first quarter of 2023.
Consolidated figures show significant growth, +14% for Q1 2023 revenues at 24.2M EUR vs. 21.2M EUR in Q1 2022; and -27% for Q1 2023 EBITDA at 0.8M EUR vs. 1.1M EUR in Q1 2022, mainly due to R&D investments and extra costs for the sale of the Email Service Provider business.
“Q1 2023 results confirm a growing and profitable business, with double-digit revenue growth and a healthy Gross Profit. Focus on the future is confirmed by material R&D investments, which affect EBITDA margin.”
Matteo Monfredini, Chairman and founder of Growens
“The first quarter does not yet include positive effects from the sale of the Email Service Provider business, although accounting for certain costs incurred for advisory and execution of the extraordinary deal. Future strategy will be centered on both innovation and growth, both organic and via M&A, with a view at accelerating the development of BEE, the fastest growing business unit.”
Nazzareno Gorni, CEO and founder of Growens
Summary of Q1 2023 results
The main results for the quarter ended 31 March 2023 are as follows:
|
Item (EUR) |
Q1 2023 |
% |
Q1 2022 |
% |
Change |
Ch.% |
|
SaaS Revenues |
10,229,537 |
42.3% |
7,368,726 |
34.8% |
2,860,811 |
38.8% |
|
CPaaS Revenues |
13,753,979 |
56.9% |
13,719,300 |
64.7% |
34,679 |
0.3% |
|
Other Revenues |
193,008 |
0.8% |
111,853 |
0.5% |
81,155 |
72.6% |
|
TOTAL REVENUES |
24,176,524 |
100.0% |
21,199,879 |
100.0% |
2,976,645 |
14.0% |
|
Gross Profit |
7,787,614 |
32.2% |
6,267,239 |
29.6% |
1,520,374 |
24.3% |
|
EBITDA |
796,411 |
3.3% |
1,098,419 |
5.2% |
(302,009) |
(27.5%) |
|
EBT |
(834,261) |
(3.5%) |
34,449 |
0.2 % |
(868,710) |
n.m. |
The SaaS business line (Software-as-a-Service) includes services supplied to clients via cloud platforms, sold through mostly recurring multi-period contracts / c.d. subscriptions. In terms of Business Units, it combines revenues from MailUp, BEE, Acumbamail and Datatrics. The CPaaS business line (Communication-Platform-as-a-Service) covers the messaging services provided on a wholesale basis using APIs, especially supplied by the Agile Telecom Business Unit.
Consolidation of Contactlab’s data started from 1 May 2022, according to IFRS accounting principles. As a consequence, compare consolidated Q1 2022 data do not include Contactlab’s figures.
Here follow quarterly results by Business Unit:
|
in Euro |
REVENUES |
EBITDA |
|||||
|
31/03/2023 |
31/03/2022 |
% |
31/03/2023 |
31/03/2022 |
% |
||
|
MailUp+Contactlab |
6,744,131 |
4,309,457 |
56.5% |
248,737 |
642,975 |
(61.3%) |
|
|
Agile Telecom |
14,869,410 |
14,671,428 |
1.3% |
514,316 |
445,069 |
15.6% |
|
|
BEE |
2,356,669 |
1,881,800 |
25.2% |
203,182 |
310,092 |
(34.5%) |
|
|
Datatrics |
554,693 |
622,264 |
(10.9%) |
(332,034) |
(434,560) |
23.6% |
|
|
Acumbamail |
624,548 |
549,974 |
13.6% |
124,216 |
100,861 |
23.2% |
|
|
Holding |
2,641,536 |
2,026,102 |
30.4% |
(26,680) |
(24,543) |
(8.7%) |
|
|
TOTAL |
27,790,987 |
24,061,025 |
15.5% |
731,737 |
1,039,894 |
(29.6%) |
|
|
Consol. Adj. |
(3,614,463) |
(2,861,146) |
|
64,674 |
58,526 |
||
|
TOTAL |
24,176,524 |
21,199,879 |
14.0% |
796,411 |
1,098,419 |
(27.5%) |
|
The consolidated net financial position as of 31 March 2023 is the following:
|
Consolidated Net Financial Position |
31/03/2023 |
31/12/2022 |
Change |
Ch. % |
|
A. Cash |
7,578,237 |
7,153,665 |
424,572 |
5.9% |
|
B. Cash equivalents |
||||
|
C. Other current financial assets |
||||
|
D. Cash and cash equivalents (A) + (B) + (C) |
7,578,237 |
7,153,665 |
424,572 |
5.9% |
|
E Financial debt |
827,221 |
1,076,709 |
(249,488) |
(23.2%) |
|
F. Current financial debt |
3,488,573 |
1,621,736 |
1,866,837 |
115.1% |
|
G. Current financial position (E) + (F) |
4,315,794 |
2,698,445 |
1,617,348 |
59.9% |
|
H. Net short term financial position (G) – (D) |
(3,262,444) |
(4,455,220) |
1,192,776 |
(26.8%) |
|
I. Due to banks medium/long term |
4,326,922 |
4,389,700 |
(62,778) |
(1.4%) |
|
J. Bonds issued |
||||
|
K.Other financial liabilities medium/long term |
||||
|
L. Non current financial position (I) + (J) + (K) |
4,326,922 |
4,389,700 |
(62,778) |
(1.4%) |
|
M. Net financial position (H) + (L) |
1,064,478 |
(65,519) |
1,129,998 |
n.m. |
|
o/w Current financial liabilities Rights of Use IFRS 16 |
639,679 |
817,672 |
(177,993) |
(21.8%) |
|
o/w Non current financial liabilities Rights of Use IFRS 16 |
1,629,250 |
1,520,629 |
108,621 |
7.1% |
|
Net financial position without IFRS 16 effect |
(1,204,451) |
(2,403,820) |
1,199,370 |
(49.9%) |
The above-mentioned results are unaudited.
Comments to the results
Consolidated Q1 2023 P&L posts total Revenues around 24.2M EUR, showing a +14% increase (+3% organic) versus 21.2M EUR in the same period of 2022: such growth is mainly driven by the 39% growth of the SaaS component, for a 42% incidence on total revenues. CPaaS is stable (+0.3%) for a 57% incidence on total revenues.
The Agile Telecom Business Unit posted the biggest sales of ca. 14.9M EUR, growing +1% over the same period of the previous year. Focus on profitability implied good recovery in margins, with EBITDA growing over 10x versus sales growth.
The fastest organically growing Business Unit is BEE (beefree.io), with a 25+% increase, at 2.4M EUR turnover, driven by increasing volumes. ARR (Annual Recurring Revenues, a very popular key performance indicator for a subscription business, showing the average annual recurring value of existing contracts) equals 11M USD as of March 2023.
Acumbamail’s performance is also excellent (growing ca 14%), whereas MailUp+Contactlab posts growing sales (+57%, of which 1% organic). The Datatrics business unit sales, operating in the Predictive Marketing space with a proprietary Customer Data Platform, generated a 0.6M EUR revenues, decreasing by 11% YoY.
Consolidated recurring sales (SaaS subscriptions), representing 30+% of total sales at 7.2M EUR, grew by 23% vs. the same period of the previous year.
Foreign sales amount to 15.2M EUR, representing 63% of total sales and growing by 14%.
New clients include Compagnia Italiana di Navigazione/Moby, Veronafiere, RSE, Kahoot, University of Houston.
Consolidated EBITDA amounts to 0.8M EUR in Q1 2023, decreasing by 27% versus Q1 2022, with a 3+% margin on sales. The absolute and relative decrease of this figure is due to accelerated investments in R&D (+65%, of which opex +37%) in view of BEE’s development, as well as the incidence of G&A (+49%), largely due to advisory and execution costs for the sale of the Email Service Provider Business, consolidation of Contactlab’s costs not included in Q1 2022, plus the additional effect of the change in bonus systems on staff expenses.
Gross Profit grows by over 24% to 7.8M EUR, with a 32+% margin on sales, whereas EBT is negative for 0.8M EUR.
The consolidated Net Financial Position as of 31 March 2023 amounts to ca. 1.1M EUR debt, decreasing versus the previously recorded (net cash) amount of 65k EUR as of 31 December 2022, mainly due to cash-outs for (i) the anticipated settlement of Contactlab’s earn-out’s first instalment, functional to the sale of the Email Service Provider business, financed via a short term loan facility, as well as (ii) indirect cash pooling policies relying on Agile Telecom liquidity facilities. Figurative debt from IFRS 16’s adoption amounts to ca. 2.3M EUR. Cash amounts to 7.6M EUR, growing 6%.
Summary of KPI’s
SAAS
|
KPI |
MailUp |
Datatrics |
Acumbamail |
BEE |
Date |
|
ARR |
15,010,752€ |
2,128,400€ |
2,198,928€ |
10,767,936$ |
March 2023 |
|
ARR growth |
+29% |
-8% |
+15% |
+23% |
March 2023 |
|
Gross margin |
58% |
46% |
87% |
72% |
FY 2022 |
|
EBITDA margin |
4% |
-60% |
20% |
9% |
Q1 2023 |
|
Net Revenue Retention |
94% |
78% |
91% |
97% |
March 2023 |
Data from management accounts, not subject to a BoD resolution, unaudited
Update of Internal Dealing Procedure
The Board of Directors resolved to approve the updated Internal Dealing Procedure.
According to applicable rules, the procedure and this press release are online on www.emarketstorage.com and on the Issuer website www.growens.io, Section “Corporate Governance/Corporate Documents”.
Investor Relations
Growens Chairman and CEO will comment Q1 2023 results in a conference call to be held on 12 May 2023 at 12,30 pm CET. Registration at this link: https://my.demio.com/ref/VrqfJ82AaA6bm1Wg.
Download the press release
