Consolidated revenues at €342 million (+7.8% vs 2022)
Consolidated EBITDA at €30.1 million vs €36.1 million in 2022
Consolidated net result up sharply to €175 million
NFP at €68 million at year-end compared to €182 million for the previous year, bringing the NFP/EBITDA ratio to 2.3
Trento, 8 May 2024 – Dedagroup S.p.A. — the aggregating hub of leading Italian firms in the Software and Solutions as a Service market, and a natural reference of businesses, financial and public service institutions in the development of their IT and digital strategies, currently operating in over 50 countries with more than 4,000 customers, closed the 2023 Financial Statements.
The 2023 figures confirm the positive growth trend reported in recent years and the Group’s strong propensity to invest with a view to continuous improvement aimed at consolidating Dedagroup’s role as a reliable and expert partner, able to support its customers’ digital transition through the governance of all cutting-edge technologies.
Marco Podini, Dedagroup S.p.A.’s Executive Chairman, stated: “The year 2023 was particularly positive for the Group in many respects. Our strategic choices, combined with the strength of our software and our people's commitment, enabled us to achieve the ambitious goals we had set ourselves. This allows us to look to 2024 — the first months of which have already been marked by a general uptrend — with a renewed determination to consolidate our operations on the Italian market and, at the same time, to strengthen the Group's international footprint. We will work to ensure that in the coming years our competencies — developed also in a number of distinctive technological niches — help us increase the competitive advantage we have acquired, so as to support our customers’ digital transformation of their business, which is now a fundamental step in the strategies of all companies."
Consolidated revenues rose by +7.8% to €342 million (vs €317.5 million for 2022). This result was in line with the market growth and was even more significant when considering that it was achieved despite the disposal of two important companies such as Piteco and Myrios early in the year. Foreign operations contributed a significant 11% to revenues: the Group’s international footprint grew further, remaining one of the main strategic growth drivers also for the coming years.
EBITDA declined from €36 million to €30 million, mainly due to the change in the Group’s consolidation scope and to the significant one-off charges, estimated at just below €5 million, related to the above-mentioned disposals, as well as to acquisitions.
The impact of M&As was also clearly confirmed by the excellent net result, which amounted to €175 million.
Dedagroup's growth strategy calls for the Group to increasingly focus its operations on cutting-edge markets, concentrating resources and investments in the data and AI segments. Dedagroup has been strengthening with foresight its presence in these segments for years, particularly in 2022 with the acquisition of ORS, a leading developer of software platforms for optimizing and automating business processes using AI algorithms. Thanks to this acquisition, the Group gained strategic skills and technologies that cut across all the markets in which it operates and integrated them into the offer of its Finance & Data Hub and of Deda Stealth and Deda Next, thus opening up new scenarios and development prospects.
In terms of non-organic growth, the year 2023 saw the entry into the Group of important new companies specializing in niche markets, such as Opentech, which operates in the data governance field, Datapiano, with its public procurement management software, and Laser, a company focusing on IoT for industrial companies. The Group's acquisition of Microdata Group, a company specializing in advanced business process outsourcing (BPO) for the banking and insurance markets, was more relevant in terms of volumes, contributing a turnover of €25 million.
With regard to 2023 financial indicators, NFP stood at €68 million, bringing the NFP/EBITDA ratio to a 2.3.
In 2023, Dedagroup confirmed its constant commitment to R&D, with the aim of contributing to developing its innovative value and improving its operating efficiency and effectiveness. These initiatives involved not only the Group's companies, but also the third parties with which the Group collaborates, according to the model of open, widespread and inclusive innovation that has guided Dedagroup’s approach for several years.
In particular, worth of mention is the longstanding collaboration with Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK), which led to the creation of the Co-Innovation Lab Cleanse – Cloud Native Application Security. The constant internal dialog among Group companies is also a fundamental and particularly effective tool: with a holistic and synergistic approach, it aims at defining the technological evolution of proprietary software assets based on the real and ever-changing needs of the various markets, while defining the transition to native cloud architectures and as-a-service delivery models.
Besides many other external activities and the Group's participation in European research projects, one of the most strategic initiatives is Dedagroup’s involvement in the creation of Trentino Data Mine, a joint investment project with the University of Trento, Covi Costruzioni, GPI and ISA that brings together the public and private sectors for developing and managing an innovative green data center in the heart of the Trentino mountains. In addition to contributing to the creation of an innovation facility among companies and the Trentino research ecosystem, the initiative will allow to concretely explore new structural solutions for the development of next-generation data centers and the enhancement of the Group's cloud offering.
Dedagroup’s expansion was also reflected in the considerable increase in its workforce, which exceeded 3,000 people overall in 2023. This process will continue in 2024 as well, with the already announced recruitment campaign for additional 400 hires.