MILAN, Jan 11 (Class Editori) — The fourth quarter of 2022 was the best in SECO’s history in terms of revenue, and the first quarter of 2023 promises as such. The company, which makes cutting-edge technology solutions from miniaturized computers to complex systems, posted net revenues of 55 million euros in the last three months of last year, an increase of 10 million and up 22% from the same period in 2021.
Expansion in higher-potential areas
A performance linked to significant expansion in higher-potential areas such as EMEA, APAC and the US, as well as Clea’s growth, which generated revenues of more than 18 million throughout the year, contributing 9% of consolidated revenues.
Preliminary 2022 revenues at 200 million
For the full year, sales revenues reached 200 million, +78% from 2021 and in line with the official guidance communicated to the market last April 19, 2022. Organic growth was 43% and like-for-like growth was 36%. The company specified that these consolidated revenues, as pre-closing figures, “are subject to variations following the process of closing and accounting adjustment of the consolidated results at the end of the period”.
Toward a service company model
“Pre-closing revenues show a result that makes me truly satisfied with the work done by all our people in such a challenging environment. I am happy to see how this growth is distributed among the different geographic areas and how we have begun to reap the benefits of the integration of the recently acquired realities,” CEO Massimo Mauri commented, pointing out that the expansion of the IoT-AI Clea solution “is allowing us to implement our evolution toward a service company model. Thanks to our technologies, we are able to offer end-to-end solutions to respond to our customers’ needs in terms of digitization and data analysis”.
First quarter 2023 revenues expected at 55-56 million, up 30%
Looking at the dynamics of backlog evolution and order intake in recent months, the demand remains solid, according to the CEO. Therefore, based on this data, “we count on being able to express sustained growth rates in 2023, already starting from the first quarter for which we expect a turnover of about 55-56 million with an organic growth of 30% compared to the same period last year,” Mauri predicted.
SECO’s stock rising on the Italian Stock Exchange, analysts are positive
On the Italian Stock Exchange, SECO’s stock has gained 21.5% in the past three months, and on January 11, thanks to positive preliminary accounts, it rises another +1.43% to 5.68 euros. “We appreciate the news, which we believe confirms the strong acceleration of SECO’s business in different geographic areas: EMEA, APAC, the US, in line with our estimates, and the significant contribution of the IoT-AI Clea platform,” Intesa Sanpaolo’s Research Department commented, reiterating its buy rating and target price at 8.8 euros on the stock. These numbers are in line with expectations from Mediobanca Securities, which appreciated the solid organic growth in the fourth quarter and the steady progression of Clea’s sales, “whose incidence on total revenues is 9%, in line with our estimates. The outlook for 2023 looks favorable, as organic sales growth is projected at +30% year-on-year in the first quarter, ahead of our assumption of higher growth of about 24% year-on-year for the full year,” Mediobanca Securities pointed out. Full 2022 results will be released on March 22, when the focus will shift to margins and cash generation efficiency in the fourth quarter. “In the fourth quarter of 2022, we expect a 1% quarter-on-quarter improvement in adjusted EBITDA margin driven by operating leverage and gross margin expansion. We confirm our outperform rating and 8 euros target price on SECO,” Mediobanca concluded.
(Source:Class Editori)
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