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Very well. Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome. Sorry for this little, you know, technical glitch. Now, welcome to the presentation of the first half results, 2024. My name is Fabrizio Redavid. I am the Director of the Communication Department. Walk you through results. Thanks to our results, GPI is now one world-class players in health. Now, in H1, we've been able to strengthen our position.
We are leaders in Italy, and we are an important growing player, developing our business in Europe. Now, we are a world-class global company in terms of number of customers, but also in terms of number of countries we sell our solutions to. We are able to build the new solutions to increase the value of the offer to our customers, and of course, we do this for our end users, I mean, our patients. Of course, we will keep bringing about innovation and safety. Now, our strategy today is based on software on a global level. So within a few weeks, by the way, we will release a new industrial plan, in order to tell you what we will do in the next three years, so in order to much better focus our vision.
Of course, once again, we will reconfirm our investments in software programs and internationalization. We will be able to exceed EUR 0.5 billion turnover and around EUR 100 million EBITDA. Net financial position, NFP, is in compliance with the covenants. Now, we are able to pay out a dividend. So let me talk about the numbers. Now, the H1 report, the financial report, will have strong results, a strong growth of income. They go up by more than EUR 50 million , and once again, this is very important for us. What we also grow is the international markets, thanks to the Evolucare Group, which is what we have acquired at the beginning of the month of August. Now, as of today, we are showing a significant growth of our EBITDA.
Now, as you know very well, we also have a seasonal business, but if you make a comparison with H1 2023, well, we can say that growth is to be seen in the EBITDA rate, but also in absolute value. Once again, this growth is absolutely significant for us. Now, this being said, we think we are doing the right thing, as we said before. Now, this is what we are also set out in the strategic plan between 2022 and 2024. So growth in the first part with extraordinary operations, while now in the second part of the three years that we are closing, we're now working on a consolidation operation. We will also be able to share with you further results, and...
Let me now give the floor to my director, and once again, I'd like to share with you my satisfaction for the results we have reached.
Good morning, everyone. My name is Matteo Santoro, General Director, GPI. Really would like to thank the managing director for this introduction. Also, would like to thank you for being with us. Now, I have a few minutes to walk you through the results of H1. I will also share with you a context, a strategic context, considering the growth targets we have. GPI is now a global company. We are in 70 countries around the world. We have 17 offices around the world. We have more than 9,000 customers. So I have to say that the size of our group is a global size, a global company. We understand that the health market is global.
It is no longer a regional market. Once again, COVID let us understand that health is universal, so in order to be sustainable, what we have to do is to grow, becoming bigger and bigger, because the offering of the market is characterized by the presence of players concentrating, merging many different companies, and this is what we would like to do, so GPI would like to do the same. Now, I also would like to talk about our own Italian market, so the original country, which accounts for 78% of our business, unlike the approach we have on global markets, because those are product-oriented markets. Italy is in a different context, because the approach we have here is customer-centric. We've taken part in tenders, because most business in Italy is based on tenders. We made custom-made products for our customers.
In 2021, so after the pandemic and, with the money from the, National Recovery and Resilience Plan, the model has changed. Tenders are now under Consip, C-O-N-S-I-P, with five overarching major tenders, totaling EUR 4 billion, including all of the key elements, which are right at the basis of the digital transformation process. In some cases, we are right at the top of the list, in some cases, we say we are second, so we got, you know, those tenders, so we grew exponentially our, turnover. Now, Consip tenders have reduced the tariffs a little bit. Anyway, we managed to keep our margin because we can now work on an industrial, approach. For example, a very big project in the Lombardy region, so once again, we are industrializing this product.
It is now certified, and this means that we can now have an industrial system. So we're working on rationalization, improving efficiency, and streamlining. So we are number one in the country because we cover all industries, food safety, clinical reports, and we are about to open, at the end of the year, our own private hospital. Now, we don't want to take care of patients. This is not our objective. We want to understand how processes work, because software programs will be clinical software programs. When you talk about medicine, it's very difficult to understand the difference between technology on the one side, the clinic, you know, on the other side. We would like to become global overall suppliers or vendors for our customers.
Let me mention a very important tender from the region of Lombardy on e-health or telemedicine, as we say in Italy. So once again, we are the winners of the tender. And you know, this tender has a very strategic value because people say that Care will be cascading down on local communities, and this going local will need new organizational systems. POeMA is the name of our product, so this is for the so-called local community, territorial community care. So this is what we will be doing in the next 20 years or so. So, as I said before, this is the situation in our country. This is the country of origin. This is, if you will, you know, still producing 78% of the income. Anyway, GPI is more and more international.
If you compare H1 2023 to H1 2024, you can see that foreign markets went up by 96%. H1, we reached 52 million EUR income, and this is what happened, thanks to Evolucare, the latest acquisition. This means that we now have 22% income for the entire group, so once again, software programs are our main topic, and 58% of income and a large part of our EBITDA versus the previous year, so H1 2023, our EBITDA rate goes up by 5%, so 18.3%, and what is paying back now on foreign growth, which is what we work on, is basically represented by the strategy, which is based, if you will, on a specific choice, so we would like to disseminate the products that we found in the companies we've taken over.
So all of this is now GPI4 Med. This is the name of the suite. It's a suite of specialized project, high margin, critical care, pathology, imaging, LIS, and telemedicine, or e-health. We are possibly the only player now having such a broad, high margin, range of products, integrating all the devices that are currently used in the health universe today. Now, in this suite, let me go back to the topic, which is very important, e-health or telemedicine. The name of the product is POeMA. Now, these solutions you can see here are oriented to increase productivity of the entire industry. But when talking about the telehealth, we're talking about a new business model. So basically, we're talking about solutions that give us the possibility to have the take-up, care, coordination, and empowerment of citizens. This is what we would like to do today.
For example, the Italian health system is worth EUR 130 billion , so around 30. Well, this is basically, sort of wasted money because of the lack of coordination of care. This is an Italy-made solution? But of course, it can be sold abroad. We have already sold telemonitoring solutions sold in a foreign country, where the customer pays a daily rate for the telemonitoring, which is all-inclusive. So we have the first case where all the technologies have been integrated, they turn into a commodity, and the margin here exceeds 50%. So we think that the business model of health, in general, will be based on monitoring central units.
They will be the beating heart of our future business, and this is why we have BPO inside care, because this is a sort of the foundation for a sort of an operating center or unit. Let me now break down some figures on H1. Once again, Software that you can see here, this is the strategic guideline for us 138, and so the growth is EUR 56 million . The increase is 68%, while EBITDA has increased by more than 85%. Absolute EBITDA moves from EUR 20 million to EUR 27 million . Now, this is the combined effect of two growths, consolidating the Italian growth, so despite the large volumes are produced by Consip with low margins. On the other side, we can say that this is offset by foreign growth, and that gives us a strong contribution.
So once again, this confirms the strategic choice of considering the global market. This is absolutely what we have to keep doing for the future. Now, apart from this strategic area, we also have other business areas, which is well, as important as the Software, but the strategy here is different. The first one is care, so we keep margins from 83% to 80%. We keep the same income. Now, this is strategic. You can see that the margin is relatively low. The real topic, the real beating heart, if you will, is that we're now working on the next 20 years, that the market will change in the next 20 years. So services will be delivered or provided in a different way. There will be local operating units. Most important experience were the telemonitoring.
This is what we have done in Lombardy, so in northern Italy with COVID patients, and this has been possible very quickly, thanks to the CUP platform, so telemonitoring, in this case, the margin exceeds 50%. This is a strategic area, so we imagine the future of health in the next 20 years. This is one of the factors, including other consequences. For example, when talking about BPO, we're talking about relationships with citizens, access to care in Italy, but also abroad, the key problem now is the waiting list, and once again, this suite can be a solution. We also have two more strategic areas that we've put together, so ICT and Automation. Now, you may think there's a reduction from EUR 21 mllion to EUR 18 million , but the truth is different, because here we have the combined effect of two developments.
ICT goes up organically, while Automation transferred the income to the second half of the year, because the incentives to do this kind of investment in order to reduce costs dramatically. Well, this is what we have just done. Basically, you know, the orders of our customers are shifted into H2. So in the yearly projections, you will see a normalization of ICT and Automation, just like the forecast. Despite this, EBITDA rate goes up, so we have the 16.4, we now have 16.9%. Now, this means that well, we feel a total, let's say, peace of mind in terms of complying with our forecasts at the end of the year. Now, let me speed up on the results of H1. So as you can see here, we have around EUR 236 million income.
The growth is +50%, which is +27%. So once again, the beating heart, as we say, is the software. Now, software means so many things. So we are investing a lot, and we are expanding the scope. We are investing so much on voice, because in the future, you know, voice will be the blood of the future, as people say, with our algorithms, so we can make the diagnosis of cardiovascular diseases together with postpartum depression. So when I say software, these, you know, ideas or areas are built into the algorithms that we are developing. So we believe in One Health as a Consip. So the health of people basically depends directly on the parameters, especially environmental parameters. We have released specific algorithms based on environmental conditions. We can quantify the access to emergencies.
That, you know, is one of the key topics. So software programs and this ecosystem or suite of solutions move all the way to AI. As for the EBITDA, we have more than EUR 40 million , so + 76%. Software goes up by 85%, so plus EUR 17 million versus last year, from EUR 23 million to EUR 40 million . So for us, this is a very important result. I mean, we grow by 5% on the EBITDA adjusted, which is 18.3%. As for EBIT, E-B-I-T, we have EUR 7.8 million . It includes the amortizations and depreciations, 32 million EUR. Net result is EUR 85.8 million , including EUR 3.1 million net interest expenses, EUR 4 million less than last year, and the tax, EUR 1.8 million .
So the capital gain on the asset that we have sold, Argentea, is EUR 82.8 million. Now, as for the financial highlights, H1 2024, net working capital goes up by EUR 25 million. It is now EUR 250.6 million, because we have almost three million inventory. We also have trade receivables and contract assets of EUR 24 million. TFR goes up by EUR 1.3 million, so trade payables and account receivables. You can see here net assets, and we have to take into account the distribution of dividends of EUR 14.4 million. As for CapEx, now, we believe so much in innovation. I talked about the fact that we are investing in innovation because we want to increase productivity. We're also revising business models.
CapEx today is around EUR 24 million, of which our research and development, 13.8, and the balance is intangibles. As for the net financial indebtedness, we have prepared the slides. Here we go. That represents the debt bridge. In this case, we have EUR 364 million. We have to include the positive effect of EBITDA, EUR 40.7 million, and the positive effect of the disposal, M&A, and Argentea. This is the advantage that we have received. Once again, the total is EUR 82 million. Net working capital goes up by EUR 5.0 million, which is 50% less than last year.
You can see investments around EUR 24 million , dividends around EUR 14.4 million , and you can see here financial charges at 10.4, 1.4 tax, final net financial position EUR 297 million . If we remove from this number the debt, because we have IFRS regulations, our net financial position is EUR 235 million . This is it with my presentation.
Good morning, my name is Lorenzo Giollo from GPI. We can now open the Q&A session. Now, we are not receiving questions, so let's wait for a second.
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Okay, you can use the conference call. Let me remind you that if you want to ask a question, please click on the Q&A tab on the left. We got a question: Why did you decide to distribute an exceptional dividend while you are investing in Software?
And Software seems to be a business that really, really generates most of the value. Well, because we want to convey the right message. I mean, we want to be a value for shareholders as well. So of course, we have the need to strike the balance.
The balance of our company is very solid. So again, we want our shareholders to have the right feeling, so being paid for their trust. And so once again, we want like to pay attention and respect our shareholders. There's another question: What about end-of-year debt level expected? We're now working on our strategic industrial plan right now, so we are assessing the growth pathway that we have to implement. We're now working on developing synergies on industrial, but also commercial synergies. But we understood that if you want to grow, of course, we have to go through extraordinary operations. So of course, our net financial position will be in compliance with the covenant. I'm reading another question, so we are receiving many of them all together. Just one second, please. I'm going through them. We have EUR 28 million Evolucare.
The remaining part is a benefit for the management of Evolucare, so this cost doesn't go into the net financial position, but it goes to the staff in compliance with IAS 19 principles.
There's another question: Congratulations on your result. What is interesting is the growth of the software division. You distribute dividends, is this a slowdown on CapEx or M&A? Do you have a specific pipeline? Matteo.
Oh, no, the dividend doesn't stop this because the company... I mean, the company has to grow, and as I just said, so if the industrial plan was conservative in the past, it is not today. So we would like to keep growing abroad, taking over strategic companies, especially abroad. So we do have the pipeline. We have plenty of companies in the pipeline, but this depends on how strategic they are.
So we will keep the growth pathway, which is what we've been doing in the past years.
There's another question for you. Based on the 10 million EUR of financial charges, H1, should we think of 20 million EUR?
Well, realistically, yes. We would like to optimize our financial processes because you know that in Italy, you know, the problem is it's difficult to issue invoices because the Consip has complicated invoicing. This is due to the rigidity of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. So we need to help customers in reporting and invoicing. We would like to rationalize, because financial charges today are due to the slow invoicing process. So these are certain credits because this is with the public administration.
What about end-of-year debt? Any update on M&A, and how do you think M&A can be funded? What about care commitment? Is this confirmed?
Thank you. Let me start from the end. Now, the care business is confirmed. As I just said, we are investing on high margin and high productivity products. We are also investing on how we imagine health will change in the next 20 years. The new business model will change. We are working with some regional authorities to create PPPs, Public-Private Partnerships, and they have to be based on telemonitoring, telehealth units. I'm sure that, you know, the system in the future will be based on territorial areas or local units. Aging is an issue here and in many other countries. So once again, care is not set aside, it is strategic. As for debt. Now, as for debt, as I said before, that we are in compliance with the covenant and abundantly so.
We also have the resources because we made a capital gain that you can find in the financial statements, so this may swing into other financial operations in the future. Now, we think the next growth will give us the right opportunity to access loans in order, once again, to fund and boost our growth.
Another question: Any new investment plan for Automation?
Oh, yes, we are working on this. Some operations are being implemented on widening the offer on highly technological solutions concerning, if you will, solutions for cancer therapies. We cannot tell you more, but there's a big, big investment going on.
Matteo, back to Automation. The question is: The guidance has slowed down for Automation in H1. Will it resume in H2 or in 2025 , especially internationally?
Okay, back to Mr. Manzana.
Well, the answer is yes.
You know, the Automation market is basically Italian, and now there are plenty of investments for Industry 5.0, but many such investments, you know, have not been really implemented, so we just started at the end of August. So we can see there's a huge rebound, and we believe in our forecasts in terms of Automation, within the year. There's another part of unanswered question, and also, you talked about the main guidelines of our new business plan, considering it is not made public yet. Well, we would like to evolve also in terms of drafting our strategic plan.
So we don't want to imagine, you know, Italy and abroad, but rather, we would like to, you know, to have the building or the construction of a real, you know, multinational company in this sector in terms of software and healthcare services. So we imagine we can build a global network. So something which is really, really able, let's say, to sell solutions. Now, when I say solutions, I really mean the products. Basically, I'm talking about blood, but also digital pathologies, intensive care, so IC units. So those products that have been created to be marketed around the world. We also have to consider the services, because here we have an actual strong presence, for example, in Austria, Italy, and Mexico. So there will be projects for those countries.
Let's say we have a global approach, and the global approach means that in the next three years, we will have the endogenous growth, which is absolutely very high. Another question. So Argentea may reach the target so that the GPI will get the other EUR 6 million capital gain. We are 100% sure. We have no doubt on reaching the objectives for Argentea.
Another question: In case of an increase of commercial credits in line with the strong growth of software division, will you be able to get factoring on credits so that you can have cash in case of a short-term need?
The answer is absolutely yes, and this is the reason why there won't be any supply difficulty. So I'm talking about the future of software programs, but I'm also considering possible other investments.
So we think that the deadline represented by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan will give us a possibility to keep going in terms of invoicing. We have more and more invoices, I mean, to issue. The answer is yes, definitely yes. We have already reached, if you will, quite a good level, so there won't be any problem in paying it off.
I don't see other questions. Thank you so much. Thank you for participating into this morning's conference call. Really would like to thank CEO Fausto Manzana, General Director Matteo Santoro, Marketing and Director of Communication, Investor Relations, Fabrizio Re david. Also would like to thank you for your attention. Thank you. Thank you so much. Bye-bye.
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