Good afternoon. This is the Chorus Call Conference Operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Tinexta Group consolidated results as at March 31st, 2022 conference call. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, they may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on their telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Josef Mastragostino, Chief Investor Relations Officer of Tinexta. Please go ahead, sir.
Good morning and good afternoon to the folks in Italy, here in the U.S. Thank you for joining Tinexta's first quarter 2022 results presentation. Here with me today, Oddone Pozzi, Group Chief Financial Officer of Tinexta. As a reminder, all the relevant documentation of the first quarter 2022 results can be downloaded from our company website in the Investor Relations section. For the purpose of this call, I will go over the first quarter 2022 highlights and updates, as well as provide all the relevant information relating to the recently announced news. Oddone instead will go over the first quarter 2022 financial results, as well as the business unit's performance, providing us with a deep dive. The last part of the call will be dedicated to Q&A.
A recording of this conference call will also be available on our company website, and it will be posted upon completion of this call. At this point, I will turn it over by kicking off on page three of the presentation. First quarter 2022 registered a good start of the year, setting a base for delivery. Please note that in order to allow us a complete an analysis as possible, first quarter 2022 results are compared both at constant 2021 perimeter as well as on a 2022 perimeter, which includes all Tinexta's companies acquired as of today. Revenues came in at EUR 96 million in the first quarter, posting a +16.2% versus prior year or +7% on a 2021 base.
EBITDA adjusted was EUR 19.2 million in the first quarter, growing 13% versus prior year and mostly flat versus 2021. This was mostly driven by Digital Trust and Innovation & Marketing Services. EBITDA on a reported basis was around EUR 16 million. EBITDA adjusted margin was 20% and EBITDA margin was around 17%. EBIT was EUR 7.6 million, pretty much flat versus prior year, and EBIT margin was around 8%. Net profit was EUR 4.3 million, but on an adjusted basis, net profit was EUR 8.6 million. Net financial position of EUR 228.4 million includes both the Evalue and Enhancers acquisition. The leverage based on an EBITDA LTM adjusted basis was 2.2x-2.6x.
Free cash flow was EUR 24.6 million in the first quarter, growing on an LTM base to EUR 56.2 million. All of our business lines continued to grow, with most of them contributing to margin growth versus prior year. Digital Trust grew close to 22% in revenues and EBITDA grew more than 40%, reaching margins around 27% from an EBITDA perspective. Cybersecurity grew 7% in revenue, and EBITDA came in at EUR 1.2 million for the quarter. Well, with EBITDA margin around 6.5%. Credit Information & Management increased around 6% in revenue. EBITDA was EUR 4.7 million. Innovation & Marketing Services posted a very healthy +30% in revenue, with EBITDA rising close to 30% or 27%. The EBITDA margin for the business unit was 30%.
In terms of the recent events, on January 2022, we acquired 70% of Evalue, entering therefore the Spanish market for the Innovation & Marketing Services for a total investment for the 100% stake of EUR 33 million. In March 2022, we acquired 100% of Enhancers via Warrant Hub to integrate and complement the offer. The total investment here was around EUR 24 million. As a reminder, the annual general meeting approved a EUR 0.30 per share dividend at the end of April. From a human resources standpoint, we have a total number of employees as of March 31, 2022 of around 2,500 employees. On page four, most of these numbers have already been commented.
It's probably most important to note that EBITDA again grew 13% versus prior year, with revenues growing a bit over 16% and the net profit on an adjusted basis, which is more representative of the performance, is around EUR 8.6 million. At this point, I will leave it to Oddone, who will go on with the financial results.
Thank you, Josef. Good afternoon, everybody. You know, you had the introduction from Josef about our you know financial results of the Q1. You know, the Q1 now based on page six. The Q1, during Q1, basically, we delivered the results basically accordingly to our internal budget and consistent with the guidance that we share with the market. You know, the start of the year was like I said, aligned to our expectations and goals, and we were able to deliver a growth in terms of revenue on a total basis of more than 60%.
If we move it down to the P&L, the EBITDA adjusted delivered EUR 19.2 million, equal to 20% EBITDA margin, basically aligned to Q1 2021. You know, the growth in terms of EBITDA on adjusted basis is over 13%. During Q1, we incurred, you know, an amount of non-recurring costs, basically quite significant in excess of EUR 2 million, basically related to the intense activity on M&A, where like Josef said, we acquired Evalue and Enhancers, and we completed the share capital increase of Bregal that, you know, brought EUR 70 million into the group equity.
This is the reason why, and so this is why it's better compared on EBITDA adjusted basis. Depreciation, amortization, provision are perfectly aligned to previous year and consistent with our expectations, as well as financial charges that are at EUR 1 million even after the acquisition we have done, basically slightly above last year, that was just below EUR 1 million. Here we have to consider that our total financing is covered against, you know, rates, tax rates, interest rates increase is basically fully covered. We are covered at 89%, and if you walk through the balance sheet, you will see that we have this asset that is going to compensate a future increase of cost in the financial charges.
We are in a very safe position looking at that. If we go to profit before and after taxes, you know, last year, we got the benefit of almost EUR 1 million on a recurring basis, driven by the basically the fact that IRAP was not due at that time. If you restate of this, you know, the tax rate is perfectly aligned. We publish in the basically press release, the results, including the adjusted, so you can easily understand the performance of the company. Basically, if you go there, revenue is up 16%, EBITDA 13%, EBIT is 16%, and net profit 17%. This is the state of the art of our operational performance.
This is perfectly aligned to our expectations. Significant growth compared to previous years. You know, we will discuss later, but basically, based on this figure, we are fully confident to reiterate our goal, our guidance in terms of revenue and EBITDA growth that foreseen a growth over the previous year in the range of 22%, and we are fully aligned. We have to remember that in terms of revenue and profitability, Q1 is, you know, the weaker in terms of weight quarter of the year, and, you know, therefore, we are very happy of this. Page seven was basically addressed during the presentation of the P&L.
If you move to page eight, and we go through the balance sheet, definitely we see that, you know, our invested capital increased, compared to the year-end 2021, by the two acquisitions we completed, Evalue and Enhancers. Maybe here you will see that we continue to improve our net working capital management that decreased compared to the year-end by EUR 13 million. I would say that most of this is driven by seasonality, but still, if you look on a LTM basis, we were able to improve our working capital management for a further quarter. Net financial position dropped, you know, despite the acquisitions, but obviously we got, you know, the Bregal investment in InfoCert that was completed during Q1.
For the rest, you know, there is a small adjustment on the puts that increase the debt. It means that our plans are improving compared to the past, and this is actually a good news. If we look to the shareholder equity, the shareholder equity grew up. You know, the third party equity is now at EUR 60 million compared to the EUR 47 million of year-end. You know, the main growth is driven by the results of the period and obviously by the Bregal investment. You may see here on page nine, you know, further deep dive on this with the reduction of the net financial position as expected.
I would say we were able in Q1 only to deliver. You see the box on the right side. You see the Q1 free cash flow of 2022 is perfectly aligned with Q1. That was very positive at that time for working capital as it is being also Q1 2022. The cash flow LTM there you see is at EUR 5.56 million. Still considering the capability of the group to continue to generate cash from the working capital, driven by the very strict financial policy and the focus we are putting on this. If we move to page 10, our net financial position to EBITDA dropped to less than 2.3x . On obviously on LTM basis.
You know, basically we cover this. Maybe if we look to the OCI derivatives here, it's a very important subject here. You know, basically this help us, you know, to these assets that was established by the derivatives that we put in place will allow us to be not impacted by future increase of interest rates. If we move down to page eleven, you know, and I try to deep dive here. You know, over the last 12 months, we had an increase of net financial position that was mainly driven by the significant amount of acquisition for more than EUR 140 million CertEurope value.
I will comment further on these two acquisitions, talking about Q1 results by unit, and obviously a number that will be consolidated at P&L level since April 1st. Obviously, we had the Bregal investment for EUR 70 million, and we distributed dividends in the range of EUR 13 million. I would move now to the different business units. You have at page 13, you have the possibility to see, you know, the full picture of this. Basically, I would suggest to move to page 14 and start to deep dive into the different business unit. Let's start from Digital Trust. Definitely, as you can see from the figures, you know, Digital Trust deliver really impressive results.
You know, the capabilities, the skills, the market position, the management of this business unit allow us to post 8% revenue growth on a like-for-like basis, and a 19% EBITDA growth on organic basis. This is an extremely important result that is following a very positive 2021, and definitely is clear how strong is our Digital Trust business unit and how, you know, the operating leverage that we share with the market is going to happen. I would add that, you know, we had also a growth that is basically also further increased by the acquisition of CertEurope. You know, for us, it was very important to see how was working the start of this company, and we are very happy of the result delivered by CertEurope.
The start of CertEurope was very positive, and this is important. The company was able to fully deliver the results we expected with a very interesting cash flow. You know, they put the base to deliver the full year results that are really challenging. You know, overall, I would say very good results from Digital Trust, very strong path. Obviously, our strategy is to continue to grow internationally also, you know, by approaching M&A opportunity. Let's move now to Cybersecurity. Here, you know, for our Cybersecurity business unit, the Q1 is the less relevant quarter. As you know, as Cybersecurity is part of a large market of information technology, where generally Q3 and Q4 are the most important quarters.
You know, our Cybersecurity division during that last year delivered the result we expected, and we share with the market a further significant growth in 2022. You know, we are aligned with our internal budget and in calendarization. This has to be stated very clear. You know, in terms of revenue, we grew, you know, slightly, basically not far from the market. Internally, we have our goals for the full year that are, you know, stronger than this. You know, we still reported a growth here.
In terms of EBITDA, in Q1, we are suffering, you know, some investments in terms of people that we onboarded during the last part of Q4 and the first part of Q1 that are affecting these results. Last year, we had a better start, but it was Q2. We expect by Q2 to really realign with our growth path that we are expecting. We are. Let's move now to the next business unit, not forgetting that, you know, our Cybersecurity business was able to join with Digital Trust and put together a very successful product that was brought to the market, you know, by the end of Q4, beginning Q1.
There was a Legalmail Security Premium. This is a product that came from the collaboration and the fact that we put together competencies and capabilities of Cybersecurity team with Digital Trust, and this is the first successful product that we were able to brought to the market. Credit Information & Management, here, you know, is, let's say we have different parts here. Last year, still we were positively affected in the first part of the year by a part of our activity of business process outsourcing, related to Fondo Centrale di Garanzia. At that time, you know, the activity in the market was very strong, and we got benefit from this.
This year, we have a different calendarization of this activity, and we were expecting to deliver results like we have done. Internally, we are basically very confident to deliver as expected, and we are on track on this. For Evalue, starting this activity help us in term of revenue, will help us further in term of EBITDA during the second part of the year. Real estate services are moving accordingly, basically accordingly to our expectation. The results were basically aligned to previous year.
Even though the first part of the year we were suffering a lower demand of mortgages, especially January, when the level of COVID was limiting quite significantly activity for asking the mortgages at the banks or having opportunity to do this. You know, still we are happy of the results that are moving properly. Let's move to Innovation & Marketing Services. Here, you know, the start of the year was definitely very strong. We were able to grow on a like-for-like basis in terms of revenue in the range of 20%.
We have to say, as we are suffering a bit from the comparison with previous year in the credit information here, when Co.Mark during early part of Q1, early part of 2021 was affected by the pandemic, you know, here we got a bit, a little bit of advantage. Both Co.Mark and Warrant started the year very well. I would say we are really, you know, we think that also the Q1 delivered by Evalue, the newly acquired company in Q1, was very, very positive in terms of revenue and the profitability. We have to consider that Evalue, as Warrant, definitely has a curve where most of the revenue EBITDA will come during Q3 and Q4.
The EBITDA grew, although the figures are not so big in this part of the year, quite positively at 14% on an organic basis and close to 30%, including the contribution of Evalue. Let's say that our main business units in terms of revenue and EBITDA, Digital Trust, Innovation & Marketing Services, started very well. The start of cybersecurity and credit information, if compared to previous year, is slower, but is exactly aligned to our goal, to our internal goals that we set at the beginning of the year. I leave the stage to Josef.
Thanks. Thanks, Antonio. Going to page 19, we're going to wrap it up by giving you some key closing remarks. First quarter 2022 performance was a positive start of the year, with growth in double digits, both in terms of revenue and EBITDA.
The strong free cash flow and the cash generation remain key objectives for the group. The net financial position improved considerably, as you all saw, and versus full- year 2021, and it is in line with expectations to deleverage by the year-end. Next, group confirms its 2022 full- year guidance of revenues of +18% to 20% versus prior year, 10%-12% growth on an organic basis. EBITDA adjusted is expected between 20% and 22% growing versus prior year, 8%-10% on an organic basis, and the net financial position over adjusted EBITDA is expected to be by year-end at around 2x. At this point, I will leave it to the operator to open the Q&A session, please.
This is the Chorus Call Conference Operator. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch- tone telephone. To remove yourself from the question queue, please press star and two. Please pick up the receiver when asking questions. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. The first question is from Renato Gargiulo of Stifel. Please go ahead.
Yes, good afternoon. The first question is on CertEurope. You were saying that it started the year very well. I was wondering if you can give us any more precise indication about the first quarter in terms of, I don't know, sales growth or any other indication. Just a general update about the integration and the cross-selling opportunities with InfoCert. The second question is on the Innovation & Marketing Services division. Clearly it's a smaller quarter seasonally, but clearly you started the year ahead of your recent indication and the trend of the business plan.
I was wondering, is it the total market which is performing well, or are you also gaining market share somehow? Then the last question is on cybersecurity. We have seen recently Leonardo, which seems to be very active on this front. Do you have any update about your partnership? Are you participating to some first tenders with them? Thank you.
Okay. Thank you for your questions. You know, about CertEurope, I would say, you know, like I said, the start of the year was very positive. You know, they delivered significant EBITDA, according to a very challenging plan. The real point is now, you know, we put together, you know, what we call a 100- days plan, where basically we put together different programs and different functions and different activities to address the best way of integration. We started immediately the cooperation between sales and technical teams of InfoCert with CertEurope. Definitely, we are on track with the path to bring basically the TOP and GoSign to the French market.
That is the challenge. You know, the CEO of CertEurope told us that, you know, the first contact with customer on InfoCert products were very positive. We are basically running a very strong presale activity there in order to enable the rollout of InfoCert products on the French market. Indications are positive, but you know, the real task would come in the Q3 and Q4. So far, very good start of the integration, very good feeling between the teams. We appointed a new CFO on the company, and the integration plan is performing very well. If we talk about IMS, you know, we are glad that the results delivered.
You know, basically, I have to say that Quero continued the acquisition that we completed Q1 2021. You know, after one year, the company's delivering according to the investment plan. I would say slightly better than this. There is a very strong integration and cooperation with Co.Mark team, as well as, you know, a cooperation also with other business units of the group. Having a digital marketing company within the group is an asset. You know, the team of Quero is very powerful and is delivering accordingly to expectation. Co.Mark had a very good start of the year and the Warrant Hub as well. I would say, like you said, it is the smallest quarter.
You know, we are glad of this. Yes, you know, we are a step ahead, but you know, it's too early to say that we are gaining market. Yeah, definitely the market is not growing 20%, but we are talking about thin tickets. In any case, we step into Q2. In Q1, we step into Q2 from an advantage position and therefore, you know, we expect to continue in a positive way. I use to remember that, you know, we should not look at one quarter to predict, you know, the year. We are happy of this and we will see.
Leonardo, Renato, in reference to the cybersecurity and therefore Leonardo, I'm sure you're also referring to the Cybertech Europe event that was held in Rome. All the cybersecurity companies that operate in Italy, and for this matter, I would say that this was probably the most important event in Europe in the last couple of weeks participated. We were there obviously with our fully owned company, Corvallis, Swascan and Yoroi. I mean, let's be straightforward. There's a big need for cybersecurity. There is a National Agency of Cybersecurity that the government put together.
We are always on the most important panels of discussion, but in particular in servicing and giving, you know, a clear picture of what the situation is from a company standpoint, what are the companies that are currently being serviced, you know, Cybersecurity services and products, and what companies are still not even covered by Cybersecurity. There's a lot on the plate. Let's be very clear. We've put together a lot in terms of product offering, just like Oddone said, in terms of products and services from the Cybersecurity unit. We obviously are concentrating very heavily on finding synergies within our group.
The secure cyber secure safe e-mail is right now the blockbuster that we have, together with finding solutions that can give us probably a much better view in the quarters to come. You know, there is everything going on, you know, as expected in terms of the expectations that we have for the first quarter. We'll see what happens, but most likely the third and the fourth quarter will probably be the most important ones of the year.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Very clear.
You're welcome.
The next question is from Carlo Maritano of Intermonte SIM. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon, everyone. I just have a couple of questions. First one is on Digital Trust. I was wondering if you could provide some more color behind the strong margin increase at constant scope. It appears to me that the margin with the 2021 parameters increased by around 3%, so I was wondering if there's anything more than the operating leverage to justify this increase. The second one is on current trading. Are you seeing any impact from economic slowdown or everything is proceeding as expected? The third one is a technical one. You have restated the 2021 EBIT due to higher D&A. I was wondering if it's related to the PPA amortization you were discussing already in the fourth quarter. Thank you.
Thank you for your questions, Carlo. Let's say, you know, obviously, Digital Trust, you know, when they start to run at such a level of revenue by quarter, you know, honestly, it is, it's really possible to have a strong increase of operating leverage. We have to consider that, as I mentioned last year, when we were not delivering like this, we are improving, but not at this level, and somebody was questioning about this, you know, this could even depend if in one quarter we have large project where we incorporate also some resale of third- party products. You know, looking at this on a single- quarter basis, you know, can be not really proper.
I would say on an LTM basis, a couple of quarters basis is more reasonable. In any case, you know, this has been done, this is delivery, and the trend is to deliver on operating- leverage basis. We are glad also how our, you know, on top of InfoCert, other small companies part of the business unit have performed well, and you know, this is. Obviously, even the contribution of CertEurope that has slightly higher margins, and that we look at them when we were looking at the acquisitions, they were confirmed during Q1. Fine, fair enough. We are happy of that.
You know, I would not expect, you know, to have such operating leverage by the year end, but the trend is definitely very positive. The second question on the current trading impact. Well, let's say that we have no direct operations and relationship with Russia, Ukraine, and whatever. This is one thing. Obviously, some of our customers, they have this. I would say that if I look at Digital Trust as of today, no impact. If I look at Cybersecurity as of today, no impact, I would say no impact, I mean, even no signals of this. Credit Information. Well, if the GDP is not growing, you know, the credit information business is strictly related to GDP.
You know, if companies are growing and invoicing a lot, you know, they are going to require, you know, the information, new customers, and so on. The change in the GDP could potentially impact this. But, you know, we have several activities there. We have the business process outsourcing as well as credit information. But as of today, the results we deliver are not at all impacted by this. If I look to IMS, let's say that Warrant, definitely Warrant, we have some customers that are exporting to Russia and Ukraine, but we have no one major customer that decide not to go through the finanza agevolata automatica because of this.
Definitely, if you look at SME for the temporary export management, I would say that the coming quarter has little bit slow. It's lowering because of this. Because, you know, a part of the international markets are basically prevented to export. But Q1 not at all impacted. No major significant impact we see down the road. But as of today, we did not change our guidance at the current stage to. Then we will see what is going to happen because, you know, every day when you look at detail, you know, the overall scenario is worsening. Our board this morning, you know, still kept the full commitment to deliver the results. Last question on the PPA, you are perfectly right.
You know, according to the reporting rules, we restated Q1 previous year, so we incorporated as the PPA occurred in Q1 2021.
Okay, thank you.
The next question is from Isacco Brambilla of Mediobanca. Please go ahead.
Hi, good afternoon, everybody. I have a couple of questions on your M&A strategy. In the first three months of the year, we are seeing Tinexta quite active in terms of bolt-on additions, both in Italy and abroad. Is it going to be this strategy even for the coming quarters, or should we expect even something more sizable given that Bregal Milestone's cash injection gives you quite a decent firepower also in the short term? Second question is on market multiples. We have seen multiples in the sector derating quite visibly. Is it opening up an additional amount of opportunities for you? I'm thinking in particular on international deals in Digital Trust.
Well, M&A, we fully confirm our strategy. You know, our strategy is basically Digital Trust. You know, we are fully confident and fully focused on increasing our presence abroad. You know, the strategy was defined very clearly. Bregal Milestone investment is part of this strategy. After having completed successfully the acquisition of CertEurope, and having the first evidences of this, you know, we are going to continue. Our goal is still the market where we are looking very carefully are definitely Spain, Germany, the U.K. market. Well, we want to become a leader. Basically, we are already leader in terms of revenue in the EU in Europe, but our revenue is mostly coming from Italy.
We want to continue to keep this leadership, but having the revenue that is coming from several countries in Europe. Digital Trust really works. In terms of EBITDA multiples, well, like I said, as of today, you know, we are not seeing a significant shrinking of the multiples in Cybersecurity and Digital Trust. Obviously, we are looking even more carefully on this, and we are using this, you know, retracing on the equity stock market to handle this. At the end of the day, you know, I would say the big difference would come from our capability to integrate or our capability to grow our products around Europe or in some situation, to really benefit on the cost side.
You know, it could be that sooner or later, we may run an acquisition where we could put together, you know, the, let's say, the software factory and solution factory, people, and this could allow us to benefit also from the cost side. Yes, you know, no significant drop in the multiples, but a lot of focus. You know, our focus is to continue there. We will continue if the right opportunity will come in Innovation & Marketing Services to go abroad. Obviously, yes, and we are glad of the reasonable good start of Evalue. We are very happy of the team. You know, we started also there an integration activity. Warrant has delivered one M&A deal during Q1 with Enhancers.
You know, also there, if we found out the right target that could allow us to complete also on the digital side of our consultancy activity, you know, we will go through in terms of acquisition. As already shared with the market, as of today, we do not see significant interest in investing in changing perimeter in credit information. For the Cybersecurity, obviously, we are talking about Italy, and we continue to monitor the market and to look for potential interesting targets there. Multiples are quite important there, but you know, we do believe that if the right target comes, we need to invest significantly.
Thank you.
Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone. For any further questions, please press star and one on your telephone. The next question is from Gabriele Berti of Intesa Sanpaolo. Please go ahead.
Hello. Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for the presentation. First question from my side is on non-recurring costs. You posted EUR 3 million in the quarter. I'm asking if you could provide more details on that and your projection for the full year. Lastly, I would like to ask you if you are experiencing any pressure on human capital, human resources, both in terms of inflation on wages or and/or in terms of increasing turnover.
Okay. I will start from the last point. Definitely, human capital, as you may have heard during the presentation, our three-year plan from our business unit leaders, is a very point of attention for us. We set up a very strong team in talent acquisition central level for the group, able to support all the business units in this activity in a very professional and organized way. I would say that, on average, on Digital Trust, Cybersecurity, especially, you know, the level of turnover is increasing. Obviously, around the Italian market, but as well as in Europe, there is a lack of skilled resources on the human capital.
I would say that our companies can be very attractive for potential candidates, but, you know, some competitors looks at people from our business unit very, very interesting from them. As of today, we are not suffering a significant increase of salaries driven by retention as well as, you know, a significant increase in the cost of talent, talents that we are going to acquire. The issue is there. The risk is potential there. Let's say that as of today, you know, this is not affecting significantly the results. We have to consider that if this is happening to us, could be also happening for the competitors. We are very focused on this.
We have a new HR group manager onboard, so we are very well structured there to address the matter. I would say that our companies are very. The companies of our group are very attractive for people. In terms of non-recurring, that is very easy there. Basically, we have two figures. One figure is, you know, is, we treated below the adjusted figure that is the stock option, because this is, we are still not on a running basis. If you see it's EUR 0.8 compared to EUR 0.4 of previous year. This is, on a small quarter, making some difference.
The real difference is coming from third -party costs that we incur for completing the acquisition, the investment of Bregal, for completing the acquisition of Evalue, for completing the acquisition of Enhancers. This is not honestly predictable because this is a non-recurring item. Therefore, it is fully dependent on the volumes of M&A activity we are going to undertake. Last year, we had a quite important amount. We do not expect a significant difference. You know, I will be more than happy to incur a significant amount of this kind of non-recurring expenses, because it means that we are going to do the right investment and have an opportunity to improve our return on capital invested.
Thank you very much.
The next question is from Roberto Casoni of Otus Capital Management. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, good afternoon, and thank you for taking my questions. Actually, a couple of questions have been already answered. I have another two. First one is related to CertEurope. I mean, I didn't expect CertEurope to show up with this strong marginality. I mean, if I just rip out, it operates a bit at above 40%, 40 EBIT margin. Is this sustainable? And is this the, you know, the normal marginality for a company like this? And this is before the synergies they can find by just starting selling your product. And the other thing is on the M&A strategy. Did I understand correctly that, as far as credit information is concerned, there is not much interest in changing the perimeter?
I mean, the last conference call you had, I understood from your CEO and chairman that there was the chance to actually accelerate something after the Cerved deal, and the market should have expected some sort of solution on what to do with this asset. Am I right in understanding that actually the situation has now slowed down a bit and so nothing will be happening for the next future? Thank you.
Good afternoon, Roberto. You know, thank you for your question. That could help everybody who's listening to this. Maybe, I made myself not clear, but I try to repeat. We were talking about M&A in terms of investments. You know, what I'm saying that-
Yeah.
As of today, we have not in mind acquisitions in the Credit Information & Management.
Okay. Okay.
Just to make the case very, very clear.
Okay.
Going back to what was shared in the past, you know, we can confirm that, you know, at the end of the day, if an interesting, you know, offer could come, you know, our board will be interested to look at it, and then make the proper evaluation of this. So nothing has changed on this subject. Just to
Okay.
To make it very, very clear. CertEurope, this is a very good point. Was part of our deep diving on the due diligence. Actually, you know, they even. Let's say that 40% is a rounded number of only one quarter. On the average, they are delivering 37%. This is slightly above our Digital Trust business unit, but our Digital Trust business unit includes also some other attributes also. Camerfirma that is not performing in a very brilliant way.
Mm-hmm.
Second, Sixtema that is doing an activity similar to this, but has not these margins, and Visura that is doing more reselling activity. If we look at InfoCert itself, it's a little bit closer to. It's about 30%, let's put it in this way. We look at it very careful, but honestly, we have to say. We were, you know, I'm not saying scared, but we were very focused on trying to understanding if the 37% of CertEurope was sustainable. The seller plan was increasing, we incorporated in our plans a little bit more conservative EBITDA. You know, the fact that under our management, our financial reporting, they are delivering 37%, it makes us very satisfied of our investment.
Let's say that the goal is trying to keep it as much as we can at this level. If there is a little bit more competition, but still at 35%, it is still a very interesting profitability.
Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Roberto.
The next question is from Russell Pointon of Edison. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, all. I have three questions, if that's okay. First question is on inflation, generally following up from the question earlier. You say you're not seeing inflation at the moment. Could you just give some indication of typically when you increase the salaries for your employees? Is it reasonable to assume that all happens at the start of the year? Could you give some indication of what salary inflation is effectively locked in per head for the coming year? Moving that further on to your other costs. I mean, per your disclosure, about 30% of revenue goes on to service costs, database advertising, you know, professional fees, that kind of thing. How many of those costs are effectively locked in for the current year already, and therefore you don't expect to see further inflationary increases through the year?
Again, for following on from that is, how much of your revenue is effectively fixed? You know, the actual rate is fixed where we stand at the moment. How much more, you know, is variable and, you know, could you could increase if inflation does come into the system. Sorry, that's my first question. Quite a long one, I know. The second question on CertEurope, could you give some idea of the pro forma organic growth for that business, you know, prior to you owning it, so versus their own Q1 last year? My final question on cybersecurity. I just wanted to confirm that you expected the EBITDA margin to progress in every quarter from here and, you know, and given your comments that the investment is just an end, I think. Thank you.
Okay, good afternoon, Russell. Well, you know, inflation is a point that we are looking at it very, very carefully. Let's say that as of today, if you look at our P&L, as you have done, you know, the salary as of today, you know, the inflation is not reflected in the salary, for sure. In Italy, we have national contracts, you know, that used to be issued after strong negotiations between companies and the state, and they are part of a broader approach of the country to inflation and to the side. Is it clear that sooner or later, you know, if the inflation is gonna grow up by 7% or whatever, you know, the government must recognize it to employees, you know, a protection on this.
This is something that we will see, it will come. Honestly, I will be a bit surprised it could affect our 2022 results in a significant way. Second, you're talking about service costs. As of today, you know, when we are talking about utilities costs, it is not a material cost for our P&L. For the rest, I have to say that apart from some shortage of products, but this is not related to inflation, but something from the previous year. We have no, you know, our purchasing office is not telling us that it is worsening year by year, the yearly contract that is signing with our supplier. If I have to take the
A picture now, I will say, Russell, I have no impact. Honestly, we are very focused in monitoring the situation, and we know that, you know, I have quite a bit of seniority and, you know, people who used to work in the last 10 years, they don't know what inflation is. You know, driven by my age, I know what inflation used to be. Therefore, it's a little bit normal that, you know, if everybody is reflecting in their revenue the inflation, we will have to reflect this. This is not a price increase technically versus the clients, but is an adjustment that everybody is doing.
Obviously, the mechanism of inflation adjustment on the market in Europe, on the markets, is driven by the fact that, you know, Europe was not used anymore to inflation. As of today, we have no impact on this. Obviously, we are monitoring, and when we do, we will increase it because if our suppliers are going to increase the price because of inflation, we will increase our price list because of inflation. Now, telling you if this is if an arbitrage will come, we will see. I have very clear the picture, and I am monitoring, and we will act accordingly if this will come.
We discuss.
Yeah.
Yes, Russell, you were discussing about CertEurope's margin. I think we answered that question in the prior question.
No. Sorry. It was the actual what was their or their underlying revenue growth versus.
On a pro forma basis.
The last.
I have to tell, you know, we are reporting according to IFRS in a very structured manner and so on. You know, the company used to report in French GAAP. They had no strict financial rules. It was a smaller company and so on. We didn't go through the check of. We put together a plan. We had the plan from the sellers. We put together a plan from our side, and we incorporated this plan into our three-year plan. No, we honestly, on small companies, it's very difficult to go on and report. They were not at the stock market, blah, blah, and they were not reporting IFRS. Last question on cybersecurity.
Obviously, the Cybersecurity margin will grow quarter by quarter, and so we do expect the company, you know, delivering during 2022 a significant increase at double digits compared to results 2021. Despite the fact that, you know, from external standpoint, you may look at these figures, but still we are talking about small figures. As you have seen last year, we delivered exactly the figures we expected. We are confident to deliver a quite significant increase in 2022 compared to 2021. We do expect quarter by quarter, the EBITDA margin of Cybersecurity to be increased.
Okay. Sorry, can I just come back on the first question? Are all of your staff cost increases, do they happen at the start of the year? Your wage, you know, the pay increases that staff typically gets.
When we develop our budgets on salaries during November, December, we incorporated the usual growth that was a mix of merit increase and, you know, adjustment for seniority and other items.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
This was at that time, inflation was not an issue. Now, I have to say that after four months, I have no impact on salaries driven by inflation. There are a little bit of retention costs that we are facing because of the lack of resource or skilled resourcing in digital cloud and cybersecurity. There is a little bit of retention, a little bit of salary of new hired people, but this is not something. When you have 2,000 people, even though you may have 10 people to be retained, if not 15 people to be retained or 20 people to be retained, it's not that it is impacting the results.
Okay, great. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Rob.
Mr. Mastragostino, there are no more questions registered at this time. Back to you for the closing remarks.
We would like to thank you again for connecting to the Tinexta’s conference call. If you have any additional information, please don't hesitate to contact us. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Bye.
See you soon. Bye.