Good afternoon. This is the conference call operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the WIIT Q1 2024 results. 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 Alessandro Cozzi, CEO of WIIT. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. Good afternoon, and thanks to everybody for joining this conference call. The board of directors this morning approves the results of the Q1 2024, and you can follow with the presentation I sent the summary of the results. I start with the highlights, and after the presentation, there is a Q&A session when you can make questions about these figures. Starting from the chart page number three , revenue growth to EUR 33.5 million versus EUR 31.8 million previous year, +5.3% totally. EBITDA adjusted growth 8.4% from EUR 12 million to EUR 13 million, and the EBITDA margin group level was 38.9%. EBIT adjusted growth 6.6% from EUR 6.7 million to EUR 7.2 million. EBIT margin was 21.3%. Net profit adjusted, +5.3% in growth, was EUR 4.1 million versus EUR 3.9 million previous year. Net debt adjusted.
In this adjusted, we included the value of the treasury share at the market value of the end of March was EUR 157 million compared with EUR 154 million at the end of December of the previous year. The breakdown of the business in page four, Italy, the contribution in Italy was EUR 15 million in terms of revenue and EUR 6.7 million in terms of EBITDA. Roughly half of the EBITDA is in Italy and half in Germany. And EBIT in Italy was EUR 3.2 million, and it's 44% of the group level EBIT. German contribution in terms of revenue was EUR 18.5 million. In terms of EBITDA, EUR 6.4 million. EBITDA margin in Italy, you can see in this chart, is a little higher in Italy. It's 44%. In Germany, it's 34.5%.
The reason is in Italy, we are more focused in the high-value services. In Germany, we are more traditional cloud services.
But in terms of EBIT margin, Germany is performing well. EBIT margin was EUR 4 million and 21.7% of the revenue, and in Italy, it's 21%. It's a little better the German EBIT compared to the Italian business. Revenue growth 5% total, but if you are entering inside these figures, you can show that organic growth in terms of core revenues grows more fast because we are in the last phase of the cleaning of the revenue in Italy. That means in Italy, the organic growth was 7.9% in the Q1 , and in Germany, 7.5%. This means in our expectation for the end of this year, the organic growth will be in the high single-digit range. The consolidation of the new business of Edge & Cloud in Frankfurt will start 1st April, and it's not included in these figures. The same of Econis, our new Swiss branch.
We closed the contract last week, and we consolidate the figures starting for May 2024. You can go about the detail of our revenue, the page six. In Italy, 82% of the revenue are recurrent. In Germany, 98%. In this chart, in these figures, we exclude the Gecko business because it's not considering core business. It's a consulting company, and naturally, a consulting company doesn't have recurrent revenue inside. So this is the total core revenues. EBITDA increased from EUR 12 million to EUR 13 million. EBITDA margin group level increased 1 point from 37%-38% in Q1 thanks to the consolidation and consideration of core services, and particularly we obtained synergy from the consolidation of all the companies in Italy. The legal identity in Italy are merged last year, and thanks to this consolidation, we increased a lot the EBITDA margin.
EBITDA margin in Italy growth from 40%-44%. In Germany, it's stable, but you have to remember that the process to consolidation in Germany is end of March. The positive effect of the merge of all the German companies will be during this year and the next year. EBIT, the page number eight, growth from 6.5% to—sorry—EUR 1 million to EUR 7.2 million. EBITDA margin is a little better. It's 21.3%. It's stable. And net profit increased a lot, increased a little bit whenever we have more interest paid for increased cost of the debt. Net debt, we closed at the end of the quarter with EUR 157 million. In this debt, we don't include EUR 6 million of the M&A of Edge & Cloud because the closing date was in April, and EUR 6 million included in the future earnout.
It's EUR 4 million paid in April, and we have EUR 2 million of possible earnout will be paid in case of success of the results of the full year 2024. In this net debt, we don't include the EUR 6 million of Edge & Cloud because the closing date was postponed in April. In these figures, we have strong cash flow generation, roughly EUR 9.8 million. Important value about CapEx, EUR 9.6 million, because Q1 . We have strong CapEx because we did a big renewal of a big client. That means anticipate a big CapEx. That means in Italy, for example, in the Q1 , we spend roughly EUR 7 million CapEx. It's 50% of the total CapEx scheduled for the full year. Cash equivalent increased 19 million, and the net financial position included EUR 36.16 million, and the value of treasury share is EUR 156 million.
That's all. We are ready for Q&A session. Thanks.
Excuse me. This is the WIIT 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 the touch-tone telephone. To remove your question, please press star and two. Please pick up the receiver when asking questions. Once again, that's star and one for questions. The first question is from Giorgio Tavolini from Intermonte. Please go ahead.
Hi. Good afternoon, and thanks for taking my question. I was wondering if you can add more color on next week's annual general meeting since you are requesting the authorization to issue 7 million shares, so roughly 20% of the final share of spending countervalue. That is EUR 115 million if I made the right calculation. So I was wondering if you are in the final stages for an important deal, if it's something that will free up some resources to fund the future M&A, and you also talk about convertible bond issuances. So I was wondering what will be the technicality and also regarding the M&A pipeline if you are looking more at Germany to expand Germany-Switzerland as you just entered in Switzerland or Italy. Thanks.
Okay. I'll start to answer about I started with the target M&A, and follow-up, I asked you about the approval and shareholder about the capital increase. At the moment, we are looking about we have discussed about two targets in Germany and one in Switzerland in the Zurich zone in the very, very preliminary phase. One is based in Düsseldorf, and the second one is based in Munich and in Switzerland close to our headquarters in Zurich. But all these targets are not sizable. That means a company with a revenue from EUR 5 million-EUR 10 million with EBITDA from 10%-20%, and the consequence is the present value is not required to do a capital increase. But in any case, we want to approve in our shareholder assembly these topics, these subjects, because in the future, it could be an option to have another additional deal sizable.
In this case, we just have to get the board to approve and eventually one capital increase, but it's not sure in the short term. All the targets we are looking at, we have discussed. At the moment, no need for capital increase because the net debt that you show here is 3x EBITDA. If we stay in the range from 3x to 3.5x EBITDA, from our point of view, we can stay with our level of debt.
Okay. If I may ask another question on the leverage, I was wondering if it's correct our assumption. So by 2026, you should reach 1.7-1.6 times net debt to EBITDA on an adjusted basis, so excluding treasury shares and so deducting the value of the treasury shares and excluding IFRS 16. Since I was wondering, by 2026, in October, you should refinance the bond that is expiring.
Yes. We totally agree with this assumption, naturally, like for like. In case we don't spend money from M&A, in case we stay with the same perimeter, we can achieve this ratio. Absolutely. Yes.
You are happy with the current adjusted net profit dynamics? In 2023, it was EUR 15 million. Roughly, the consensus is trending towards EUR 30 million by 2026, so you should double your EPS in two years' time.
Yes. Absolutely, because the CapEx remained the same, and our forecast to growth in terms of profitability, we can double the net profit in two years. Yes.
Okay. Many thanks.
Consider that the interest rate, the cost of the debt go down because we hope, but we are somewhat confident that in the next 6 months- 12 months, the cost of the debt decrease a little bit. The part of the debt not fixed is impacted of the eventuality of the reduction of the cost of the interest.
The next question is from Domenico Ghilotti from Equita. Please go ahead.
I have a few questions. The first is on the recent acquisition. So you have just closed Econis and Edge & Cloud. So I wonder if you can give us a sense of what you have found may be different compared to your initial assumption, better or worse, and what are you doing in terms of implementation of the integration? Well, this is the first. Then a second question on the CapEx guidance. You were saying that, okay, in Italy, you are running basically half of the CapEx for the full year. Can you give us an update also for the CapEx guidance for Germany and possibly also for the new venture in Switzerland? And last, just a clarification.
When you say, okay, the core revenues, you are clarifying the trend core revenues, can you give us a sense of what is the level of core revenues today compared to the reported revenues for the two countries?
Yes. Well, with me, this is Enrico Rampin. We can help me to describe in more detail, more color about the two targets. In Germany, Edge & Cloud is a branch cloud services with specific skills about a cloud-native platform.
Cloud-native capabilities. So it's a company where the main focus and the largest part of the clients do run on the private cloud, a platform for cloud-native application. Cloud-native means Kubernetes, containers, and all the technology. The last update in terms of technology for any new trend on the development of the application. So it's super important for us to have this platform. We already have within the group capabilities in that sense in Boreus, the company we acquired in the north of Germany. But with these more clients, more customer-based, expanded, and also the capability, today, we have roughly 35 people with very high-level skills on this platform. This is something that we are expanding over the entire group, so in Italy and also in Germany, in terms of portfolio services.
In Edge & Cloud, we also had a team for cybersecurity that were mainly focused on delivering cybersecurity internally. But I will use this as a platform to introduce the cybersecurity services across Germany, so expanding the Italian footprint that is running in a very good way. 2023 was a very positive result in terms of booking for cybersecurity, and the expectation is to have a similar expansion also in the other geographies. Coming back to Switzerland, I already spent several days. Next week, I will be there for all the week. I already met the top three clients, two banks, and one that is a system integrator that is developing a solution for the banking sector, very large and very modern in terms of capabilities.
So I found clients very interested in understanding more who is the buyer, if the company is a real investor in terms of industrial approach. So we explained to them that, of course, we are a pure cloud provider, so we are exactly in the same footprint, that we are recovering very soon and very fast, also the situation of the company in terms of financial key elements and trusting and ensuring that there is a plan of development for the entire Switzerland. So this is not just entering a new country, but it is the cornerstone.
[crosstalk] for further expansion, and this is the reason also why we also have other options in this moment for the M&A perspective, so to expand immediately the footprint. Internally, within the company, we found that they have very good capabilities. But of course, the situation in the last 2, 3 years and more or less the disruption in terms of management capability and so on is something that everyone wants to overcome. So they want to finally have a very consolidated company and consolidated structure and group to be part of and could be a platform for them also for a professional career. So the first weeks have been very good. So we have a very strong plan, first, of presence directly.
It will be me, Francesco Baroncelli, and also the head of Germany, Christopher Helmke, who will spend two days per week in the next seven months. So we have a strong plan in terms of presence, and we are working hard to start, first, recovering the immediate situation in terms of alignment with the strategy and so on, and then working on the potential synergies that we already planned and that we have in mind for the next 12-18 months.
Okay. Thanks.
About the second question, CapEx, if we include the Swiss company acquired, at the moment, we forecast total CapEx for the year in the range from EUR 26-27 million. That is a little stable in line with the last year, considering the Swiss one.
In terms of the question about core and non-core revenue, if you see the chart number five, in Germany, the reported revenue is similar to the core revenues growth because total revenue in Germany grows 7% and core revenues 7.5%. In Italy, the core revenues growth fastest is 7.8%. The reason is last year, in the Italian company, we had a residual part of consultant business, and at the moment, the consultant business is close to zero in Italy. For this reason, we have a little difference in Italy if you consider the reported revenue and the core revenue. We have a little part of the consultant inside. In Germany, just. And the cleanup.
Okay. Thank you.
Once again, if you wish to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone. As a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone. The next question is a follow-up of Domenico Ghilotti from Equita. Please go ahead.
Yeah. A follow-up on the pipeline of commercial opportunities. So you have been talking about the core revenue growth, so I wonder if you can also share with us what's going on in Italy and Germany in terms of new logos or opportunities for renewal and eventually some price environment?
Probably, I want to say I don't want to say paid, but probably short term, we are happy to disclose in the market one big fish entering Italy. But in general, Enrico, you can.
The pipeline still is starting from the mood into the market. The pipeline and the mood is very positive, both in Italy and in Germany. I already started having also some flavor into Econis, just understanding what is good in there and a good feeling for the first starting point. But I need to understand how these figures are confident, let me say. In general, the pipeline is good, both in Italy and in Germany. The Q1 and in general, the trend is positive. My expectation is to be quite in line the H1 . We have an important June because we are under renewal and incremental booking some clients. We do have new clients joining, so we are under contract negotiation these days. I'm quite positive on having the H1 that is quite in line.
The pipeline in Germany is high. Germany is high.
Yeah. The pipeline is high.
Compared to last year, because last year, we had the H1 a little weaker in Germany with a strong recovery the last quarter. This year, we have more pipeline in Germany.
Yeah. We will consider that also we are improving the people, the sales manager in Germany. That means people are started running to be inside into the company, and so the expectation is to rise a little bit month-over-month. So not bad. I'm positive in general, so not only on the pipeline but also on the H1 booking.
Okay. Thank you.
Alessandro Cozzi, there are no more questions registered at this time.
Okay. Thanks all for joining in this call, and see you soon for the next presentation result.