Good afternoon. This is the Chorus Call conference operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the WIIT Full Year 2022 Results 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. Alessandro Cozzi, Chief Executive Officer of WIIT. Please go ahead, sir.
Good afternoon, and thanks everybody to joining the conference. You can follow the presentation I sent. The board of directors have approved the results for full year 2022. I start with the highlights and after this short presentation, we have a space for Q&A sessions. Highlights of 2022, we are very happy for the results of the group level. Revenue is growth very fast, 54% compared with last year, thanks to contract extensions and particularly ex-acquisition of the new logo, new customer. In Germany and Italy, both the company growth double-digit. The consolidated revenue was EUR 100 million 18 million revenue compared with EUR 77 million of 2021.
The consolidated adjusted EBITDA was EUR 42.2 million compared EUR 29.5 million, +43%, thanks to the concentration of services, the optimization of the data center, particularly in Germany, because we just obtained part of the cost synergy during 2022 related to the mini acquisition, and we started to obtain the cost synergy in Italy related to the acquisition of ERPTech. The EBIT margin was at EUR 23.2 million compared with the EUR 15.5 million, +50%, and the margin EBIT on revenue was 19.5%. This increase of amortization related to the CapEx we did last year in Germany for the new data center in Dusseldorf, therefore, and the second one in Italy. The margin revenue was 19.5%.
Little lower than last year. In the last quarter, we have achieved 33.4%. These are results of the fourth quarter, explain, show very well the strategy to put more value in our, in high value service in the customer base. We started to reduce all the revenue of our hardware and software sales and consultancy company that is not in our core business and not in our strategy. Adjusted profit, EUR 12 million in half, compared with EUR 9.3 million of 2021. The net financial position was EUR 100,000,083, exactly in line with our expectation.
In this net debtor, we have EUR 2.8 million for acquisition of ERPTech, EUR 18.1 million acquisition of LANSOL in Germany, new investment CapEx total year EUR 28.2 million, payment of dividend EUR 8.4 million, and treasury share buyback of EUR 7.6 million. In this value, we not include the value of the treasury share. The value of this share, if you consider the by the end of the December 2022 was EUR 28 million. During the 2022, the cost energy was EUR 8.8 million, is the double of the value 2021. The largest part of this value is referred to the German market, where we have over 14 data center in running.
Finance charge 22, basically, concerns the interest of the bond loan for EUR 4 million. We can jump directly to the slide to page number three. The breakdown of the revenue. 51.2% of the revenue was based in Germany and 48.8% in Italy. You have to consider in these figures, we consolidate only four months of LANSOL group in Germany, and there is not in these figures, naturally, all the Global Access, the provider we bought in January 2023. The forecast will be sure more revenue in Germany for the 2023 than in the 2022. The EBITDA margin is a little higher in Italy, 21.7%, 51% of group level and EUR 20.5 million in Germany.
The EBITDA margin in Italy is 37.5%. In Germany, it's 33.6%. The reason why in Germany we have a little decrease the margin is the cost of the energy. Decrease of the cost of energy. Slide page number four. 77% of the WIIT revenue is recurring. At group level, we have exactly the same amount. 33% one-off is related to the residual part that we have in Italy of hardware, software sales and consultancy business. All this value, all the business are decreasing vastly. Just in the last quarter, we strongly reduced this value in term of our revenue non-recurrent. Page number five. You can see the breakdown of the revenue.
Organic growth in Italy, we increase organically like-for-like 4%, but we change a lot the mix of the revenue. For this reason, the core business cloud increased 13%. I have just anticipate the reducing of the not core revenue related to consultancy and hard- software sales, the total revenue Italy growth 4%. In Germany, we growth organically like-for-like 11%. Very, very good result. myLoc with Vita merged 13%. The contribution of the company acquired 2021, 2022 was EUR 31.8 million related to Gecko and Boreus, and EUR 2.5 million for maybe four months of LANSOL . In Italy, EUR 5.9 million, we have nine months of ERPTech. Vita, Vita growth very well, 42%.
We closed the fiscal year 2022 with our record in term of new booking, in term of sales. We close with very, very good position. Part of the deal, we discussed the market, like Finestra Group or De Cecco, but we have a lot of other deals, small, medium size and not disclosed. In general speaking, 2022 was very, very, very, very good year for the in term of sales and organic growth and for this, the, we have a good impact in terms of EBITDA. The last quarter was particularly high because we have the contribution from the onboarding of a new client.
If you consider that when we close the contract, we start to build the monthly fee in 2023. We have a positive impact of the onboard in the last quarter because the customer pay in advance. It contributes a small contribute for the activation of the services. The personnel cost the costing increase for the marketing acquisition cost. We increase the marketing, we increase the brand awareness of the company and that's only from the mini effect. The personnel cost increase to EUR 29.7 million, mainly for M&A. What I just anticipate the cost of electricity in 2022 was EUR 8.8 million compared with EUR 4.5 million.
We have just the agreement with the local carrier to reduce the cost of energy for EUR 1 million by first January 2024. In 2023, we have a fixed price, and our expectation is to have the same value of the 2022 in terms of absolute of the cost of the energy. We go down to the EBIT adjusted and adjusted to increase 50% to 23.2%. The adjustment refers to the purchase location acquisition for EUR 4.6 million and then that's really all the costs related to the stock option plan and stock grant. We have two mainly items in the adjustment.
The cost of transactions, legals, the due diligence fees, and the stock option plans because it's not cashable, it's only accountable, but it's not cash. Net profit increase, 34% adjusted to EUR 12.5 million. Net debt. Net debt is EUR 183 million. If you consider the net debt, including the treasury share, net debt is EUR 160 million. In 2022, we have cash out for M&A, EUR 208 million for ERPTech and EUR 18 million for LANSOL. Strong operating cash flow, over EUR 30 million. Treasury share buyback for over EUR 7.6 million. Payment of earnout and minorities for EUR 5.6 million. Only the share value is approximately EUR 22 million at this value by the end of December 2022.
Release of investment teams for EUR 28 million to support acquisition without increasing debt. The IFRS effect is at EUR 10.3 million in line with the last year. The cost of the debt is mainly related to the bond for EUR 150 million. We pay interest rate of 2.375%. That's all. We are ready for a Q&A session. Actually, we will need Enrico Rampin, our Sales Director, and Stefano Pasotto, our CFO, to support all the questions.
Thank you. This is the Chorus Call conference operator. We'll now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touchtone 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 Giorgio Tavolini, Intermonte.
Hi, good evening. Thanks for taking my questions. I was wondering if based on the current visibility you have today, middle of March, you can elaborate more on the first quarter trends, in particular on the demand, organic growth and whatever. The second question is on the multiyear backlog. I was wondering if it includes the InfoCert contract and the De Cecco contract that you acquired last year. If you can elaborate more on the InfoCert contract related to the data center move from Castelfranco to Padova and other the major points related to that contract that was very meaningful for you, if I remember correctly. Thank you.
Okay. Giorgio, the visibility we have for the first quarter is very, very high because, for example, the contract with InfoCert started exactly the third January 2023. We have additional two new customer signed in the last quarter. We forecast to start to provide services in the middle of the first quarter. At the moment, the visibility we have in the first quarter is good. In term of pipeline, organic growth, we have a very, very good pipeline at the moment. Whenever we close a lot during the last year, at the moment, the sales pipeline is on a higher, one good level. Eh? Good level.
Very good level.
Very good level. Good level. About the backlog, in EUR 140 million is the backlog, total year. Naturally, we include the InfoCert contract, De Cecco and the other. Consider that the moving of InfoCert to our Milan data center is scheduled first January , 2025. We have two years running with the old data center of InfoCert. We enter inside the rent contract of InfoCert, okay? We manage all the existing infrastructure of InfoCert. During this transition period, there are a lot of changes, naturally, because InfoCert is a company growing very fast like we, and just at the moment we have additional services to add at our basic contract.
Yes. Also the InfoCert work, the project, is long time, of course, but also is a project that is currently missing part of the new opportunities coming from the growth of the company on one side, and also we were not able during the last quarter to define specifically some transition part. That means that InfoCert is assumed to grow for both for his own growth, but also because we are currently missing part of new services that will be for sure part of the new pipeline and of the new landscape. It's a very, very complex and long-term relationship with them. Many thanks.
The next question is from, Domenico Ghilotti with Equita. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon. The first question is on the CapEx level that you expect for 2023 . And, I wonder if on the, on a cash level, we should expect, anyways some say payment related to the previous year CapEx, because if I'm not wrong on the cash flow, I see just EUR 20 million of payment for CapEx compared to the EUR 28 million that you are, are reporting as CapEx for 2022 . A nd the second question, on the tax rate, you ended with, at around 29 , if I'm not wrong. S o I'm wondering why it has been moving up and, what should we expect for, for 2023 and, and beyond. And, then a question on the contract and the backlog.
Even if I take out the non-recurring parts, if I just focus on the 77% of recurring CapEx, around EUR 100 million of sales or slightly lower. EUR 100, less than EUR 150 million means that this covering, the backlog is covering 1.5 years. It's a multiyear contract, but not so long. I'm trying to understand why we haven't seen, let's say, an extension, an expansion of the backlog level, more significant than what reported. Last, you are mentioning that Q4 was supported also by these, the setup fees or the startup of new contracts. Can you give a sense of what was the contribution?
Just to understand the more the recurring part of the EBITDA that we should expect starting from, Q1.
I started with the last question to answer. The non-recurrent part of the last quarter was approximately EUR 1 million. Our expectation is we have additional una tantum during 23, but also in the first part of the year.
Sorry, in the sales or EBITDA?
No, in the revenue. EBITDA is less.
Okay. Okay.
The EBITDA is, I think, the half.
Mm-hmm.
Okay. Revenue, total revenue.
Okay.
About the backlog. About the backlog, you have to consider that in the core business we have a very long contract, but the expire of the contract is every year expire a lot of contract. Depend. For as an example, with the ever EUR 83 million of backlog, Stefano.
Yes.
EUR 83 million is a rate only of WIIT.
Mm-hmm.
33 of myLoc and the other company we acquired in Germany have only one year contract, and the backlog is less. Okay?
Okay.
The average of the contract in the core business is 4 years. Every quarter we have an extension or an renewal of the contract.
Okay.
We have many contracts from many different dates to expire. For example, this year we have only this year EUR 7 million of revenue related to contracts expired during the middle of the year. We ignore the EUR 6 million, it means EUR 13 million of backlog with good additional contracts five years.
Mm-hmm.
Okay. Okay. CapEx. Our CapEx. Despite 2022, when we forecasted EUR 32 million, we closed with EUR 28 million. We have a shift of EUR 4 million CapEx from 2022 to 2023, is related to the end of the data center in Düsseldorf. At the moment we forecast to open the data center in middle of June 2023. For this reason, the CapEx we forecast for 2023 is EUR 25 million, because EUR 4 million is EUR 4 million of 2022 shift to 2023.
Okay.
Okay. other question is what?
The other question was on tax rate.
Okay, tax rate. Stefano Pasotto, we are in 2 different situation.
Yes.
In Germany.
12% for Italy and 13% for German companies.
How much, sorry? I didn't get the first question.
13% in Germany, 30.
Okay.
At the moment in Italy we are 12.
12.
12. In Italy we have a lot of deduction about hyper-amortization, so CapEx and, you know.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Going forward, the growing contribution of Germany is, say, moving the average tax rate.
Up, up. Yes.
Slightly up. Okay.
In Germany, tax rate is higher than in Italy at the moment.
Okay. Just to follow up on the contract that are expired. What's the situation now in terms of renewal, the negotiation, are you able to keep the prices unchanged, or you have some pressure back again given that energy prices are a bit less?
To be honest, the moment energy price inflection help us to renewable with the same value or little better. At the moment we don't have a pressure in renewal. This year we have fortunately only two contract important to renewal. One is ongoing and the second one.
Under negotiation.
Okay. This year is not a year with a lot of renewal. At the moment we don't see a lot of pressure, because the cost of energy impacted the end user. The end user understand that if the cost increase for themselves, naturally impact the provider. They receive a lot of requests to increase the price from all the suppliers, not only from WIIT. This is another negotiation. The inflation clause is one of the topics I have on the sales team every day because all the customer is smart, "Ah, why is the vacation closed? I don't want to pay." In contract is defined and you have to pay. It's a commercial discussion.
Okay. My very last question on the dividend. Well, I don't understand why you should pay, say, quite significant dividends or EUR 8 million last year, and you are confirming the dividend, having, let's say, a growth strategy oriented on M&A and a leverage balance sheet. I was expecting, say, a pullback given the higher leverage this year compared to last year on the dividend commitment.
You have to consider the CapEx this year, reduce a lot from EUR 32 million-EUR 21 million. Cash flow, we expect it is strongly. Because the EBITDA was EUR 50 million. The CapEx is decreased, and we finance the CapEx usually with the rent. EUR 8 million in, compared with EUR 50 million EBITDA is not. As expected is also high. Exactly is how the market expected. When we went public, we promised that we pay a minimum of dividend yield related to the net income.
Okay. I would prefer going more for the M&A than dividend payment. Anyway.
We too. At the moment we have to consider that at the moment we are looking for medium and small providers. That means that the M&A expected this year is not so high, because the target we are looking are all company enterprise range from, enterprise value from EUR 5 million-EUR 8 million. At the moment we are looking, we prefer to push in this direction to consolidate small and medium provider and not the big one, because at the moment the cost of debt is high, and if you go in this direction, we reduce the risk for the integration. What you saw in Germany, all the co-company acquired smaller, that means more fast integration in the management side of the company, and we mitigate the risk.
Okay. Clear. Thanks.
Mr. Cozzi, there are no more questions registered at this time. Mr. Cozzi, I turn the conference back to you for any closing remarks. Mr. Cozzi, maybe your line is on mute, we cannot hear you.
Okay. Okay. Perfect. We don't have any more question, I thanks all for the join, and see you all soon for the next conference for the Q1. Thanks.