(Finance) – LINElisted on Euronext STAR Milan and active in the sale of items for the visual and plastic arts, creativity and design, has registered normalized revenues equal to 595 million euros in first nine months of 2022, + 19.8% compared to the same period of the previous year (+ 12.3% at constant exchange rates). Significant growth in Asia + 88.1% and Central and South America + 74.1%, thanks to strong progress, in particular in the School & Office segment, in India and Mexico, essentially flat on 9M 2021 Europe and North America .
L’Normalized EBITDA was equal to 95.5 million euros, + 5% (+ 0.7% at constant exchange rates) compared to the first nine months of 2021, marginality in 9M 2022 to 16.1% (18.3% in 9M 2021). The increase in sales lists and the attention paid to managing G&A costs partially offset the inflationary effect of raw materials and transport and the growth in personnel costs, particularly in the United States, India and Mexico to support turnover growth. L’normalized net profit amounted to 43 million euros, up 5.9%.
“We close an excellent nine-month report, taking into account the great macroeconomic difficulties – commented the CEO Massimo Candela – The School business, as in the forecasts, has substantially held both in the top line and in the margins, while in the Fine Art business the destocking phenomenon due to the bubble of the COVID period has finally been exhausted and we expect a return to organic growth in all reference markets“.
“Management believes that, although inflation has started to decline today, this is still a structural phenomenon that will characterize the next few years and therefore the group has begun to focus more attention on the reduction of working capital and on efficiency rather than on business growth tout court – he added – The performance of the last quarter of the year does not present significant elements compared to expectations “.
L’Net financial debt at 30 September 2022 it was equal to 413.9 million euros (excluding the IFRS 16 effect equal to 97 million euros) compared to 340.1 million euros at 31 December 2021 (excluding the IFRS 16 effect equal to 87, 3 million euros and the negative effect of the Mark to Market Interest Hedging equal to 9.9 million euros).