Tinexta S.p.A.

Good morning. This is the Chorus Call Conference Operator. Welcome, and thank you for joining the Tennexta Group Consolidated Results at the 31st of March, 2025 presentation. 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. Joseph Mastrogostino, Chief Investor Relations Officer. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning to all of you. Thank you, operator, and thank you for being here today. Thank you for joining us in NEXA's first quarter results presentation. Here with me today, Odone Polsi, Group Chief Financial Officer.

Good morning, everybody.

As a reminder, the relevant documentation of the first quarter 2025 results can be downloaded from a company website in the investor relations section. For the purpose of this call, I will cover some key strategic items of the call, although instead we'll go over the first quarter 2025 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 kick it off by turning to page five of the presentation. On page five, we highlight some of the key group financial data, starting from revenues, which reached $116 million, growing 17% versus prior year. Even more importantly was EBITDA adjusted and reached $19 million. growing 24% versus prior year. We would like to stress the fact to the market that we are back to operating leverage in terms of EBITDA adjusted. EBITDA on a reported basis reached $17 million, also thanks to a low-level non-recurring, and net profit on an adjusted basis reached $4 billion in the first quarter. Noticeably, net financial position went down from $322 million registered in fiscal year 24 as of December 31st to 291 million as of the first quarter of 25. Still another impressive data point is also free cash flow on adjusted basis, which grew 24% versus the prior year at around 34 million euros. Let me turn to page six of the presentation. Starting again from revenues, revenues reached 115.5 billion, growing 17%. with the contribution of all of the business units to the achievement of the guidance. In fact, the first quarter results represents the first step towards meeting fiscal year targets on a 2025 basis. EBITDA adjusted, reached, as I said, 19 million, growing 24%, with tangible signs of rebound from both the cybersecurity and the business innovation business units. where we expect an acceleration also in the second H, which is accustomed to the business model. EBITDA on a reported basis grew tremendously, growing more than 100% versus the prior year, reaching $17 million, which is considerably due to the lower impact of non-recurring. And EBITDA on an adjusted margin base reached 16.2%, growing almost 100 basis points versus the 15.4 recorded in the prior year. EBIT adjusted reached $8.5 million with a margin of 7.4%. And again, net profit adjusted reached almost $4 million. And net profit on a reported basis improved noticeably versus the loss of $3.1 million recorded in the prior year. Net financial position was strong at $290 million versus the $322 million of the prior year. The decrease in net financial debt in the quarter was driven by cash generation and favorable net working capital dynamics, and also the positive put call option adjustments, which we will discuss later in the call. Free cash flow adjusted reached $34 million. Noticeably, it is important also to highlight that on a 12-month LTM base on March 31st to 25th, the LTM number is close to $50 million or $48.3 million. Net financial position over LTM adjusted EBITDA went down from the 2.8 times on a pro forma basis or the 2.9 on a reported basis to 2.54 out of the first quarter of 2025. In the middle of the slide, we have the three business units. Let's give a nice flash with digital trust growing 6% in revenue, flat-ish EBITDA or slightly growing, with margins going at $29.1 million. We'll discuss heavily in the business unit deep dive when Adona will come. reached the digital trust section. Cybersecurity registered a very strong result, growing 33% on the top line and even more on the EBITDA, which reached 88.5% growth versus the prior year, with a very strong margin at 13.8%. Another very strong performance was also registered in the business innovation department, with revenues growing close to 26%, and EBITDA more than doubling versus the prior year, with margins rebounding back at around 9%. In terms of recent events and updates, I think it's worthwhile highlighting the group-wide rebranding, which has happened at the beginning of April. The aim here is to foster integration and improve the recognition of Tinexta subsidiaries. Today, the group has still three business units, as we all know them, but now these three units oversee five operating companies, namely Tinexta InfoChat, Tinexta Visura, Tinexta Cyber, Tinexta Defense, and then the next innovation hub. In terms of the most recent information in terms of the approval of the distribution of the dividend of 30 cents per share by the ordinary shareholders meeting held in April 14th of 2025, the payment date is starting June the 4th of 2025 and the record date will be June the 3rd of 2025. We also have the approval and the authorization of proposal of purchase and disposal of treasury shares as per the ordinary shareholders' meetings. Turning to page seven, I briefly gave an introduction, but we did an extensive, I would say, work behind the rebranding of the company. It went live at the beginning of April. The concept here is one group, one brand, which will foster integration process aimed at maximizing, first of all, Tenexa's identity and perception in terms of visibility towards the subsidiaries. So obviously there will be strong collaboration in terms of creating a unified corporate culture as well as promoting infragroup synergies and collaborations, which are now a priority for the group. Together with the one group approach, We are focusing mostly on five pillars, an integrated offer, increased awareness, stronger synergies, unified strategies, and also centralized locations, given the very strong investments that we did in the past two years by unifying, for example, the headquarters both in Rome and Milan and now also in France. Going to page eight, I'll just give some flashes here. Revenues and EBITDA adjusted were commented. We're back to operating leverage, which I think is the main takeaway from this slide. And even the net profit of continuing operation strongly improved versus the number registered in the prior year. Turning to page 9, maybe just to give a recap and also to provide a reminder to the market, our business model provides for EBITDA to be strong in the latter part of the year, mostly in the second H, and even more particularly in the end of Q3 and all of Q4. As you can see here, we have More than three years of history data where the 2H, as you can see, has strongly been glowing from 61% of total EBITDA back in 22 to 63 and 23 and to 69%. of relative weight of the second age in 24. This year, the first quarter started well. We are now at the first milestone or the first quarter of the year with 15% of the midpoint of the EBITDA adjusted guidance already achieved with close to 19 million of EBITDA. Let me pause and leave the floor to Adonis, which will go over the financial results. Adonis?

Okay, thank you, Joseph. Good morning again, everybody. So as anticipated by Joseph, you know, this Q1 basically was better than the Q1 last year, both on a like-for-like basis and on a total basis. As you have seen, you know, we are growing double-digit both in revenues and even more in ABTDA that accounted for a couple of things. The increase of ABTDA margin from 15% to 16%, almost 100 basis points increase, and also on a like-for-like basis, we started well with an increase of 8%. Definitely, as you may see here, the EBITDA landed at close to $19 million, growing 24% compared to previous year. We have a slightly different incidence of different costs, also driven by the new revenue mix with the introduction of defense tech during Q1. Non-recurring costs dropped significantly over the first quarter. As anticipated, you know, last year we were investing quite a lot in costs for delivering the acquisition that occurred last year. This year the amount is definitely much lower. CapEx were back to a flat situation compared to to previous years, including also the part of defense tech. So if we are going to remove the defense tech impact, so basically the capex were down on a life-or-life basis compared to previous years. And this was one of the major statement and goals we have achieved. for the year 25 after a year of 24 where we invested significantly in order to renew and to upgrade our platforms and solutions. Financial income and net financial charges increased over the last year. Obviously, we have a couple of things here. For sure, the change of perimeter with the acquisition with ADF and defense tech has impacted this amount. But still, we are having a very interesting tax, a very interesting interest rate in the PNF. At the end, the net profit is slightly improving compared to previous year. If we go on a, let's say, on an adjustment basis, You can see here that, you know, on the change of previous year of adjusting results in term of ABTDA is improving as well as the operating profit is improving by 7%. Like I said, this was driven by higher amortization, including the amortization of the PPA of ABF that has been restated for 24. And this is the results. If we move to balance sheet, you know, all the indicators are positive. The invested capital is dropping by 4%. We have an organic decrease in working capital. help a lot the decline of the net financial position and also you have an organic decrease in net exhausted as a result of lower investment compared to the amortization we had during Q1. Net financial position that is not yet impacted by the dividend distribution that will occur in June. definitely was helped significantly by the strong increase of adjusted free cash flow of the continued operation that peaked at 34 million euro results. No recurring components were very low, and no acquisition occurred during Q1. I would anticipate here the fact that at the end of Q1 we reduce by more than 6 million euro the debt for put linked to Aschezia as I will explain later on. Basically, very interesting that page 14 is definitely the increase of the free cash flow. Like I said, CAPEX remains stable at 6.3 million compared to previous year, but with a different perimeter. And overall, we have a growth of the adjusted free cash flow basically aligned with the growth in terms of percentage of the ABTDA. I think you can see the following page. If we go to the net financial position bridge, page 16, basically here is what I just stated before. Let's move now on LTM basis. I think that free cash flow of adjusted continuing operation is very close to 50 million euro and this is a very positive result also supported by the results of Q1. We distributed last year in the last 12 months more than 30 million euro dividends. And the net results of the acquisition we performed, that is basically defense tech, plus the reduction of put adjustment, where one of the most important parties, ADF, but also Ascensia, accounted for 57 million euro total cost, total impact on the NEPTEP. There are no other significant amounts. But now let's deep dive in the more business-driven situation. Digital trust, as anticipated by Joseph, if we exclude the impact of Ashercia, that I will explain later very well, basically was in the position to fully confirm the results of the last 12 months. of the last 12 quarters, I would say. So digital trust continues a positive growth in the main part of its business with the double-digit growth in a lot of segments of its business with the percentage of profitability that still was there. The results on overall basis was impacted from a different timing of sales of Ascertia. Ascertia last year delivered a very strong Q1. This year was not the case, for people who knows the business of Ascelsia, the business of Ascelsia has a recurring base of revenues, but it's really important the sale that we deliver our product and license that may differ year on year on a quarterly basis. The management of both are absolutely confident that the sales that were performed last year in Q1 and not performed this year in Q1 2025 will occur down the road and they will achieve the budget with a different calendarization. Again, if we exclude Ascensia, the business of Infocert continued as the last quarter with the growth in the range of slightly below 10% and the EBITDA growing by by more than 10%. The impact of Ascelsia on the EBITDA here has been in the range of 1.5 million profitability in one single quarter, and so this will be recovered during the year. I would also point it out here that as clearly stated when we presented the plan, the capex went down from 4.2 million to 3.3 million, exactly aligned with what we were expecting. On the cybersecurity overall, we have, you know, a bunch of very good news. important thing is the, and I think everybody was really interested in this, is the results of DefenseTech, the newly acquired company of our group. DefenseTech delivered a very strong Q1, totally aligned with our expectation, I would say slightly better in terms of revenue and slightly also in terms of EBITDA. The company is meeting the goals and the targets that we set at the beginning of the year. The company is properly delivering. The backlog, as I shared during the conference call of the presentation of the plan, is well above last year. And as last year, the results of Asherzia, of, sorry, of were public, even though in a different accounting principle. In any case, the results in terms of EBITDA was tripled compared to previous year. So, we have a growth of revenue in excess of 50% and the EBITDA basically tripled. The cash generation of our shares is positive, so we are very glad of this result, and we are aiming to continue on the same path. Also, good news came from, you know, the business of cybersecurity that is in the perimeter since three, four years of the group. Revenues on a like-for-like basis were slightly down. This was not basically a surprise for us. And as is very clear stated here, the decline is more in product distribution in security solutions that were carrying a very low margin. Overall, so the company delivered a contribution slightly above last year, but as clearly anticipated during the plan presentation, the company is working very well in cost reduction, and so the profitability went up more than 16% that is aligned with our expectation and with our goals. Definitely we are talking about Q1 that everybody knows is not the stronger quarter of the year, but the start and the kickoff of the year has been positive, aligned, and the Basically, the result of the action that we put in place in cost management has contributed to the result. So, cybersecurity, very, very good move, very good start. Let's move to business innovation. Also, business innovation, on, you know, overall view is delivering an improvement versus the previous year. Definitely, as we know, is the lower quarter of the year, so it is not, you know, the weight of this quarter is not so significant compared the full year, but any case, the good start is encouraging towards the results that we are aiming to achieve. First of all, we have a recovery in the area of finance and grant, and this is very important. Still, 4.0 and 5.0 industries are in line overall with the expectation of Q1, but there is a long way to go to achieve the results. We are ready. The level of incoming order is satisfactory. For us, probably the complexity of the overall situation in terms of regulatory issues as well as in terms of what is going to be expected from the Italian government is putting some kind of, you know, a little bit of uncertainty. But this was already factored, I would say, in our plan. If we talk about ABF, both revenue and margins are improved compared to previous year. So this is still a good news. Obviously, the overall picture in France is not improved from the government standpoint. The incentives related to France 2030 are still under review from the government and this, in effect, as the success rate of the filing of this project has been lower than previous years, but the company was able to filing more projects and more value compared to previous years. Obviously, we are following strictly the situation. We put in place also action for cost containment while we are pushing a lot in our capability to get mandate and orders from the customer and also I would say this is improving time value. Overall, like I said, we were able to more than double the results, also with the help of a small change of perimeter at very low cost, basically. And this is the results of the first one. So I leave now to Joseph for the closing remarks.

Thank you, O'Donnell. So going to page 23. As already approved by the Board of Directors yesterday and published on the press release which was issued yesterday, we confirmed 2025 target and therefore the guidance. On page 23, let's go over some of the numbers. Revenues for the year at a group level consolidated, therefore, are expected to be 11% and 13%. of which 79% organic, EBITDA adjusted, again, back to operating leverage, 15% to 17% growth expected versus the prior year, of which 10% to 12% organic, and then financial debt over EBITDA adjusted or leverage ratio anywhere between 2.2 to 2.4 times. Let me close and wrap up the call and then open up the call to Q&A with some closing remarks on page 24. I would say that there was strong recovery of operational efficiency at a group level with first quarter results, with strong contribution driven by the cybersecurity as well as the BIA's rebound. We went over extensively what happened to digital trust. This is a momentary, temporary effect with contracts to be having their effect in the later quarters of the year thanks to Asestia. But as we said, ex Asestia, digital trust still performed very well. Decrease in net financial debt was driven by strong cash generation and favorable net working capital, as well as the positive put call adjustments. We still have very strong, and this is, I think, more of a high-level comment, which supports the Capital Markets Day and, therefore, the plan, regulatory tailwinds in building momentum in the relevant markets as a leverage to establish us as a pan-European ICT player. And then also very strong tangible results from the infragroup synergy, specifically in the cybersecurity business units, which reinforce our single corporate strategy and culture that we just mentioned in terms of branding. I will leave it to the operator to open, please, the Q&A. Please.

Thank you, sir. This is the course 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, press star and two. Please pick up the receiver when asking questions. The first question is from Isacco Brambilla of Mediobanca.

Hi, good morning, everybody. Thanks for the presentation. That was very comprehensive. Two questions on my side. The first one is on cybersecurity, on the legacy business, Can you elaborate a bit more on the strategy to turn first quarter organic decline into the top line organic growth embedded in your guidance? Second question is on business innovation. This segment had an impressive rebound in turnover in the first quarter. That said, profitability remains below the levels we were used to see until 2023. Can you elaborate a bit more on the reasons for that? Sorry if I missed it during the presentation. Did you mention the EBITDA in absolute terms of ABF? Is it still a burden for profitability of the division?

Okay, thank you for your question. I start from the first one related to the revenue of the legacy business. Probably I was not able to make myself clear during the presentation. Like I said, the decline compared to the previous year is mostly related to this page. In the page, there is an indication that security solutions were done by 15% with contraction of services and products So, the contraction of product 25% was the main driver. Obviously, we are not at all happy of the contraction of the services part. I would say that on the recurring revenue, we are still fine. We have been a little bit lower in advisory services during Q1. This is something that was disappointed definitely for us. The pipeline is quite interesting. We have a lot of opportunity there on the market. So we were down by 4%. Like I said, it's not good news. But again, the Q1 is the lower quarter of the year. So we have all the opportunity and room to recover here. We increase the capabilities of the sales part of the cybersecurity. A new manager in sales, a sales director has been appointed just early last week. And, you know, we are expecting that a lot of offers that we have outside will be turned into orders very quickly. But in any case, you are right, this is a point of attention, but we have been very capable to counterbalance this with a significant cost containment. On the business innovation, definitely the margin is down is low in Q1, but here is basically a matter of I would say, is a matter of seasonality. You know, the fixed cost that we have cannot be covered as the Q2 and Q4 that are the main quarters of the division. In any case, the profitability has improved in terms of marginality compared to previous year. Maybe yes. On ADF, we had an increase of revenue compared to previous year. Part of this came from a delay of Q4-24, and the profitability is still negative in term of EBITDA in Q1, but this is, you know, a seasonality that we would expect. In any case, it's improving by like of half a million euro compared to previous year.

Okay, thanks very much, Odone.

The next question is from Andrea Bonfa of Banca Acros.

Hi, good morning, Joseph, Odone. Very quickly, most of my questions have already been answered by your presentation. Just a technical curiosity. The benefit in the cash flow from the lower put, let's say, potential outflow on Ashertia, the 6 million and something, will that be permanent or how does it work? If Ashertia recovers the performance, do you need to add that back or if you can comment on that? Thank you very much.

Okay. Thank you, Andrea. Very good point here because, you know, I didn't comment in depth on this. Like I was saying, so basically we were missing ABTDA in Q1 25, but March 25 was the expiring date of the put and call. So if from one side we miss a good result in Q1, from the other side we had the permanent benefit of 6 million. So we are going to exercise in the next weeks the call. And the call will cost, allow me to use this term, will cost 6 million less than in the past. If the company would have delivered that 1.5 million more EBITDA, we will have the cost that we had at the end of Q4 24. So it's a permanent benefit. Obviously, it's not in the free cash flow, because the free cash flow is just from the operation. This is on the other part of the debt. Thank you very much. You're welcome.

The next question is from Russell Planton of Edison Group.

Good morning, Adone and Joseph. I have three questions, if that's okay. First of all, on cybersecurity, apologies if I should know this already but I'm interested in the press release you talk about the success in the tender for cyber security services in Italy could you talk about the implications of that for the business positioning and from a financial perspective going forward and then two more general at the corporate level first on the corporate rebrand there's obviously been a big focus on cross-selling between the divisions for some time now but Could you just talk about what has changed that will enable you to better coordinate cross-selling activities across the divisions? And the third question is on the working capital, the organic decrease that you saw in Q1. Could you just talk a bit more about what drove that specifically and should we expect to see that to continue for the rest of the year? Thanks.

So let me take the first two and then Aldona will go over the last one related to, you know, some networking capital, et cetera. So let's start with, you know, the cybersecurity part. You mentioned the tender. We were, as you can see, we are reporting both on one side business as usual, which means that the next cyber business unit and also the next defense, which is now you know, fully under our control. I would start by saying that, you know, the first quarter actually saw first tangible results in terms of group synergies, which is, you know, a bit also the answer to the second question that you had where these synergies, cybersecurity, in particular defense tech, was able to be awarded a tender called the next Ingenieria de Sistemi. which, as you probably know, entails European Union agency for cybersecurity matter. And in this case, we will supply cybersecurity services. I think the market is very accustomed also to what was defense tech when it was listed. A lot of the projects coming from defense tech have national security clearance. We wanted, though, to give you some color on a qualitative basis and also on the process on the tendering side of Tenexta Defense. And therefore, now that is under the perimeter of Denexa Defense, we can see that there have been some strong contributions also from the tendering part. Now, when we talk about synergies and the idea of one brand, one corporate culture, I think one of the divisions that is mostly showing the results of some first tangible synergies is, in fact, the cybersecurity. Thanks to the access that we have to the public administration, given, I would say, Defense Tech's role, and also the providing of services and products of CYBER, we are able today to sit down and be considered in certain, I would say, tenders that before were, you know, they were a potential, but they definitely were much harder to achieve. So, you know, there is work in progress, but I think the fact that we are utilizing now a year's worth of collaboration and also, you know, pulling together resources as well as know-how can help us get, you know, into, a much more, I would say, tendering process probability in the near future. The rebranding part, as you were saying, focuses on that, but it also focuses on creating, I would think, some rationality, right? I mean, this is a group that has grown tremendously in the past years. We grew both organically, but mostly also through M&A. So now we needed also to come out with a more unified, more identifiable, and greater awareness in terms of also brand, right? So you can see that Tinexta brand is now everywhere, and it helps also in the outside market to be much more recognized and also be identified as a more cohesive group. More will come, definitely. We are very convinced and committed on that. It will take some time. I mean, the rebranding was a lengthy process. It came live in April. But I think going forward, we can represent a one-stop shop, I would say, boutique, both of cyber, digital trust, and consultancy and services that can address the market needs. Let me stop there. I think, Adonis, did you want to go over the last?

Absolutely. Sorry, Joseph, may I just, before Adonis starts on the working capital, so does that mean divisional people are now more incentivized to cross-sell?

I mean, we already have a cross-selling committee which closely monitors the different projects. I mean, it goes back to the different souls of the companies that we bought in the past. I mean, let's just look at the three business units that we had under cyber. I mean, we bought three companies. There were three different corporate cultures. It took some time. We were very frank with the market, and we came out by saying, you know, it takes It's going to take a longer period of time, and, you know, we extensively worked on this, and today these three corporate cultures are one, right? There is, as we've done in suspension, the new director of sales. So I don't think it just stops the commitment. it goes beyond commitment and it goes to being identified as a one group, right? Rather than being, oh, I'm, you know, company A versus company B or company C that was bought in 20X or 20Y, you know what I'm saying? So it's not just the incentive part, it's just being more in, you know, in a cohesive group. I also want to take the chance to highlight that, you know, some of you guys have also been, you know, present during our Capital Markets Day. And, you know, having unified under one headquarters in Milan and one in Rome, all the people is fostering collaboration by definition. Is that in a meeting room? Is that in a phone booth? Or is that, you know, having lunch together? So it took time. It was an extensive job from Adlon in first, you know, to go over and stress the fact that, you know, we needed to be under one building. That's where we're actually going. So I think it goes over beyond the commitment part. At the same time, maybe I think one last word that needs attention is accountability. Being part and being committed is one thing. Being incentivized is one thing, but being also accountable for what our group results, specifically after last year's performance, I think is even more of a priority today.

Let's move to the third question, Russell. Two things are important here. Q1 generally, in terms of working capital decline compared to the end of Q4, is, like I said, really physiological. You know, during Q4, we have the peak of the revenue of the group, and as in Italy, we have a delay from invoicing to cashing. Q1 is the best quarter of the year in terms of cashing, because we are cashing what we have billed to customers in Q4. So what is important is for us to compare quarter-on-quarter compared to the previous year. As you may see at the page where we are comparing the Q1-24 to Q1-25 in terms of free cash flow, adjusted free cash flow, it's very important that we are able to improve by 24% compared to previous year. So this is even slightly better than our expectation in Q1, and we are very glad of it. And then we are trying to improve quarter over the same quarters of the previous year, the management of the working capital.

Thank you, Tony.

The next question, sorry, is from Alexandra Arsova of Equita.

Hi. Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. Three questions. The first one is maybe a very general one on how do you see the results change in the general, let's say, competitive scenario and perspective of the digital trust in Italy. Recently, we saw this transaction where Namirial, one of the other main players in digital trust in Italy, was acquired by Bain. Just a guess on it on your site and if you see some potential changes in how Namirial will in strategy and in general competitive scenario. This is the first one. The second one is on Germany, which is not a core market where you are active in. But since now there will be, there is the new government and they are launching this fiscal stimulus. So I was wondering if in your business innovation division, you are planning to do something to target this market. I know that you're on the leverage path on, so maybe new acquisitions is not the way, but I don't know any guess on this. And the third one, just understand better when you were speaking before of general synergies or synergies cost efficiencies on the revenue part, so cross-selling, the new brand and everything is very clear. But maybe on the cost side, since your business is mainly a people business, so with cost efficiencies and synergies, do you imply, I don't know, a personalized restructuring plan or some other kind of cost efficiencies? Thank you.

Okay, let me take a stab, and then Aldona will kick in whenever he wants. Digital trust, yeah, great market, as we all know. I think the fact that we've seen this very important transaction, I think, actually justifies and confirms the business model, right? Not even going to get into the numbers, but I think the fact that, you know, such an asset was valued at that number or presumably at that number is, I think, also confirmation of the fact of how important these assets are. Now, Infochet, beyond any doubt, represents today the leading company in Europe by far. As we've said, I think, many years ago, and this is still a valid comment today, this is a very very fragmented market. And fragmented market means many operators are out there. There are some high barriers of entry to a certain extent when you look at jurisdictions, geographies, et cetera. and also because there is a different level and speed of visualization around and across Europe. Say country A is much more advanced than country B, great. Therefore, valuations may vary and differ very much. Now, all this to say that there is sufficient space out there. We are very happy of what goes on if the market is, I would say, healthy and interesting by far because, you know, that means that there is a close attention also to these types of assets. They don't come cheap. They never have and probably still will not come cheap. But it actually testifies the fact that we are in a market that is still very strongly growing, you know, and that is even more supported by the continuous we have now done countless quarters of high single-digit, low double-digit organic growth in terms of Infojet. So this is definitely a market that is growing. Competition can be healthy because it drives innovation. For that matter, if you all might recall, during 2024, Digital Trust was already at the head of the curve. They spent more capex than we actually had before. we're looking at in a normalized year, and that was because we also want to be ahead of the curve, right? Ahead of the curve means technology, ahead of the curve means the right services, and also driving to a certain extent market, no? I'm thinking about the evolution of the certified emails, I'm thinking about the evolution also of, you know, of developed signatures, that are a blockbuster in Italy but, you know, may have a strong application. Just look at, you know, France. We always consider France a very interesting market. This year, during the Capital Markets Day, we highlighted the importance of e-invoicing becoming mandatory in certain countries, for example, France, while it has been mandatory in the Middle East since 2018. So there are a lot of also, I would say, regulatory tailwinds that help us, right? And a more efficient market means, you know, a better space to work with. We still have the competitive edge of being where we are in terms of competition and market share and positioning. But, you know, markets are always there. Germany and BI, honestly, Alexandra, no real comment on that, to be honest. We don't really comment on that. We have a focus on BI going back to marginality, strongly emphasizing our local presence in Italy, And we've already seen, and, you know, Aldona just commented on the fact that we have a fixed cost structure to a certain extent in BI. So we need top line to grow. We are in the midst of 5.0 to 4.0. So now 4.0 is to a certain extent more appealing and more applicable, let me put it this way, than we had thought. So, you know, it's a changing environment. So I would still say to stay focused on that system.

Let me give us a second for your last question on synergies, right?

Alexandra, you were asking more of how they will play out given that we have cost structure in terms of synergies for the group in general or for specifically the... This is the point.

In general, as a group... Okay, so very clear. Let's start from digital draft. You know, Digital TAS is continuing to grow at a very high pace. Nevertheless, the management of Digital TAS is addressing since last year a lot of plans in order to try to synergize among different companies of the business unit. You know, I can tell you that especially on the national level now all the projects of applications, software development, solution development are under the same umbrella and management. And this is bringing definitely a lot of synergy and cost saving, and this is basically how one of the tools that Digital Trust and Infojet are utilizing in order to improve the marginality that, as you can see, is growing much faster than the rest. If we go to digital trust, I'm talking about the legacy cyber business because, you know, on the cyber business, definitely we, as you have seen in our comments of results, we were able to strongly reduce the impact of SG&A. And this is an action that has been taking place over the last six months by the management of the view, and the results are really satisfactory and positive. And this is, you know, a very balanced manager of the situation because we have some segments that are growing very fast. On the business innovation, as you can see, we are definitely lowering a bit the replacement of the turnover, and this is something that is happening. But as you can see here, the revenue has started to grow again. So when we are playing in the services environment, you know, the revenue is growing if you have people that are delivering the services. So it's a very balanced management on this, but the most important thing that the group on a quarter-of-quarter basis was able to improve by almost 100 basis points. And this is part of the cost management and control of the company.

Okay, very clear. Thank you.

The next question is from Carlo Maritano of Intermonte.

Hi, good morning, Odone and Joseph. I just have one question. It is related to InfoChart. If I remember correctly, since it's been three years since Bregal acquired the minority stake, I was wondering if you intend to exercise eventually this option and to buy back the minorities, or what's your strategy on that? Thank you.

Okay, very clear question. You know, we are not yet in the phase where this will occur next year. We are not yet in the phase where we are going to take this decision. I think several points are on the table. And, you know, we, the board of directors and the shareholders of InfoShare, we are going to take the decision at the proper moment.

Okay, thank you. Just a quick follow-up. Is there a formula that is already clear on how to calculate eventually the value in case you decide the exercise, or is it the result of negotiation with the counterpart?

Thank you. Let's say that something... very standard as when they acquired the first stake in eForex. There are some adjustments that will be managed down the road at the proper moment.

Okay. Very clear. Thank you, Badroun.

As a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, please press star and one on your touch-tone telephone. For any further questions, please press star and one on your telephone. We have a follow-up question from Isacco Brambilla of Mediobanca.

Hi, Isacco. A quick follow-up. Considering the strong free cash flow generation of the first quarter, Net financial position in absolute terms already stands in the region of the level implied by your guidance for full year 2025. In light of the confirmation of leverage guidance today, should we think that if the solid transit frequency regeneration continues, this may leave room for some bolt-on M&A from now until the end of the year?

Okay, let's put it this way. We are very glad of the results of Q1, but the year is very long and a lot of things have to occur. Obviously, we have the proper tools and strategy to be in a position to achieve the guidance, and probably we may have the opportunity to be in the lower part of the guidance of the ratio, but again, we are at the beginning of the year, and still a lot of things have to happen. In terms of acquisition, let's say that... Tinex is always open in some specific area to look at potential acquisition. If you are aiming, as we are aiming at 2.2 leverage by the end of the year, I would say that, you know, The situation is quite safe, and the company has restarted this quarter, the previous quarter, to generate cash and generate an increase of revenue and EBITDA. It's up to the Board of Directors to decide if they want to raise and increase the leverage. But, you know, you know the market and you know that there is room for increasing this. But again, it's a matter of the Board of Directors.

Understood. Thanks.

Gentlemen, at this time, there are no more questions registered.

Thank you very much. So we would like to thank you again for connecting to our conference call. If you need any additional information, don't hesitate to contact me, and we will be available. Have a good afternoon. Bye.