MILAN, Italy– The Board of Directors of Italmobiliare S.p.A, the parent company of Caffè Borbone, reviewed and approved on March 4, 2021, the consolidated financial statements and the draft financial statements of the Company at December 31, 2020. Italmobiliare S.p.A. is an investment holding company listed on the Milan Stock Exchange owner of a majority stake in Caffè Borbone, one of the top names on the national market and a leading supplier of single serve coffee.
Net Asset Value (Nav)
At December 31, 2020 the Net Asset Value of Italmobiliare S.p.A. amounted to 1,838.2 million euro, up by 97.2 million euro compared with December 31, 2019 (1,741.1 million euro). The increase in NAV, following the distribution of ordinary and extraordinary dividends by Italmobiliare S.p.A. for a total of 76 million euro, mainly concerned the increase of 381 million in the Portfolio Companies, linked to the growth in the value of Caffè Borbone and Sirap and the new investments in Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella S.p.A., Callmewine S.r.l. and Casa della Salute S.r.l. (around 199 million euro). The component linked to HeidelbergCement AG decreased (about -81 million following the sale of shares for a total of 62.3 million euro and because of the reduction in the market value of 18.9 million euro). The carrying amount of financial assets, trading instruments and cash at the end of 2020 was around 387 million, not including the proceeds from the sale of Sirap assets.
At December 31, 2020, excluding treasury shares and after dividend payments of 1.8 million euro, NAV per share comes to 43.5 euro, an increase of 5.02% compared with the figure at December 31, 2019 (equivalent to an increase of 9.4% before dividends).
Summary Of Results
Italmobiliare S.p.A. closed 2020 with a profit of 31.5 million (compared with 19.7 million in 2019). The profit before tax was 26.1 million, compared with 30.6 million at the end of 2019. Net income and charges from equity investments are positive for 48.8 million euro, an increase of over 40 million euro compared with 8.1 million euro at December 31, 2019, due to the revaluation of certain investments (+18.6 million euro at December 31, 2020 against -14.3 million euro at December 31, 2019) and the increase in dividends (+7.8 million euro).
Net gains and losses on investments of cash and cash equivalents, on the other hand, have decreased by 39.7 million euro, mainly due to the reduction in profitability of investment and private equity funds (-26.6 million euro) and the negative performance of held-for-trading investments (-6.0 million euro) and exchange rates (-8.0 million euro).
Other income and expense are negative for 30.2 million euro, an increase of 5.4 million euro compared with the previous year, mainly due to higher costs not relating to ordinary operations of 5.8 million euro (MBO and LTI payouts referring to the previous three years and donations).
At December 31, 2020 the net financial position of Italmobiliare S.p.A. is positive for 387.2 million, compared with 569.6 million at the end of 2019.
The main flows include the sale of HeidelbergCement shares (62 million euro) and investments for the acquisitions of Officina Santa Maria Novella (161 million euro), Casa della Salute (23.7 million euro), Callmewine (13.3 million euro) and Florence (13.8 million euro).
At a consolidated level, taking into account the overall positive performance of the portfolio companies, equity attributable to the owners of the parent company has risen to 68.3 million from 63.5 million at the end of 2019 and the consolidated equity attributable to the owners of the parent company amounts to 1,330.4 million (1,358.7 million at the end of 2019).
The other main economic results of the Italmobiliare Group are:
- Revenue and income: 575.5 million (565.9 million at December 31, 2019)
- Gross operating profit: 106.0 million (125.9 million)
- Operating profit: 69.4 million (97.1 million).
Dividend
The Board of Directors of Italmobiliare will propose to the Shareholders’ Meeting of April 21, 2021 a dividend of 0.65 euro per share, to be taken from the profit for an amount of 27.4 million.
The dividend will be paid on May 5, 2021, going ex-coupon on May 3, 2021 (with a record date of May 4, 2021).
Performance of the portfolio companies
Generally speaking, 2020 was a positive year for the portfolio companies, despite the impact of the current health emergency being significant, in particular on Santa Maria Novella, Tecnica and Iseo. Looking at the pro-forma aggregate:
- 2020 revenues amounted to 1.515 million euro, a decrease of 5.4% on 2019;
- Gross operating profit stood at 255.1 million euro, an overall improvement of 45.7 million euro compared with the previous year (+21.8%);
- Positive cash flow of 165.1 million euro, gross of the payment of 42.1 million of dividends in 2020.
Caffè Borbone (60%)
The trajectory of Caffè Borbone – one of the main specialist producers of compatible coffee capsules and pods – has not been slowed down by the emergency that characterised 2020; Caffè Borbone closed with revenue of 219.3 million euro (+27% on the previous year).
At the level of distribution channels, both online and mass retailing are growing at above average rates (+64% on 2019). At a product level, pods remain the main product, with a growth rate in line with the average; the performance of capsules was also positive.
Sales of coffee beans, which already had a limited weight on the company’s total revenues, went down due to the overall slowdown of the Ho.Re.Ca. channel linked to the health emergency. Gross operating profit was 75.1 million euro, up by 44% compared with 2019: profit margins improved significantly to 34% (+4.1% compared with 2019), thanks to the further increase in the operating margin and the effect of scale on overheads. Net of amortisation and depreciation, which have gone up slightly, operating profit was 66.0 million euro, up 52% compared with 2019.
Profit for 2020 came to 90.5 million euro (34.2 million in 2019). Investments totalled 13.4 million euro, up on 2019 as the plan to expand production capacity was speeded up during 2020. Net financial debt at December 31, 2020 amounted to 11.8 million euro, with positive cash generation during the year of 39.8 million euro, gross of the 20 million euro of dividends paid in 2020.
