SIA: Consolidated Financial Results at 30 June 2021

SIA’s Board of Directors, meeting under the chairmanship of Federico Lovadina, approved the consolidated financial results at 30 June 2021, which showed strong growth compared to the first half of 2020.

In the first half of 2021, SIA Group reported revenues of €381.6 million, up 13.6% YoY, entirely on an organic basis. Revenues maintained a geographical diversification in line with 2020 (approximately 70% in Italy and 30% abroad).

EBITDA amounted to €145.7 million, up 28.1% on the same period last year, with an EBITDA margin of 38% up 4% over the first half of 2020, driven by payment transaction volumes returning to pre-Covid 19 growth levels.

If variable incentives, not yet defined as of 30 June 2021, to be paid to some customers are taken into account, revenue growth stands at 12.7% and EBITDA growth at 25.4%.

At the level of the market segments in which SIA Group operates, the following results were obtained in the first half of the year:

• Card & Merchant Solutions, representing 68% of the total revenues generated by the Group – approximately split between activities linked to issuing (63%) and acquiring (37%) services – recorded revenues of €260 million, up 16.7% on the same period of 2020. In the first half, the segment benefited from a significant growth in revenues mainly related to issuing transactions (+8% YoY), thanks to the positive trend in volumes and the startup of services for new customers;
• Digital Payments Solutions, representing 20% of the Group’s total revenues, recorded revenues of €76.2 million, up 8.3% on the same period of 2020. The segment was positively impacted by the performance of revenues from volumes managed in particular in Clearing and Gateway services (+19% YoY) and the development of projects in the Clearing and Public Sector areas; 
• Capital Market & Network Solutions, representing 12% of the Group’s total revenues, reported revenues of €45.4 million, up 6.3% on the same period of 2020, due to growth in Network Services volumes (up 241% YoY).

In the first half of 2021, costs amounted to €235.9 million, an increase of 6.2% YoY compared to the same period in 2020 which already included some measures for reduction of non-recurring costs due to the Covid emergency. This rise is due to higher personnel costs (+10.0% YoY) incurred for organic growth and higher operating costs (+2.9% YoY) related to the increase in business activities.

Amortizations and depreciations in the first half of 2021 amounted to €63.2 million, up 11.1% YoY due to the significant investments made in recent years aimed at increasing the performance of the Group’s technology platforms.

Group’s normalized earnings reached €59.2 million, a significant increase compared to the first half of 2020 (+52.6%).

As of 30 June 2021, Net Financial Debt amounted to €910.4 million, compared to €919.1 million at 31 March 2020. The net debt/EBITDA ratio as of June 2021 was 2.9x, down from 3.2x in the previous quarter.

SIA has displayed a high degree of resilience in its business model and its ability to seize the positive trends in the payments segment as well as to initiate and complete new partnerships with banks and major corporates, despite the current ever-changing scenario and the inevitable uncertainty surrounding the speed of recovery.

BUSINESS EVENTS AND INITIATIVES STARTED UP IN THE SECOND QUARTER OF 2021

Corporate events

On 11 June, the Extraordinary Shareholders’ Meeting of SIA approved the merger by incorporation of SIA S.p.A. into Nexi S.p.A. The completion of the merger is conditional on the meeting of certain suspensive conditions standard for transactions of this type, and the obtainment of the related authorizations, including that of the Antitrust Authority concerned.

Business events

Card & Merchant Solutions

BANCOMAT S.p.A. has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with SIA for the creation of a new supply chain for the BANCOMAT^®, PagoBANCOMAT^® and BANCOMAT Pay^® payment and withdrawal systems, capable of re-engineering and modernizing services through the development of a new technology HUB. Also planned is the incorporation of a NewCo, which will manage the processing of payment transactions.

Digital Payment Solutions

SIA and Volante Technologies have signed a partnership agreement that will enable banks, financial institutions and payment service providers to access instant payments, thereby accelerating the adoption of digital payments in Europe.

Capital Market & Network Solutions

The pilot phase of “Fideiussioni digitali” (digital sureties), the project promoted by CeTIF, SIA and Reply – which also saw the involvement of the Bank of Italy, the Institute for the Supervision of Insurance (IVASS) and the Italian Finance Police – to digitalize the surety management process on blockchain, has been successfully concluded.

The new network service SIA Cloudnet has been launched, allowing banks, corporates, public sector bodies and fintechs to connect their cloud-based applications directly to the main domestic and international payment infrastructures.