(Alliance News) - Intercos Spa reported Tuesday that it closed the first quarter with revenues of EUR221.1 million compared with revenues of EUR234.6 million in the same period last year.

The performance was affected by the cyber attack and the consequent slowdown in production and billing processes: in the absence of this event, which mainly affected production sites dedicated to make-up located in Italy and the U.S., and in view of the orders in the portfolio, sales would have been up compared to the first quarter of 2023.

Adjusted Ebitda for the first quarter was EUR20.8 million. Again, the downtime of the information systems and the inefficiency this entailed throughout the month of resolution of the problem related to the cyber attack suffered resulted in temporarily slower and more onerous production and transformation processes. Adjusted Ebitda was thus down EUR9 million compared to the first three months of the previous year. Adjusted Ebitda as a percentage of net sales was 9.4 percent, also temporarily down from March 31, 2023, for the same reasons.

Net financial position was EUR102.7 million, broadly in line with the December 31, 2023 closing balance of EUR100.2 million and slightly up from the March 31, 2023 NFP of EUR96.7 million. Leverage is 0.80 times.

The group confirms its revenue expectations for the year 2024, which forecast net sales growth compared to 2023, at constant exchange rates, in the range of 6 percent to 8 percent, despite the impact due to the cyber-attack in the first quarter of 2024.

The trend in orders confirms the expected recovery: in January-February and March-April 2024, the company's order intake amounted to EUR133 million and EUR142 million, respectively, a significant increase over last year. This growth was led by the Make-up business unit, which contributed EUR32 million in growth over the four months partly due to reorders from prestige customers; the skincare business unit also grew, reporting EUR12 million in increased orders over the same period.

As of April, the company's current order backlog stands at EUR356 million, the highest level ever even during the most complex order fulfillment periods due to supply chain difficulties. As a result, the backlog is up EUR37 million over last year.

By Giuseppe Fabio Ciccomascolo, Alliance News senior reporter

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