Buongiorno's EBITDA and Net Profit Continued Steady Growth in the First Nine Months of 2009. Net Financial Debt Decreased by Euro 12 Million Compared to 2008 Year-end Figure
- EBITDA at Euro 29.2 million, up 9.3% vs the first nine months of 2008
- EBITDA for Q3 at Euro 10.6 million
- Net Financial Debt down to Euro 54.7 million
- Consolidated revenues for the first nine months of 2009 at Euro 198.5
million, down 14.8% compared to the same period of 2008 due to
portfolio clean up and changes in accounting principles of some telcos
contracts.
- Revenue for Q3 at Euro 66.1 million
- Operating Profit at Euro 18.6 million: up 2.4% compared to the first
nine months of 2008.
- Net Profit of Euro 7.1 million (up 29% compared to the first nine
months of 2008).
- B2C customers increased over 50% in nine months to more than 8 million.
The Board of Directors of Buongiorno S.p.A. (MTA, Borsa
Italiana: BNG), a leading multinational in digital entertainment, approved
today the figures for the third quarter 2009, drafted in accordance with the
IAS/IFRS.
Economic and Financial Highlights
Buongiorno's consolidated Value of Production in Q3 2009 was
Euro 66.5 million (Euro 75.1 million in the same period of 2008); the figure
for the first nine months of 2009 was Euro 200.2 million (Euro 234.3 million
in the same period of 2008).
Consolidated net revenue fell 11.4% to Euro 66.1 million in Q3
2009 (compared to Euro 74.7 million in Q3 2008); the figure for the first
nine months of 2009 was Euro 198.5 million, compared to Euro 232.8 million
for the first nine months of 2008.
The third quarter of 2009 closed with a normalized
consolidated Ebitda of approximately Euro 10.6 million (Euro 29.2 million for
the first nine months of 2009), a 1.4% increase (9.3% for the first nine
months of 2008) over the Euro 10.4 million figure posted for the same period
of 2008 (Euro 26.7 million for the first nine months of 2008).
Buongiorno's normalized Operating Profit for Q3 2009 was
positive at Euro 6.9 million (Euro 18.6 million for the first nine months of
2009), a 8.7% decrease (however a 2.4% increase over the figure reported for
the first nine months of 2008) compared to Euro 7.6 million for the same
period of 2008 (Euro 18.2 million for the first nine months of 2008).
Consolidated Profit amounted to Euro 2.6 million in Q3 2009,
down 11% compared to the same period of 2008 (Euro 2.9 million). Consolidated
Profit for the first nine months of 2009 was Euro 7.1 million (compared to
Euro 5.5 million for the first nine months of 2008), up 29%.
Personnel Costs, decreased from Euro 12.2 million in Q3 2008
to Euro 12 million in Q3 2009.
Buongiorno continued to focus on improving its cash flow in
the first nine months of 2009. This allowed the company to continue recording
positive operating cash flows and improve its Net Financial debt by Euro 12
million compared to 2008 year-end figure. At September 30, 2009 the company's
Net Financial Debt stood at Euro 54.7 million (compared to Euro 77.5 million
at September 30, 2008) and Euro 66.7 million at December 31, 2008, thanks to
the significant contribution of operating cash flow, which reflects the
company's efforts to maintain its profitability, and a stringent control of
working capital, which allowed Buongiorno to generate cash flow in the first
nine months of 2009 (also due to the use of factoring). In Q3 2009, the
company's Net Financial Debt improved by about Euro 7.5 million.
Buongiorno's investments amounted to Euro 5.9 million in the
first nine months of 2009, while the company continued repaying its debts to
financial institutions. Specifically, it repaid Euro 14.4 million, including
Euro 13 million at the end of June 2009, in conjunction with the structuring
of a new loan granted by a pool of banks headed by Banca IMI (Intesa Sanpaolo
Group).
Market Trends and Group Business Results
In Q3 mobile content market confirmed a pattern of slight
slowdowns in mature markets counterbalanced by growth in emerging markets. To
date, the number of B2C customers served by Buongiorno globally exceeds 8
million, up more than 50% in the first nine months of the year, mainly in
Spain, France, Greece, Portugal, South Africa and Argentina. Furthermore
Buongiorno extended its existing contracts in Frech speaking and English
speaking Africa to include additional major telephone carriers, reaching a
coverage of 16 countries in the continent. Amongst others Buongiorno manages
WAP Orange World portal for Orange, in Cameroon, Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial
Guinea, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Niger, Central African Republic and Senegal;
and the Super Contest in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and Botswana.
The company further enhanced its B2B offering with a
proprietary CRM solution for providers' prepaid customers named Intelligent
Mobile Marketing (IMM), a suite of technology and CRM services installed at
mobile telco operator Telefonica O2 in England in February 2009 and now
installed (in beta version) at Telecom Italia Mobile and other undisclosed
operators raising to 190 the number of contracts for active services
installed at operators globally.
Furthermore, despite the downturn in the advertising market,
B!Digital (formerly Buongiorno Marketing Services), Buongiorno's division
that provides consulting to agencies for marketing campaigns for digital
technologies, finalized a number of significant agreements; of particular
note are those with Real Madrid, for the management of advertising campaigns
within the mobile community MyMadrid (dedicated to the team's fans), and
Parque Reunidos (one of the main amusement-park and water-park companies in
Europe) for the management of a platform that enables interactive
communication with the company's customers in six countries, including Italy,
Spain and the UK.
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