CAREL: continuing growth in 2021

CAREL Industries Board of Directors approved the consolidated results as of 31 December 2021.

Francesco Nalini, Group Chief Executive Officer, commented: “The year 2021 was characterised by different and contrasting phenomena. On one hand, the spread of the vaccine against COVID-19 prevented new closures of industrial and manufacturing plants and fuelled a strong recovery of the world economy. On the other, the shortage of raw materials, especially electronic materials, has halted global growth, which has also been put under pressure by the rise in inflation. This complex and sometimes contradictory context makes the results achieved by the Group even more significant: in fact, consolidated revenues at the end of 2021 grew by 26.8 percent (21.9 percent within the same scope of consolidation), which, thanks mainly to the phenomenon of operating leverage, was reflected in profitability, equal to 21.0 percent. This performance derives first and foremost from the ongoing implementation of CAREL’s strategy of diversification, internationalisation, and production mirroring, which has enabled the company to increase its resilience, in addition to its ability to seize the opportunities offered by the decidedly positive trends in all applications, including heat pumps, data centres, indoor air quality and the strong recovery of investments in refrigeration linked to the food retail sector. Particularly important was also growth through M&A: in 2021, in fact, two important transactions were completed, the acquisition of 100 percent of the share capital of ENGINIA, an Italian company specialised in components for air control units, and 51 percent of the share capital of CFM, one of the most important Turkish distributors, long-time partner of the Group, specialised in digital and on-field services.

Finally, net debt rose from € 49.6 million in 2020 to € 57.8 million mainly due to the cash-out relating to the acquisitions of Enginia and CFM (approximately € 35 million) and an increase of around € 15 million in net working capital, resulting from both the increase in revenues and an increased level of inventory to better manage the global shortages of electronic material. These elements were largely covered by significant generation of cash flow.

Finally, with the aim of giving a broader view of the main achievements in terms of sustainability, it is also worth mentioning that in 2021, CAREL entered into its first “sustainability-linked loan”, a loan agreement for 20 million euro characterised by the application of a mechanism that provides for the reduction of the interest rate upon the achievement of annual quantitative targets in regarding social sustainability, which in this case will concern the gender balance within the Group.

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