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Airtificial Group

Airtificial scores a positive operating income

Madrid, March 21st, 2024. Airtificial closed 2023 with a positive operating income (€1.5 m), the best since its Initial Public Offering, and has achieved four consecutive years of steady improvements in its results. The geographic and product and service diversification strategy has proved successful, and the Company’s revenues have risen by 9% compared to 2022, exceeding €100 m. The Group’s EBITDA has also risen to €6.3 m, which represents an increase of 81% compared to 2022 driven by improved gross margins, highlighting the effort made to maximize business profitability. In addition, Airtificial has generated, for the first time, a positive operating cash flow of €2.5 m in 2023, as opposed to the negative operating cash flow of €12.3 m in the previous year. The Company faces a good year ahead with an already awarded order backlog of €177 m at the close of 2023, up by 2% over the €173 m registered at the end of 2022. These results demonstrate the Company’s ability to adapt, its progressive improvement in operating efficiency, and the scalability of its business in a context of economic uncertainty, inflation, and rising interest rates. 

Increase in EBITDA 

The Group’s EBITDA improvement was driven by the respective positive EBITDA of each of Airtificial’s three business units. Intelligent Robots, Aerospace & Defense and Civil Works all improved upon their positive 2022 figures, further highlighting the positioning, operational improvement, and industrial strength of each of them in their respective areas of engineering and technology. In addition, improved gross margins and indirect cost containment were catalysts for the 81% increase in EBITDA compared to 2022. This generated a positive group-wide operating profit of €1.5 m in 2023, which was further strengthened by a positive operating income in each of the three business units.  

Intelligent Robots led the three divisions’ EBITDA growth with a profit of €5.6 m, representing an EBITDA of 11% of sales. This marks an increase of 56% compared to the €3.6 m in the same period of the previous year and was driven by a decrease in procurement costs and operating expenses in this business unit’s operations.  

Aerospace & Defense achieved a positive result of €3 m, improving by 50% compared to the €2 m registered in 2022, thanks to increased sales in strategic projects, a reinforcement of its positioning in mobility and defense sectors, and despite the extraordinary in operating costs.  

Lastly, Civil Works achieved an EBITDA of €1.2 m, a 50% increase on the €0.8 m registered in 2022. The increase in gross margins and the project selection strategy has enabled the unit to substantially raise the operating performance of its business, going from an EBITDA margin on sales of 5% in 2022 to 8%.  

Group revenue rises by 9% 

The ongoing international expansion strategies, customer and product diversification, and operational transversality implemented in past years continue to show positive results at Group level. Airtificial has consequently increased its revenue to €100.1 m in 2023, up by 9% from the €91.9 m registered in 2022. 

In the breakdown by business unit, Intelligent Robots is the division that contributed the most, with revenues of €52.2 m, an increase of 4% from the €50.2 m in the previous year. The unit, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2023, drove revenue growth thanks to the execution of high-value industrial projects linked to automotive electrification. In fact, this year, the unit has signed the largest contract in its history for an innovative project related to electric vehicles in Portugal. The Intelligent Robots unit has substantially improved the positioning and recognition of its capabilities and innovation solutions among the world’s leading Tier 1 and end-manufacturers due to the quality and optimization of its services. 

In second place is the Aerospace & Defense division, which registered revenues of €32.6 m, up by 26% from the €25.9 m registered in 2022. This increase was driven by sales in strategic defense and mobility projects, two sectors that are growing worldwide, and on which the division has key programs featuring high-value technological and engineering solutions. Defense programs and solutions, such as advanced flight control sticks, have improved customer exposure and confidence in a highly competitive industry.  

Civil Works is the only unit that, despite improving its EBITDA ratio, presents a very similar turnover to that of the previous year with a total of €15.3 m, 3% less than the €15.8 m registered in 2022. This performance reflects the strategy of the business unit, which focuses its activity on civil engineering sectors related to environmental compliance, integrated management of water resources, and sustainable development. Specifically, this division has a leading position in water engineering, which is crucial in markets such as Spain, Peru, and Colombia, among others in Latin America. Moreover, the unit offers digital and technological capabilities aligned with the Group and has already executed projects related to the development of big data digital platforms for the management of air quality control and measurement data in Spain and Latin America. 

In light of this year’s increased revenue, Airtificial has managed to keep procurement in line with the previous year, boosting operational efficiency and strengthening the Company’s financial stability throughout the year. This demonstrates the Group’s ability to strategically manage resources and highlights its ability to adapt to the changing market dynamics, promoting sustainable growth.  

Order backlog at €177 m 

Airtificial continues to strengthen its position as a leader in strategic sectors with high growth potential and follows its roadmap of international expansion and business diversification. The Group’s portfolio, which at the close of 2023 had orders amounting to €177 m, comprises projects in sectors with high growth potential such as automotive, aeronautics, defense, civil engineering with a strong environmental sustainability component, and hydraulic projects.  

By leading or being part of strategic projects, the Company has positioned itself, through its business units, as a major player in various fields of engineering with high technological requirements. As a result, Airtificial has consolidated its status as a leading company with high added value transversal technological engineering. The Group has worked on a variety of projects such as the efficient and innovative management of water resources in Spain and Latin America, together with governmental entities; the agreement with ITP Aero to work on the defense technology program for the future European fighter jet, the sales of high-tech flight control stick developments, the operational improvement of brownfield projects in manufacturing plants in the electrified automotive sector, and the strengthening of the confidence of the world’s leading Tier 1 motor industry, such as ZF, Nexteer, BorgWarner and Valeo, among others. 

In this sense, the order backlog at the end of 2023 has increased by 2% compared to the €173 m at the end of 2022, despite having increased turnover by more than €8.2 m during the year. The three business units have substantially improved their positioning in their respective areas of activity to place Airtificial as a unique and transversal engineering and technological company, capable of successfully addressing the numerous challenges facing the industry today.  

43% reduction in losses 

In line with the Group’s financial recovery, Airtificial has improved its comprehensive cost control by reducing the impact of operating costs in a challenging context of high inflation and rising interest rates. This situation, coupled with a 9% increase in revenues, has enabled the Company to further decrease its net loss to €4.3 m, representing a 43% improvement over the negative result registered in 2022 of €7.4 m, thereby exceeding Airtificial’s forecasts. 

In addition, the Company has continued its debt mix change strategy. This implies the reduction of structural debt, linked to financial entities and public administrations, to convert it into working capital associated to projects, initiated last year, which leverage the Group’s growth.  

In relation to gross debt, Airtificial has made debt repayments during the year amounting to €5.4 m. 

This performance, together with the positive figures achieved in terms of revenue, EBITDA and operating income, confirms the financial recovery of the Group’s results through a sustained improvement over the last four years. In this way, the forecasts made during the previous year in relation to operating efficiency materialize, reaffirming Airtificial’s solid performance during the year with a positive balance sheet. 

Guillermo Fernández de Peñaranda, Airtificial’s CEO, says that “the 2023 financial results confirm the good financial and operational direction that the Company has taken after several years of adjustment. The product, customer and market diversification strategies continue to produce good results, in addition to those arising from operational transversality. Airtificial continues to work to grow and improve its position as a strategic Spanish technological company.” 

 

About Airtificial   

  

Airtificial provides global and innovative design and manufacturing solutions for the automotive, aeronautics, infrastructure, and other industrial sectors, integrating advanced technologies, such as robotics and artificial intelligence that, together with human interaction, contribute to a more sustainable development. It has an operational presence in thirteen countries in the main markets of Europe, America, and Asia; and contributes to the digital transformation and the automation and optimisation of its customers’ processes in the industrial field through sustainable and competitive growth.   

 

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Press contact: 

Iñigo Palacio and Berta de Arístegui 

91 576 52 50 

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Airtificial

AIRTIFICIAL is a leading international company in innovative design and manufacturing technology solutions for the automotive, aeronautics, infrastructure and other industrial sectors, which will enhance the application of Artificial Intelligence and technology in the service of people.