Gefran nearly steady in the first nine months of 2024

The Gefran Board of Directors, which met on 12 November chaired by Maria Chiara Franceschetti, approved the results as at 30 September 2024. Revenues in the first nine months of 2024 amounted to 100.6 million euros, compared to 101.2 million euros in the same period of 2023, recording a decrease of 0.6%, or 0.6 million euros (-4.2% in the first half of the year). Excluding the negative effect caused by fluctuations in exchange rates, incremental revenues for the year appear to be in line with the previous year’s figure.

The breakdown of revenues by geographical region shows a widespread decrease across many of the areas served by the Group, in particular Italy (-8.6%), Europe (overall -7.6%) and America (overall -1.5%). A geographical region which instead posted revenue growth is Asia (+24.6%), which was influenced by the negative effect of foreign currencies course (in particular the Rupee and the Renminbi), net of which the increase recorded would be even higher (+26.8%).

In terms of business areas, compared to the first nine months of 2023, the company recorded increasing revenues for the automation components segment, which posted 1.9% growth driven by the increase in sales of the product families of power controllers (+9.2% compared to the first nine months of 2023) and power solutions (+12.2% compared to the same previous period), and in particular in the Asian and American markets (+61.2% and +10.8%, respectively, compared to 30 September 2023). On the other hand, revenues generated by the sensors segment went down compared to the incremental figure as at September 2023, specifically by 2.7% (net of the negative effect contributed by currencies, the percentage decrease would be more limited, i.e. 1.9%) throughout the main geographical areas served by Grefran, excluding the Asian market where, just like for the automation components segment, revenues increased compared to the same period of the previous year (+20.6% compared to the incremental figure of 2023). 

In the first nine months of 2024, order intake was overall higher than in the same period of 2023 (+7.3%), as a result of an increase in order intake for the sensors business (+8.5%), while it was lower, albeit largely positive, for the automation components business (+5.3%). 

Ebitda as at 30 September 2024 was positive at 19.4 million euros (19.7 million euros in the same period of 2023), corresponding to 19.3% of revenues (essentially in line with the 19.4% ratio as at 30 September 2023), down by 0.3 million euros compared to the same period of the previous year. Ebit was positive and equal to 13.5 million euros (13.4% of revenues), down 0.6 million euros compared to 30 September 2023, when it amounted to 14.1 million euros (13.9% of revenues).

“We are satisfied with the results of the first nine months of 2024, not only because they show positive revenues and profits, with the net profit being even higher than the same period last year, but above all because they were obtained in a persistently uncertain macroeconomic context. The excellent technological performance of our products, our high service standards and the quality of our supplies allow the Group to position itself authoritatively with both its established and new customers, taking part in a concrete and factual way in a significant number of important new machinery and plant projects currently being developed. We are confident that as the global market outlook improves, these opportunities can be translated into higher revenues and margins. For this reason, the economic and financial commitment that is constantly dedicated to product development and to manufacturing process improvement remains unchanged throughout the Group. The outlook for the end of 2024 thus remains positive in terms of both margins and revenues, with the latter expected to be in line with the previous year”, said Gefran CEO Marcello Perini.