High-potential SMEs

Egm under the X-ray: Intred, new data centre in Brescia in the former Ideal Standard area

The company, which is about to switch to the Star segment of the stock exchange, plans the new plant on a 6,000 square metre brownfield site

by Valeria Novellini

23 February 2026

5' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Key points

Construction of new data centre in Brescia announced
very high EBITDA margin and physiological debt
From financial year 2025 adoption of IAS/Ifrs accounting standards

5' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Intred celebrates the 30th anniversary of its foundation by translisting to Euronext Milan (Star segment), and is the first company to have announced this intention in 2026, closely followed by Kruso Kapital of the Banca Sistema group. In the specific sector of telecommunications, the first move to the main market of the Italian Stock Exchange was that of Unidata (also in the Star segment), which took place on 6 June 2023, shortly after the dimensional leap resulting from the acquisition of Twt.

Today, Unidata is almost twice the size of Intred (it reported preliminary 2025 revenues of EUR 109.4 million compared to Intred's EUR 55.8 million) and has decided to transform itself into a 'tech company' focused on high value-added ICT services, i.e. not only connectivity but also cloud services, smart IoT, data centre and cybersecurity.

Intred's future path will not be so different, as revenues and margins of 'traditional' tlc companies have been under pressure for some time; the Brescia-based company, however, can meanwhile count on a solid presence in services to professionals in the rich Lombardy region. Turnover in 2025 rose by only 1.1%, but it should be remembered that the effect of revenues from the activation of lines related to the winning of the 'Bandi Scuole in Lombardia' (as of August 2025, 833 of the 1,241 schools envisaged by the 'Bando Scuole Connesse 2' had been connected) is gradually being exhausted. However, the company remains in pole position with regard to public contracts in Lombardy for fibre-optic connectivity and has already won the calls for tenders relating to the Universities of Brescia, Bergamo and recently Milano-Bicocca (including the Lecco branch).

The construction of a new data centre in Brescia announced

Not taking into account the share of turnover related to Schools tenders, Intred in 2025 saw revenues increase by 8.4% to EUR 47.4m, of which 95.6% related to recurring fee services; ultra-wideband connections rose by 11%, voice and data services by 6.8% and data centre services jumped by 42.4% to EUR 1.9m. This is still a small percentage of the total turnover but is destined to grow given that in September 2025 the Dba Group (also at Euronext Growth Milan) was awarded the contract for the design of a new datacenter in Brescia of 6,000 square metres (in addition to the two already owned) that will be built in a disused industrial area (former Ideal Standard production site) and will have an initial It capacity of 2 Mw;

Let us recall that Lombardy is the only Italian region to have approved, on 17 November last, a resolution entitled 'Provisions on the settlement of data centres', which could become binding legislation in the near future and, among other things, indicates among the settlement priorities for data centres disused urban and territorial regeneration and industrial areas (for which the authorisation regime will be accelerated), and this is precisely the case of the new Intred data centre.

Moreover, entrusting the data centre project to Dba is also a "plus", as the Treviso-based company has already designed the "Avalon 3" data centre in Via Bisceglie in Milan - on behalf of Retelit - whose generated heat is fed back into the A2A Calore e Servizi network to serve the district heating of Municipio 6, which has approximately 1,250 households. Since A2A Calore e Servizi also manages district heating in Brescia, a similar agreement, advantageous from an environmental point of view, would possibly also be possible for the Intred data centre.

Very high EBITDA margin and physiological debt

Meanwhile, Intred, also thanks to the incorporation of Connecting Italia Srl (acquired in 2024), which was rationalised with the aim of divesting services with lower margins, can boast a decidedly high profitability. As at 30/6/2025, with revenues up 7.2% to EUR 27.8m (of which EUR 25.9m from recurring fee-based services, +7.9%), it had an ebitda up 9.1% to EUR 12.5m (ebitda margin of 44.9%, compared to an adjusted ebitda margin of 25.6% for Unidata in 1H2025).

The bottom end of the income statement, as is often the case for telecommunications companies that need to make significant investments in technology, was naturally affected by the impact of depreciation and amortisation (up from EUR 5.6 million to EUR 6.5 million) and higher financial expenses (up from EUR 735,000 to EUR 745,000); as a result, EBIT rose by only 3% to just over EUR 6 million (EBIT margin of 21.6%) and net profit by 1.6% to EUR 3.6 million, with the tax rate rising from 30.66% to 31.7%.

As at 30/6/2025, net financial debt amounted to EUR 37.4 million (EUR 32.9 million at the end of 2024) after investments of no less than EUR 12.2 million, mostly related to the connection of the proprietary fibre-optic network (again, related to the Schools tenders), which by the end of 2025 had reached 15,000 km. (13,500 km at the end of 2024). The Debt/Equity ratio was however at a physiological level of about 0.61 times. This allows Intred to cope with the planned investments for the new data centre - 13 million by 2027 - and possibly to grow through acquisitions (although probably not as 'scale-up' as that of Twt for Unidata).

However, Intred's 'baby steps' policy makes the indications of a 2027 production value of EUR 67-73 million and an ebitda between EUR 34 and 36 million (with an ebitda margin that would reach 50%) credible; for the time being, there is prudently no intention to change the shareholder remuneration policy (for the 2024 financial year, the dividend payout was EUR 1.6 million with a 23% pay-out), which may be revised upwards after 2027 with the expected gradual decrease in the debt level thanks to the operating cash flow.

From financial year 2025 adoption of IAS/Ifrs accounting standards

Intred already shows a free float rather in line with that which characterises the companies of Euronext Milan - Star (about 30% of the share capital); the trading volume, however, is low, as is the case for most of the companies of Euronext Growth Milan. Hence the decision of the translisting, when the Ias/Ifrs international accounting standards will be adopted (with the balance sheet as of 31/12/2025), which, however, may result in a different modulation of internal profit margins.

The company has been drawing up a sustainability report since 2022 (in accordance with Gri standards and in progressive alignment with the requirements of the European Esrs regulation), and intends to maintain this practice in the future; the Esg Committee has recently been set up, and a special feature of Intred is the fight against cyberbullying, specifically included in the code of ethics, which provides for the termination of the supply contract with customers in the event of a conviction for cyberbullying.

Certainly Intred operates in a very competitive sector that requires continuous technological updates; however, so far it has managed to conquer an interesting market niche and the 'churn rate' is one of the lowest in Italia, currently equal to 4.4% of turnover (compared to 9.1% of Telecom Italia's Mobile Consumer services at 30/6/2025), confirming a high level of customer loyalty. A recent Deloitte study on fibre-to-the-home (Ftth) adoption in Italia highlighted that currently only one in three companies (36%) use Ftth, but those that do show a 20% higher growth rate in turnover and headcount than the others and, not surprisingly, are more inclined to digital transformation. Intred still has room to grow.

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