Egm in the X-ray: Star7 focuses on artificial intelligence products for growth
It launched 7Ai, a new line of services and applications. In 2025 ebitda rose by 3% to 18.6 million
Key points
Star7, despite its grandiose name, does not 'make the news'. But it should. In fact, in 2025 it launched '7Ai', a new line of services and applications based on artificial intelligence that can offer corporate customers solutions in the fields of virtual assistants, academy training and after-sales. It also finalised the acquisitions of two business units of Consulting Automotive Aerospace Railway and Sti Srl in judicial liquidation, which it had been leasing since 2023, for EUR 5.8 million, plus approximately EUR 513,000 to increase its stake in the Brazilian company Caar do Brasil Consultoria Tecnica Ltda (now Star7 Engenharia e Consultoria Tecnica Ltda) from 66% to 76%.
The numbers
After these acquisitions, Star7 decided to dispose of some negative-margin orders inherited from previous managements in the Engineering business area (which in 2024 had resulted in revenues of EUR 0.7 million), and as a consequence, in the financial year 2025 the group's revenues dropped by 3.1% to EUR 116.1 million; at constant scope and exchange rates, however, they would have remained substantially stable at EUR 118.7 million. At constant exchange rates, this is because Star7 generates 53.3% of its turnover abroad: specifically, 24.1% in the US (26.1% in 2024), 22.5% in Brazil (19.3% in 2024; Caar has increased its share of services to a leading automotive customer) and 6.7% in the rest of the world (6.3% in 2024; Caar has also brought in a Serbian subsidiary now renamed Star7 Doo Kragujevac).
As far as the different business lines are concerned, Global Content went from 34.9% to 31.4% of turnover (in this case Star7 preferred to focus on the most strategic customers), Experience and Product Knowledge from 31.7% to 33.2% (thanks to the growing demand for specialised services in the technical and training fields), Engineering from 20.4% to 22.3% (despite the aforementioned conclusion of low or no margin contracts), and Printing, i.e. contract printing, remained virtually unchanged at EUR 13.1 million.
Debt at physiological levels and improving
Ebitda rose by 3% to EUR 18.6 million (on an adjusted basis, i.e. excluding the restructuring costs of the Engineering and Global Content business lines, it would have increased by 3.5% to EUR 19.4 million), ebit was substantially unchanged at EUR 9,3 million (this is because the amount of amortisation, depreciation, provisions and write-downs, following the acquisitions made, rose from EUR 8.7 million to EUR 9.3 million), and net profit decreased by 12% to EUR 2.37 million as the tax rate rose from 38.2% to 46.3%. Net financial expenses were little changed at about EUR 3.3m, with net financial debt at 31 December 2025 amounting to EUR 21.1m, compared to EUR 27.8m at the end of 2024 (despite disbursements for acquisitions and also thanks to a EUR 7m reduction in net working capital due to a decrease in the average collection period for customer receivables from 98 to 92 days). The Debt/Equity ratio at the end of 2025 amounted to about 0.66 times and was therefore fully physiological.
Star7 has also calculated an adjusted net profit of EUR 8.5 million (+3.8% compared to the 2024 figure), which excludes goodwill amortisation from acquisitions in addition to extraordinary costs, but this item, although not resulting in a cash outlay, obviously continues and will continue to affect the bottom end of the income statement. Prudently also for the financial year 2025 it was decided not to distribute dividends (none have been distributed since the listing on Euronext Growth Milan at the end of 2021).
