Engineering grows in 2025: revenues at 1.76 billion and bet on sovereign AI
At the heart of the group's strategy is the push on proprietary software, public sector and generative artificial intelligence
More revenues, recovering margins and a trajectory that points straight at artificial intelligence. Engineering ended 2025 with improved accounts: net revenues of €1,759.7 million, up 2.5% year-on-year, and adjusted post-CapEx EBITDA rose to €238.8 million, up 11.2%.
The picture that emerges is one of a group that has worked on the mix of activities, progressively moving towards higher value-added segments, from digital technologies to proprietary software solutions, with the public sector - including healthcare - acting as an important driver of growth. It is not just a question of turnover: supporting the numbers, the company explains, have also been a greater discipline in cost management, the normalisation of investments and the reduction of non-recurring items.
On the profitability front, adjusted EBITDA stood at EUR 280.3 million (+1.5%), reported EBITDA at EUR 255.5 million (+4.3%) and EBIT at EUR 135.9 million (+12.9%). Net financial debt also improved, down to EUR 1,166.7 million from EUR 1,196.8 million at the end of 2024. A figure that signals a more robust cash generation capacity, despite the higher financial expenses related to the refinancing completed in early 2025.
But the most interesting point, in the account of the group led by Aldo Bisio, is probably another: the attempt to transform GenAI from a lever of efficiency to a strategic infrastructure. Engineering points to a 'sovereign' artificial intelligence architecture as the axis of development, i.e. a model designed to enable companies and the public administration to maintain control, security and governability of AI solutions, without renouncing integration with the global technological ecosystem. It is a formula that speaks the language, today decisive, of compliance, data protection, intellectual property and technological autonomy.
Also strengthening the picture are the investments in research and innovation: over 90 active projects, more than EUR 24 million invested, more than 450 researchers and data scientists involved, with a presence in European programmes that also includes the IPCEI 'Avant' project on Cloud Infrastructure Services and a new IPCEI grant under the 'Tech4Cure' initiative for healthcare.
