Gabetti, mortgages and superbonuses weigh on the Group's accounts

The freeze on rates that has slowed down buying and selling and the crackdown on building bonuses have weighed on the 2023 accounts of Gabetti Property Solutions, which yesterday released the final accounts for the year 2023, showing a downward Ebitda for services, amounting to 22.9 million, thus down from the 27.2 million as at 31 December 2022, mainly as a result of Gabetti Lab's change in strategy towards the contractor business with lower margins, due to the change in regulations on building redevelopment.

"The Group," said Gabetti propery Solutions' president, Fabrizio Prete, "closed the 2023 financial year with a positive result after the difficulties of the first part of the year, with operating revenues of 193.1 million euro, up 27% compared to 152.5 million euro in 2022. It was particularly the Real Estate Network Services business line that recorded increased revenues (+41%), thanks mainly to the contractor business, and the 'core' revenues of franchising and financial signalling were also up. This important result was achieved in a context strongly penalised by the regulatory change inherent to the subject of redevelopment and the uncertainty of the market already marked by the worsening of the financial markets and the worsening of the international crisis".

The Ebitda of the services business amounted to 22.9 million euro. The decrease compared to the 27.2 million euro of the previous year concerned both business lines: the Agency and Corporate Services business unit mainly due to Gabetti Agency, despite the positive performance of Abaco (with an Ebitda that went from 2.6 million euro to 4.5 million euro), while for the Real Estate Network Services business unit mainly due to the different marginality of the contractor activity carried out by Gabetti Lab compared to the previous consulting activity.

"The operating cash flow," added Prete, "during the 2023 financial year showed an absorption substantially due to Gabetti Lab, mainly as a result of the Contractor's activity, which saw a significant increase in volumes and required initial and monthly payments to the construction companies. However, receipts from tax SALs through assignment of receivables only began to manifest themselves financially in the last months of 2023 and will continue during 2024 and should allow for the repayment of net debt."

Although operating revenues amounted to 193.1 million euro, up 27% compared to 152.5 million in 2022, the Gabetti Group's net result for 2023 was one million euro (after deducting third-party profits of 2.8 million) compared to 11.6 million in 2022. To penalise, the continuous regulatory changes on redevelopment that have partly blocked Gabetti Lab's operations for months with negative repercussions also on franchising. Moreover, 2023 was affected by the reduction in Gabetti Agency's revenues as a result of the negative performance of the property market and the capital loss of one million from the sale of Grimaldi. The 'effective' net financial debt (without Ifrs 16) was EUR 54.4m, an increase of EUR 48.4m on 2022.