Small-cap companies under the microscope: Tesmec returns to profit, driven by its Energy division

Within the Energy sector, however, it was the more ‘traditional’ cable-laying segment that delivered the strongest performance in terms of revenue and margins: turnover jumped by 49.6 per cent to 42.8 million, and the EBITDA margin rose from 17.7 per cent to 23.9 per cent, thanks to sustained demand, an improved product mix, the concentration of production at the Grassobbio plant and the contribution of the 50-50 US joint venture Condux Tesmec Inc. (marketing of stringing products in North America), whose revenue jumped from 6.7 to 19.1 million. The Energy Automation segment also performed well, with turnover rising by 17.9 per cent to 17.4 million and the EBITDA margin increasing from 19.1 per cent to 20 per cent (EBITDA of 3.5 million).

However, it is precisely the rail sector that is expected to make an increasing contribution, as in March 2026 the subsidiary Tesmec Rail Srl (which has recently obtained certification to operate on the railway networks of the Czech Republic and France) was awarded two contracts, each with a duration of 4.5 years and a total value of 71 million, by SZ-Infrastruktura, the Slovenian railway network operator. Tesmec will supply 15 vehicles for track works (with a total value of 52 million) and 6 vehicles for catenary maintenance (trenchers), including a hybrid vehicle equipped with battery technology (with a total value of 19 million).

We would like to remind you that on 13 July 2026, the Chief Executive, Caterina Caccia Dominioni, was appointed Vice-President of the trade association Anie Assifer (Association of Railway Industries) for the two-year period 2026 – 2028, with responsibility for institutional relations.

At the end of June 2026, Tesmec’s order book totalled 498.3 million (416.2 million at the end of 2025), of which 238.5 million related to the Energy division (175.1 million in Energy Automation, characterised by multi-year contracts, and 63.4 million in Cable Laying), 81 million in the Trencher division (in this case, the order book is essentially short-term in nature and is largely completed during the current financial year) and 179 million in the railway sector (here too, the contracts are multi-year in nature).

Tesmec has not provided any numerical guidance for the current financial year (after all, as it operates mainly on a contract basis, it is difficult to give precise figures), but has confirmed its growth expectations (with an acceleration in the second half of the year) and a further reduction in net financial debt. The company is listed on the Star segment of Borsa Italiana and has been included in the Intermonte Valore Italia index. 

The company actively participates in international trade fairs (in 2026 it attended InnoTrans in Berlin, IEEE in Chicago with the Condux Tesmec joint venture, at the Forum Netzbau in Dresden, at SaMoTer in Verona, at the CIGRE event in Paris, at the Quarry NZ Conference in Invercargill, New Zealand, and at Big 5 Construct Saudi Arabia in Riyadh). It has also signed collaboration agreements with the University of Bergamo (a joint technical-scientific committee has been established) and with the Polytechnic University of Bari, in this case specifically to support research in the field of railway infrastructure.

Tesmec will include sustainability reporting in its financial statements from the 2023 financial year onwards. At some of the trade fairs in which it participates, the company showcases products and solutions with a lower environmental impact, including rock cutters (surface miners) that enable precision mechanical cutting without the use of explosives and therefore with lower dust emissions and vibrations. The free float is very high (46.3 per cent of the share capital), and the shareholder base also includes the institutional investor Palladio Holding, which holds a 4.78 per cent stake.

Following the challenges faced in the 2023 and 2024 financial years, Tesmec appears to be firmly on the right track, thanks to its increasing focus on the energy sector and its proprietary technologies for stringing overhead and underground power lines and for ‘smart grids’, enabling it to establish itself as one of the leading companies in the current ‘Age of Electricity’, in which investment in networks is inevitably set to increase. Furthermore, the expansion of underground power cables makes the use of trenchers increasingly essential: admittedly, there is fierce competition from ‘trenchless’ technologies (of which Icop was a pioneer in Italia in the early 1990s, and in which it has decided to strengthen its position with the announced acquisition of Lecce-based Ediltunnel), but these cannot be used where specific geological constraints exist (unstable ground, the presence of boulders, shallow aquifers) or where there are geometric or space-related constraints (cramped construction sites, the presence of unmapped electrical cables or gas pipes). And the market has taken note, given that Tesmec’s share price has more than doubled over the last six months.