Wiit is stepping up its M&A activity in Europe, whilst companies seek data protection from EU cloud providers

The countries under scrutiny are Germany, where Wiit has already acquired six companies and which ‘still has several regional providers that could be targets’ for potential deals, as well as France. “We are interested in this country for two reasons,” says the CEO. “Firstly, it is the second-largest European market after Germany, and secondly, the cost of electricity (which is crucial for data centres and AI, ed.), thanks to nuclear power, is less than half” that of Germany. However, Wiit is “also making offers in Italia and has recently begun to assess Portugal”. As for the companies being considered for potential acquisitions, “they all have a recurring business model like ours, which accounts for around 90 per cent of recurring revenue,” explains Cozzi. The strategy is therefore to acquire companies “with a solid network of contacts and a strong customer base”, with which to create synergies to “bring added value to our customer base”. In this way, even if the transaction involves “a dilution of margins – given that we achieve around 54 per cent in Italia and 40 per cent in Germany – we are able to restore profitability within a short timeframe”.

There are, therefore, plenty of opportunities and “Wiit’s scouting is ongoing”, particularly in light of the “investment capacity of over 160 million” available to the group. “We raised around 65 million in excess when we issued our bond last year,” says Alessandro Cozzi. “In addition to this, we hold a stake of around 6 per cent in our own shares which, if necessary, can be monetised.” Added to all this is a recent 40 million loan from ING specifically earmarked for external growth. “With these resources, we expect to further consolidate our market position over the next two years.” In light of this, Cozzi states that further capital increases to finance growth are ruled out for the time being. The shareholding structure – in which the CEO holds 63 per cent and the free float stands at over 30 per cent, with many of the shares held by American, British and Nordic funds – should therefore remain stable.

On the other hand, the outlook is positive for Wiit in terms of organic growth as well. “We are more or less in line with the consensus,” says the CEO, “and also with market expectations of around 73 million in like-for-like EBITDA, excluding acquisitions, in 2026” and “with the aim of reaching 100 million in EBITDA by 2029, including the contribution from potential acquisitions”. A further boost in the near future will also come from the group’s selection for the Broadcom Advantage Partner Programme as an Authorised VMware Cloud Service Provider, which allows the group to use the American giant’s infrastructure for cloud services. “There are very few of us in Europe (4 in Italia, 5 in France and 7 in Germany),” explains Cozzi, “and for this reason we expect a significant impact on revenue, particularly in 2027 and 2028, for which we estimate higher organic growth than in the past. In fact,” the manager continues, “in March 2027, when the agreement with Broadcom expires, many companies that have left the programme will have to look for new partners.” Precisely to meet new customer needs by developing services in the areas of AI, automation and information integration, Wiit is continuing to invest in research and development at a rate of around 2 million a year. “Our aim is to rely as little as possible on external software and to work with solutions developed in-house.”