The Board of Directors of Prysmian S.p.A. has approved today the Group's consolidated results for the first nine months of 2022.

“Prysmian reported the best quarter ever, with excellent performance across nearly all businesses and geographical areas,” commented CEO Valerio Battista. “This result confirms the Group’s ability to harness the secular drivers of the energy transition and digitalization, even in an uncertain macroeconomic and market scenario. A focus on technological innovation, supply chain efficiency and flexibility, and high customer service standards are robust strengths of our organisation. We are pursuing business expansion with determination, without losing our focus on profitability and cash generation — our Group’s unrivalled competitive factors enabling it to finance its investments while also reducing its debt. Our record performance for the first nine months of the year allow me to confidently announce a further upwards revision of our 2022 full-year targets,” concluded Battista.

Financial highlights

Group Sales grew to €12,089 million, reporting a +15.0% organic growth compared to 9M 2021, with a positive performance in nearly all businesses and geographical areas. Q3, the best ever quarter with a 16.2% organic growth, recorded a further acceleration, confirming the Group’s growth capacity thanks to the long-term drivers of energy transition and digitalization. The excellent results of the Energy segment were driven by demand for the technologies needed to upgrade power grids, data centers and solar energy. Power Distribution cables rose double-digit in all geographical areas, whereas in the construction cable market the performance of non-residential segment was particularly satisfying (Energy & Infrastructure: +16.1% organic growth). The industrial cable business reported a +10.3% organic growth, driven by the excellent performance of the OEM and Renewables businesses. With regard to Telecom (+9.2% organic growth), optical cables confirmed their uptrend (+18.2%) and MMS (Multi Media Solutions) applications also reported an excellent performance. The Projects segment recovered significantly (+29.0% organic growth), mainly thanks to submarine cables and systems.

Adjusted EBITDA jumped by 56.0% to €1,131 million, compared to €725 million for 9M 2021. The Group reported an excellent Adjusted EBITDA of €432 million in Q3 alone. Profitability improved sharply, with a ratio of Adjusted EBITDA to Sales at 9.4% (9.8% at 2021 metal prices), compared to 7.8% in 9M 2021. In Q3, margins also improved significantly to 10.4%, up 260 bps compared to Q3 2021 (7.8%).9M 2022 foreign exchange impact has been €87 million.

EBITDA grew to €1,071 million (€700 million in 9M 2021), including net expenses for company reorganisation, net non-recurring expenses and other net non-operating expenses totalling €60 million (€25 million in 9M 2021). Operating income rose to €684 million, compared to €448 million in 9M 2021.

Net Profit attributable to owners of the parent soared by +69.0% to €431 million compared to €255 million for the same period of 2021.

In the past twelve months, the Group generated a Free Cash Flow of €344 million (excluding the €19 million cash out for acquisitions and the €19 million net cash inflow related to previous antitrust disputes. The main factors that enabled Free Cash Flow generation were:

• €1,269 million operating cash flows before changes in net working capital;
• €342 million cash used for increasing net working capital;
• €310 million cash outflows for net investments;
• €192 million taxes paid;
• €79 million net finance costs paid.

Thanks to its capacity to generate robust and constant cash flows, the Group further reduced its Net Financial Debt to €2,372 million at the end of September 2022, down by an impressive €291 million compared to €2,663 million at 30 September 2021. This major deleverage reflected in the ratio of Adjusted EBITDA to Net Debt, which improved significantly and will reach nearly 1x ratio at year-end.

For detailed information, visit https://www.prysmiangroup.com/sites/default/files/pr-pg-9m-10-11-22-eng.pdf