CENTRALE DEL LATTE D’ITALIA S.P.A. APPROVES THE INTERIM REPORT AS AT 31 MARCH 2021 DOUBLE-DIGIT EBITDA MARGIN AND REDUCTION IN NET DEBT

  • Revenues: € 67.5 million (+ 43.6% vs. € 47 million at 31.03.2020) with an organic reduction of -5.7% despite the challenging comparison with the + 8.3% of the first quarter 2020
  • EBITDA: € 6.87 million (+ 56.1% vs. € 4.4 million at 31.03.2020), with a margin of 10.2% (+ 80bps year on year).
  • Net profit: € 1.76 million (+127.1% vs. € 774 thousand at 31.03.2020)
  • Net debt (before IFRS 16) equal to € 55.7 million, down 3.75% compared to € 57.85 million at the end of 2020.

Turin, 14 May 2021 – The Board of Directors of Centrale del Latte d’Italia S.p.A. (“CLI” or the “Company“) – the third Italian operator in the fresh and long-life milk market, listed on the STAR segment of the Italian Stock Exchange – which met today, under the chairmanship of Angelo Mastrolia, approved the results as at 31 March 2021.
The Company recorded revenues of € 67.51 million in the first quarter of 2021, compared to € 47 million in the same period of 2020, with a growth of + 43.6% year on year, particularly thanks to the contribution of the “Milk & Dairy” business unit leased by its parent company Newlat Food S.p.A. In organic terms, sales nevertheless recorded a good result, with a limited reduction of -5.7%, despite the difficult comparative basis (the first quarter of 2020 saw an organic growth of + 8.3%).
EBITDA as at 31 March 2021 amounted to € 6.85 million, an increase of 55.7% compared to the figure recorded in the first quarter of last year, equal to € 4.4 million. The EBITDA margin of 10.2%, is up by 80 bps compared to the EBITDA margin reported in the first quarter of 2020. EBIT in the first quarter of 2021 is equal to € 2.89 million, compared to 1.67 million Euros recorded in the same period of the previous year. CLI recorded, as a pre-tax result, € 2.44 million, compared to € 1.14 million in the first quarter of last year. Net profit was € 1.76 million, with a margin of 2.6% compared to 1.6% reported in the first quarter of 2020.
There was a significant improvement in the net financial position which, before the application of the IFRS16 accounting standard, was equal to € 55.70 million, down by 3.75% compared to € 57.85 million at the end of 2020. Including the IFRS effects 16, mainly related to the lease of the Milk & Dairy business unit from Newlat Food, the company’s net financial position went from 61.88 million euros at 31 December 2020 to 69.67 million at 31 March 2021.

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SIGNIFICANT EVENTS OCCURRED AFTER THE REPORTING PERIOD

  • On 29 April the Shareholders’ Meeting of Centrale del Latte d’Italia appointed Prof. Anna Claudia Pellicelli independent director pursuant to Article no.2386 of the Italian Civil Code.
  • On 29 April the Shareholders’ Meeting of Centrale del Latte d’Italia followed up the consensual early termination of the contract with the auditing company Deloitte & Touche S.p.A. and gave mandate to PwC Italia S.p.A. as the new auditing firm of the Company for the period 2021-2029.
  • On 4 May 2021, the Board of Directors of Centrale del Latte d’Italia acknowledged the resignation of the manager in charge of preparing the accounting documents and Investor Relator, Mr. Giuseppe Bodrero, and appointed, subject to the favorable opinion of the Board of Statutory Auditors, Mr. Fabio Fazzari as the new executive in charge of preparing the accounting documents and Investor Relator.

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BUSINESS OUTLOOK

The future evolution of the Coronavirus phenomenon continues to generate a lot of uncertainty, although at the date of the approval of this interim report, large margins of success could arise from the vaccination campaign with the progressive loosening of the restrictive measures on commercial activities and hotels at the beginning of the Summer season, thus suggesting a potential recovery in tourist flows with a consequent positive impact on the hotel and restaurant sectors.
In this context, the management of Centrale Latte d’Italia S.p.A. renews its confidence in the continuation of the growth plan thanks also to future commercial synergies deriving from the aggregation of the milk & dairy businesses. In particular, management is focused on two fundamental aspects: i) maintaining the good levels of margins that characterized 2020 and which were also confirmed by the results of the first quarter of 2021; ii) the ability to convert more than 80% of the EBITDA into cash, resulting in further progress in the process of reducing the company’s financial debt.
These two objectives are the fundamental basis for bringing Centrale del Latte d’Italia to assume an active and leading role in the consolidation process of the Italian and European dairy sector.

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DECLARATION OF THE MANAGER RESPONSIBLE FOR PREPARING THE CORPORATE ACCOUNTING DOCUMENTS

The manager in responsible for preparing the corporate accounting documents Fabio Fazzari declares, pursuant to and for the purposes of Article 154-bis, paragraph 2, of Legislative Decree no. 58 of 1998, that the information contained in this press release corresponds to the document results, books and accounting records.

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The document “Interim Management Report at 31 March 2021” is available on the Company’s website at https://centralelatteitalia.com/investor-relations/bilanci-e-relazioni/, as well as at the authorized storage mechanism
eMarket Storage at www.emarketstorage.com.

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CHANGES TO THE FINANCIAL CALENDAR

Lastly, CLI informs that – in partial variation to what is indicated in the press release of 10 November 2020 – relating to the 2021 financial calendar, the 2021 Half Year Financial Report will be examined by the Board of Directors of the Company in the meeting of 10 September 2021, instead of 9 August 2021.

This press release is available on the Company’s website at https://centralelatteitalia.com/ and on the authorized storage mechanism eMarketstorage at the following address www.emarketstorage.com.

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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

Roberto Stasio
Barabino & Partners
Tel +39 010/2725048
Cell +39 3355332483
Email r.stasio@barabino.it

Alice Brambilla
Barabino & Partners
Phone +39 02 72023535
Cell +39 3282668196
Email a.brambilla@barabino.it

The Centrale del Latte d’Italia Group and Newlat Food, majority shareholder since 1st April 2020, represent today the third Italian operator in the Milk & Dairy sector.

Newlat Food is a successful industrial group with leadership positions in the agri-food sector, present in 60 countries with dairy products, pasta and bakery products, gluten-free products and baby food.

With 4 factories and some 415 employees, Centrale del Latte d’Italia Group produces and sells more than 120 products, ranging from milk and milk products to yogurt and drinks of plant origin, distributed in over 16,000 traditional shops and large retail chains in the pertinent areas under the brand names TappoRosso, Mukki, Tigullio and Vicenza.