(Alliance News) - Masi Agricola Spa reported Friday that it has seen double-digit growth in revenues for 2022 but that net income has declined year-on-year, leading the board to reduce the dividend from that distributed last year.

The company's net income dropped to EUR4.5 million in 2022 from EUR5.4 million in 2021, and the board proposed to shareholders the distribution of a dividend of EUR0.06 per share compared to EUR0.08 per share in the previous year.

Revenues, on the other hand, rose 13 percent to EUR74.7 million from EUR66.4 million, to a level not seen since the company went public.

Underlying the growth, Masi Agricola cites the restart of business in the Horeca channel, from which the Canevel brand has benefited; the high propensity of markets, especially those overseas, which began in 2021, to anticipate purchase orders to guard against possible price increases and to cope with the accentuated difficulties of international transport; the very positive performance of Masi Wine Experience's directly managed locations; the gradual return to operation of the Duty Free & Travel Retail channel, historically very volumetric for the company; the strength of the Retail channel; and the favorable currency effect, especially from CAD and USD.

Geographically, there is a good performance in Italy, which reports revenues up about EUR3.6 million or 21%, while in percentage terms it is the Rest of the World that is the area that grows the most, by more than 58%, also thanks to the Duty Free channel in the relevant countries.

Ebitda grew to EUR13.2 million from EUR12.9 million while Ebit was almost unchanged at EUR8.8 million from EUR8.7 million in the previous year.

Consolidated net debt3 as of December 31, 2022 amounted to EUR7.7 million compared to EUR2.7 million as of December 31, 2021.

Sandro Boscaini, president of Masi Agricola, said, "A positive 2022, although influenced by elements that are difficult to control and more contingent than structural. Among them, the tendency of customers, especially foreign ones, to source in abundance or to lighten, the heavy increases in costs, both product and operational in general. Foreign exchange played a favorable effect in the first nine months but very negative in the last quarter. Since the pandemic and with the war in Europe, we have seen disharmonious trends in the various distribution channels and countries in which we operate, a fact that confirms the importance of our omnichannel strategy, for the purposes of both brand positioning and business risk mitigation."

Masi Agricola's stock is down 2.0 percent at EUR4.86 per share.

By Giuseppe Fabio Ciccomascolo, Alliance News senior reporter

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