► Indra accelerated its growth in 2019
Madrid, February 27, 2020 – Fernando Abril-Martorell, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Indra: “2019 results highlight the positive performance of our commercial activity, reflected by the strong backlog, order intake and revenue growth, as well as by a clear improvement in underlying profitability (EBIT). We met all the metrics of our guidance to the financial community.
Backlog (+11%) and order intake (+7%) continued to progress confidently. Absolute backlog levels and the backlog/revenues ratio reached new historic highs, providing better visibility for future growth in the coming years, and ensuring the development of new technological capabilities associated to new programs, especially in Defence & Security.
For the combined Group revenues are up +4% in local currency, with a significant contribution of Minsait, helped by a strong performance in America (+12%), with Brazil as the main driver of growth.
Indra continues to improve its profitability in the quarter and in the accumulated period, with double-digit EBIT growth and improving stronger EBIT margins.
During 2019, Minsait recorded a very positive performance, achieving strong revenue growth and significant profitability improvements. Minsait sales increased by 6%, with EBIT jumping by almost 80%, reaching an EBIT margin of 3.8% (1.6pp improvement vs. 2018). This improvement is even more remarkable if we consider the lower contribution of the election business in 2019 vs the previous year.
In Transport & Defence it is worth highlighting the strong rebound of the order intake in Defence (+41%), in a positive background of a growing pipeline of Spanish and European programs. We would also like to bring your attention to the solid growth in Air Traffic Management, as well as to the recovery of the profitability of the division during the fourth quarter.
With respect to cash flow generation, the last quarter of the year proved to be a very strong period, with the Group netting a €246m positive cash inflow, driving down our net debt/ EBITDA ratio to 1.8x (or 1.6x excluding the acquisition of SIA closed the last few days of 2019).
Summarizing, 2019 results show our commitment to profitable growth and constitute a solid basis to keep this path, as reflected in our demanding guidance for 2020.
I also want to highlight our commitment and constant effort to improve our position in social, environmental and governance issues. During 2019 Indra renewed once again our presence in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) World, as well as in FTSE4Good. During last year, our efforts on these matters were further recognized by our inclusion in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI) 2020 where only 15 Spanish companies are represented. Our commitment is further reinforced by the decision of the Board of Directors to create a Sustainability Commission with responsibility in the oversight of our initiative on these fronts [as well as the preparation of our non-financial information].
Finally, during 2019 Indra has generated more than 1,400 jobs in Spain (more than 3,000 in the last two years), and has been again recognized [by the industry] as Top Employer 2020”.
To read the full Press Release please click HERE
