Editoria e Media
Artefact : 2018 results: confirming the benefits of transformation
Paris, Thursday April 25, 2019
17:40 CEST
The Board of Directors met on 23 April 2019 to approve the Group's financial statements for the fiscal year ended 31 December 2018. An audit on the consolidated financial statement has been performed. A certification report is about to be issued.
Gross margin for 2018 was €63.8m, up 16% on a proforma basis (+35% reported). This good performance was driven by the strong momentum in France (+47% compared to 2017 proforma) and the upswing of Other Markets (+29% compared to 2017 proforma). The Group's activities in the Rest of Europe decreased slightly over the year (-2% compared to 2017), impacted mainly by the loss of two media contracts in Germany and continued uneven performance in the Nordic countries.
Along with the growth in gross margin was a significant increase in earnings. In spite of major investments (in particular the recruiting of senior partners and Data experts), Artefact's rose sharply, going from €1,673k in 2017 to €3,738k. The EBITDAr margin for fiscal 2018 was 5.9%, an increase of 2.3 percentage points over 2017. This profitability trend represents a milestone towards the Group's normative profitability target (EBITDAr between 10% and 15% of gross margin).
has improved significantly, at (€848k) compared to (€2,543k) in fiscal 2017. This trend benefited from the sharp drop in other non-current income and expenses, which went from (€2,758k) in 2017 to (€898k) in 2018.
After taking into account financial charges and taxes, has also substantially improved: it stands at (€1,158k) for fiscal 2018, compared to a loss of (€4,843k) in 2017.
At 31 December 2018, the group share shareholders' equity had increased sharply by €56.0m versus €36.0m at end-2017. It includes the proceeds of the capital increase carried out in January 2018 amounting to €15.5m. At the end of the year, Artefact's financial situation was solid, with a cash position of €16.5m.
The Group had a net cash position of €1.3m at 31 December 2018, versus the net debt of €8.8m at 31 December 2017.
Artefact reported a gross margin of €16.6m in the first quarter of 2019. On a proforma basis, the business grew by 12% compared to the same period the previous year (+11% published).
This sustained growth remains driven by the momentum of the Data Consulting business in France and Other Markets. In France (45% of the activity for the period), gross margin for Q1 2019 reached almost €7.5m, representing a 39% increase in growth over 2018. The Other Markets activity (now 15% of the Group's gross margin), came out at €2.5m, up 65%.
In the Rest of Europe, business was below expectations for Q1 2019. Proforma gross profit amounted to €6.6m, versus €7.9m in the same period of 2018. Lost media contracts in Germany in the second half of 2018 continued to weigh on the activity in this area during the quarter. The Consulting/Data/Media commercial offers deployment will soon be completed across all of the Group's European sites, with the upcoming arrival in Germany of an experienced partner and his team. The step-up of the local Partners recruited in the second half of 2018 (China, Brazil, the Netherlands) will be fundamental to speed up the transformation of the European sites as an extension of the success in France.
Given the favourable outlook, Artefact is confident in its ability to deliver more than 15% growth in proforma gross margin in 2019. This increase should be accompanied by a significant improvement in results again this year.
H1 Gross Margin 2019
H1 Results 2019 and Q3 Gross Margin 2019
Created from the merger of the startup Artefact founded in Paris in 2015 and the media agency NetBooster founded in 1998, Artefact has emerged in 4 years as a leading player in Data et Artificial Intelligence (AI). Listed on Euronext Growth Paris Stock Exchange and operating in 19 countries on 4 continents with close to 1,000 employees, Artefact is a data native company provides four complementary offers - Data Consulting, Digital Marketing Expertise, Technology Deployment (AI and Big Data) and Creative Studio - to more than 600 customers including many world leaders. Artefact has created in January 2019 its own AI R&D center and has been serving international groups in creating their own AI Lab.
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