By Alberto Chiumento
(Reuters) -Italian payments group Nexi on Friday reported third-quarter revenue above expectations and confirmed its guidance despite a softer than expected macroeconomic environment, Chief Executive Paolo Bertoluzzo said.
“Summer was a bit softer than what we were anticipating, what has been missing a little bit was the strong contribution that we saw last year from international tourism, especially normally important geographies for us, such as the U.S., France, Germany and UK,” Bertoluzzo told analysts in a conference call.
He said operations’ volume from these customers had grown this summer but at a slower pace than the “almost unsustainable level” it recorded in 2023.
Companies in the payments sector have seen a drop in their share prices from the highs reached after the global pandemic, impacted by rising inflation, subsequent slower consumer spending, and increased regulatory scrutiny.
In September French peer Worldline issued a profit warning after reducing its financial targets twice in the previous 12 months and opted for a CEO change after being led for more than 11 years by Gilles Grapinet.
“Our business remains resilient,” Chief Financial Officer Bernardo Mingrone said during the call.
The guidance confirmed by Nexi, whose main shareholders are investment funds alongside Italian state agency CDP, includes a mid-single digit growth in revenue and a mid-to-high-single digit growth in core profit compared to last year.
In the third quarter, the group posted revenue of 911.1 million euros ($982.17 million) beating a company-compiled consensus of 908 million euros, up 5.1% from a year earlier.
The merchant segment, Nexi’s biggest source of revenue accounting for around 57% of revenue, grew 6.6% to 534.4 million euros driven by an expanding customer base that fuelled higher transaction volumes from small and medium enterprises.
At 0952 GMT the stock was up 2.1%, outperforming the pan-European STOXX 600 index which is down 0.3%.
As of Thursday’s session close, the stock was down 22.2% year-to-date.
Nexi’s core profit rose 6.2% compared to the previous year to 522.9 million euros, in line with a consensus of 523 million euros.
The company added that it completed in September a 500 million euro share buyback programme launched in May, which originally was expected to last 18 months, but was sped up in July.
($1 = 0.9276 euros)
(Reporting by Alberto Chiumento in Gdansk; editing by Milla Nissi, Kim Coghill and David Evans)
