Euronext STAR Conference 2023 - Intervista a Massimo Perotti Presidente e Ceo di Sanlorenzo Yacht

But the business model, we have a business model that is a bit peculiar. We build 70 boats for 700 million in revenue, 740 million in revenue for 2022, so an average price of about 10 million per boat. That means we refer to a market of families with generational wealth. This defends us a lot, makes us resilient, defends us from any risks of market downturns or crisis moments. Besides the fact that the business model is extremely efficient: 700 employees versus our competitors who have two or three thousand. We have custom-made boats, we have innovated a lot in recent years the product. We referred to high-quality designers, the Milanese Archistar, who have enormously improved the quality of interiors. This led us to approach art, so we are exclusive partners of Erba, we enter the VIP Lounge of Erba Cel, we are associated with the Guggenheim, we founded a charity foundation, a foundation of great culture. We acquired a house in Venice that is under renovation, so there is a very demanding activity in various directions, but it brings us to a concept of maison rather than shipyard. So we try to position the brand ever higher, we are also leaders in price position, in short, the boats are also more expensive, our customers reward us because the boats have the best design, the best quality, the best comfort, they maintain resale value, and there are various characteristics that have made the company year after year gain market share, and today we feel particularly strong because we have a very innovative, very fresh product range. We have an order book that as of December 31 was 1,069 million, and we expect by the end of March it will rise further by a good amount. The order book allows us to cover 75% of 2023 revenue, and being in March, that means the revenue is already in the bag, the 2023 result is in the bag, but we also cover more than 500 million euros for 2024 and 2025, so we have good visibility: more than 30% of 2024 and 10-15% of 2025. So good order book visibility. Keep in mind that it's not sold to dealers; we sell 93% of our order book to end customers, so it's real business, very interesting, very clear. As for 2022, in 2022 revenue exceeded 740 million euros, positioning at 26.4%, EBITDA increased by over 36% to 129 million, net income increased by 45.4% to over 74 million.

First of all, a single-digit growth. So compared to +25% +28% in the last two years, we are slowing down, we lower the curve a bit. Also because the product is very sophisticated, artisanal, and high quality, so the tumultuous growth of 2021 and 2022 cannot continue. You cannot progress with the same growth rate. At the time of the IPO in 2019, I promised a single-digit growth, a moderate growth with a particular focus on EBITDA margin, which went from 14.5% in 2019 to 17.5% in 2022. We confirm another percentage point in the guidance for 2023, so we will go to around 18.5%, and we have forecast for 2025 to be very close to 20%, it will be equal to or more than 19.5%.

No, certainly there is something new coming. The world is about to make a major technological leap. The demand for sustainability, the demand for products that will have to have greater attention to pollution, and therefore there is a strong push in terms of money, energy, dedicated human resources. We are pioneers in the construction of the new paradigm of boat building. We are doing two extremely demanding projects. One is the America's Cup tender: an 11-meter boat with foils and a fuel cell, so it will have no thermal engine and will do 59 knots. This is an America's Cup tender that will race alongside the America's Cup boats in the match race starting in October 2024. Thanks to this very technological development project, we will build in 2026 the first 20-meter boat, which will be a catamaran, a BGM 65, that will have a hydrogen fuel cell and can have a range of 80 miles at 8 knots for 10 hours. The second very interesting project instead refers to a 50-meter boat. Thanks to the exclusive agreement signed with Siemens and with MTU, we will build by summer 2024 the first 50-meter in the world with electrical power generation of 100 kW that will provide autonomy for the hotel load of the boat. The electrical energy from methanol will be reformed by a Siemens machine into hydrogen, the hydrogen will be used by the fuel cell to produce 100 kilowatts of electrical energy, the residue is water vapor that goes into the sea. These two projects will change the way boats are built in the future. Certainly competitors will follow this phenomenon because when customers know that there will be a new technology of this type, in my opinion they will be willing to pay more for the boats and have a much more sustainable, correct, and ecological approach.

Since 2008, consider that from 2000 to 2008 we had continuous growth. For example, to make a lease to buy a 10 million euro yacht in 2008, you just had to put 1 million on the table, 10% down, 90% was financed. Today we are not in that condition. We have learned, the financial world has learned. Today you do a lease with at least 40% deposit and 60% financed. There is no risk of a bubble. That is, the boats are not in stock at dealers, there are not many used boats on the market, there are zero used boats on the market, very few stock boats at dealers. There has been demand that absorbed it. Keep in mind that for 10 years this demand was very low. So I mean, sooner or later what doesn't rain then comes to rain. The boats become obsolete, customers change them, and so there has been a recovery, but a recovery that in my opinion is very solid and very healthy. There are no speculative tendencies to create bubbles.