Sustained growth in difficult times

• After an intensive half year of investments (6 new companies and 15 bolt-on acquisitions), the Gimv portfolio reached a record value of more than EUR 1.5 billion, invested in 61 mid-market growth companies.
• Equity shows a limited decrease of -5.7% compared to March 2022, representing a net asset value per share at the end of September 2022 of EUR 47.6.
• The Gimv portfolio companies displayed again solid growth in the first half of 2022: total revenue increased by 24%, including 10% organic growth.
• This strong growth ensured that negative economic headwinds (energy costs, raw material prices and wage indexations) were mitigated in profitability: overall portfolio profitability in the first half of 2022 stabilised compared with the same period in 2021.

CEO Koen Dejonckheere:

“The teams at Gimv and our businesses each remain focused on their long-term strategy and are ready to make the right choices in the event of an economic downturn. Despite current challenges, we are confident that our investments remain well focused on key social, industrial and technological evolutions such as energy management, health, digitalisation and automation. Our companies make a conscious and positive contribution to a society that puts sustainability first.

In this period of adversity, our companies can continue to rely on the support of our teams so that their growth strategy can be sustained. Gimv continues to invest further in its position as a sector-oriented builder of leading mid-market growth companies that together innovate and strengthen our economy.”

The results for the first half of the 2022-2023 financial year relate to consolidated figures for the period from 1 April 2022 to 30 September 2022.

Key points

Results

• Strong revenue growth at our companies continues (+24.4% compared with the first half of 2021, including 10% organic growth). In a context of sharply rising raw material and energy prices and inflationary pressure on salary costs, this growth allowed our companies to keep their profitability stable (+0.5% compared with the first half of 2021).
• This strong growth performance of our portfolio limited the impact of the tough economic challenges on Gimv’s portfolio result: portfolio result of -EUR 51 million, or a portfolio return of       -3.5% (non-annualised) in a semester with a limited number of exits.
• In addition to a realized result of EUR 21.4 million (including dividends and interest), the unrealized valuation result amounts to EUR -72.5 million and is mainly driven by an increase in the debt ratio. This was predominantly explained by increasing working capital needs at our companies as a result of strong sales growth combined with more expensive raw materials and higher inventories.
• Net result (group share): -EUR 75 million (or -EUR 2.8 per share)

Equity

• As a result of the portfolio performance, the decrease in equity (group share) was limited to -5.7% (non-annualised) compared with the end of March 2022 (excluding dividends). At the end of September, equity amounted to EUR 1,294.7 million or EUR 47.6 per share compared to EUR 50.4 per share at the end of March 2022 (excluding dividends).

Investments / Divestments

• The first half of the 2022-23 financial year was a period of intensive investment activity: we invested EUR 172.5 million in 6 new companies and in 15 strategic add-on investments.
• Total cash proceeds from divestments: EUR 33.1 million

Balance sheet and portfolio

• The investment portfolio continued to grow, with a 6% increase in the first half of the 2022-23 financial year to a record level of more than EUR 1.5 billion (EUR 1,535 million; invested in 61 companies).
• At the end of September 2022, the liquidity position was EUR 160 million. In addition, Gimv has EUR 200 million of undrawn credit lines with banks.

Dividend

• Gimv seeks to maintain its current dividend policy.