Damiani’s accounts are not very brilliant. The board of directors of the Valenza group approved the financial statement as at 31 December 2012, relating to the first nine months of the 2012-2013 financial year (the fiscal year will end at the end of March). Result: growth in sales in the retail segment, but in the red in the accounts. The directly managed Damiani mono-brand stores, in Italy and abroad, as written in the report, recorded an increase in revenues of 26%. In Italy, Rocca multi-brand boutiques are doing well, but wholesale sales are heavily penalized “due to retailers’ caution in purchasing”. And unfortunately the group’s turnover is approximately 70% made in Italy. The consequence is that the accounts are not going well at all: the consumption crisis in the first nine months depressed revenues to 107.5 million euros, with a drop of 9.1% (they were 118.2 million euros in same period of the previous financial year). Reason why there is a red sign in the balance sheet: Damiani records a negative consolidated Ebitda (i.e. gross margin) of 1 million euros, compared to the positive 1.4 million euros of the previous year. And the Damianis also let it be known that the negative sign is contained thanks to the savings for some cost components. The consolidated operating result was also bad, being negative by 3.2 million euros, worse than the -0.8 million euros at 31 December 2011.
What should we expect for the end of the fiscal year? The company has implemented, explains a financial statement note, “a series of actions that will be completed by the end of the financial year, with the aim of rationalizing some company processes”. The benefits of these unspecified moves, however, “will only be visible in the next financial year 2013-2014, while the income statement as at 31 December 2012 already records the related costs”. In fact, the Damiani group must record a net loss, again in the nine months 2012-2013, of –4.7 million euros. Bad, in short, even if less severe than the –5.3 million euros as of 31 December 2011. Previously, Damiani closed the 2011 budget with a loss of 11.9 million and the 2010 budget with a red of 14.5 million . Thus, the increase in debt is not very corroborative: the negative net financial position is 36.7 million euros (compared to 28.6 million euros at 31 March 2012).
