Management report
Management report on the consolidated accounts for the 2022 financial year
Dear Sir or Madam,
We have the pleasure of presenting to you the consolidated accounts of the Interparking Group as per 31 December 2022.
After two difficult years, the 2022 results exceed those of 2019 in terms of both revenue and EBITDA. These results were achieved despite the anti-COVID measures taken by the various countries at the end of 2021 and a first quarter of 2022 impacted by the latest wave of the pandemic.
Overall, the Group’s consolidated turnover, excluding non-recurring items, rose from €382.4 million in 2021 to €491.4 million, corresponding to, an increase of 28.5%.
The Group’s consolidated recurring EBITDA in 2022 amounted to € 143.6 million compared with € 96.9 million in the previous year, corresponding to, an increase of 48.2%.
The Group invested more than €50 million in its growth, mainly to complete major construction projects.
We completed several projects in Belgium, which enabled us to begin operations at the Vesting car park in Antwerp, the extension of the Centrum car park in Bruges and the Brucity car park in Brussels.
We entered into a partnership with the San Donato Group, the largest hospital group in Italy during the past financial year. Thanks to this agreement, we have been operating the car parks of the San Raffaele hospital in Milan since the end of 2022.
In France, our position has been strengthened thanks to the opening of the La Mandoune car park in Montauban. Our subsidiary has also begun the construction of a new car park in Bordeaux.
Our Polish subsidiary continues to expand in the cities of Warsaw and Gdansk, where we are strengthened our presence at the airport and in the city centre.
Including new acquisitions, as of 31 December 2022, Interparking operated 1,011 sites in 406 cities in nine European Union countries and managed more than 432,000 parking spaces. This compares to 998 sites and 425,000 parking places at the end of 2021.
We continued investing to improve the quality of our car parks. By the end of 2022, 245 of the Group’s car parks had been awarded the ESPA quality label granted by the European Parking Association (EPA). This is an increase of 14 car parks compared to the previous financial year. After the Markthal car park in 2015, the Confluence car park in Namur was awarded the prize for the “Best new car park in Europe”, by the European Parking Association.
The Group has been fully CO2 neutral since 2015, thanks to its energy consumption savings and green energy supplies. In 2022, Interparking continued to invest to reduce the environmental impact of its activities. At the end of 2022, the Group had over 120 fine particle neutralisation units, which we call “Lungs in the city”. We have also entered a few “green” financing agreements that foresee lower interest rates if specific Environmental Social Governance (ESG) parameters are met.
In addition, we have since 2021 participated in the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB). The GRESB is an international certification that evaluates and compares the ESG performance of stakeholders in the real estate and infrastructure sector. Our score of 80% is a significant improvement compared to 2021.
Aware of its social responsibility, the Group continued to support various social, cultural and sporting initiatives during the past year.
In addition, Interparking also continued its IT investments. These have helped optimise our customers’ digital experience. A digital version of the Pcard+ has been created, which enables users to quickly identify which car park to go to depending on their points of interest.
The number of Pcards grew by over 22% compared to 2021, demonstrating that these types of products meet a real demand from our customers.
To help reduce the impact of mobility on the environment, the Group promotes the Pcard as an intermodal tool compatible with public transport.
To support the transition to low-polluting vehicles, Interparking is increasing the number of charging stations for electric and hybrid vehicles in its car parks. The number of parking spaces equipped with charging stations has increased by more than 50% to exceed 2,400 spaces at the end of 2022.
Net financial charges, excluding depreciation on consolidation differences and excluding non-recurring items, were €17.8 million in 2022, compared with €15.0 million in 2021.
The Group’s net debt was €774 million at the end of 2022. The Group’s assets consist primarily of long-term assets, which contributes to the stability of their market value. We also recently renewed several loans and are in negotiations for the renewal of several other credit lines maturing in 2023. As expected, our net debt to EBITDA ratio has fallen below the 6.5 threshold to reach 5.4 at the end of 2022.
Interparking limits the rate risk inherent to its financial debt via interest rate hedging instruments. In a volatile financial market characterized by instability and rising interest rates, the Group is well protected by a debt that is 86% hedged against interest rate fluctuations.
Considering recurrent depreciation and non-recurring items, earnings before tax were €47.1 million in 2022 compared to €11.0 million the previous year. In 2022, the Group’s share in earnings after taxes was €29.9 million, compared with €5.9 million in 2021.
Lastly, with respect to risk, the Group analyses and closely tracks changes in mobility which could potentially entail a risk for the operation of certain car parks. More specifically, the Group could be impacted by certain mobility and parking trends, such as reductions in access to city centres, or the promotion of alternative transport means. The Group’s development strategy is thus focused both on major European cities and other quality cities.
The Group anticipates and tracks these changes jointly with its “upstream” customers and aims, within this framework, to strengthen its collaboration with cities, notably through the promotion of parking guiding systems, the development of bicycle parking facilities, and proactive participation in the policy to move parking from the street to off-street car parks.
No major event has occurred since the accounts for the 2022 financial year were closed that would be such as to have any significant effect on the Group’s financial situation and results.
Brussels, 1 March 2023
The Board of Directors