Memorandum
Dear Shareholders:
As you all know and are aware, financial year 2021 was a year in which we expected a return to normality and with great hope and excitement. This past year has surprised us with a series of unforeseen difficulties with our customers and suppliers that have made it very difficult to manage.
Some countries, especially China, have maintained and even increased their difficulties in terms of travel. Our technical staff have had to make great efforts and we have overcome the difficulties, even, in some cases, with remote repairs and non-face-to-face machine pass offs.
The commercial management has not been easy either, as a result of the restrictions imposed by the pandemic. To all this we can add the hitherto unseen increases in the price of supplies and, in some cases, the enormous difficulty of obtaining reasonable delivery times.
As a result, the difficulties of management and production planning have become enormous. Moreover, contrary to our expectations, instead of improving, the difficulties increased as the year progressed.
Thanks to the commendable efforts of the staff and the magnificent management carried out to overcome these difficulties, we were able to move forward with production and, in addition, we considerably increased our order intake compared to previous years, and the order book at the end of the year reached €82.6 million. The highest in the last decade.
The Correa Group´s consolidated turnover was also more than positive, exceeding €76.5 million. All these efforts have led us to a profitability (in terms of EBITDA: €9 million) that is much better than the average for the sector. And we have managed to continue to increase our Net Cash and end the year with a negative Net Financial Debt of €12.3 million.
All this leads us to look to the future with hope and to initiate an ambitious investment plan. The acquisition of a new plot of land for the development of Hypatia was our first step, but it will not be the last.
Our cash position, our vision for the future and our desire to maintain, where reasonable, stable shareholder remuneration have led the Board of Directors to propose a dividend of €0.20 per share to the Annual General Meeting this year.
All this makes us look to the year 2022 with cautious optimism, even though we know that we will have to continue to fight and work hard together to achieve the objectives that have been achieved in a stable manner for years.
We hope to continue to fulfil our commitment to our shareholders, whose trust we are proud and satisfied to have placed in us.
It is in this spirit that we carry out our daily work.
Yours sincerely
Mr. José Nicolás-Correa Barragán
Chairman