The Fact of Travaglio and Gomez is not in excellent health
Accounts, problems and prospects for the publishing house of Il Fatto Daily which can benefit from Loft's earnings thanks to Rai with the program La Confessione
Troubled waters in Seif, the company founded in 2009 that publishes Il Fatto Quotidiano and which over the years has broadened its scope of action to become a media company. Led by president and CEO Cinzia Monteverdi, in 2023 Seif closed in the red for around 2.4 million, however recovering compared to the almost 4.3 million loss of the previous year.
THE 2023 FINANCIAL STATEMENT OF SEIF, PUBLISHING COMPANY OF THE DAILY FACT
In addition to the loss of 2.38 million, equal to 3.3 million before taxes, a gross operating margin of over 2.2 million was recorded compared to 404 thousand euros in 2022 and an Ebit down by 3 million, recovering from -5.5 million the previous year. Net worth was also negative, amounting to 2.1 million.
On the revenue front, there was an increase (from almost 28 million to 29.2 million). The lion's share with 80.71% goes to the publishing sector (23.6 million from 22 million), followed by the advertising sector (10.70%) – which however drops from almost 3.8 million to just over of 3.1 million – and from the media content sector (8.59%), growing from 2.2 million to 2.5 million.
In short, numbers that indicate an improvement but still a complicated situation. So much so that, in the report on the 2023 budget, the board of auditors, referring to the choices of the company's directors, reports that "as part of their assessments, they considered that the effects of a possible and substantial failure to achieve the objectives set out in the plan 2024-26 and, consequently, in the liquidity plan, would represent a significant uncertainty that could cause significant doubts about the ability to operate under the going concern basis".
Similarly, Kpmg, the company in charge of auditing the 2023 financial statements, drew attention "to what was reported by the Directors in the explanatory notes to the paragraph "Business continuity" regarding the existence of a significant uncertainty which may give rise to significant doubts about the Group's ability to continue as a going concern." The Seif administrators are certainly counting on the subsidiary Loft (which deals with multimedia productions) to produce revenues and profits in line with forecasts and underline that "in the month of February the television format La Confessione arrived at Rai, achieving the results of share areas. Accordi e Disaccord i was confirmed for the entire season in prime time on channel 9 and the negotiations managed to date for 2024 for Loft Produzioni express the trend foreseen in the plan and an excellent diversification of interlocutors".
SEIF'S 2022 REPORT AND THE BIRTH OF LOFT PRODUZIONI
Speaking of Loft, we need to remember its birth. In the press release of March 31 last year, which illustrated the 2022 budget data , it was stated that the value of production, equal to 40 million, had grown from 38.4 million in 2021, as well as the Ebitda, to 7, 1 million from 5.9 million, the Ebit, to 1.2 million from 465 thousand, the net result to 2.5 million, from 169 thousand. The net worth even went to 7.1 from 4.5 million.
Sales revenues were decreasing (from 32.5 million in 2021 to 27.9 in 2022), which led to a decrease in turnover of 4.6 million. The value of production, however, rose from 38.4 million to 40 million thanks to the increase in intangible assets for 5 million and "Other revenues" for over 7 million.
At the end of 2022, however, Seif had established a new 100% controlled company to manage a business unit, Loft Produzioni, which operates in the television production sector of which it owns the content. However, Seif continued to produce television content. “The choice to set up Loft – we read in the press release of the company that publishes Il Fatto Quotidiano – arises from the desire to have greater autonomy and flexibility within the television production market and to be able to better seize the new opportunities linked to 'further development of the 'video' product. With this operation LOFT will be able to seize opportunities for industrial partnerships as well as expand collaborations with broadcasters and players in the sector".
But perhaps there was also something more. Reading the 2022 financial statements, in fact, it emerges that some specific items were identified under the item "intangible assets", recorded for a value of approximately 6.4 million, with the name of "Loft Produzioni business branch", then transferred to a newly established company 100% owned after the valuation of a professional, Professor Gigante, according to which Loft Produzioni was worth 13.3 million. In this way there was an increase in revenues of approximately 6.4 million (within the item "Other revenues").
In essence, without this operation the numbers would have been very different with Ebitda breaking even, negative Ebit of almost 6 million, net loss of around 5 million and a net worth as of 31 December 2022 eliminated.
FORESEEABLE MANAGEMENT EVOLUTION
As regards the future, in the revision of the 2023 financial statements Kpmg recalls that "in the first months of 2024 the company started the 'Scuola del Fatto' training course program with the course on Artificial Intelligence preceded by a information event on the Scuola del Fatto and on the 2024 programme. At the same time, the project relating to the Web 3.0 Community was launched and has begun its experimental phase from which the possibility of refining the model and the marketing proposal to obtain results is expected also in terms of revenues in the second half of the current financial year". And again: “The performance of the publishing sector is in line with budget estimates with a push to increase revenues from digital subscriptions. For the rest, the reorganization of the human resources structure foreseen by the budget to support the digital transition continues, as do the developments in the IT sector. The reorganization of the production processes of all editorial content, with the aim of streamlining and increasing the production of digital products, is also constantly pursued."
THE ROLE OF LOFT PRODUCTIONS
On the Loft Produzioni front, in the first months of 2024 its activities will also continue and are aligned with budget estimates. In February, production of the television formats resumed, continuing to be broadcast on channel 9 of the WBDiscovery group and the La Confessione format, which with the new season landed on Rai3 for the first time. Therefore, given the trends of the first months of management of 2024, in line with the budget forecasts, the regularity in the operational financial flows, the now almost completed implementation of the investment programs relating to two pillars of the strategic revolution envisaged in the plan and the availability of usable credit lines, the regular management of production and commercial activities is expected and therefore the operation of business continuity".
PUGLISI'S QUESTIONS
In the meantime, regarding X, there is a doubt on the part of Riccardo Puglisi, economist and university professor. “Another relevant question about SEIF, @fattoquotidiano and Loft Produzioni. Loft's multimedia contents are on Nove and RAI, but @marcotravaglio @AndreaScanzi and @a_padellaro are typically guests on @La7tv. Aren't they competing with themselves?”.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/il-fatto-di-travaglio-e-gomez-non-gode-di-ottima-salute/ on Sun, 05 May 2024 06:31:10 +0000.