The digital services company is expected to see sales grow again in the first quarter of this year. The potential is significant for the years to come, even if recruitment difficulties weigh on costs.
| Photo credits: Infotel
On the occasion of the TP Icap Midcap conference, we had the opportunity to meet Michel Koutchouk, CEO and co-founder of Infotel. The manager says he is confident for the current financial year, starting from a 2021 turnover growing by more than 12%, to reach more than 263 million euros. And even if he cannot reveal the figures for the first quarter of 2022 before the general meeting, he assures us that ” they will be very good with significant growth “.
All the indicators are in good shape for the company, no financial debt in the liabilities, and a cash position of more than 100 million euros. The CEO intends to use this cash on the one hand to pay the dividend at 1.60 euro this year. On the other hand, the group counts acquire new companies even if today there are none defined, several files are under study “.
Intensify software activity
The majority of invoicing is generated by the Services activity, which represents 96% of the total activity volume. Banks represent 40% of revenues in this segment, and even if, as Michel Koutchouk explains, ” they are currently in a bit of difficulty, other sectors such as insurance are picking up and compensating “. The company also intends to intensify its second Software activity (4% of turnover) because, according to the director, “ service companies are less valued than software companies “. The group will therefore continue to develop software like Orlando, software responsible for managing technical documentation in aviation, which is enjoying increasing success with airlines.
Recruitment difficulties
However, there are many challenges for the company, first and foremost in terms of recruitment. Infotel encounters great difficulties in recruiting IT specialists, which forces it to resort to subcontracting (1/3 of its human resources). According to the leader, it is very problematic ” because subcontracting costs are detrimental to the business profitability “. One of the solutions for Infotel will be to use offshore labor in India and Morocco. The second challenge relates to the geographic location of the IT group, which does 85% of its business in France. On this point, the company has already begun to expand to Monaco and the United Kingdom and intends to continue by setting up in new countries such as Spain and Italy.
Rodrigue Girard, at the TP Icap Midcap conference