Investor Relations

Dear Stakeholders,

although over the preceding two years the raw materials and electronic components shortage drove companies to boost inventories in view of significantly longer lead times, 2023 saw supply chain conditions gradually improve. Within a general economic environment featuring inflation and tight monetary policy, the normalizing of delivery times has resulted in a destocking by customers. In many sectors, this had already been completed by early 2024.

Over recent years, we have worked hard to strengthen SECO's competitive advantage by investing heavily in R&D and by acquiring strategic technologies to cover the entire value chain, from Edge computing to IoT-data analytics, to AI. This has led to a unique technological positioning, enabling us to deliver a best-in-class performance, even within a complex marketplace. In 2023, we reached Euro 209 million in sales, delivering organic growth of +4%. The continued expansion of the software business, with over Euro 22 million just over two years from its launch, has also contributed to our improved margins, with Adjusted EBITDA
of approx. Euro 50.6 million (24.1% of revenues).

With the goal of transferring more added value to customers, our strategy has evolved over time, shifting toward increasingly comprehensive hardware solutions and developing a range of cutting-edge software for IoT-data analytics-AI. A consistent focus on innovation, an ever-improving range, supply chain control and in-house production are the key factors that allow us - year after year - to ensure our position as a partner of choice for our customers.

Digitalization has created a huge space to explore and is behind changing demands among businesses. Edge computing is not just about making hardware that can run software on a device, but rather making it smart and interconnected, to make products available to end users with a human-machine interface that simplifies interaction and improves the user experience. The use of dedicated IoT software platforms makes it possible to benefit from real-time data analysis to design new AI-powered features and services and establish new recurring-revenue business models.

To address these needs, we are building a product line based on AI accelerators, to increase computing power directly on the device, and working on generative AI and Large Language Model techniques - all with a view to enabling instantaneous and offline data analysis, but also to facilitate smoother interaction with the machine. A wide range of hardware solutions, touch displays and software services position SECO perfectly to design integrated plugand-play systems with reduced time-to-market.

2023 saw us strengthen our long-term collaborations with a number of the leading silicon vendors, including Intel and NXP, and initiate relationships with new partners, such as Axelera on the computer vision front and Mediatek; in addition, we were selected by Qualcomm as an IIoT design center partner and for participation in the IoT Accelerator Program. We have established a relationship with Google Cloud, enabling us to integrate Clea, our IoT software suite, into the Google Cloud Marketplace, ensuring that it is readily available andexpanding its distribution channels.

We also always look to the future when it comes to the quality and efficiency of our industrial processes. We have therefore continued to invest in the latest equipment and software, while the use of SAP has been extended to companies in Germany. The adoption of a single information system further accelerates the integration of the acquired entities, which is already proceeding apace, facilitating the generation of major synergies and the maximization of the assets’ potential. In just two years since the acquisition, revenues in the DACH area have almost doubled.

Acting responsibly is an integral part of the corporate culture, shared and promoted by our people. For us, sustainability means not only efficiently employing natural resources in all our activities, but more importantly using our technology - and in particular Artificial Intelligence - to promote business models with lower environmental impact, fostering automation, optimizing consumption and reducing waste by accurately and instantaneously monitoring the operation of on-field devices.

The eco-digital revolution is just beginning and major growth opportunities await us given the strong demand for digital products and solutions, in which the role of AI will be fundamental, enabling the local execution of increasingly complex computational models. Edge AI will allow our customers to launch new value-added services by fully exploiting the potential of field data: this is the environment that we envision and which guides our strategic decisions.

We look to the future with great enthusiasm, in the confidence that SECO has built a unique technology proposition on the market, capable of best tapping into the needs of companies in key areas such as Edge AI, IoT, data analytics and artificial intelligence. We believe this will result in significant value creation for customers, shareholders and all stakeholders.


Daniele Conti e Massimo Mauri

(Chairman and Chief Executive Officer)