Cerba - comment

While the credit story seems to going in the direction we laid out in our initiation, we will review our position post-call this week. Cerba reported Q2 2024 results of EUR 480.5 million which was slightly below our expectations of EUR 483 million. The company posted positive growth of 1.7% for the core business (which was again below our expectation of 3% growth) offset by weakness in the research division (-12% vs. our estimates of -2%). However, the company reported a contract backlog of EUR 380 million which is expected to generate revenues in H2 2024. Q2 Adjusted EBITDA was EUR 109.8 million which was slightly better than our projection at EUR 108 million due to greater realised synergies. Liquidity was strong at EUR 157 million (which was slightly lower than Sarria estimates at EUR 236 million). Net leverage remained elevated at 8.3x. We will understand more on the call on the 4th of September.