International. For the first quarter of 2022, Prosegur recorded sales of 947 million euros, which means a growth of 17.9% compared to the same period in 2021. The company highlighted strong growth in the last month of the quarter favored by a more favorable macroeconomic environment and stability in exchange rates.
On the profitability of operations, EBITA stood at 60 million euros, representing an improvement of 19.1%. While the EBITA margin has remained stable at 6.3%. Prosegur is registering a trend of gradual improvement in margins in all its business units, although in the case of Prosegur Security, it continues to be affected by unproductivities, the termination of subsidies and the commercial effort in the United States. In addition, in the first quarter of the year profitability felt the seasonal effect, amplified by inflation. With all this, the consolidated net result, discounting minority interests, stood at 11 million euros, 36.7% less.
Net financial debt at the end of the first quarter reached 1,089 million euros, with an average cost of 1.33%. The level of indebtedness remains stable with a net financial debt to EBITDA ratio of 2.4 times. It is worth mentioning the extension of the maturity of the corporate debt after the issuance of ordinary bonds -on April 6- for an amount of 500 million euros.
Regarding the evolution of the activity by business lines:
Prosegur Security
Prosegur Security, the surveillance and technology business, reported sales of €469 million in the first quarter of 2022, representing a revenue growth of 15.5%. These figures show the general reactivation of sales in all geographies, especially in mature markets. In the case of the United States, growth is over 50%. In addition, sales of technology-based security solutions are advancing rapidly.
Prosegur Cash
Prosegur Cash has reported sales of 411 million euros in the first three months of 2022, 18.8% more than the same period of the previous year. The company has maintained for several quarters a positive trend in the evolution of its revenues in all geographies, thanks to the increase in the volumes of cash transported and favored by the inflationary situation and an almost neutral impact on currencies.
Prosegur Alarms
The alarm activity has closed the first quarter of the year with a total base of connections of 724,000, of which 374,000 correspond to Movistar Prosegur Alarms and 350,000 to Prosegur Alarms that groups all operations outside Spain. In this way, the commercial activity of Movistar Prosegur Alarms maintains its strong growth rate with an increase of 48.8% compared to the first quarter of 2021.
For its part, Prosegur Alarms has recorded sales of 43 million euros, with a positive organic growth of 17.6% that is mainly affected by the deconsolidation of Spain.
Prosegur AVOS
Prosegur AVOS, the business line specialized in process outsourcing and digital transformation for the financial and insurance sector, has reported a growth of 30.6% to 21 million euros in the first quarter of 2022. It is worth mentioning the advancement of the technology area, AVOS Tech, whose sales already represent about 30% of revenues compared to 20% in the first quarter of 2021.
Finally, Cipher, the cybersecurity unit, has reported sales in the first quarter of 2022 of 4 million euros.
