ALAIN DEBUSCHERE & ASSOCIES : revenue, balance sheet and financial ratios

In 2024, ALAIN DEBUSCHERE & ASSOCIES achieves revenue of 779 k€. Revenue is declining over the period 2019-2024 (CAGR: -22.1%). Significant drop of -48% vs 2023. After deducting consumption (117 k€), gross margin stands at 662 k€, i.e. a rate of 85%. This ratio measures the ability to generate value from commercial activity. EBITDA (= Gross margin - Personnel expenses - Taxes) reaches 327 k€, representing 41.9% of revenue. Positive scissor effect: EBITDA margin improves by +9.2 pts, sign of improved operational efficiency. This high EBITDA margin provides strong self-financing capacity and resilience to uncertainties. Ultimately, net income (= EBIT +/- financial result +/- exceptional - corporate tax) amounts to 141 k€, i.e. 18.1% of revenue. This profit can be retained or distributed to shareholders.

The debt ratio (= Financial debt / Equity x 100) stands at 719%. Critical situation: debt significantly exceeds equity, severely limiting borrowing capacity and exposing the company to default risk. Financial autonomy (= Equity / Total assets x 100) reaches 11%. Low autonomy: the company heavily depends on external financing (banks, suppliers). Debt repayment capacity (= Financial debt / Cash flow) indicates it would take 14.8 years of cash flow to repay all financial debt. Beyond 7 years, banks generally consider credit risk as high. Cash flow represents 29.3% of revenue. Cash flow measures resources generated by operations, available for investment and debt repayment. This high level provides strong self-financing capacity.

The liquidity ratio (= Current assets / Current liabilities) stands at 729.20. Concretely, the company has €2 of liquid assets for every €1 of short-term debt: no cash risk within 12 months. The interest coverage ratio (= EBIT / Interest expenses) is 27.7x. Operating income very largely covers interest expenses: high safety margin.

Working capital requirement (WCR) measures the cash timing gap between customer collections and supplier/inventory payments. Average customer payment term: 5 days (formula: Customer receivables / Revenue incl. VAT x 360). Supplier term: 270 days. Excellent situation: suppliers finance 265 days of the operating cycle (retail model). Inventory turnover is 1097 days (= Average inventory / Cost of goods x 360). This high level ties up cash and potentially creates obsolescence risk. Overall, WCR represents 1110 days of revenue, i.e. 2.4 M€ to permanently finance. Notable WCR improvement over the period (-45%), freeing up cash.

Based on 64 transactions of similar company sales in 2024, the value of ALAIN DEBUSCHERE & ASSOCIES is estimated at 726 751 € (range 288 981€ - 1 017 504€). With an EBITDA of 326 640€, the sector multiple of 3.1x is applied. The price/revenue ratio is 0.33x (conservative valuation). This multiples method compares the actual sale price of similar companies to their financial indicators (Revenue, EBITDA, Net Income). It provides a market-based indicative estimate.
Medium reliability: estimate to be confirmed with in-depth analysis.