COSTES HOLDING : revenue, balance sheet and financial ratios

In 2024, COSTES HOLDING achieves revenue of 313 k€. Over the period 2016-2024, the company shows strong growth with a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of +26.6%. Significant drop of -31% vs 2023. After deducting consumption (42 k€), gross margin stands at 271 k€, i.e. a rate of 87%. This ratio measures the ability to generate value from commercial activity. EBITDA (= Gross margin - Personnel expenses - Taxes) reaches 56 k€, representing 17.8% of revenue. Positive scissor effect: EBITDA margin improves by +18.4 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 17 k€, i.e. 5.3% of revenue. This profit can be retained or distributed to shareholders.

The debt ratio (= Financial debt / Equity x 100) stands at 377%. 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 20%. Low autonomy: the company heavily depends on external financing (banks, suppliers). Debt repayment capacity (= Financial debt / Cash flow) indicates it would take 59.8 years of cash flow to repay all financial debt. Beyond 7 years, banks generally consider credit risk as high. Cash flow represents 5.3% of revenue. Cash flow measures resources generated by operations, available for investment and debt repayment. Satisfactory level allowing partial financing of growth.

The liquidity ratio (= Current assets / Current liabilities) stands at 1550.15. 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 16.0x. 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: 94 days (formula: Customer receivables / Revenue incl. VAT x 360). Supplier term: 11 days. The gap of 83 days means the company finances its customers for over a month before being paid relative to supplier payments. This weighs on cash flow. Inventory turnover is 257 days (= Average inventory / Cost of goods x 360). This high level ties up cash and potentially creates obsolescence risk. Overall, WCR represents 1112 days of revenue, i.e. 967 k€ to permanently finance. Over 2016-2024, WCR increased by +4562%, requiring additional financing.

Indicative estimate only : the number of comparable transactions in this sector is limited (26 transactions). This range of 200 284€ to 473 824€ is provided for information purposes only and requires in-depth analysis to be confirmed.