SOCIETE DES EDITIONS DU CERF : revenue, balance sheet and financial ratios

In 2024, SOCIETE DES EDITIONS DU CERF achieves revenue of 6.1 M€. Activity remains stable over the period (CAGR: -1.9%). Vs 2023: +2%. After deducting consumption (-625 k€), gross margin stands at 6.7 M€, i.e. a rate of 110%. This ratio measures the ability to generate value from commercial activity. EBITDA (= Gross margin - Personnel expenses - Taxes) reaches 1.8 M€, representing 29.2% of revenue. Positive scissor effect: EBITDA margin improves by +2.7 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 127 k€, i.e. 2.1% of revenue. This profit can be retained or distributed to shareholders.

The debt ratio (= Financial debt / Equity x 100) stands at 52%. Debt remains under control: the company retains capacity to raise new debt if needed. Financial autonomy (= Equity / Total assets x 100) reaches 25%. The balance between equity and debt is satisfactory. Debt repayment capacity (= Financial debt / Cash flow) indicates it would take 44.6 years of cash flow to repay all financial debt. Beyond 7 years, banks generally consider credit risk as high. Cash flow represents 0.4% of revenue. Cash flow measures resources generated by operations, available for investment and debt repayment.

The liquidity ratio (= Current assets / Current liabilities) stands at 161.40. 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 0.4x. Danger: operating income does not cover interest charges, unsustainable situation.

Working capital requirement (WCR) measures the cash timing gap between customer collections and supplier/inventory payments. Average customer payment term: 135 days (formula: Customer receivables / Revenue incl. VAT x 360). Supplier term: 96 days. The gap of 39 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 266 days (= Average inventory / Cost of goods x 360). This high level ties up cash and potentially creates obsolescence risk. Overall, WCR represents 113 days of revenue, i.e. 1.9 M€ to permanently finance. Notable WCR improvement over the period (-34%), freeing up cash.

Based on 104 transactions of similar company sales (all years), the value of SOCIETE DES EDITIONS DU CERF is estimated at 1 579 507 € (range 773 617€ - 5 240 401€). With an EBITDA of 1 778 198€, the sector multiple of 1.1x is applied. The price/revenue ratio is 0.24x (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.