Record Results Even in a Challenging Year for G+D

Giesecke+Devrient has described 2022 as having a challenging business environment but one in which it has achieved strong results. The challenges have included rising energy, raw material and logistic costs, worldwide inflation, supply chain challenges, particularly for chips, and the impact of the war in Ukraine.

Sales of €2.53 billion were a 6.3% improvement of the previous year and ahead of the pre-pandemic levels of 2019 and the highest in the company’s history. Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) increased slightly by 1.4% to €168.2 million – another record for the company. Net income fell back slightly to €80.6 million from 2021’s €85.2 million.

Expenditure on research and development increased by 12.1% to €132.7 million. Investments increased by €48.7 million to €175.8 million, funded from cash flow. G+D is committed to developing what it calls its Digital Twins to secure the business for the future.

Head count has risen by 7% to 12,594 people around the world.

G+D is working on all aspects of sustainability and has drawn attention in particular to its commitment to use no virgin plastic in its payment cards by 2030 and its Green Banknote initiative. It also ran a staff sustainability hackathon which saw 200 suggestions submitted for areas where the company could make changes.

Turnover of the Currency Technology business fell to just over €1 billion, 4.6%, and, for the first time the Mobile Security business, which creates solutions for secure and convenient digital mobility, had a higher turnover, €1.013 billion, up 24.9% on 2021. Demand for new banknote series was down, although this was offset by a number of major banknote handling and management projects in the Currency Management Solutions division which exceeded expectations.

Veridos’s, the identity management joint venture with Bundesdruckerei, turnover fell slightly to €192 million, down 2.7%, and secunet’s, which offers digital infrastructure, rose slightly to €347 million, up 2.8%.

G+D pursues innovation through its own organic R&D efforts, by investing in start-ups through G+D Ventures and through acquisitions.

The company has pointed out that a quarter of its sales now take place in digital product and service areas. In this context it has bought SysEleven to support secunet’s work on cloud security, the North American arm of the Brazilian company Valid in order to accelerate growth in the payments and identity markets, and NetSet in Serbia who develop identity management systems. It has also increased its stake in Netcetera, a Swiss company which works in digital payment and e-commerce markets, to 60%.

G+D’s key digital innovations are eSIMs and Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).

It is the world’s leading provider of eSIM operating systems and eSIM activation as carried out by its data centres. 100 million downloads have taken place. eSIMs are used in smartphones and in devices requiring connectivity. They help deliver the ‘Internet of Things’ which is now commonplace in everyday life and being boosted by the roll out of 5G connectivity.

G+D has been selected by the central banks of Ghana, Eswatini and Thailand to work with them on their CBDC pilots.

G+D has said that it has entered the new financial year with a strong order book, 22% higher than a year before. It expects to increase turnover in 2023 based on its good position in the market and the expectation of better economic conditions.