00:35:44 · Andrea Allegrini
[00:35:44] S1: The main thing is that we like and we... I think it's also mandatory to reply to all the investor that write us asking for informations. It all started with an article on Twitter, On X, done by Croatian analyst that wrote to Mikk asking a few questions. And Michele was really impressed because those... That that guy studied a lot about us, and he he made very pertinent questions, and Michele was surprised. And so this article published on Twitter was read by an analyst of Sun Mountain Partners, which is an investor, one of our most important shareholders. So he read this article. They called us. They made a very accurate due diligence, staying here in Italy for days, talking with our customers, better understanding our business model. And the fun fact is that this company is very famous in The US among all the value investor community. And so we gained... It's incredible, but we gained lots of visibility in this sense. And today, I think that 30%, 40% of the floating is this in The U. S, even in retail, family office, funds. So it's we are quite proud to having reached this goal because we have a very good base of really long term value investors. Instead of being pressed by investor asking us about the next quarter, those guys ask us for the next twenty, thirty years, which is we share this kind of approach.
00:37:35 · Mikk, Andrea Allegrini
[00:37:35] S0: It's fascinating that you mentioned Sun Mountain because I think they were on a conference as well, and I I really enjoyed their presentation. And for sure, they are well known. So one question. You you did this pivot. So what about the listeners? What about the current investors? Do they need to... Not being worried is not the right way to put it, but will there be another pivot in the future or you finally found your your thing, you're excellent at, and you see enough deal flow, enough opportunity to focus for the next fifteen... I don't know, five, ten, fifteen years? Okay. [00:38:13] S1: I I think that our main job is to find opportunities. And we constantly discuss internally to find new ones. What is what if we talk about scarcity, today, the main problem is our energy and our time. So if we find a new interesting opportunity, we are evaluating it. But I think that if we are buying, for example, a new vertical, we need an entrepreneur helping us to carry on this kind of opportunity. But, I mean, we keep our eye open because, again, our shareholder expect this from us to seek and find and get new opportunities like we did with France and HVAC in the past. I mean, and and also not setting a really long term goals is what drives us on a daily basis to push and push and to reach and to work to increase the free cash flow per share, having the same interest. So we share we are very, very aligned with our investor in this case.
00:38:13 · Andrea Allegrini, Mikk
[00:38:13] S1: I I think that our main job is to find opportunities. And we constantly discuss internally to find new ones. What is what if we talk about scarcity, today, the main problem is our energy and our time. So if we find a new interesting opportunity, we are evaluating it. But I think that if we are buying, for example, a new vertical, we need an entrepreneur helping us to carry on this kind of opportunity. But, I mean, we keep our eye open because, again, our shareholder expect this from us to seek and find and get new opportunities like we did with France and HVAC in the past. I mean, and and also not setting a really long term goals is what drives us on a daily basis to push and push and to reach and to work to increase the free cash flow per share, having the same interest. So we share we are very, very aligned with our investor in this case. [00:39:34] S0: Andrea, how are your days look like? You were kind enough coming to the podcast, sharing your story once we enter recording. How does your days look like? [00:39:43] S1: Okay. Personally, I'm in charge of the development of the Waste Management business unit, which is the smallest one because we closed the last strong years. The last first [00:39:59] S0: very the years. And
00:39:59 · Mikk, Andrea Allegrini
[00:39:59] S0: very the years. And [00:40:06] S1: So we I enjoy it a lot also because it was basically my first job. So I started managing waste collection services, and I'm also more on the compliance side of knowing the regulation and so on. I spend a lot of time talking with the investors. I think something like 20, 25% of my time, but it's good, and I really enjoy to do this, attending conferences and doing podcasts or answering to to the emails of... Coming from investors. And then I help the people that work in my business unit. So personally, I like a lot to be on on the sales part. So I'm... Have a a background as a salesman. So I like to also to keep some relationship with the most important customer of of the business unit in this case, but also at the group level. And and the rest is working to to develop the business unit, checking data, and helping for what I can my colleagues to... In the day by day in the day by day activity. So we work with the young people. I think that the average age is close to 32, 33 years in the office. So we need these young people to to grow and to get more and more responsibility because the company needs to be independent and not rely on one or two people.
00:41:45 · Mikk, Andrea Allegrini
[00:41:45] S0: You mentioned you accomplished... You reached the 100,000,000 market cap, which is fascinating. Congratulations on that. Do you see in the near future you need to raise additional equity to maybe expand, expand faster, grow faster? Or it's going to be enough? Why I'm asking is based on your role talking to investors, building relationships, maintaining relationships, do you keep this behind this idea that one day we might raise an additional capital? [00:42:15] S1: It depends. It depends if we, according to the target of the comp the size of the targets we are willing to acquire. Today, we have room to push on debt, on bank debt, so to raise a little bit more the ratio between net financial position and EBITDA. And who knows for the future? I mean, we need to stay opportunistic as always and not setting medium or long term growth. So yes and no. So if we need it, maybe we can raise some additional capital. Or if we find, for example, a very specific target, the best company in HVAC in Italy, maybe we could evaluate it, but it's not on the table today. [00:43:07] S0: So you first joined the business, a small business, just wanting to be busy. So what has changed over over the past almost almost twenty years, eighteen years? Like, what what has been the journey and your thoughts when it comes to ambition, being ambitious?
00:43:24 · Andrea Allegrini
[00:43:24] S1: I am... I I've always had ambition in my personal life, but what is... Has not changed is the relation... The daily relationship with Michele and Marco. Even if I'm not everyday at the office, but we go always... We we talk on a daily basis, at least one phone call per day. We have lunch altogether. We also involve employees in that case that can come and have lunch with us. So we do... I I can say that with Mikk, Marco, and Matteo, we do daily boards. And it's really important because in that case, we are free to guide. We are free to this. And And mainly, we are quick. So we are fast. So if we decide the decisional chain is really short. If we have the approval, next day, the decision is taken and the actions are done. And this kind of flexibility is really important and may... But the base is sharing the same value. And Mikk wrote a very good let... Investor letter last year about sharing value. And one of our value is responsibility because we ask our people to become more and more responsible and to do even... And to take decision even if they... Even if on paper, it's written it's it's written another thing. So sharing value is really is really important because if you share value, you go and you roll in the same direction. And in the past, we had some skilled people hired from the outside, but it was clear that they were not sharing the same values as ours. And in fact, after a few months, they left. They left without the need to fire them because if you... If at the management level, if you don't share value in a company like ours, you are not doing any... You are not going you are not going only. It's impossible. So this is the the real base of... And I think one of the main key of our success.