27/05/2022 15:30
“Our starting point is a claim that reads: ‘Cloud infrastructure for digital emerging economies in Europe and beyond ‘“. Thus begins the presentation of DHH by Giadomenico Sicafounder and executive chairman of DHH, on the occasion of the Live Streaming on FinanzaOnlineTV on May 24th.
Cloud computing, the heart of DHH
“We are a cloud computing operator, today geographically positioned in an area that is that of Southeast Europe (especially the Adriatic Sea basin) but we aim to grow in the future also outside Europe, such as in India”, he explains. Sica who founded DHH in 2015 and the following year led it to Piazza Affari, and more precisely on the former Aim Italia segment (today Euronext Growth Milan).
Sica goes into more detail about DHH’s business: “We develop technology that we sell in the modality as a service to our audience of 120 thousand customers (mainly businesses and professionals) in 8 different markets. We develop technology, especially software that we sell by subscription to local businesses. And 95% of our revenues come precisely from the sale of subscriptions; with recurring revenues that are renewed from year to year “. “We cater to a target of businesses and non-private individuals, with some products such as the ‘cloud server’ (a more mature technology) and the ‘Cloud MQTT’ representing the needs of the future. It currently generates little value but is a product of tomorrow, ”he adds.
A story that was born for M&A
“DHH is a story that was born for M&A. 7 years ago, when we launched the company, the idea of setting up a cloud operator in European markets not yet mature guided us and to do so we immediately started with three acquisitions between Italy, Slovenia, Croatia but also Serbia. Within a year, in full Brexit, we went public and continued on our M&A path that led us to conclude 15 transactions from 2015 to today – 4 of which in the years of the pandemic. In this project we have invested around 40 million euros for a group that today is worth around 70 million euros on the market ”.
The M&A strategy pursuedexplains the manager, provides for the selection of companies that “have an entrepreneurial footprint and guidance, are well managed but are not yet industrialized“. “We talk to the entrepreneur, we offer him to join our group with all his team and after the purchase we work immediately on industrialization, therefore introducing some tools such as management control, careful business planning. The results are usually seen within 18 months, with a significant improvement in margins “.
“In the short term M&A activity is focused on geographies where we are already present or in which we have just entered such as Bulgaria – says the president of DHH -. However, if we look at the medium-long term, DHH which was born in the emerging markets of Europe but aims to become the reference operator in the cloud world of global emerging markets. There are markets like that Indian, some African geographies or Latam which offer interesting growth opportunities on which we are starting to position ourselves today. For example, we organized the first cloud summit in India. We do not plan to do short-term operations, but in the long-term they will be our geographic targets of reference“.