Insights

Milan - August 2, 2022 - TAS SpA, leader in Italy in the supply of software and services for banking and financial applications, mother company of a group also present in Europe and America (hereinafter "TAS Group"), announces the acquisition today by its subsidiary Global Payments S.p.A. of the entire share capital of Krisopea Srl (hereinafter "Krisopea"), a technological and business consulting company in the field of payment systems, founded in 2001 in Milan. The entry into the Group comes a few days after the acquisition of ASTRO IT, announced on July 26, demonstrating the acceleration in non-organic growth driven by Rivean Capital, the Private Equity Fund that became TAS Group’ s majority shareholder in early 2022. Krisopea boasts twenty years of expertise in supporting major Italian Fintech clients on topics like Open Banking and PSD2, Digital Banking, Multichannel and Digital Transformation, all core themes of TAS Group’s value proposition and therefore a precious asset to enhance the productive and innovative capacity of its project teams. “With Krisopea we share SW development methodology, customer centric culture, customer base, attention to human capital and much more. - comments Valentino Bravi, CEO at TAS Group, - I am sure that the synergy between our two companies will allow us to further improve our offering and our customer relationships. I have always been a Made-in-Italy advocate also in the ICT field, and this acquisition further confirms this belief". “Krisopea is an important step towards the evolution of our group as a center of excellence for the development and innovation of payment solutions and services. The growth path we are pursuing involves the acquisition of complementary companies to TAS, and Krisopea perfectly reflects this characteristic” commented Fabio Bravi, Head of M&A, Special Projects and Corporate Developments. "Entering TAS Group, a leading group in the Fintech sector, is for Krisopea the result of a twenty-year path of constant growth and a source of pride for me. A prestigious goal, achieved thanks to the commitment and professionalism of all our employees and collaborators. I want to thank Valentino and Fabio Bravi for the trust placed in our company, with the shared goal of bringing greater value to the group and to our customers. " - declares Flavio Suigo, CEO and Founder of Krisopea. TAS Group was assisted in the transaction by KPMG as financial advisor and by Lexia Avvocati for the legal aspects. Download the press release

Milan — July 28, 2022 — TAS S.p.A. (hereinafter “TAS”), a leading company in the supply of software and services for banking and financial applications, in Europe and the Americas, hired Andrew Quartermaine as Chief Operating Officer and General Manager of TAS International Business. Andrew brings with him nearly thirty years of experience in the Payments Industry. He has been involved in successful start-up businesses and has held a number of senior positions in large multinational corporations, including NCR, First Data Corporation and more recently ACI where Andrew, in the past 7 years, held the role of Director Merchant Retail Europe and Vice President Customer Success. Andrew’s specific expertise in P&L management, customer relationship management and new market entry strategy makes him a perfect fit for TAS’ ambitions to boost its growth in the International Market, leveraging a best in class payments platform. The recent change of governance driven by Rivean Capital Private Equity Fund who acquired TAS Group in Q1 this year further aligns to the growth strategy of TAS. Valentino Bravi, CEO of TAS, said “We’re very excited to have Andrew on board. Through his strong track record in multiple sectors across multiple geographies and EU regions, I am sure he will inspire and empower our growing international team.” Andrew Quartermaine added “I am very pleased to be joining TAS and am excited by the challenge of expanding the business internationally. I believe the solutions TAS has within its portfolio, the partnerships which are in place, the quality of the TAS teams and the support being provided by Rivean Capital will enable the company to capitalize on opportunities which exist”. Download Press Release

Milan — July 26, 2022 — TAS S.p.A. (hereinafter “TAS”), a leading company in Italy in the supply of software and services for banking and financial applications, also present in Europe and America, has today finalized the acquisition of the entire share capital of ASTRO IT S.r.l. (hereinafter “ASTRO IT”), a company specialized in the application management and system integration of software solutions for banking, insurance and large corporates. The relevant experience and know-how held by ASTRO IT in the field of application management, regulatory compliance and process optimization represent a qualitative as well as quantitative enrichment of the production capacity of TAS. “Acquisitions are an important element of the strategic growth plan of TAS, as well as for the strengthening of the skills and for the staffing of teams for the launch of new digital transformation projects and solutions, - comments Fabio Bravi, Head of M&A, special projects and corporate developments of TAS, and digitalization is among the primary objectives of TAS’s target customers.” “Integrating ASTRO IT into the TAS family means consolidating the work done together in recent years. - comments Valentino Bravi, CEO - I take this opportunity to welcome the shareholders and all employees and collaborators of this reality, beginning a new development path together with us”. “After a few years of close collaboration, joining TAS Group makes us proud and gives us a great stimulus to jointly face the new challenges and growing opportunities that market offers” - declares Giuseppe Muzzioli, General Manager of ASTRO IT. The acquisition adds another piece to the consultancy and delivery capabilities of TAS Group in the field of payment services and capital markets. Download the press release

Cyber attacks suffered by companies and institutions of any industry, including the Finance sector, are constantly intensifying. Statistics show a clear unstoppable increase in both the volumes and the severity of events caused by more and more sophisticated and organized actors. No doubt that cyber- ​​and data-protection are today a top priority for all financial ecosystem companies. In this context, TAS has recently signed two important agreements, the first at Group level with Synopsys and the second with Acronis through the French subsidiary TAS France. The adoption by TAS’ Software Factory of the flagship suite of Synopsys, a leading American company in Application Security Testing, will guarantee the development of secure code using advanced BSIMM (Building Software In Maturity Model) tools and methodologies, further increasing the security of the software provided to our customers. On the other hand, the hosting and cloud computing services delivered by TAS France combined with the management and information security solutions of Acronis, a global leader in cyber protection, will offer an undeniable added value to the customers served by the Sophia Antipolis Data Center: improved customer experience enhanced with greater security and cyber resilience. Find out more about the TAS & Synopsys agreement  Learn more about the TAS Cloud Services & Acronis agreement 

Milan, June 23^rd 2022 - Given the unstoppable increase in cybersecurity risks, no organization can avoid constantly investing in the security of its systems to protect itself and its customers. Hence, it is increasingly important for software developers to have products and services that analyse and test the robustness of applications against fraud attacks. This is even more true for companies like TAS, whose core business is linked to the development of mission critical solutions for customers in the Finance world, a sector where security is a top priority, considering the potential implications of vulnerability on the stability of the entire payments ecosystem. In fact, Tas is one of the few Fintech providers admitted to the Italian CERTFin community, which brings together banks and technology suppliers relevant to the Payment Systems, in order to increase the IT risk management capacity of financial operators and the cyber resilience of the Italian financial system as a whole. To further improve the security of its applications, TAS has recently signed an agreement for the entire Group with Synopsys, a global company headquartered in the United States, which has worked in recent years on the expansion of their suite of Application Security Testing tools with a great response from the market, proving the high quality of their solutions. “According to Gartner, by 2025, 70% of cyber-attacks will come from known vulnerabilities and misconfigurations that could have been fixed earlier. At TAS, due to the nature of our business, we are even more attentive than others to these issues and we like to “play ahead” whenever possible. For this reason, we have decided to adopt the complete suite of Synopsys solutions. Synopsys is the undisputed world leader in all areas concerning the secure development of the code, so we are convinced that we have made the right choice for us, but above all, to be able to offer a really important added value to all our customers” – comments Fabrizio Brintazzoli, Cybersecurity Officer of TAS. “Synopsys specializes in Application Security. Always alongside our Partners, we offer advanced BSIMM (Building Software In Maturity Model) tools and methodologies in the development of secure code. Synopsys invests every year in R&D and acquisitions in order to expand the product portfolio by guaranteeing complete SDLC solutions. We are honoured by the agreement signed with TAS which will offer its customers software developed with a safe methodological approach” - adds Emanuele Burali d'Arezzo, Regional Sales Manager at Synopsys Software Integrity Group. The adoption of Synopsys solutions by TAS Software Factory has already begun in Italy and it will be extended in the coming months to the other European TAS Group branches. Download the press release

The mandatory tender offer promoted by Solidus BidCo S.p.A., a company controlled by Rivean Capital Fund (formerly Gilde Buy Out Fund), ended on 11 May 2022 with the revocation on the same date of the listing of TAS’s ordinary shares on Euronext Milan (so-called delisting). Upon completion of the aforementioned process, Rivean Capital confirms itself as the (indirect) majority shareholder in the share capital of TAS S.p.A.. The new phase of governance of the Group is now opening, again led by the Chief Executive Officer Valentino Bravi, who indirectly maintained a minority stake in the company's share capital. Stay tuned!  

Total revenues up 5.4% to 65 million euros. EBITDA at 15.7 million euros (EBITDA margin 24.1%).