At the end of the 2022 fiscal year, Taurus confirms that it really has a new profile as a solid company, with consistent foundations, and that it is prepared for the future.
The company currently has a consolidated business model, with a very comfortable level of profitability of operations, above the average for the global arms industry, and with strong cash generation, which has allowed it to reduce its bank debt and reach the end of 2022 with a financial leverage measured by the EBITDA/Net Debt indicator of 0.2x, transforming the capital structure.
It is currently a company with very strong indicators in all areas, whether operational, administrative, or commercial, and ready to face the oscillations of the market.
With very competitive production costs and expenses under control, it was possible for the company to continue with operational efficiency and high profitability margins, much higher than those of foreign companies in the sector.
In 2022, it recorded a gross margin of 45.7%, compared to Ruger’s 30.2% and Smith & Wesson’s 35.8% (this company ended its fiscal year in January 2023, therefore including the results of December 2021, when the North American market was still in strong demand). In terms of EBITDA margin, Taurus reached 31.3% in 2022, while Ruger registered 22.1% and Smith & Wesson, also benefiting from the last two months of 2021, 23.8%.
Taurus’s net income in 2022 was R$ 520 million, a result that was 167.6% higher than the net income available in 2021, after eliminating accumulated losses and realizing the legal reserve. And the Company’s gross profit in the accumulated total of 2022 was R$ 1,160.4 million, the second best gross result in Taurus’s history, exceeding by 47.3% the gross profit recorded in 2020, besides presenting a gross margin of 45.7%, maintaining a high level.
The net revenue for the accumulated year 2022 totaled R$ 2,540.0 million, reaching for the second time in the Company’s history a level greater than R$ 2 billion.
With these significant results, and always aiming to maximize the return to its shareholders, Taurus presents a strong proposal for the payment of dividends of at least the mandatory amount established in its Bylaws, of 35% of the adjusted net income. And it will propose for the approval of the General Shareholders’ Meeting the creation of a statutory reserve in an amount that provides flexibility for paying dividends with greater periodicity in 2023 and the creation of a Taurus share buyback program, maintaining a comfortable cash position – R$ 328.7 million at 12/31/2022 – in the Company.
These initiatives reflect Taurus’s new phase, as a stable and reliable company, of future investments, and no longer the profile of a speculation company, which has as its objective the remuneration of its shareholders, without prejudice to its strategy of growth and technological development.
In the last two years Taurus has invested more than R$ 330 million in physical structure (renovation of the manufacturing park), in research and development and in modern equipment, in order to sustain the company’s growth and further increase its competitiveness. In 2022, R$ 213.9 million were invested.
The revolutionary technology of using graphene in the production of weapons, which placed Taurus and Brazil in the limelight in the world armaments industry, is one of the examples of pioneering and innovative projects developed by CITE – the Brazil/USA Integrated Technology and Engineering Center. And it does not stop there. The company continues to develop pioneering projects contemplating a new technological cycle of unpublished materials used in the manufacture of Taurus armaments, such as Niobium, DLC (Diamond Like Carbon) and Long Fiber Polymer.
Furthermore, Taurus intends to accelerate the development of its Strategic Innovation Plan for Competitiveness 2023/2025, bringing cutting-edge technology to the industrial plant and extending the infrastructure and technical resources of the CITE in order to increase its capacity to launch products, providing support for the company’s growth, as well as raising it to a level of quality, productivity and efficiency unparalleled in the sector.
In this way, the plans drawn up by Taurus’s current management will continue to be realized, with a strategy focused on growth, with efficiency in operations and profitability. Presenting itself as a solid company, with a management model focused on the future, always seeking to maintain its position as the largest seller of light weapons in the world, whether through growth in demand, through its ability to adapt to trends and to identify opportunities in different market scenarios, or through acquisitions and partnerships, mainly focusing on the law enforcement market, a strategy of the Company for accessing a new niche of the market in the USA, and the entry into other police markets in the rest of the world. Thus, being prepared for an even more promising future.