SD Worx records double-digit growth and strengthens European position

SD Worx, the leading European HR and payroll solutions provider, reported strong financial results for 2025. Consolidated revenues rose by 10.7% to EUR 1.307 billion. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA increased to EUR 271.2 million (+16.5%). The consolidated net result surpassed EUR 100 million for the first time, reaching EUR 101.4 million last year (+6.9%). This solid performance enables SD Worx to continue investing in scalable digital and AI platforms and compliant, high-quality solutions for customers across Europe.

Underpinning its organic growth, SD Worx advanced its product portfolio with major technology innovations: the company introduced continuous, real-time payroll technology for German employers, and expanded SD Worx Buddy, its all-in-one HR and payroll platform for SMEs. For larger enterprises, SD Worx strengthened Innovapay, its country-specific payroll framework integrated with SAP. Adoption of SD Worx’s digital and AI solutions continued to accelerate, with nearly 1.7 million unique users relying on mysdworx for daily HR and payroll transactions. AI-powered tools, ranging from customer service chatbots over AI-enabled coding and compliance tracking to automated reporting assistants, further enhanced efficiency and improved customer experience. 

SD Worx also further reinforced its European footprint through acquisitions. With the transaction of Socialea, SD Worx strengthened its position in France, Europe’s third largest payroll market, while broadening access to the fast-growing SME segment. In Italy, SD Worx acquired Labour Consulting, with deep local payroll and labour advisory expertise in the region of Emilia-Romagna.

Filip Dierckx, chairman of the Board of Directors at SD Worx: “Despite a challenging macroeconomic environment marked by slowing growth and more cautious customer decision making, we delivered a strong year. Our core business proved resilient and our disciplined cost management, automation and standardisation efforts, supported increasingly by AI, allowed us to protect margins and strengthen profitability. These results confirm the robustness of our strategy and give us confidence for the future.”

On a reported basis, adjusted EBITDA grew by 16.5% towards EUR 271.2 million, with revenue increasing by 10.7% to EUR 1,306.7 million. Strategic initiatives from 2024 contributed to the overall revenue growth as the biggest acquisition, F2A (the Italian market leader in HR and payroll), only contributed 2 months of financial performance during 2024. But also organically, SD Worx saw its business expanding, demonstrating resilience and momentum across its core operations.

On a like-for-like basis, SD Worx People Solutions grew organically by 3.5%. When excluding the lower revenues in the UK market, mainly affected by expected churn of some major customers, organic growth would have been 5.7%. SD Worx realised growth across the majority of the markets where it is operating, both through new business and a positive net retention rate on existing customers, well above 5%. The organic growth is fuelled by an increase of approximately 2% in payslips issued for customers, excluding the effect of the UK.

The revenue related to the commission income obtained under the customer fund cooperation agreement, included in the revenue of People Solutions, amounts to EUR 33.6 million, which is EUR 0.1 million lower than last year. The revenue is affected by lower market deposit yields, partly offset by the hedging strategy which reduces the impact of the lower short-term interest rates.

Net operating costs are primarily influenced by staffing expenses, which rose by EUR 24.2 million on a like-for-like basis, excluding UK. Thanks to cost awareness, the adjusted EBITDA margin improved by 1.4 basis points to 24.7%. On a like-for-like basis, adjusted EBITDA grew by 10.4% year-over-year.

SD Worx Staffing & Career Solutions continued to face a challenging market environment marked by a general downward trend in recent years. Despite these unfavourable conditions, the segment achieved a revenue increase of EUR 4.0 million compared to 2024, an increase of 1.8%. Through proactive cost management, the segment delivered an adjusted EBITDA of EUR 2.5 million, an increase of EUR 1.7 million. 

Adjustments to EBITDA

Restructuring cost and integration costs amount to EUR 13.6 million and have increased by EUR 5.7 million. These costs are largely driven by restructuring tracks, making up EUR 8.8 million out of the total. They include initiatives to increase efficiency and accelerate the integration of digital and AI to further improve the offering and the customer experience. In addition, these costs also consist of the integration and rebranding tracks for prior acquisitions, such as F2A, SoftMachine and Romanian Software.

Acquisition and transaction costs relate amongst others to due diligence costs which SD Worx incurs in search of new acquisitions to strengthen its portfolio. The level of these costs is higher than last year following a revaluation of outstanding buy out commitments.

The cost of share-based payments relates to the non-committed stock-based compensation with regards to the existing share plans for senior management. These plans qualify as equity settled, and the cost is spread evenly over a vesting period of three years.

Depreciations and amortisation

A total depreciation, amortisation and impairment charge of EUR 97.2 million has been recorded per 31 December 2025 on SD Worx’s tangible and intangible assets. These charges are mainly related to the amortisation of software solutions developed internally. These charges increased as investments in digital solutions continue and reached EUR 54.9 million in 2025.

Other depreciation charges include the depreciation of right-of-use assets such as rented buildings and company cars, equalling EUR 26.2 million. Amortisations also include EUR 18.9 million related to acquired intangible assets from business combinations (PPA related assets), such as brand names and customer relationships. The amortisation charges related specifically to F2A contributed to an increase of EUR 8.0 million compared to 2024.

Financial results

The financial result per 31 December 2025 amounts to EUR -17.1 million, mainly resulting from interest charges relating to SD Worx’s loans and borrowings, consisting of the subordinated EUR 80.0 million bond issued in June 2019 and a Facilities agreement including a term loan of EUR 300.0 million and a revolving credit facility of EUR 500.0 million. This Facilities agreement was closed on 30 July 2025 and refinances the Revolving Credit Facility agreement, providing SD Worx with an increased borrowing capacity to fund its expansion strategy. On 31 December 2025, the revolving credit facility remained fully undrawn and is available to provide the necessary financing for future growth.

Other financial charges relate to interest expenses on lease liabilities and non-operational foreign currency translation differences.

The total leverage of the group remains conservative at a level of 1.2x adjusted EBITDA to net debt as per 31 December 2025.

Taxes

The tax expense amounts to EUR 24.3 million as of 31 December 2025, which represents an effective tax rate of approximately 19% compared to 24% in 2024. Positive effects coming from tax reimbursements have contributed to the decreasing effective rate over 2025.

Net result

The net result stands at EUR 101.4 million, which is EUR 6.6 million or 6.9% higher than last year. The growth was achieved despite of the higher amortisation charges relating to the acquired intangibles from acquisitions, and interest expenses on SD Worx’s loans and borrowings, both directly linked to the expansion strategy. It is also worth noting that the net result of 2024 was positively impacted by the one-off result coming from the services provided to Belgian customers to support them with the social elections in 2024, taking place in Belgium every four years.

More details can be found in this report. 

The statutory auditor, Deloitte Bedrijfsrevisoren BV, represented by Ben Vandeweyer, confirmed that the audit of the company’s consolidated financial statements, prepared in according with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as adopted for use in the European Union, and with the legal and regulatory requirements applicable in Belgium, is substantially completed. 

The statutory auditor confirmed the Financial Results are derived from the consolidated financial statements on 31 December 2025, which have been prepared in accordance with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as adopted for use in the European Union.