MILANO (AIMnews.it) - "2017 was an extraordinary year for TPS: the listing on the stock market just over a year ago allows us to pursue a further growth strategy, also through new acquisitions after those achieved during 2017. What has been achieved in recent months has made the group more important and improved our image towards our great customers". Says Alessandro Rosso, CEO of Tps. "We provide technical and engineering services in the aeronautical field and this means confronting customers who are often the same aircraft manufacturers, that is, the large international groups in the sector". Who are your customers? Our main customer is the Leonardo Group, or rather the various Divisions of the Leonardo Group: for those who work on the domestic market in the field of aeronautical technical services, it is essential to collaborate with the Italian manufacturer of airplanes and helicopters. Then there are other customers who build components for the aeronautics industry or who personalise parts of the aircraft (for example the interior). Finally, there are the numerous operators who use aircrafts for professional use and for which in addition to the provision of technical and engineering services, we design, certify and produce parts and components, in particular for the medical use of helicopters or helicopter planes. And the M & A operations carried out so far? With the acquisition of ICB we have brought into our group the leading Italian company in avionics, ie the development of aeronautical software, the management of avionic test processes and the integration of components for aircraft. Then we completed the second operation, that of Stemar Consulting. This company, which we have been following for some time, is specialised in cost engineering, that is, in those methods of analysis and design that serve to reduce the cost of production of the components. On the one hand, two transactions gave further impetus to the group and, on the other, allowed diversification towards the automotive sector - among the reference customers of Stemar Consulting we find Ferrari and FCA - compared to our core business which was mainly oriented to the sector aeronautics. What about the core business? We have continued to strengthen our typical activity of producing technical documentation and engineering and consulting. Overall it was a positive year that allowed us a leap in quality. As the numbers show: revenues rose by 31% to 19.1 million, ebitda by 33% to 4.2 million and net profit by 11% to 2.1 million. With a current capitalisation of over 27 million euros. And 2018? We expect to continue on this path. Strengthening our positioning on the aeronautical market - also looking abroad - and strengthening the activity towards the automotive sector. We have projects that could allow us further growth, both organic, with the synergies created within the group, and through acquisitions of holdings in selected companies as we did last year. We have some open files and we are working to realise these activites. We are looking for activites that can widen and strengthen our offer to the market and that at the same time can be integrated quickly within our group and we continue to believe that this is an interesting moment to grow. In particular, these operations could involve the core business part - in the aeronautical department we believe that there are very interesting operations - but also, with a view to diversification, the possibility of opening up to new sectors, perhaps niche, where the technical services from the TPS group can be successful abroad, but where? For some time we have been carrying out a project to start supplying our services in the United States. But let's also look at some European countries. Cash transactions or for example through reserved capital increases? It will depend a lot on the size of the target company. For smaller transactions we have sufficient cash to deal with it. On the other hand, if the target company were of a more relevant size, we could take into consideration different forms of raising capital, and among these also possible ones on the equity market.