(BFM Bourse) – Having managed to limit the erosion of its operating margin in 2021 in a context of sharply rising energy costs, the industrial gas giant says it is confident in its ability to further increase this margin excluding the impact energy in 2022 “in the absence of significant disruption to the economy”.
Despite the persistence of the health crisis and strong inflationary pressures linked in particular to the significant rise in energy prices in the second half of the year, Air Liquide prides itself on having achieved “an excellent performance” in 2021. Its annual results are in fact above market expectations, both in terms of revenue (23.34 billion against a consensus of 23.13 billion) and current operating profit (4.16 against 4.09 billion).
Above all, the global heavyweight in gases for industry reassured its ability to pass on to its customers the variation in energy costs (natural gas and electricity).
Air Liquide’s operating margin was in fact 17.8% over the year, an improvement of 70 basis points (0.70 percentage point) excluding the energy effect, thanks to “a pricing policy adapted to inflation, significant efficiencies amounting to 430 million euros and dynamic management of its business portfolio” underlines CEO Benoit Potier quoted in the press release. “In a context of sharp and continuous rise in energy prices, it is [le groupe, NDLR] has in particular demonstrated on the one hand the strength of its model, which allows it to automatically transfer these variations to Large Industries customers (through indexed invoicing integrated into their medium and long-term contracts), and on the other hand its ability to quickly adjust its prices with its Industrial Merchant customers” continues the manager.
“This can lead to a significant variation in sales (mainly in the Large Industries business line) from one period to another depending on the fluctuation of energy market prices” warns the group. This is evidenced by the jump of more than 40% in “gas and services” revenues (division accounting for 95% of Air Liquide’s revenues) of the “Large Industries” division over one year to 6.97 billion in published data, corresponding to a growth of 5.5% on a like-for-like basis.
Betting on the decarbonization of industry
In published data (therefore taking into account the energy effect), the operating margin nevertheless fell by 70 basis points compared to 2020 “due to the sharp rise in energy costs which are contractually re-invoiced to customers, creating thus a dilutive effect on the published margin”.
And in the absence of significant disruption in the economy, Air Liquide says it is “confident in its ability to increase its operating margin again (excluding the energy effect) and to achieve growth in recurring net income, at constant exchange rates”. Reflecting this confidence in the future, the group announces its intention to increase the dividend per share to 2.90 euros for the 2021 financial year, against 2.75 euros per share the previous year.
Air Liquide considers itself “particularly well positioned in the markets of the future” to meet the challenges of climate change and energy transition. It relies in particular to do this on “a set of solutions integrating hydrogen and decarbonization technologies of the industry”.
On the stock market, this publication is greeted by a gain of 3% for the title around 11:30 a.m., to 148.86 euros – which constitutes a high of less than two weeks, at more than 7% of its historic peak reached on January 5. last.
Quentin Soubranne – ©2022 BFM Bourse
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