Alstom lost more than 5% in the middle of the afternoon on the Paris Stock Exchange, to 31.47 euros, after having slowly slipped since the start of the morning.
The railway equipment manufacturer published the figures for its nine-month activity on Thursday. And analyst feedback is far from favorable. Especially at Redburn. James Moore, within the office, is concerned about the low margins for the whole of the year and even for the next few years, after, in particular, the acquisition of the transport branch of the Canadian Bombardier. It expects an operating margin of 5.6% for the 2023 financial year, which is 1.1 points less than consensus expectations (6.7%).
For its part, Citi, which confirms its buy opinion, stresses that the integration of Bombardier is going well, but that the stock market performance will depend more on the data linked to the evolution of cash flows, the latest press release from the company. manufacturer not providing enough short-term details on the matter.
Generate free cash flow
It is mentioned that the group intends to generate ” free cash flow in the second half of 2021-2202 and beyond “. For the medium term, Alstom confirms, as already announced during the investor meeting in mid-July, that ” From 2024-2025, the conversion of adjusted net income into free cash flow should be above 80%, driven by the medium-term stability of the working capital requirement, the stabilization of investments at around 2% of turnover. business and cash focus initiatives while benefiting from increased volume and synergies “.
At the end of December, order intake reached 14.3 billion euros over nine months, up 47% in proforma data, and sales increased by 11%, still in proforma data, to 11. 4 billion euros. In the third quarter, growth was 5.5%.