(AOF) – In the third quarter, Alten’s turnover amounted to 957.3 million euros, up 30.2%, of which +10.7% in France and +40.4% in the International. At constant data, growth is 17%, including +10.7% in France and +20.3% outside France. “Business growth has been very strong for nearly 18 months. Organic growth remains strong despite an unfavorable comparison base effect, which testifies to the robustness of demand,” commented the specialist in engineering and IT services.
All business sectors are growing, in particular Civil Aeronautics, Automotive, Rail, Finance and Electronics.
Third quarter activity confirms the sustained organic growth trend for 2022. In an unchanged context, Alten expects to achieve very satisfactory organic growth above 15%. Other targeted external growth operations should be finalized by the end of the year.
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Key points
– European leader in technology consulting created in 1988, involved in outsourced engineering and R&D and information systems and internal networks;
– Turnover of €2.3 billion split between France for 35% and international, although North America for 13%, Germany for 9%, Spain for 7%, Italy for 7%…;
– Customer portfolio balanced between BFA, services and public sector for 24%, energy and life sciences for 20%, automotive for 16%, aeronautics and space for 12%;
– Business model positioned on high-level engineering (75% of revenues in systems & products, network deployment and production engineering) and IT services to companies (consulting & PMT, cybersecurity, cloud infrastructures ) targeting 75% of international revenues in the medium term;
– Open capital, the founder Simon Azoulay, Chairman and CEO of the 9-member Board of Directors, being a minority with 14.83% of the shares and 24.25% of the voting rights;
– Very healthy financial situation, with shareholders’ equity at 58% of the balance sheet and a leverage effect of 4.1 at the end of June, with external growth being self-financed.
Challenges
– Development strategy by deploying cross-functional structures, sector diversification and international acquisitions;
– Innovation strategy designed as a vector of growth with 2 strengths – mastery of customer businesses combined with the capacity for multi-sector expertise:
– R&D efforts concentrated on 9 programs and 100 projects,
– breakdown of R&D: 36% in smart and connected systems, 23% in digital, 22% in security, 19% in sustainable innovation;
– Environmental strategy for responsible digital among the best rated in the sector:
– optimization of the environmental impact of internal systems,
– support from Innovation Labs for measurement and eco-design solutions,
– providing the customer with expertise in the transition of the digital sector;
– Benefits of the partnership in nano-edge technology with STMicroelectronics
Challenges
– Key indicators of the sector related to salaries (essential operating expenses): evolution of the workforce, mission time of consultants and billing rate (over 90%);
– Massive recruitments in 2022 (42,000, to reach 50,000 in 2024):
– Recurring speculation on the sale of the 9.2% position in Ausy;
– Maintaining the ability to pass on salary increases to contracts;
– Rebound in revenue growth in Switzerland;
– After a 31% increase in turnover and a 56% increase in net profit in the 1st half, 2022 objective: continuation of targeted acquisitions, “satisfactory organic growth”, and targeted external growth.
Maximum staff turnover
Companies in the IT services sector have seen the departure of more than 20% of their workforce in twelve months. This trend is not unusual in the sector, but it is reaching an unprecedented scale, in a context of strong growth and good recruitment dynamics. In addition, employees have new requirements and aspirations. The main criterion is the flexibility of work and the way it is implemented in the company. The American-Indian company Cognizant saw around 35% of its 330,000 engineers leave the company in one year. Capgemini, grouping 32,000 French employees, recently suffered its first strike since 2008, with a demand for a collective increase in remuneration.