(BFM Bourse) – Abandoned since its peak reached last June, the FDJ title is back in favor with investors this Wednesday after the upward adjustment of the 2025 objectives that the group had set during its IPO. The national lottery operator also reports a robust 2021 financial year.
Entangled in a downward spiral for many months, the FDJ stock finally seems to be reversing the trend on Wednesday, driven by the announcement of a “very good performance” achieved in 2021, accompanied by an increase in medium-term growth prospects. . Around 9:30 a.m., FDJ shares are trading at 39.07 euros, up 6.3% from the previous day and the highest since early January. The day before closing, however, this same security dropped nearly 30% compared to its historical peak reached on June 24, one month after the allocation to individual shareholders of one free share for 10 held for 18 months, i.e. since IPO.
The upward adjustment of its medium-term objectives announced by the group therefore comes in the wake of a robust – and better than expected – financial year 2021. “The past year marks the return of FDJ to its growth trajectory pre-crisis for all of its activities”, rejoiced the CEO of the group Stéphane Palez, quoted in a press release. “The group’s 2021 results are significantly higher than those recorded in 2019, thanks to the acceleration of digital and the growth in the network of points of sale”, she adds.
11% of stakes are now digital
Over the year as a whole, stakes collected by the group increased by 18.9% compared to 2020 (+10.8% compared to 2019), to 18.98 billion euros, driven by the surge in digital stakes (+37% in 2021 after +55% in 2020, to nearly 1.6 billion). These now weigh 11% of total stakes, compared to 6% two years earlier.
The group’s turnover also rose by 10.1% over one year to 2.25 billion euros. It is obtained by restating stakes for the share going to players, which amounts to 12.97 billion in 2021, reflecting a rate of return to players (TRJ) of 68.4% (compared to 68.0% in 2020), then public levies on games (3.816 billion in 2021, +10.1% over one year). Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) stood at 522 million euros, up 22.3% compared to 2020, which shows an Ebitda margin rate 23.1% over the past financial year (+0.9 points). Net profit finally reached 294 million euros (+37.6% over one year).
All of these indicators exceed analysts’ expectations, the consensus established by Factset indicating that they were counting on a turnover of 2.22 billion euros, an Ebitda slightly lower than 500 million and a net profit of 269 million. These results are also higher than the annual objectives reiterated by the FDJ at the end of the 3rd quarter, i.e. 2.2 billion in revenue on a basis of stakes of around 18.8 billion euros, with a margin rate of EBITDA greater than or equal to 22%.
Growth of 4 to 5% per year
On the strength of these convincing results, FDJ is also raising its objectives for 2025, announced on the occasion of its IPO at the end of 2019. The group is now banking on average annual growth in its turnover of between +4 and + 5% over the next 4 years, when it was previously targeting the high end of a “3% to 4%” target range. Above all, FDJ intends to increase its Ebitda margin rate to more than 25%, i.e. 5 percentage points more than the target set in October 2019.
Finally, the group plans to propose the payment of a dividend of 1.24 euros per share for the 2021 financial year (at the general meeting of April 26), corresponding to a distribution of 80% of its net profit. – rate that he intends to bring “between 80% and 90% from 2022”.
Quentin Soubranne – ©2022 BFM Bourse
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