(Boursier.com) — While the CAC40 is evolving at levels never before reached, Teleperformance sees its capitalization fall by a quarter after the presentation of unconvincing results. The firm reported organic growth below expectations for 2023 and said it was “cautious” for its 2024 outlook. For the current financial year, the group therefore wants to be cautious in a volatile macroeconomic context and announces an objective organic growth of between +2% and +4%. The MOP should, for its part, increase between 10 bp and 20 bp on a pro forma basis (vs. 14.9% in 2023), excluding Majorel integration costs.
Following this announcement, Oddo BHF is expected to reduce its 2024 ROC estimates by around 5%. The improvement in MOP in 2024 is weaker than expected but it should be recognized that turnover growth (+2/4% pro forma) is subject to an unfavorable macroeconomic context, explains the analyst. In the medium term, the group confirms a synergy envelope from Majorel of 150 ME, including 50 ME targeted in 2024. The valuation still remains very limited (EV/ROC 2024e: 6.6x vs 7x for Concentrix) but taking into account the low visibility on organic growth, the revaluation of the group should only be part of a medium-term process, according to the broker. The latter remains at ‘outperformance’ with a target reduced from 238 to 164 euros (average of a DCF at 206 euros and comparables at 122 euros which are subject to uncertainties around the potential negative impacts of Artificial Intelligence).
“Excluding the covid effect, excluding hyperinflation, excluding the dilutive impact of Majorel, streaming & difficulties in the US job market on profitability, things would have been close to expectations, but the reality is what it is”, notes Midcap Partners. “The 2024 guidance is not very galvanizing in a still volatile context & Majorel confirms its negative impact on profitability,” adds the analysis.
While the call center specialist has been experiencing fears surrounding AI for several weeks, Daniel Julien told ‘CNBC’ that the company saw a major opportunity in integrating AI into its services and that there would always be space for the reassurance provided by human interaction. “The day when the customer is a robot, perhaps AI will replace humans,” underlined the boss of Téléperformance. ‘AI is part of the solutions we offer to clients,’ added the manager on ‘Squawk Box Europe’ on ‘CNBC’. ‘AI contributes to increasing the precision of our employees… which is great, but ultimately we’re here to reduce the friction between citizens, or the customer, and the companies they’ve purchased a product and service from… So we see AI as making work better of our human employees, but absolutely not replacing them.
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