PARIS (Reuters) – Veolia published clearly improved results on Thursday for the first nine months of 2023, driven by its price increases and its synergies with Suez, and confirmed its annual objectives.
The French specialist in water and waste treatment reiterated in a press release that for the current financial year it was aiming in particular for organic growth in its Ebitda at the top of a range of 5% to 7% and a result net current share of the group around 1.3 billion euros.
Its general director, Estelle Brachlianoff, praised Veolia’s “resistance to inflation”, thanks to the indexing of 70% of its contracts to cost increases and its “low exposure to the macroeconomic situation”.
She also highlighted the advantages linked to the group’s geographic positioning, with nearly 40% of turnover outside Europe, including nearly $5 billion on an annual basis in the United States.
“I am very confident on the high end of the Ebitda range,” she said during a conference call. “There is no bad news to expect in the fourth quarter, we have very good visibility, things are going well and we are not seeing any break in trends on our indicators.”
While Veolia bought most of the activities of its former rival Suez in early 2022, the group indicated that the synergies resulting from their merger were ahead of its plan and that it had reached its annual objective in nine months.
At the end of September, Veolia recorded current operating income (Ebit) of 2.5 billion euros (+14.2% at constant scope and exchange rates), earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (Ebitda) of 4. 8 billion (+7.7% at constant scope and exchange rates) and a turnover of 33.2 billion (+10.7% at constant scope and exchange rates).
It is still targeting cost savings of more than 350 million euros for the whole of 2023, to which are added new expected synergies with Suez, for a cumulative amount greater than 280 million at the end of the year, in line with an objective of 500 million cumulatively.
The group also reported a faster than expected reduction in its debt, with a debt ratio lower than 2.9 times targeted at the end of the year, compared to around 3 times previously.
(Reporting by Benjamin Mallet; editing by Kate Entringer)
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