(Boursier.com) — Wendel publishes revalued net assets as of March 31, 2024 of €7.912 billion, or €178.1 per share, up +11.2% compared to December 31, 2023. Consolidated turnover for the 1st quarter of 2024 is €1.848 billion , up +11.7% in published data and up +6.9% organically.
Deployment of strategic orientations
*Disposal, under favorable conditions, of 9% of the capital of Bureau Veritas for total proceeds of approximately €1.1 billion.
This partial monetization, in line with Wendel’s active portfolio management strategy, was carried out with a discount of only 3%, i.e. at a price of 27.127 euros per share, close to its NAV valuation as of March 31.
Wendel remains the largest shareholder and controlling shareholder of Bureau Veritas, and reiterates its full confidence in Bureau Veritas’ strategy
Solid financial structure
*Total liquidity of €3.2 billion as of March 31, 2024, including €2.3 billion of available cash and €875 million of credit line (undrawn).
*Pro forma of the sale of the 9% block of Bureau Veritas and the dividend paid by CPI in April 2024, available cash flow is €3.5 billion.
*LTV ratio of 0.6% as of March 31, 2024 and -5.1% pro forma for the acquisition of IK Partners, investment commitments relating to sponsor money, the completion of the entire buyback program shares, the Bureau Veritas block and the CPI dividend
Share buyback
Around 475,000 shares already repurchased, for an amount of 39.5 ME, as of April 24, 2024 as part of the 100 ME program launched on October 27, 2023. Possible renewal of this type of program, with an opportunistic approach.
Laurent Mignon, Chairman of the Management Board of Wendel, declared:
“The first quarter of 2024 was dynamic for Wendel and the companies in its portfolio. Consolidated revenue grew organically by 6.9% over the first three months of the year, driven in particular by the good performance of Bureau Veritas and Crisis Prevention Institute.
We continued the deployment of our new strategic orientations detailed during our Investor Day in December 2023, with the partial monetization, under favorable conditions, of our stake in Bureau Veritas. This gives us additional leeway to implement our value creation strategy. We will continue to actively support the Bureau Veritas management team in the execution of its value creation strategy described during its Capital Markets Day on March 20, 2024. The completion of the acquisition of IK Partners will be carried out as planned in the coming weeks, and we are working on building a pipeline rich in quality acquisition opportunities, both for our third-party management activity and for our own account investment activity.”