“The year 2024 has been a challenge for the entire industry. This job reduction is in any case not a cost-saving measure but rather an adaptation to needs.” she justified during an online press conference. Regardless, investors were reassured and the stock jumped more than 6% this Tuesday morning on the Brussels Stock Exchange.. “We are discussing with our social partners to minimize the impact of this,” she adds. She takes the opportunity to affirm that the group will create hundreds of IT jobs following the abandonment, by the end of 2025, of Solvay’s IT systems.
Strike at Boeing and the automotive industry
The parallel announcement this Tuesday of the end of the seven-week strike at Boeing, the American manufacturer in crisis for months, is a good thing for Syensqo. An air bubble. “This is excellent news for our client. It’s too early to talk about an effect on the last quarter of 2024 today.” specifies the manager, remaining confident for the start of 2025. Furthermore, if the civil aviation market has been challenged, Syensqo is recovering some marbles in military aviation and is working on several programs, including the F-35 American or certain helicopters.
gull“Defense is growing strongly and it is a source of innovation that is available in civil aviation. We are confident in the long term”
“Defense is growing strongly and it is a source of innovation that is reflected in civil aviation.”she adds. “We are confident in the long term in terms of civil and military aviation“e”, she adds.
As for the automobile industry, which is going through an unprecedented crisis (in particular Volkswagen), and which is an important customer of Syensqo, it reassures again.
“Some will win, some will lose. They work on different playing fields. We are agnostic. We believe in technology, safer, more competitive, and smaller batteries. We are a big player in the hybrid market, but we believe in electrification“, she continues.
Results at a Glance
Syensqo therefore reported on Tuesday a net turnover of 1.633 billion euros, stable compared to the third quarter of 2023 which showed a turnover of 1.629 billion euros. The two main business segments experienced contrasting developments: “Specialty Polymers” saw its turnover fall by 7.6% year-on-year, to 649 million euros in the third quarter, while “Composite Materials” is up 13% compared to the third quarter of 2023, to 292 million euros.
Syensqo’s ebidta (earnings before interest, depreciation, taxes and amortization) in the third quarter amounted to 374 million euros, down 10.5% compared to the same period of 2023.
Over the first nine months of the year, the specialty chemist reported a turnover of 4.965 billion euros (-5.6% year-on-year) and an ebitda of 1.114 billion euros (-15.8%).
The BEL20 closes its “perfect series”, boosted by Syensqo and Umicore
300 million euros in share buybacks
“The reinforced refocusing since the separation has enabled us to accelerate our strategy of creating value for shareholders. This has resulted in greater flexibility in the allocation of our capital, the prioritization of our investments towards most attractive growth and the continuous review of our costs”, said the manager. “Now that we see more clearly our needs and how we can better serve our customers, we plan to implement efficiency measures to further improve our operational leverage and thus support our medium-term plan“, commented Ilham Kadri again.
“Encouraged by a strong financial position, our Board of Directors also approved a new €300 million share repurchase program at the end of the quarter, which we plan to launch immediately“, she further announced. Enough to strengthen confidence in the future, improve the capital structure as well as cover the current and future obligations of the company’s incentive plans for Syensqo employees.
