(AOF) – Following recent press comments, Bureau Veritas indicates that it is in discussions with the Swiss firm SGS concerning a potential merger. “There is no guarantee that these discussions will result in any transaction or agreement. Bureau Veritas will not make any “further comment at this stage and will communicate as necessary”, specifies the company in a press release.
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Key Points
–
Group born in 1828, world number one (5% of the market) in inspection, product certification and laboratory testing;
– Turnover of €5.9 billion generated by six divisions: construction & infrastructure (29%), agri-food & raw materials (22%), industry (21%), consumer goods (13%), certification (8%) and marine&offshore;
– Revenues distributed between Europe for 34%, Asia-Pacific for 30% (including China, the group’s leading country in terms of workforce and turnover, for 18% of the total), America for 27% and Africa-Middle East;
– Ambitions :
– 3 pillars: exploitation of the value of existing activities followed by technological changes and selectivity of growth opportunities,
– drivers: scale (standardization of the offer), expand (energy transition and sustainability issues) and lead (connectivity, cybersecurity and traceability),
– balanced distribution of cash flows: investments, mergers & acquisitions, return to shareholders;
–
Capital controlled 26.5% by Wendel, Laurent Mignon chairing the board of 12 directors, Hinda Gharbi providing general management.
Challenges
– Agility of the LEAP I 28 business model based on a resilient portfolio of activities, 45% of which come from multi-year contracts and boosted by:
–
active portfolio management: refocusing on the best opportunities for additional revenue – cyber security, testing for consumer goods or entire management systems – and disposals of mature activities, such as the sale to Mérieux Nutrisciences of the business of food analysis at 2
nd
semester,
-specificity of market conquests: via the offer, reinforced by the acquisitions of the American ArcVera Renevelables and the Catalan IDP Group, of “end-to-end” solutions in the energy transition and via the combination of partnerships / external growth ,positive for profitability
;
– the digitalization of core operations via global and vertical transversal platforms,
– accelerated innovation via incubation programs, the Data lab, research and industrial partnerships;
– Environmental strategy:
– by 2030, reduction of 42% vs. 2021 in CO2 emissions for scopes 1 and 2 and 25% for scope 3,
– 55% of sales from BV green line services;
– 3 strong assets: reputation for integrity, public accreditations, network density;
– Solid balance sheet: €1.9 billion in equity and, at the end of June, €2.1 billion in cash and €1.1 billion in net debt with leverage of 1.06.
Challenges
–
Integration of the 7 acquisitions made at the end of September, expected to generate €80 million in turnover and continued external growth;
– After a 13% increase in turnover at the end of September, 2024 objectives raised twice: growth of 9 to 10% in revenue, improvement in operating margin and high cash flow with a conversion rate of +80%
;
– Ambition 2028: increase of -10% per year in revenues and operating margin of +16%;
– 2023 dividend of €0.83 and share purchase program of €200 million
