Sodexo: FY-2018 annual results in line with guidance

Issy-les-Moulineaux / FR. (so) Sodexo, world leader in Quality of Life services, announced the company’s financial results for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2018. Highlights:

  • Organic revenue growth of 2 percent excluding the 53rd week, and Underlying operating margin of 5.7 percent, excluding currency impact, or 5.5 percent, as published.
  • Exceptionally strong free cashflow.
  • Significant acceleration in Q4 sales growth in Benefits & Rewards.
  • Education net new business neutral in Fiscal 2018,
  • improved signings in North American Health Care in the last quarter.
  • Underlying net profit -8.6 percent excluding currency effect, -14.1 percent as published.
  • Proposed dividend of 2.75 EUR, stable on previous year.
  • Fiscal 2019 guidance: organic growth between 2 percent and 3 percent,
  • underlying operating margin between 5.5 percent and 5.7 percent at constant exchange rates.

Commenting on these figures, Sodexo CEO Denis Machuel said: «The results for Fiscal 2018 are in line with what we signposted during the trading update in March.

«This has been a challenging year for Sodexo, but we know what went wrong, and we know what we need to do to fix it. Healthcare and Education in North America continue to drag on our performance, and the turnaround is going to take some time. Vigorous action plans are being deployed across the organization by the new Executive Committee to address our execution issues. We are laser-focused on sales and retention, discipline and accountability.

«I am convinced that we are on the right path to enhance productivity, giving us the means to reinvest in accelerating growth, which is our absolute priority today. My ambition is to get growth at Sodexo back up to best-in-class, and I’m confident we will get there.»

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