Chargeurs posted 9% sales growth over Q3 14. 9 months sales are up 4.1%.
The Protective Film division is up 11.6% over Q3 and +9% over 9 months.
The Interlining business is flat on the quarter and down 4% over the first 9 months.
The Wool unit is up 23% on the quarter and nearly 9% over 9 months.
These trends are very satisfactory as they show accelerating trends over Q3. The quarterly figures confirm that Chargeurs is on track for a good year even though management leans on the side of cautiousness with unchanged guidance for 2014, with revenues seen at €470m and a recurring operating result at €19m. AlphaValue is more optimistic on both counts at respectively €475m and €20.5m.
The volume gains are the positive pieces of news across the businesses. Such gains are quoted at 6.9% for the first 9 months. This is obviously partly offset by negative FX impacts mostly as far as the Interlining division is concerned. As already mentioned in the H1 update, stronger volumes can only help operating margins. The acceleration in growth over Q3 seen in the Protective Film business means that the high operating margins recorded in H1 may be sustainable in H2 after all.
The Q3 resilience of the Interlining revenues is less visible but certainly a positive development and indicative that next year this business should also be on an earnings recovery path.
Management’s confidence appears vindicated by these solid underlying growth figures. We do not change our 2014 and 2015 forecasts for the time being as they are already more optimistic than guidance.
