Chargeurs has released its Q3 revenues which are down c.2% to €118m, a retreat on the H1 growth. The 9-month sales growth still stands at 2.8%.
The new management since 30/10/2015 took this opportunity to raise its guidance for Chargeurs’ recurring operating result from €26m to €27m, a near 4% hike.
The slower top-line growth ought not be a subject as it is entirely due to slower revenues (lower $ prices for wool) at the Wool division with only a limited impact on the bottom line as this is mostly a service-based business.
More interesting is the pursuit of the robust top-line growth of the Protective Film business with a near 10% yoy gain both on the quarter and over 9 months. This business accounts for c. 4/5th of the operating result so that any gain is excellent news. It presumably continues to be supported by the strength of the $ (say a 16% gain quarter on quarter) that helps when booking US sales (but not profit) but it looks as if volume and mix gains must be in the 5% region which is good for profits.
The Interlining operations show flat quarterly revenues which may actually be good news as the pruning of fragile clients continued. The business appears to have been supported by currency positives as well.
Technical Substrates, the new growth business of Chargeurs (recently spun off from the Interlining operations), shows … no quarterly growth. This is presumably due to an upgrade in manufacturing capacity that took place over Q3 and may have had a transitory impact on sales.
The new CEO, Mr Fribourg, used the Q3 sales release to confirm the operating strength of Chargeurs with a new guidance of €27m for its recurring operating earnings. That earnings expectations would be raised is half a surprise. This and an interview in the financial media would however suggest a pursuit of the strategy implemented by the previous management team as well as a smooth transfer at the helm. As the change of control was rather unexpected calendar-wise and coming from entirely new quarters (an ad hoc fund, Colombus Holding, has taken over 28% of the previous board members), there was a degree of uncertainty on that front. The words of the new CEO are about continuity, notably on the dividend front.
We will have to trim the Wool business’s contribution to sales, although this is not expected to lead us to slash its contribution to operating earnings. The AlphaValue forecasts for 2015 are already on the high side with a quasi €29m planned as a “recurring” operating result. We stick with this view which underlines the strength of the businesses.
