French caterer Elior's shares slide on sales miss
Adds CFO comments, paragraphs 8-9
By Diana Mandia
Jan 26 (Reuters) -Elior ELIOR.PA posted a smaller-than-expected rise in first quarter sales on Thursday as the French catering group renegotiates prices with clients, sending its shares 13% lower.
After being hit by COVID-19 restrictions, caterers are now working to reset rates and supplier deals, reining in costs and cutting menu options to cope with high food and energy prices.
Europe's third biggest contract caterer reported revenue of 1.23 billion euros ($1.34 billion) for the quarter through December, up 11.7% from a year earlier but still 1% below consensus cited by Citi analysts.
Its 92.6% customer retention rate excluding contract renegotiations was better than post-2018 levels, but a step back from the last two quarters, Citi added.
Elior said 73% of its contracts had been successfully renegotiated by the end of 2022, representing 234 million euros in price increases over a rolling 12-month period.
This, however, was below the target Elior gave during its fourth-quarter earnings call in November, when it said it aimed to renegotiate 90% of old contracts by the end of the year, JP Morgan wrote in a note to clients.
Both Elior and its French rival Sodexo EXHO.PA have said negotiations were complex with the public sector in France.
"Even if the French state clearly said that public contract prices could legally be adjusted beyond standard indexation clauses, we are not there", Elior Chief Financial Officer Esther Gaide said in a call with analysts.
She added renegotiation talks with public and local authorities in France were taking place very slowly and said the process was the most difficult part of the business.
While caterers benefit from post-COVID catch-up effects and higher prices, Bernstein analyst Richard Clarke warned there might be little scope left for rate hikes to drive growth in the second half of 2023.
"This means that there is potentially not much runway for further price increases," Clarke said.
Elior, which caters for sectors including business, education and healthcare, confirmed its full-year outlook and mid-term ambitions for 2024.
($1 = 0.9177 euros)
Reporting by Diana Mandiá in Gdansk, additional reporting by Federica Mileo; Editing by Milla Nissi and Alexander Smith
免責聲明: XM Group提供線上交易平台的登入和執行服務，允許個人查看和/或使用網站所提供的內容，但不進行任何更改或擴展其服務和訪問權限，並受以下條款與條例約束：（i）條款與條例；（ii）風險提示；（iii）完全免責聲明。網站內部所提供的所有資訊，僅限於一般資訊用途。請注意，我們所有的線上交易平台內容並不構成，也不被視為進入金融市場交易的邀約或邀請 。金融市場交易會對您的投資帶來重大風險。
所有缐上交易平台所發佈的資料，僅適用於教育/資訊類用途，不包含也不應被視爲適用於金融、投資稅或交易相關諮詢和建議，或是交易價格紀錄，或是任何金融商品或非應邀途徑的金融相關優惠的交易邀約或邀請。
本網站的所有XM和第三方所提供的内容，包括意見、新聞、研究、分析、價格其他資訊和第三方網站鏈接，皆爲‘按原狀’，並作爲一般市場評論所提供，而非投資建議。請理解和接受，所有被歸類為投資研究範圍的相關内容，並非爲了促進投資研究獨立性，而根據法律要求所編寫，而是被視爲符合營銷傳播相關法律與法規所編寫的内容。請確保您已詳讀並完全理解我們的非獨立投資研究提示和風險提示資訊，相關詳情請點擊 這裡查看。
