(News Bulletin 247) – The Solutions 30 stock fell sharply on the Paris Stock Exchange on Friday following the publication of contrasting annual results, the group acknowledging that its 2022 financial year was “more difficult than initially anticipated”.

The digital transition specialist explains that his financial year was marked by two opposing dynamics, shared between a transition phase in France on the one hand and sustained growth in the rest of its markets on the other.

According to the company, the operational transition that was expected in France took place in a “very disrupted” environment and was “more brutal than expected”.

In France, its annual turnover fell by 16% to 425.9 million euros after six consecutive years of strong growth.

Solutions 30 explains that it has suffered from the maturing of the fiber markets, as well as the planned end of the deployment of smart meters.

Its EBITDA margin in the country thus contracted to 4.9%, a figure well below its normal level of around 15%.

For the group as a whole, adjusted EBITDA fell to 46.7 million euros last year, compared to 82.4 million euros a year earlier, on the basis of a figure of total business up 3.5% to 904.6 million euros

For 2023, the group says it is aiming for a turnover target of more than one billion euros, driven by continued sustained growth in Benelux and in other countries where new markets are opening up.

In the first exchanges, the title dropped more than 4% on Friday morning, signing the largest decline in the SBF 120 index, after this publication deemed disappointing.

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