(Reuters) -Sodexo on Tuesday reported first-quarter organic revenue growth of 4.6 percent, below market expectations, as strong growth in India, Brazil and Australia was offset by higher activity. lowest in Europe.

On the Paris Stock Exchange, Sodexo shares fell 8.84% to 72.2 euros at 09:10 GMT, accusing the sharpest decline in the SBF 120, up 0.28% at the same time.

Sodexo’s turnover for the first three months of the 2024-2025 financial year amounted to 6.403 billion euros, compared to 6.5 billion expected by analysts in a consensus provided by the company and 6, 3 billion a year earlier.

“The gap with consensus is mainly due to the Europe zone,” CFO Sébastien de Tramasure said in a call with reporters.

Growth in Europe (+2%) was hampered by lower than expected volumes in Norway, Germany and the Netherlands, due to contract losses in the facilities management division and the closure of some facilities l last year, he said.

In recent years, the catering sector has benefited from the inflationary context, which has enabled an increase in volumes and price increases.

Internal growth was thus supported in the first quarter by a price increase of around 3%, compared to 4% during the 2023-2024 financial year. When publishing its annual results at the end of October, Sodexo warned that its growth was expected to slow in 2025 with the slightest increase in prices.

For the current financial year, the collective catering group is targeting internal growth in turnover between +5.5% and +6.5%, as well as an improvement in the operating margin between +30 and + 40 basis points, at constant exchange rates.

(Written by Noémie Naudin with contributions from Mathias de Rozario and Johan Bodinier in Gdansk, edited by Blandine Hénault)

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