Plastic Omnium back in favor of investors this Thursday. After losing more than 45% on the stock market since the beginning of the year, the title of the automotive supplier jumped nearly 10% at the opening before falling to + 3.78%, to 20 euros at midday.
A rise linked to a series of ads. On the occasion of its investor day, Plastic Omnium confirmed its growth targets for the current fiscal year.
Forced growth
Despite concerns in the automotive market, related to both the trade war waged by Washington and to new anti-pollution standards (WLTP), Plastic Omnium is working on a turnover growth of at least 5%, “or approximately € 8.9 billion” on a like-for-like basis, for the 2018 financial year.
In consolidated, the increase in turnover should even reach 10%, said the group that aims “a 2018 operating income comparable to that of 2017 (615 million euros).” Forced growth which aims to achieve a turnover of 10 billion euros in 2021.
Cash flow, investments and costs
Plastic Omnium, which works for 83 automobile brands, also presented its strategic plan for the period 2019-2021. Significantly, the group intends to pay “special attention” to generating free cash flow.
For that, the group will reduce its investment envelope approximately 6% of consolidated revenues for the coming period “compared with 7% to 8%” between 2016 and 2018. Finally, Plastic Omnium asserts that it wants to lead “an intensification of [its] cost reduction policy”.
The 126 factories of the group in the world should turn full during the period, thanks to “a 90% secure order book”, insists Plastic Omnium. What allow the equipment manufacturer to “outperform by an average of 5 points per year global automotive production in the period 2019-2021,” he says. A speech that obviously pleased the stock market.