- ROC growth in line with forecasts.
- Announcement of the TARGET 21 strategic plan: 2021 turnover of 160 M € with current operating income above 8%.
| In millions of euros – IFRS standards (Under audit) | H1 2018 | H1 2017 * |
| Turnover | 54.5 | 55.6 |
| current operating income | 2.0 | 1.9 |
| As a% of turnover | 3.7% | 3.3% |
| Non-operating expenses and income | (0.9) | (0.8) |
| Operating income | 1.0 | 1.1 |
| Profit from continuing operations | 0.3 | 0.5 |
| Result from discontinued operations | 0 | (0.3) |
| Net profit | 0.3 | 0.2 |
(*) Restated IFRS 15 came into force on 1 st January 2018. 2017 CA issued 58.1 million € in the first half, and ROC% of sales 3.2%.
1 / H1 2018 financial results: increase in current operating income
Micropole International Group consulting and digital technologies, specializing in Digital Experience, Data Intelligence & Performance and Data Governance & Architecture, announces that achieved at the end of 1 st half of 2018, a turnover of € 54.5 m against € 55.6m * in 2017 (-2.0%). As announced in the July 27 publication, this figure, in line with the Group’s expectations, was impacted by the disposals of activities and divestments that took place in 2017 to the tune of 2 million euros. On the 1 st half, at constant perimeter and constant exchange rates, the increase in revenues amounted to 2.5%.
During the period, international activity grew by 8.4% over the half-year, at constant scope and exchange rates. In France, activity remained stable, marked by strong dynamism in the regions (+ 16% over H1 at constant scope) and strong pressure on resources in Ile-de-France.
Driven by the positive change in the price positioning of the Group’s services, current operating income recorded its eighth consecutive half of growth, with an increase of 7.2% to 2 million euros and stood at 3.7% of turnover, despite an unfavorable day effect over the period. On a constant number of days, current operating income would improve by 1 point (4.3% vs. 3.3% in H1 2017).
In the Europe zone, current operating income increased by 0.6 points to 4.2%, driven mainly by the improvement in operating indicators in Switzerland, Benelux and in the regions, as well as by the strong dynamism sales force which validates the Group’s positioning, based on Value Added Services and Innovation for Business, Digital & IT departments.
Regarding ancillary activities over the period, the Group’s training institute marks its return to operational balance, while activities in China were impacted by the withdrawal of several major clients from the region and a slowdown in investments.
In addition, non-recurring costs of 0.9 million euros, including 0.7 million euros related to the restructuring initiated in 2017 (commercial leases and severance pay), affected operating income. The Group’s net income for the period amounted to € 0.3 million.
Micropole maintains a solid financial structure with net debt down by 2.5 million euros. Cash flow stood at 7.9 million euros compared to 13.6 million euros at 12/31/2017, under the effect of seasonality. Shareholders’ equity is stable and amounts to more than 50 million euros.
Recruitment
In a still tight recruitment market, the group is continuing its active search for business consultants, project managers and data experts to support its growth. The Group continues to attract the best talents on the market and, thanks to the dynamism of its employer brand policy, this year again renewed its Happy at Work for Starters and Happy Trainees labels.
2 / TARGET 2021 strategic financial plan
Micropole announces the launch of a 3-year strategic plan called Target 21. This aims to consolidate the Group’s positioning as a benchmark player in the creation and implementation of Data & Digital strategies and to bring back current operating income at the level of the best players in Consulting and Services.
The implementation will be based on the one hand on the emphasis on positioning and on the other hand on several operational levers.
In terms of financial objectives and on a like-for-like basis, the Group is targeting sales of 160 million euros in 2021 with a workforce of 1,500 employees worldwide, and current operating income above 8%.
A strategy based on Added Value
Micropole is already recognized as one of the benchmark players able to assist its clients from the very early stages of Consulting and Creation to implementation, and this on three offers: Digital Experience (ex- Digital transformation – Wide agency), Data Intelligence & Performance (formerly Performance Management), Data Governance & Architecture (formerly Data Governance).
The ability to set up cross-functional teams bringing together Marketing consultants, Business consultants, Data Scientists and engineers is a particularly differentiating point.
In terms of growth, Micropole will accelerate the deployment of all of its offers in its European geographic locations (France, Switzerland and Benelux), in particular through targeted external growth operations. Finally, the Group is working on the launch of new packaged offers around Data based on new business models.
Faced with a rapidly growing market, the Micropole Group therefore clearly wishes to favor innovation and added value rather than turnover volume.
Three levers of action
The action plan aimed at increasing margins is based on 3 levers:
- Sales effectiveness
o better customer segmentation, continued upgrading of services around Consulting, increased cross-selling.
- Operational Efficiency
o reduction in the volume of business in flat-rate mode, creation of a skills hub, optimization of resources.
- HR Strategy
o strengthening of local management, personalized management of career development, better industrialization of recruitment, greater involvement of employees in Innovation.
Several actions have already been launched in the first half of 2018 and will be stepped up in the coming months.
For Christian Poyau, co-founder and president of Micropole: “ Technological innovation continues to accelerate and companies more than ever need partners capable of fully understanding their challenges and their businesses, of innovating alongside them and of mastering the whole chain of skills.
With the Target 21 plan, we are going to accelerate our development by taking advantage of the quality of our positioning and with the main objective of bringing the profitability of the Micropole Group back to the level of the best players in the Consulting and Services market ”.
