The French-owned company recorded an overall 0.5% fall in revenue to €6.675 billion (£5.84 billion) in the first quarter of 2020 (January-March), but says this is “up +2.3% excluding Covid-19 compared with the first quarter of 2019”.
For the UK and Ireland, the company recorded a +5.4% increase but saw falls in Northern Europe (3.1%) and a 1.8% drop in the rest of the world.
Covid-19
Until 12 March, Veolia says its activities outside Asia were not affected by the crisis. Since then, the introduction of public health measures as the epidemic spread to the group’s other geographic regions has “affected Veolia’s activities to varying degrees”.
For example, the report stated that municipal services are “little impacted” with only a 5% drop in usual volumes.
Industrial and commercial waste activity however “in sharp decline as a result of the compulsory closure of a large number of companies and tertiary activity centres such as shopping centres.”
Veolia says it continues to register sustained revenue and profit growth excluding Covid and announced the implementation of a new “Recover and Adapt” plan, including €200 million of additional cost cutting in 2020 to help “rebound as soon as crisis ends”.
‘Solid’
As a whole, the company reports a “very solid financial position” with €5.4 billions as well as €4.2 billion of undrawn and available bilateral credit lines. A total cash positional on March 31 stands at €9.6 billion.
The report showed a current new income of €121 million. Excluding the Covid-19 impact, the current net income increased by 3.9%.
Veolia reported a net financial debt of €11.531.
‘Mobilised’
Antoine Frérot, Veolia’s chairman, said: “We had a very good start of the year with months of January and February showing a continued solid growth in line with previous years. The sanitary crisis the whole world is facing has created massive disorder and has put a large part of the world economy to a halt.
“Veolia is ready to address all these challenges. As a provider of essential services in Water, Waste and Energy, and a partner of cities and businesses, Veolia is fully mobilised and has ensured the continuity of service while providing maximum safety to its employees, and I wish to thank them personally for their contribution and their involvement.
“In this particular context, Veolia has delivered a solid 1st quarter, with revenue down by only -0.5% and EBITDA down by -2.9% at constant scope and forex. In order to mitigate as much as possible the consequences of this economic shock and allow the Group to get out of it in good shape, I have already launched a very ambitious adaptation plan which will increase cost savings in 2020 by an additional €200 million and cut capex by €500 million while maintaining growth capex.”
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