Alten: simply impressive!

/ September 22, 2019/ Alten, Financials, France

The performance of Alten remained impressive in H1 2019: revenues were up 16.8% yoy at CC, and up 12.5% at CC/CS, reaching EUR 1,292m during the period.

The company, as always, was the best performer of all ER&D service vendors with an onshore background, with its CC/CS growth (+12.5% yoy) ahead of Altran (+7.4%), Akka (+5.4%), and Expleo (+0.6%).

Also, Alten excels at managing its adjusted EBIT margin, which reached 9.0% in H1 2019, down by 30 bps yoy. The margin was impacted by one lesser working day (an impact of 60 bps) counterbalanced by better gross margins (a positive impact of 30 bps).

Alten is more profitable than Akka (6.7%) and Expleo (8.7%). The company is, however, not as profitable as Altran, which is now in a different league with its adjusted EBIT margin of 11.2%, thanks to Aricent and despite the impact of the cybersecurity attack in H1.

Alten has not provided a precise guidance for full-year 2019 but suggested its adjusted EBIT margin would bounce back in H2: the company should reach a margin close to 10% in full-year 2019. Meanwhile, we expect the company’s CC/CS to reach more than 10%

Investors reacted very positively to Alten’ earnings, sending the stock as high as 10% during the day. The share finished at +4%, with its market cap reaching USD 4.0bn, close to Altran’s own market share (USD 4.2bn).