Nuclear engineering remains promising for Assystem. Revenues of nuclear engineering proved slightly more resilient during 2020 (with a 4.2% revenue decline at cc/cs) than the company itself (-5.3%). In H1 2020, the activity was impacted by the lockdown in Europe, as nuclear engineering requires a higher level of onsite work than ER&D services. Revenues bounced back in H2, reaching a slight organic growth.
Sweco Was Profitable in Q4 despite the Write-Down Swedish infrastructure engineering Sweco remained profitable despite a
Akka had a busy end of the year: it completed its capital increase and unveiled a
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At first glance, SII performed very well during calendar Q3 2020 (corresponding to its Q2 FY21). Revenues were down by only 4.5% yoy at cc/cs. By comparison, Alten’s revenues were down by 19%! SII continued to overperform its French and European peers by a very significant margin.
Europe has now entered its second lockdown. The lockdowns have different restrictions levels and different lengths. The UK and France are running for the full month of November. Officials in the two countries have, however, warned the lockdown might last longer, until Christmas at least.
AFRY, once again, protected its bottom line during the pandemic. The company limited its Q3 2020 EBITA margin decline to 40 bps to 6.7%. AFRY reduced its expenses by SEK 480m in Q3, a level similar to QA (SEK 490m).
Assystem announced its results two days before France back into a full lockdown. Despite a good financial performance in Q3 2020, the company changed, again, its guidance for full-year 2020.
Cyient Suffering from its Vertical Mix From the numbers, it may not show. But Cyient is
Alten will accelerate its M&A activity in 2020. This is one of the tactical changes that the company announced during its H1 2020 results presentation. The company is also shifting its commercial effort to financial services, energy, and life science, and slightly accelerating its offshore deployment.
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Ricardo paid the price for its exposure to the automotive sector, which represents 55% of total revenues. After a stable H1 FY20 (the ending June 30, 2020), H2 collapsed with revenues down 23% at cc/cs (our estimate). Surprisingly, Ricardo performed worse than an automotive pure-play such as EDAG (-14.8% during the same period) and Akka (-20.3% at cc/cs).
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Bertrandt reported its Q3 FY20 results (calendar Q2 2020). Revenues were EUR 205m, down by a massive-20.9% yoy, and the EBIT margin was -0.9% (Q3 FY19: +2.7%). Yet, Bertrandt’s results were better than those of EDAG ( yoy revenues down by 32.6%) and Akka (-31.4% yoy at CC/CS).
We got a glimpse of the performance of Altran when Capgemini announced its H1 2020 results
We were expecting EDAG would have a difficult Q2, as the company is very European and services mostly the automotive sector. However, we had not anticipated a decline of this scale: revenues were down by 32.6% in Q2. Unsurprisingly, the EBIT margin was significantly in negative territory (-14.4%).
As expected, Assystem suffered in Q2 2020: revenues declined by 13.7% yoy CC/CS during the quarter. Staffing was down by 16.3%, while Energy & Infrastructure did somewhat better (-13.3%). The core nuclear engineering business was down by 10.1% (our estimate).
Alten announced better than expected revenues in Q2 with a CC/CS decline of 18.4% (we expected -23%), after a growth of 4.0% in Q1. During H1, the decline was 7.3% (guidance: -9%).
Revenues Collapsed in H1 2020 Akka suffered greatly in H1 2020, with revenues down by 20.3%
Sweco had already demonstrated its resilience in Q1, with a +4% organic growth. In Q2, despite COVID-19, the company remained in positive territory (+2%). The performance is a surprise, as Sweco is very sensitive to the number of working days.
ER&D’s largest pure-play globally, Alten, will be announcing its Q2 2020 revenue by the end of July. The company had a very decent Q1, with a 4% CC/CS revenue growth. However, it warned that revenues would be down by ~22% in Q2.
No surprise. AFRY had a terrible Q2 2020: revenues were down by 9.2% yoy at CC/CS. The Industry and Digital Solutions Division led the decline (with revenues down yoy at 16.3% at CC/CS). The Division suffered in the automotive sector, whose revenues collapsed by 40% during the quarter.
One year after its merger with Pöyry, AFRY is still struggling. At the time of the Pöyry acquisition, AFRY, the ÅF, wanted to reignite organic growth and improve its profitability. The result is mixed.
Cyient surprised, negatively, the markets by announcing a decline of 9.7% in its Q4 FY20 revenues (to USD 149m) and an adjusted EBIT margin down 440 bps (to 8.4%).
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