Q3 2020 Key Figures1
- Revenue of EUR 1,148 million in the third quarter of 2020, down 4.4% organically, and down 9.6% year on year (of which an external growth net of divestment of -0.3% and a currency impact of -4.9%)
- Organically, 3 out of 6 businesses grew at 1.9% on average: Certification +7.0%, Marine & Offshore +1.9% and Buildings & Infrastructure +0.6%
- The 3 other businesses were down: Agri-Food & Commodities -7.5%, Industry -8.2% and Consumer Products -11.0%.
1 Alternative performance indicators are presented, defined and reconciled with IFRS in appendix 3 of this press release.
Q3 2020 Highlights
- Evidence of enhanced resilience through diversification. Nearly half of the Group’s portfolio grew organically in the quarter
- Strong rebound in the Certification business, benefiting from both “Restart Your Business with BV” and Safeguard missions as well as catch-up of audits
- Continued outperformance in New Construction and In-Service activities in Marine & Offshore
- Return to growth of the Buildings & Infrastructure portfolio mainly driven by Opex
- Mixed environment for Agri-Food & Commodities (solid trends in Agri-food and Metals & Minerals were largely offset by weak Oil markets) and Industry (where the resilient Opex contracts were offset by the freeze in Oil & Gas Capex projects)
- Consumer Products’ diversification further strengthened against a backdrop of weak sector trends
- Divestment of non-core business unit in the US (USD 12 million of annual revenue) that provided fugitive emissions detection and measurement services on industrial assets.
2020 Outlook
- Amongst the different scenarios considered by Bureau Veritas, for the full year 2020, the “Slow & gradual recovery” scenario is the scenario retained to date considering the latest available information and assuming the absence of lockdown measures in the Group’s main countries
Didier Michaud-Daniel, Chief Executive Officer, commented:
“During the third quarter, the Group continued to face some very exceptional circumstances. In this historically challenging context, Bureau Veritas demonstrated remarkable resilience with an organic revenue decline limited to -4.4%. These results were driven by an excellent performance in Certification, Buildings & Infrastructure, Marine & Offshore and in Food businesses.
This reflects both the relevance of our strategy and the effectiveness of its implementation. The very good health of all the financial markers is the result of several years of transformation that have led Bureau Veritas to become a resilient company, perfectly positioned to take a new step forward in its development.
Our expertise in quality, health and safety, and sustainability is at the very heart of the challenges faced today by businesses and by society as a whole.
We offer today a green line of services and solutions to all clients and stakeholders. We partner with them in their efforts to improve their performance in both the transparency and trustworthiness of all their actions and across all areas notably sustainability.
I believe that our role as an independent third party is already essential to build trust between economic players. This has now become a vital link in the chain of actions towards making our economy more transparent and more responsible for our planet and its inhabitants.”