Veolia meets Q1 expectations helped by water technologies unit
Adds details on fallout from synergies
By Alban Kacher and Diana Mandia
May 14 (Reuters) -France's Veolia VIE.PA met first-quarter profit expectations on Tuesday helped by a 15% rise in sales at its water technologies unit and synergies from its merger with Suez, sending shares up over 3% in morning trade.
Veolia also announced a 300 million euro ($324 million) contract for a desalination plant in the United Arab Emirates.
Water technologies is one of the three strategic drivers in the company's 2024-2027 plan along with hazardous waste treatment and bioenergies and local energy.
"We had a more than 50% rise in orders (for the unit) in the first quarter, which is more than excellent," CEO Estelle Brachlianoff said on a call with journalists.
She said this business was booming, with new contracts in the semiconductor, oil and gas, and chemicals sectors, and the renewal of others, such as one with Syndicat des Eaux de l'Île-de-France.
Veolia, through its subsidiary SIDEM, also announced it would design and supply key technology for the Hassyan sea water desalination plant in Dubai. The plant will start operating in 2026 and reach full capacity in 2027.
The company said the plant would be the most energy-efficient in the world and allow processing of 818,000 cubic metres of water per day.
Veolia told Reuters it intends to join future tender offers for desalination projects in the region.
Veolia announced that the synergies from its merger with rival Suez two years ago amounted to 42 million euros, with total fallout from synergies coming to 357 million euros, ahead of the cumulated target of 400 million euros by the end of 2024, thanks in particular to economies of scale in purchasing.
For the first quarter Veolia reported consolidated sales down 1.7% to 11.56 billion euros, in line with the 11.6 billion forecasts by analysts in a company-compiled survey.
It posted a 5.7% rise in organic earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to 1.62 billion euros for the January-March quarter, in line with the 1.6 billion expected by analysts.
The group also confirmed its targets for 2024.
($1 = 0.9273 euros)
Reporting by Diana Mandiá and Alban Kacher; editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips, Janane Venkatraman and Jason Neely
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