JCDecaux SE (JCDXF) Q4 2024 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning everyone and welcome to our 2024 Full Year Results Conference Call. The speakers on this call will be Jean-François Decaux, Co-Chief Executive Officer, David Bourg, Chief Financial IT and Administrative Officer, and I. Rémi Grisard, Head of Investor Relations, is also attending today's conference call. 2024 was a very robust year for JEC Decaux. thanks to our unique and geographically well-diversified global OOH media footprint. We are reporting today very solid numbers for 2024, including a strong organic revenue growth at 9.7 and double-digit increases in all our key financial indicators. All this despite the challenging macroeconomic and geopolitical environment, including a lack of recovery in China, which remains well below 2019. We achieved in 2024 a group revenue above 2019, and most importantly, an operating margin of €764.5 million, growing by 15.3%, and a net income of €258.9 million, growing by 23.8%, and a free cash flow of €231.9 million, all close to their record highs. We think we can continue to grow these numbers in the coming years. Moving to the next slide, with an organic growth rate close to 10%, GCDECO and more broadly, OOH continue to gain market share in 2024 in the media landscape. Please note that we consider that the major sporting events of the year, the Paris Olympics and the Euro in Germany, contributed to around 1% of this organic growth this year. Our Q4 has been a record quarter with an organic growth of 3.6% above our guidance of a low single digit. This is our best quarter ever in terms of revenue and also of level of activity. The comparison base was much higher in Q4 than in the previous quarters of the year, which explains the deceleration of our organic growth rate year on year, but our performance compared to histo...