By Federica Mileo
(Reuters) -Sodexo plans to list its voucher and benefits division Pluxee early next year, the French catering and food services group said on Thursday, after price rises, a post-COVID tourism recovery and staff returning to offices boosted earnings.
Employers are turning to companies like Sodexo (EPA:EXHO) and Edenred (EPA:EDEN) to offer vouchers as perks to encourage staff to return to the office rather than working from home, as well as helping with the rising cost of living.
Sodexo's shares were up around 6% to 103.6 euros in early trade, hitting their highest level in three years.
The proposed full spin-off of Pluxee will be put to shareholders during a general meeting early next year, Sodexo said after reporting full-year organic revenue growth for the unit of 26.9%, compared to a group forecast of above 20%.
"The group benefited from the post-COVID recovery in the first half of the year and from a very good level of activity in the second half, with record visitor numbers in tourism and convention centres and a rise in prices," Sodexo's finance chief Marc Rolland said in a call with journalists.
Sodexo said food inflation dropped significantly in the U.S and Brazil, with pricing starting to outpace food cost inflation. "This is a blessing for us", Rolland said, while warning food inflation was still double-digit in Europe.
For 2024 and 2025, Sodexo said it expected organic revenue growth of between 6% and 8% per annum and its underlying operating profit margin to grow by 30-40 basis points per year.
Sodexo reported a full-year underlying operating profit of 1.34 billion euros ($1.41 billion), slightly higher than the 1.32 billion euros expected by analysts polled by the company.
"It seems with a full year of strong performance in the bag, and outlook positive for the next two years, investors might just be starting to buy into the "New Sodexo" story", Morningstar analyst Michael Field said.
($1 = 0.9488 euros)