Getlink Se

Getlink reports 2019 results. Jacques Guenard, a warm welcome to you. You're the CEO and the chairman of Getlink.

Hello.

Jacques Dunant, you're presenting FY results. They're positive despite an uncertain environment this year. How do you explain that?

I think that the group performed very well despite, as you mentioned, of course, the Brexit uncertainty and various strikes in France which have impacted our business. Having said that, we had, let's say, a weak market. We had the traffic which we believe is able to support the result of the company. And if I may, for instance, have a look at the Europort right flight business, it did very well and it has very positive contribution to the group. So everything is working well. If we consider now the fixed link, we can say that all the KPIs, The key facts are very positive. We increased our market shares. We increased our load factors. We increased our quality of service. We increased the satisfaction of our customers. We have, let's say, a very strong staff motivation. So all in all, this is a result why, and on top of that, of course, we have our green credentials. It's the reason why this group is performing very well and will continue to do that.

Let's get back to this robust year, as you said.

Yeah, I think first of all, turnover is more or less stable. Slight increase against 9.18 with 1.085.000.000 euros. So very strong turnover. But of course, more importantly, EBITDA level. We reached 560 million euros of EBITDA, operational margins. And this is absolutely key because we are in line with our guidance, which was not so obvious. And I would like also to focus on free cash flows and more importantly on operational cash flows, which reach the incredible figure of 599 million euros. So it means that, and if we consider the net result, which is the result of all these efforts we made, We have a new increase, a yearly new increase of the net result up to 159 million euros, which is roughly 20% more than last year. So at the end of the day, and based on our green credentials, yes, we believe that we are a very interesting, profitable, performing company.

How about your guidance for 2020 and beyond?

First of all, of course, we can commit and continue to commit on our dividend policy, which means that we will present a new increase of 5 cents up to 41 cents per share at the next AGM. And we, due to the cash flows I mentioned, we are very confident in order to have this sustainable dividend policy increasing 5 cents per year, which is good. Having said that, if we consider the EBITDA guidance, we need, I mentioned that we are Brexit ready and there is no Brexit impact in 2020 because negotiations are ongoing. So the only point we have to deal with is a very short term virus crisis. All people know. And on this basis, we believe that we can reach it. 580 million euros EBITDA guidance in 2020. At the end of the day, and to my shareholders, the investors, what I can say is the fact that we are offering this year a 2.5 dividend yield, which is, let's say, the average level of all other infrastructure companies. So we are very strong. We have a total return through dividends since the first dividend of 1.4 billion euros. So the company with a market capitalization of More than 9 billion euros is a very strong, interesting, profitable company. Our shareholders, our staff can be confident for the future.

Jacques Guénon, you're the CEO and the chairman of Getlink. Thank you.