Plastic Bertrand

2 October 2019 By George Hay, Ed Cropley Follow @gfhay

Empire-building has weighed on the French utility’s returns. A new focus on the bottom line is thus a win for activist Amber Capital. Still, a share price dip on Wednesday suggests investors aren’t ready to take CEO Bertrand Camus’s promises of better top line growth on trust.

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French waste and water group Suez outlined a new 10-year strategy on Oct. 2 that focuses on increasing revenue from non-European and industrial customers and streamlining its operations.

Chief Executive Bertrand Camus said the turnaround would produce annual savings worth 1 billion euros by 2023, though Suez's dividend would remain unchanged for the next two years.

Amber Capital published a letter in July accusing Suez of poor capital allocation, resulting in returns on capital employed dropping from 7.9% in 2015 to 6.2% last year. The activist investor said it holds a 1.9% stake in Suez.

Suez shares were down 5.2% at 13.51 euros by 1135 GMT on Oct. 2.

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