SUEZ reports profit growth in 2019

Paris-based waste, recycling and environmental services firm SUEZ has announced its 2019 financial results, which include 3.6 percent “organic” earnings growth and 3.9 percent organic earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) growth. The organic figures exclude the effects of acquisitions, sell-offs or accounting changes.

SUEZ CEO Bertrand Camus points to activities in the recycling sector as particularly important in 2019, saying, “In recycling and recovery, we won major contracts, such as Greater Manchester’s waste management, and began construction of a plastic recycling plant in Thailand.”

Adds Camus, “SUEZ has posted solid 2019 results: all the targets set were met or exceeded, with a good growth rate in the fourth quarter. Our net income group share stands at €352 million ($388 million).” The company’s revenue surpassed €18 billion ($19.8 billion) in 2019.

Camus says non-hazardous waste treatment activities in municipalities, industries, and commercial businesses (the SUEZ Recycling and Recovery business unit), represented 41 percent of the company’s revenue in 2019.

In addition to the Greater Manchester contract in the United Kingdom, Camus lists as key highlights in that sector:

• renewal of the contract with the Métropole de Lyon for the operation of Rillieux-La-Pape waste treatment and energy recovery unit in France;
• in Serbia, a contract signed to sell heat production from an energy-from-waste facility in Belgrade;
• in Oman, a contract won to operate and maintain a landfill site for waste in Barka for a five-year period; and
• the rollout of a new household waste recycling service to 250,000 households in Somerset County in the U.K.

“We have started work to adapt the composition of our asset portfolio,” states Camus. “The implementation of processes to improve our operational efficiency is underway and our performance plan will deliver from 2020.”

In North America, SUEZ concentrates primarily on municipal water services and wastewater treatment, based from an office in Paramus, New Jersey. It also has been involved in materials recycling and hazardous waste projects in Canada.