The AREVA Supervisory Board met today under the chairmanship of Jean-Cyril Spinetta to examine the financial statements submitted by the Executive Board for the period ended December 31, 2012. Concerning the results, Luc Oursel, Chief Executive Officer, stated:
“One year after launching our Action 2016 strategic plan, the first results are in. AREVA is ahead of schedule in executing its recovery plan and this success is the fruit of the considerable work accomplished by our teams. While pursuing our efforts in the management of a few difficult projects (such as OL3), our group was able to return to a virtuous performance cycle rooted in strong growth in nuclear order intake and good progress on its cost reduction program.
Commercially, despite the difficult economic environment, AREVA was able to capitalize on its leadership in the installed base and on its long-term partnerships with strategic customers, beginning with EDF, with which AREVA renewed a confident and constructive working relationship.
We have secured 80% of our objective of one billion euros of savings by the end of 2015 to improve our competitiveness. The group also continued efforts to optimize working capital requirement and control the capital expenditure trajectory. Together, these results enabled AREVA to exceed the objectives set for 2012 for two key indicators of its strategic plan: EBITDA and free operating cash flow. Nearly 60% of the 2.1 billion euros devoted to capital expenditures for future growth in 2012 were funded by operations, a quasi-doubled share compared to 2011.
Our floor target for asset disposals was achieved one year ahead of schedule, also helping us to control our net debt, which remained below 4 billion euros.
In 2013, we are continuing to implement the Action 2016 plan to keep AREVA's turnaround on track. We are fully mobilized to meet the next key milestone: a return to break-even in operating cash flow in 2013.”(1)EBITDA: restated for impacts related to Siemens (penalty received of 648 million euros) in 2011 and for the impacts of the asset disposal plan (capital gain of 218 million euros) in 2012.
(2)Free operating cash flow before tax: restated for impacts related to Siemens (net disbursement of -1.031 billion euros) in 2011 and for the impacts of the asset disposal plan (capital gain of 273 million euros) in 2012.
