REG - Compagnie St-Gobain - Capital Markets Day

Compagnie de Saint Gobain SAAnnouncement

06/10/2025 07:45

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RNS Number : 1709C  Compagnie de Saint-Gobain  06 October 2025

 

NEW STRATEGIC PLAN: "Lead & grow"

 

saint-Gobain leverages its leadership

to accelerate its profitable growth

After the success of its previous plan ("Grow & Impact"), Saint-Gobain,
the worldwide leader in light and sustainable construction, launches its new
strategic plan, "Lead & Grow". With #1 positions in every region and its
country-based operating model, well-adapted to its local markets and a
deglobalized world, the Group is raising its profitable growth trajectory,
targeting:

 

·    Outperformance thanks to an unrivalled suite of solutions, delivering
performance and sustainability for buildings and enabling the Group to
increase its exposure to non-residential and infrastructure

 

·    A strategy focused on growth and value creation with:

o  Around €12bn in growth capex and acquisitions 1  (#_ftn1) over the
period 2026-2030

o  Continued optimization of the Group's profile with asset rotation expected
to represent over 20% of sales by 2030

 

·    An ambitious financial trajectory over the period 2026-2030, with
targets raised:

o  Mid-single-digit sales growth on average in local currencies 2  (#_ftn2)
with market outperformance of 1 to 2 points

o  EBITDA margin of between 15% and 18% 3  (#_ftn3)

o  Free cash flow conversion ratio above 50%

o  ROCE above 13%

 

·    Attractive shareholder returns with around €8bn expected to be
distributed in dividends and share buybacks by 2030

 

 

Benoit Bazin, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"As the worldwide leader in light and sustainable construction, Saint-Gobain
is best positioned to address the key challenges of the construction sector
thanks to its full suite of innovative and sustainable solutions. Over the
last few years, the Group has demonstrated the strength of its new profile and
its capacity for execution with its "Grow & Impact" plan. With "Lead &
Grow", the Group further elevates its trajectory for growth, profitability and
value creation for its shareholders and customers. In the current geopolitical
context Saint-Gobain benefits from the powerful operating model it has
established and optimized country-by-country, based on local value chains.

 

Thanks to the know-how and commitment of our teams, I am confident we will
outperform in each geography and seize major opportunities: in Asia and
high-growth countries driven by demographics and urbanization, in North
America with strong structural needs, and in Europe with significant potential
for recovery. We will also expand into new growth markets: in infrastructure,
particularly thanks to our established leading position in construction
chemicals, and in non-residential, where the Group holds key advantages. We
are building the world of today and tomorrow with ambition and
responsibility."

 

 

World no. 1 in light and sustainable construction…

 

Saint-Gobain is unique in offering a comprehensive suite of solutions
optimizing performance and sustainability for new construction and renovation,
as well as for infrastructure. These include exterior solutions (roofing,
façade, glazing), interior solutions (plasterboard partitions, insulation,
ceilings), construction chemicals (waterproofing and sealing, mortars,
adhesives and coatings for floors and walls, admixtures and additives for
concrete and cement), as well as trade (including consulting, specification
and digital services).

 

The Group has a global addressable market worth approximately €500 billion
with strong growth opportunities in both residential and non-residential as
well as infrastructure. It benefits from a strong industrial footprint and is
ideally positioned, country by country, to address key construction challenges
in each main geographic area:

·    Demographic growth and urbanization, especially in Asia and emerging
countries;

·    Jobsite productivity and energy-efficient renovation mainly in Europe,
along with the adaptation of buildings and infrastructure to climate change,
particularly in North America;

·    Industrial re-shoring associated with deglobalization;

·    Circular economy to address resource scarcity.

 

Saint-Gobain benefits from its attractive geographic presence spanning Western
Europe, with a strong potential for recovery, North America, with a
structurally supportive market, and Asia and emerging countries, driven by
demographics and urbanization. Through "Lead & Grow", the Group intends to
increase its exposure to high-growth geographies - North America, Asia-Pacific
and emerging countries - which it expects to account for close to 60% of its
sales in the long-term, compared to around 50% today.

 

Country platforms are key to the success of the Group's business model:
drawing on the Saint-Gobain brand and the depth of its offer, these platforms
are growth compounders on their markets, managed by CEOs native to their
country and teams that are fully accountable for their perimeter (on EBITDA,
free cash flow, ROCE).

 

The Group is shaping the transformation of construction and has become the
reference with its sustainable solutions offer representing almost 75% of its
sales. Saint-Gobain has a clear positive impact on its value chain: solutions
sold by the Group in one year result in around 1 billion tons of avoided
CO(2) emissions over their lifespan. Regarding its own decarbonization
trajectory, Saint-Gobain has already cut its CO(2) emissions by 34% since 2017
and is now targeting a CO(2) emissions reduction (scope 1 and 2) of between
40% and 45% by 2035 (versus 2017), aligned with its commitment to achieve net
zero carbon emissions by 2050.

 

 

 

… With an enhanced growth outlook

 

Solutions: a competitive advantage for Saint-Gobain

To meet the expectations of its customers across the entire value chain, the
Group develops comprehensive and innovative solutions that together, offer
greater sustainability and performance benefits:

·    For owners: increased value (energy efficiency, climate resistance,
low-carbon solutions and circularity);

·    For occupants: comfort and well-being (thermal, acoustic, visual and
air quality performance);

·    For architects and contractors: specification and consulting, jobsite
productivity, circular materials.

Saint-Gobain is accelerating on cross-selling, upscaling through solutions
offering high value-added and integrated systems, and growing its share of
specified sales through a country-based key account strategy. Solutions are
deployed across all sales channels (professional merchanting, DIY
distribution, direct sales and digital sales), leading to commercial
outperformance, an enriched sales mix and higher margins.

 

Markets with high growth potential: non-residential and infrastructure

The widening of the Group's offer over the past few years has opened up major
growth opportunities in non-residential (including educational and healthcare
facilities, hotels and data centers) and infrastructure (transport, energy).
Saint-Gobain generates €15 billion revenues in a market that is worth around
€250 billion today, and has developed tailored offerings centered around
differentiated and innovative "hero" flagship products, driving sales for the
Group's entire offer:

·    Healthcare facilities: solutions for summer comfort, X-ray protection,
hygiene, air quality and acoustic comfort;

·    Data centers and clean industries: solutions for speed of
construction, low-carbon partitions and concrete, airflow management and
improved thermal insulation;

·    Bridges and tunnels: technical waterproofing, specialty admixtures,
expansion and injection grouts, repair and protection mortars;

·    Airports: runway reinforcement, fire-resistant and fire safety glass,
solar controlled façades, technical flooring and acoustic partitions.

 

The Group has unique assets to grow in these high-potential markets:

·    Specification sales teams by country targeting complex or large-scale
projects, leveraging key account management and flagship projects;

·    Innovation capabilities, supported by building science and artificial
intelligence, which allow Saint-Gobain to play a pioneering role and to adapt
its solutions to the specificity of each local market leveraging its regional
research and development hubs;

·    Leading position in construction chemicals, where the Group plans to
increase sales from €6.5 billion today to over €9 billion by 2030, thereby
increasing its exposure to infrastructure.

 

 

 

An attractive strategy for shareholders

 

Capital allocation focused on growth and value creation

Thanks to its strong cash generation, Saint-Gobain plans to allocate around
€20 billion of capital in a disciplined manner over the period 2026 to 2030,
combining growth and attractive shareholder returns while maintaining a solid
balance sheet with a net debt to EBITDA ratio of between 1.5x and 2.0x:

·    Around €12 billion allocated to growth investments and acquisitions
(net of divestments), with strict criteria, whether for investments in
additional capacity (IRR > 20%) or for acquisitions (value creation with
ROCE > WACC by year 3). The focus will be on consolidating leadership
positions, high-growth countries and construction chemicals;

·    Active optimization of the Group's profile to continue to strengthen
growth, profitability and value creation, targeting a rotation of assets
representing over 20% of its sales by 2030 (divestments and acquisitions).

·    Increased shareholder returns, expected at around €8 billion:

o  Around €6 billion to be distributed to shareholders as dividends, with
the aim of regular growth in dividend per share;

o  €2 billion in share buybacks.

 

 

Financial targets raised: an ambitious trajectory over the period 2026-2030:

·    Mid-single-digit sales growth on average in local currencies(1), with
market outperformance of 1 to 2 points;

·    EBITDA margin between 15% and 18%(2);

·    Free cash flow conversion ratio above 50%;

·    ROCE above 13%.

 

***

 

Saint-Gobain confirms its expectation for an operating margin of more than
11.0% for full-year 2025.

 

***

 

The Capital Markets Day will be held today both in person and online. The
presentation will start at 2:00pm CET and will include a Q&A session for
analysts and investors. The documentation and live stream will be available on
the Saint-Gobain website:

https://www.saint-gobain.com/en/finance/cmd-2025
(https://www.saint-gobain.com/en/finance/cmd-2025)

The webcast will be available on October 7, via the same link as above.

 

 1  Excluding any major economic slowdown and/or major divestment

2 Versus previous "Grow & Impact" plan: operating margin target of 9% to
11%, equivalent to an EBITDA margin of 13% to 15%

 

 

 

Glossary:

- Changes in local currencies reflect actual performance, applying exchange
rates for the previous period to indicators for the period under review.

- EBITDA: operating income plus operating depreciation and amortization, less
non-operating costs.

- EBITDA margin: EBITDA divided by sales.

- Operating margin: operating income divided by sales.

- Free cash flow = EBITDA less depreciation of right-of-use assets, plus net
financial expense, plus income tax, less capital expenditure excluding
additional capacity investments, plus change in working capital requirement
over a rolling 12-month period.

- Free cash flow conversion ratio = free cash flow divided by EBITDA less
depreciation of right-of-use assets.

- IRR: Internal Rate of Return

- ROCE (Return on Capital Employed): operating income for the period under
review, adjusted for changes in Group structure, divided by segment assets and
liabilities at period-end.

- WACC: Weighted Average Cost of Capital

 

All indicators contained in this press release (not defined above or in the
footnotes) are explained in the notes to the interim financial statements
available by clicking here:
https://www.saint-gobain.com/en/finance/regulated-information/half-yearly-financial-report
(https://www.saint-gobain.com/en/finance/regulated-information/half-yearly-financial-report)

 

 

 

Important disclaimer - forward-looking statements:

This press release contains forward-looking statements with respect to
Saint-Gobain's financial condition, results, business, strategy, plans and
outlook. Forward-looking statements are generally identified by the use of the
words "expect", "anticipate", "believe", "intend", "estimate", "plan" and
similar expressions. Although Saint-Gobain believes that the expectations
reflected in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable
assumptions as at the time of publishing this document, investors are
cautioned that these statements are not guarantees of its future performance.
Actual results may differ materially from the forward-looking statements as a
result of a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other
factors, many of which are difficult to predict and are generally beyond the
control of Saint-Gobain, including but not limited to the risks described in
 the "Risks Factors" section of Saint-Gobain's Universal Registration
Document and the main risks and uncertainties presented in the half-year 2025
financial report, both documents being available on Saint-Gobain's website
(www.saint-gobain.com (http://www.saint-gobain.com) ). Accordingly, readers of
this document are cautioned against relying on these forward-looking
statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this
press release. Saint-Gobain disclaims any intention or obligation to complete,
update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable laws
and regulations. This press release does not constitute any offer to purchase
or exchange, nor any solicitation of an offer to sell or exchange securities
of Saint-Gobain.

This press release includes information pertaining to Saint-Gobain's markets
and competitive positions therein. Such information is based on market data
and Saint-Gobain's actual revenues in those markets for the relevant periods.
Saint-Gobain obtained this market information from various third-party sources
(industry publications, surveys, and forecasts) and its own internal
estimates. No representation or warranty, express or implied, is made by
Saint-Gobain or its managers, corporate officers, employees, contractors,
representatives or advisors as to the accuracy or completeness of the
information or opinions contained in this press release that have not been
independently verified.

Markets and segments mentioned in this press release are not relevant markets
within the meaning of applicable competition laws and regulations.

 

For further information, please visit www.saint-gobain.com
(http://www.saint-gobain.com)

 

 

 Analyst/investor relations                Press relations
 Vivien Dardel:         +33 1 88 54 29 77  Patricia Marie:    +33 1 88 54 26 83
 Floriana Michalowska:  +33 1 88 54 19 09  Laure Bencheikh:   +33 1 88 54 26 38
 Alix Sicaud:           +33 1 88 54 38 70  Yanice Biyogo:                         +33 1 88 54 27 96
 James Weston:          +33 1 88 54 01 24

 1  (#_ftnref1) Net of divestments

 2  (#_ftnref2) Excluding any major economic slowdown and/or major divestment

 3  (#_ftnref3) Versus previous "Grow & Impact" plan: operating margin
target of 9% to 11%, equivalent to an EBITDA margin of 13% to 15%

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