Trading update: Upwards revision of FY 2021 outlook
Rexel is today providing a trading update on its outlook for full-year 2021. Better-than-expected business activity in Q4 21, combined with Rexel’s strong focus on gross margin and cost discipline, led us to achieve:
-> Same day sales growth of 15.3% (previous guidance: in the 12-15% range), driven by a dynamic recovery, especially in the US, further supported by rising inflation. We enter 2022 with strong backlogs both at Rexel and customers, driven by healthy underlying demand and projects that have been carried over from last year due to low labor availability and supply chain tensions.
-> Adjusted Ebita1 margin of 6.2% in FY 2021 (previous guidance: 5.7%). We estimate that the 200bps adjusted EBITA margin progression from 2020 to 2021 includes 40bps of non-recurring impacts (notably positive one-off price inflation on non-cable products partially offset by a negative impact from all-time high bonuses). In 2022, we anticipate that our action plans will allow us to further improve from the 5.8% normalized 2021 adjusted EBITA1 margin (excluding the one-offs) and to exceed our medium-term ambition of 6%2, ahead of our 2023 roadmap.
Detailed full-year 2021 results and 2022 outlook will be issued on February 11, 2022.