Up Group Annual Results: Solid 2016 Results, Strong Investments and Ambitious Outlook
Up presents its 2016 results and prospects at a press conference on June 20, 2017.
Key figures
- Revenue: €445 million (+ 28%)
- EBITDA: €71.3 million (+ 29%)
- Issue volume: €7.1 billion (+ 7.3%)
- Number of beneficiaries: 24.5 million (+ 15%)
- Number of clients: 1.3 million (+ 30%) including 1 million affiliated merchants
- Number of employees: 3,396 in 17 countries
« Our culture of investment and shared economic performance and our governance model are the drivers of our success. Up group is now engaged in a proactive innovation process that will benefit its clients and beneficiaries to better answer the development of new practices brought by digitization. » Catherine Coupet
Solid performance
The 2016 revenue of Up Group reached €445 million vs €347.5 million in 2015, representing a 28% increase. This can be explained by scope effect resulting from the integration of new subsidiaries. International operations now account for 53% of sales.
EBITDA is €71.3 million in 2016 compared to €55 million in 2015, representing a 29% increase.
The issue volume reached €7.1 billion vs €6.6 billion in 2015, representing a 7% increase. International operations account for 60% of issue volume.
Sustained external growth operations
In 2016, Up group’s strong external growth is due to several acquisitions, including:
- Stronger geographical position in Brazil:
- Policard (salary advance and services cards to unbanked populations);
- Vale Mais (food, catering and fuel card issuer).
- Consolidated position in the employee benefits market in France:
- Kalidea (ticketing services and management software for accounting or communication with employees);
- ReflexeCE (support services for works councils);
- Actobi (issues vouchers facilitating access to sports activities).
Investing in innovation to support our transformation
In 2016, Up invested in innovation to support the transformation of its offerings in three areas:
- « Booster »: new offerings experimenting program.
- Investment fund dedicated to partnering start-ups (€30 million over 5 years);
- Launch of an electronic money institution in Europe.
Up governance: an enhanced cooperative
The General Meeting held on June 10, 2016, adopted the new company name “Up”, replacing “LE CHÈQUE DÉJEUNER” as of December 1, 2016, in support of the Group’s transformation and new ambitions. This new name, replacing the name of its flagship product which was used for nearly 40 years, reflects the unique, strong and committed Group identity in 17 countries.
Up Group’s originality is based on its democratic governance model that directly associates employees in their company’s success. Up, the parent company, is a Cooperative and Participatory Society (Scop). Its capital is 100% owned by 664 employee-members, compared to 386 employee-members in 2015, representing a 72% increase.
On January 1, 2016, three French subsidiaries were effectively incorporated into the cooperative. This expansion is a first step in the Group’s ambition to involve a larger number of employees in its equity. Up is studying solutions to deploy this process in its entities.
Up Group outlook for 2021:
- Revenue: €1.28 billion
- EBITDA: €212 million
- Issue volume: €10.2 billion