JCDecaux France

Presentation of the company

Founded in 1964, JCDecaux is the world’s leading outdoor advertising company. The group employs 13,038 people and is based in Ile de France.

The main activities of the group are:

• Street furniture: marketing of advertising space on bus shelters, large-format advertising devices, multi-service columns, etc.
• Communication in transport: advertising in airports and land transport networks (metros, buses, trains and trams).
• Large format display.

Its economic model, which was created in 1964 by Jean-Claude Decaux, is based on providing cities with products and services that are useful to citizens and financed by advertising, creating economic and societal value.

With nearly 1.1 million advertising surfaces, the group is present in more than 80 countries and works with international, national and local advertisers in all sectors of activity (Distribution, Leisure/entertainment, Beauty/Luxury, Finance, Automotive, etc…) as well as with their agencies

The group’s various advertising spaces occupy the public domain through concessions or private spaces.

In addition to its external communication activity, the group is also the leader in self-service bicycle hire.

JCDecaux is listed on the Eurolist of Euronext Paris and are included in the Euronext 100 and Euronext Family indices. 

Project Description

The group wishes to borrow €100,000 over 24 months as part of the Grow Together operation. For JCDecaux, this is a communication project that will be carried out as part of the transaction.

Thanks to the Grow Together operation, 11 major groups will lead the way in diversifying sources of financing for SMEs by borrowing on a lending platform.

Large groups are used to borrowing outside the banking system and diversifying their sources of funding. They have simple and easy access to credit.

In October 2014, a new regulation opening a breach in the banking monopoly allowed SMEs to borrow directly from individuals and institutions, in addition to their banks. Small and medium-sized companies can now do as big as large ones.

AccorHotels, The Adecco Group, Allianz France, Arkéa, Edenred, ENGIE, Iliad, JCDecaux, SUEZ, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and Webhelp are joining the transaction and showing their VSE/SME ecosystem that they can now finance themselves differently, thanks to lending platforms.

These 11 major sponsors, each borrowing €100,000 from October, give their VSE/SME partners the right to borrow up to €1,000,000 each, without any administrative costs.

This project, which is part of the Grow Together operation, is only available to individual investors on the platform. Unlike all the other projects presented on the platform, institutional investors and October’s management cannot lend on the projects of this campaign. 

Analyst’s Opinion

The borrower, JCDecaux France, is a subsidiary of JCDecaux SA. The financial analysis was carried out on consolidated financial statements at the holding company level (whose revenues come from services invoiced to its subsidiaries), which reflect the group’s performance.

With a turnover of €3.04 billion in 2017 and an experienced team, the company has a good track record combined with a double-digit operating margin.

In recent years, the increase in turnover has been linked to business growth with the group’s expansion into new countries. Forecasts are based on 2017 performance

The borrower has an excellent repayment capacity with a Fixed Charge Cover Ratio (FCCR) of 2.97 and an excellent financial structure with a positive cash balance.

The analysis of the project leads to a credit rating of A+ and an annual interest rate of 2.5%.

*The multiple of CCRF at 2.97 means that the company has a margin of safety of 197% in relation to its ability to repay its credit maturities.

The expert opinion is given for information purposes on the basis of the information provided by the project leader and information from our databases (Scores & Decisions, Corporate Banking File). This opinion is only an element of reflection in the decision making of a lender to participate in the financing of a project.

Strong points:

• Good historical performance based on a diversified customer base.
• Excellent repayment capacity with a projected CCRF of 2.97
• World leader in street furniture and outdoor advertising

Points of caution:

• Competitive sector