An employee in a call center
Faced with increasing competition from artificial intelligence (AI), the teleperformance call center group on Wednesday announced an organic growth target of between 2% and 4% for 2024, down from 2023, prompting a particularly cautious approach for the first time. part of the year.
Teleperformance had a difficult 2023, during which it tripled its annual organic growth forecast. This is 5.1% in 2023, excluding covid contracts and hyperinflation treatment, against a target of around 6% since the last reduction in the outlook in November.
“All the main players have significantly reduced their forecasts,” the group’s financial director, Olivier Rigaudi, declared during a press conference, referring to the unfavorable macroeconomic environment. “We are cautious,” he added.
Teleperformance shares tumbled on the Paris stock exchange last month after the operator cited rival Klarna’s deployment of a voice assistant based on artificial intelligence (AI).
Olivier Rigaudi attributed the plunge to a misunderstanding of how AI was being integrated into the group’s solutions, adding that Klarna’s tool was just a “conversation”.
Teleperformance, which launched a 500 million euro share buyback program in August, cannot rule out other programs later if share price losses continue.
“If things are massively undervalued for reasons that we think are largely exaggerated, and so if things don’t change, which could happen, (…) the group will aggressively “continue its share buyback program (…) . to 2/3 of its cash flow,” said Olivier Rigaudi.
Growth in activity should be limited in the first quarter of 2024, given a very unfavorable basis of comparison and an environment that remains volatile, the group said.
Throughout 2024, Teleperformance aims to increase the EBITA margin rate on a pro forma basis by between 10 basis points and 20 basis points, including the acquisition of Majorail, as well as increased cash flow. Net is available.
According to LSEG, the company’s turnover reached 8.35 billion euros in 2023, compared to an average of 8.41 billion expected by analysts.
Current EBITA is 1.29 billion euros in 2023 compared to 1.26 billion in 2022.
(Writing by Diana Mandia, with Agustin Turpin, Editing by Blandyn Henault)
