RUEIL-MALMAISON, France — Schneider Electric announced today its fourth quarter revenues and full year results for the period ending December 31, 2020.
Jean-Pascal Tricoire, Chairman and CEO, commented:
Tagged with financial results, Schneider Electric2020 has been a defining year for Schneider with intensive and agile execution ensuring a strong finish. It has also been a year where we have accelerated our strategic moves and made Schneider future ready. At Schneider our first priority has been on health and safety of our own people and communities in which we operate, and to support critical infrastructure across countries and industries, crystalizing our mission of ‘Life Is On’. Our multi-local operating model has enabled us to rebound with local agility. In H2, we executed strongly, resumed growth on sales and stepped up profitability vs. pre-COVID levels of H2 2019 by 140 bps organic. The full year 2020 was a standout year with a profit margin of 15.6%, expanding organically against last year and a record cash generation. This enables us to compensate our people for their efforts during the crisis and to propose a payout to our shareholders consistent with our longstanding progressive dividend policy and further to the dividend we paid in 2020.
In 2020, we were also nimble to accelerate our transformation journey and future-proof our Group. We completed our transaction to acquire the Electrical & Automation business of Larsen & Toubro, building the foundation of a much stronger development in India. We also constructed defining deals in software with the completed acquisitions of RIB Software and ProLeiT, the strategic investment in Planon, the proposed acquisition of ETAP, and in supporting AVEVA with their proposed acquisition of OSIsoft. We are uniquely placed to address the needs of our customers across the lifecycle of their projects and installations. In parallel, we continue to prepare actions to further progress on our disposal program of €1.5 – €2.0bn of revenues by the end of 2022.
We witnessed a step-change in our customer’s adoption of digitization and sustainability, supporting our solutions for an all digital, all electric world, transitions we enable with more products, more software, more services and better systems. In Q4 we shared our commitment and leadership on sustainability through our dedicated ESG Investor Day. Our efforts have been recognized throughout the year with industry-leading scores in multiple ESG ratings. We have successfully completed our three-year Schneider Sustainability Impact 2018-2020 program and continue to raise the bar with our ambitious five-year 2021-25 sustainability impact program.
Looking ahead, a year of action in 2020 has prepared the ground for a continuation of strong execution in 2021. We are well positioned in our end-markets, our portfolio, our model and organization to grow our business and deliver to our customers digital solutions for efficiency and sustainability across the lifecycle. We today announce our 2021 financial target in line with our previously stated ambition to achieve c.17% Adjusted EBITA margin by 2022.