The Danish group ISS has announced the sale of its activities in France, where it employs more than 14,000 people, due to the “unsatisfactory” results of its subsidiary. ISS, which offers cleaning, conservation, restoration, maintenance and even security services to companies, generated just over 10,000 million euros in turnover in 2022 and employs some 350,000 people worldwide.
In its press release published this Thursday in France, the Danish group “announces that it is starting a process of selling all its cleaning, facilities management and logistics activities in France”, in order to “identify new solutions to guarantee a solid and sustainable growth of ISS”. prospects in a complex and ultra-competitive French market”.
“Unsatisfactory” results
ISS also specified, in another press release published on Wednesday in Denmark, that the financial results “were not satisfactory” in France, that they had “diluted” the group’s growth and global operating margin, and that “development in France did not had generated the expected improvements”, among other things “due to the inherent strategic challenges and difficult market conditions”.
In its financial report on the results for the first half of 2023, the group thus indicates that “non-recurring costs related to a strategic review [des actifs] in France reduced the group’s operating margin by around 0.2 points”.
“During this search for a potential buyer, we will continue to serve all our existing customers in the same way as today and with the same level of requirements,” says Marc De Oliveira, president of ISS France, quoted in the press release. . The group also affirms that “the sale process will not imply any change in the day-to-day life of the affected teams.”
Source: BFM TV
