By Dimitri Rhodes and Etienne Breban
(Reuters) -French voucher and benefits company Pluxee reported an 11.1% organic rise in its third-quarter operating revenue on Thursday, broadly in line with market expectations, driven by growth in Latin America and other international markets.
Benefits providers like Edenred and Pluxee are increasingly relying on tertiary geographies like Latin America to drive profits, as they cope with slowdowns in their main business regions amid rising economic uncertainty.
“While remaining mindful of the macroeconomic trends in a number of geographies, we remain confident in our ability to deliver on our full-year ambitions,” CEO Aurélien Sonet said in a press release.
Pluxee said operating revenue in Continental Europe, its main market, rose 8.8% organically, affected by weakening economic trends in certain markets.
In Latin America, the metric rose 13.6% organically, mainly carried by strong commercial execution in Brazil, it said.
At group level, operating revenue was 270 million euros ($318.3 million) in the third quarter of its financial year, just below the 271 million expected by analysts polled by Pluxee.
“Overall, we see today’s delivery as supportive, especially in the context of a relatively weak share price, not reflecting, in our view, last week’s good news on the new proposed measures relative to regulation in France for meal vouchers,” equity analysts from J.P.Morgan said in a note to clients.
The performance was driven by strong 12.4% growth in Employee Benefits, Pluxee’s biggest unit, Sonet said in the statement.
Pluxee’s shares, which have dropped around 30% over the past 12 months, rose 4.7% in early trading in Paris.
The former benefits unit of Sodexo also said it had agreed to buy MyBenefits in Romania, which it said would be accretive to its recurring profit margin from the 2026 fiscal year that starts on September 1.
Pluxee confirmed its full-year outlook, which it said took into account the synergies expected from its partnership with Santander in Brazil and the integration of closed acquisitions.
($1 = 0.8483 euros)
(Reporting by Dimitri Rhodes and Etienne Breban in Gdansk, editing by Milla Nissi-Prussak)
