Having suffered in the past, 2014 proved to be Orange’s year…at least on the CAC40. Orange posted the most impressive share price turnaround in 2014, posting a 60% jump in their share price over the course of the year. As CEOs of listed companies often spend a disproportionate amount of their time, Stephane Richard had cause to celebrate this year.
There were several reasons for this big increase, least not the fact that Orange’s share price was somewhat ‘punished’ in the past due to big anxieties amongst investors over the entry and rise of Free mobile. Orange was, in fact, hit hard by Free’s entry, but also recovered a lot better than their rivals from the initial fallout. In addition, although Orange’s revenues were flat to slightly declining over the period, investors rewarded a 700 million euro cost-savings effort, which delivery a healthy margin.
Orange wasn’t the only strong telco performer this past year, with the new SFR-Numericable posting a maket cap of 19.4 billion euro as a combine entity, which amounted to a 175% increase (over the value of the separate entities). This was the strongest telco performance in Europe, with Orange and Mobistar coming in second.
With its continued expansion throughout Europe and around the world, its advancements in the Connected ecoysystem, continued improvements around operation efficiency, continued gains in the low-cost mobile and fixed segments, and efforts supporting the globally growing startup ecosystem, Orange looks well-positioned to have a bright 2015 as well.