Annual Results

Listed companies, such as Air Liquide, must publish regular financial information for their shareholders and all financial market participants. The publication of the financial results are part of this process – each year, it provides an overview of the company’s performance and results and gives a precise view of the momentum of its business, projects and outlook.

What information should you look at?

For the year ended, each company details:

• its main financial indicators (revenue, operating income and net profit, net earnings per share, etc.), some of which may be listed by activity or geographic region;
• its management report featuring the complete financial performance;
• the highlights.

All these items make it possible to compare the company’s performance to previous years, to understand the impact of any exceptional event on its activity, to make projections for the coming year, and to compare several companies in the same business sector.

Is the strategy of the company that you have invested in a success over time?

When you study a company’s results year after year, and in particular certain key indicators, you are able to better understand its businesses, form an opinion on the quality of its operating performance and the relevance of its strategic choices. Note that these key indicators may vary according to the company’s business sector. For Air Liquide, they are mainly: revenue, operating margin, net profit (Group share) or ROCE.

Some of these indicators may be presented both as “published data” and “comparable data”. The latter enables the company’s performance to be understood by “removing” the impact of external events (such as exchange rate or energy prices) or exceptional events, like the acquisition of a company, to facilitate a comparison from one year to the next. 

Feeling a bit lost? Don’t worry, we will tell you more about these indicators below: