APC 2007 Annual Report Download - page 5

Interview with
Jean-Pascal Tricoire
We confirm our 2008 targets
for organic growth of between 6%
and 8% and EBITA margin of 15%.
Jean-Pascal Tricoire,
Chairman of the Management Board and CEO
2006 was a historic year for
Schneider Electric. Did the Group set
new growth and earnings records
in 2007?
2007 was a key year for two reasons.
First, Schneider Electric achieved new operating
performance records. Annual revenue rose 26%
on a current structure and exchange rate basis,
which means that the top line has doubled over
the past four years. Organic growth reached an
unprecedented 13.9%, greatly exceeding growth
in our end markets. EBITA* also increased sharply,
by 27%, and EBITA margin widened by 1.2 points
on a pro forma** basis to a record 14.8%.
Net profit grew by a strong 21% and free
cash flow jumped 38% to 1.5 billion. Second,
we successfully integrated APC.
How did the acquisition of
American Power Conversion (APC),
market leader in critical power and
cooling services, contribute to
the year’s performance?
This is our largest successfully completed
acquisition since Square D in 1991. It’s also the
first time the Group turned around a newly
acquired company so quickly. We immediately
merged APC and MGE UPS Systems so that our
customers could benefit from their synergistic
lineups right away. Our large system solutions,
designed primarily for data centers, are the most
effective and innovative in the world when it
comes to energy efficiency, flexibility and reliability.
They represent an extremely powerful growth
driver for the Critical Power & Cooling Services
Business Unit formed from the combination
of APC and MGE. The teams also deployed
operating efficiency plans that fuelled a remarkable
recovery in profitability, bringing the Business
Unit’s EBITA margin close to the Group average.
The targets achieved greatly exceeded our
expectations. Thanks to this acquisition, we have
gained global leadership in the very promising
critical power and cooling services market,
broadened our technological portfolio and
considerably expanded our accessible market.
APC gives you a major entry into
cooling and air conditioning.
Temperature control in an intrinsic part of our
business. For many years now, we’ve offered
leading-edge temperature control systems for
our target markets–industry, infrastructure,
buildings and residential. Now we also have
solutions for technological applications. APC
has the advantage of offering the most innovative
system on the market in terms of energy
efficiency and precision.
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* EBITA = EBIT before amortization of purchase accounting intangibles.
** Including APC data over 10.5 months in 2006.
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