CLASQUIN: 2015 Very Strong Growth in Business and Gross Profit

Regulatory News:

CLASQUIN (Paris:ALCLA):

*Published figures, excluding Gueppe-Clasquin, a subsidiary (70% ownership) specialised in road haulage, freight and logistics, sold on 29 December 2015.
**Note: Sales is not a relevant indicator for assessing activity in our business, because it is greatly impacted by changing sea and air freight rates, fuel surcharges, exchange rates (especially versus the $), etc. Variations in the number of shipments, the volumes shipped and—in terms of the Group's finances—gross profit are relevant indicators.

• The strong growth in the number of shipments (+21.4%) results from both organic growth and the contribution from acquisitions made in Q4 2014 (ECS & GAF) and in Q2 2015 (LCI) (+18.5%).
• Same for Gross Profit (+27.5%) of which 16.9% comes from acquisitions.

DETAILS ON ACTIVITY BY BUSINESS LINE

* The strong growth in "Other" activity is linked to the acquisition of LCI: number of shipments for 9 months (April/December): 23,270; GP for 9 months: €4.7 m
** Please note: Q4 2014 was particularly strong.

Our 2015 'guidance' on profits (very strong growth) is confirmed.

2015 HIGHLIGHTS

LCI acquisition
Since 31 March 2015 CLASQUIN has held 80% of the capital in FINANCIERE LCI, a company which acquired 100% of the capital in LCI INTERNATIONAL.
LCI INTERNATIONAL is a company specialising in freight forwarding between France and Northern Africa & Turkey.
LCI INTERNATIONAL has 3 sites in France (Villefranche sur Saône (69), La Crèche (79) and Vitrolles (13)) and 3 subsidiaries and interests in Tunisia.
This transaction shall increase earnings per share and have a positive effect on profitability from this year.

Sale of Gueppe-Clasquin
On 29 December 2015, the company CLASQUIN sold the GUEPPE CLASQUIN Group to the ALAINE Group, active in providing Transport, Logistics and Forwarding services, whose headquarters are based in Mâcon (France).

This transaction was completed with the agreement of the management and the minority shareholders of GUEPPE CLASQUIN Group and concerns 100% of the share capital and voting rights of FINANCIERE GUEPPE CLASQUIN, holding company of the subsidiaries GUEPPE CLASQUIN and CHRISTIAN GUEPPE LOCATION. As a reminder, CLASQUIN held a 70% equity interest in FINANCIERE GUEPPE CLASQUIN.
GUEPPE CLASQUIN Group posted 2015 sales of €9.7 million and gross profit of €6.7 million.

This operation will result in an accounting consolidated capital loss currently estimated at €0.9 m. The final amount will be determined in view of the GUEPPE CLASQUIN Group's 2015 profits.
This sale opportunity is part of CLASQUIN Group’s strategy of focusing on its core business. The transaction will enable the Group to generate cash in order to finance new acquisition projects.

NEW 2016 GOVERNANCE

Hugues Morin (46 years old) is promoted to Group Executive Vice President and becomes the Group's second in command.
Hugues has spent his whole career at Clasquin. Having worked in Sydney, Osaka and Tokyo, he returned to France in 2002 to take on the regional management of Lyon and the South-East, and was promoted to Managing Director of Clasquin France in 2007. Until recently he managed France, Italy and Germany.
Henceforth, he takes command of all of the Group's Front Office functions (operations and sales) and replaces Alain Dumoulin who retired.
He is a member of the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors.

Quentin Lacoste (46 years old), an EPSCI graduate (Essec Group) and MBA graduate from Stirling University (Scotland) joined the Group in October 2015 as the Group COO in charge, under the line management of Hugues Morin, of Northern Europe, North America, South East Asia, India and Australia.
He is a member of the Executive Committee.
Quentin spent 20 years with Röhlig, a German logistics provider, first in Australia, then as Financial Controller in Germany, prior to being appointed as one of the Directors of the French subsidiary. He spent the last 12 years at the German Headquarters including 10 years as a member of the Global Executive Board, responsible for a dozen subsidiaries throughout the world, including Germany as well as Procurement and Product development for Airfreight and Seafreight.

Laurence Ilhe (44 years old), ESSEC graduate, joined the Group on 25 January 2016 as the Group General Secretary, replacing Yves Barnoud who left the company at the end of April 2015.
Laurence started her career as an auditor at Ernst & Young before joining JC Decaux, Dell Computer and SFR Mobile successively. She then spent 10 years with Danone where she became the Financial Control Director of one of the divisions. In 2012 she joined Akka Technologies as the CFO for France and took command of all of the Back Office functions.
As the Clasquin Group's General Secretary, she leads and coordinates all the support services (Legal, Finance, IT, Human Resources, Purchasing excluding business).
She is a member of the Executive Committee.

This rejuvenated high-level team will undoubtedly increase the Group's development and performance.

2016 OUTLOOK

Market:
Growth estimated at +/- 2% in volume.

Clasquin :
Growth higher than the market growth.

UP COMING EVENTS (publication issued after market closure)

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