Sodexo is a société anonyme (a form of limited liability company) registered in France, with its headquarters located in Issy-les-Moulineaux.
Sodexo’s consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2021 were approved by the Board of Directors on October 26, 2021 and will be submitted to the Annual Shareholders Meeting on December 14, 2021 .
The numbers shown in the tables were prepared in thousands of euro and are presented in millions of euro (unless otherwise indicated).
Fiscal 2021 continued to be significantly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, in terms of performance there was a marked improvement between the first half and the second half, as the teams adapted constantly to the changing environment and performance lapped the start of the pandemic in 2020.
As the vaccination levels progressed in Europe and North America, the trend in revenues continued to improve in the second half in most markets. As a result, there was a return to growth against the particularly low levels of the previous year and a progressive improvement in profitability.
With sufficient cash flows provided by operating activities for investments and acquisitions, the Group’s financial situation remains solid.
As mentioned in note 12.4 “Borrowings”, Sodexo, Inc., a U.S. subsidiary of Sodexo S.A., issued on April 12, 2021 a bond for a total principal amount of 1.25 billion U.S. dollars in two tranches (500 million U.S. dollars due in April 2026 and 750 million U.S. dollars due in April 2031).
In addition, as mentioned in note 12.4.3.1, the Group has access to credit facilities that can be utilized at any time as needed for 1.8 billion euro (the confirmed credit facilities are undrawn as of August 31, 2021 ). Furthermore, with operating cash of 4.6 billion euro, the Group has access to 6.4 billion euro of liquidity as of August 31, 2021 .
Therefore, as of the date of approval of the consolidated financial statements by the Board of Directors, the Group considers there is no risk of going concern.
As a continuation of the rigorous measures put in place at the beginning of the pandemic, the restructuring measures of the GET program continued during Fiscal 2021 to protect margins going forward and to reinforce the Group’s agility to adapt to the new environment and seize new market opportunities.
These rigorous measures, implemented in all segments and activities to adjust on-site staff costs, as government employment measures progressively fall away, and to sustainably reduce the Selling, General and Administrative costs through the simplification of the Group structures resulted in the recognition in Other operating expenses of 153 million euro during Fiscal 2021 (see note 4.2.2 “Other operating income and expenses”).
The Group has reassessed the recoverability of its deferred tax assets. Deferred tax assets whose recoverability was determined to be uncertain in the near term, after taking into account deductible temporary differences, were written down. The deductible temporary differences and unused tax loss carryforwards (tax credits) generated during Fiscal 2021 by the related subsidiaries were not recognized as deferred tax assets. The negative impact on consolidated tax expense was 46 million euro (see note 9 “Income tax”).
