Barometer of opinion of the financial managers Deloitte – 9th edition
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Neuilly-sur-Seine, Wednesday, may 24, 2017
According to the latest european study of Deloitte devoted to financial managers, they bear witness to a great optimism and an appetite strengthened for the risk. The study also highlights the emphasis on development strategies for the investment and hiring. For this new edition of the barometer of opinion of the chief financial officers, Deloitte has compiled and analyzed the feedback collected by its 19 european entities, with 1 580 financial managers.
In France :
Chief financial officers are more optimistic (37%) than it was six months (23%)
This is illustrated by the increase in the expected revenue : this revenue would be in growth or strong growth for 68% of the respondents (57% in Q3 2016)
This rebound in optimism leads to an increase of investment prospects over the coming year (50% in Q1 2017 versus 36% in Q3 2016)
And growth of anticipated activity, 31% in Q3 2016 to 37% in Q1 2017
Optimism and outcome perspective : the French lined up on Europe
Trend, already highlighted by the previous edition of the barometer of the mood of chief financial officers (November 2016), the optimism is more still in the first quarter of 2017 in France. Neutral in the face of the economic situation a year ago, respondents are now 37% say optimistic or very optimistic about the current situation. Now equal to the european average (38%), this optimism marks a recovery in the hexagon. However, even if some financial managers, the French are less pessimistic (13% in Q1 2017 to 24% in Q3 2016), they are still a little more than their belgian neighbors (8%) and germans (11%).
In regards to the outlook of results in Europe, 69% of respondents expect that their turnover will increase over the next twelve months, as well as in France (68%). A new elbow-to-elbow with their european peers, the chief financial officers, the French anticipate, like them, a positive dynamic in the next twelve months. France supplanted the United Kingdom, where financial managers are 62% expect to increase their turnover.
However, even more optimistic, 63% of chief financial officers French state that the level of uncertainty that they face is high (67% in the third quarter of 2016). In Europe, this feeling is the strongest in the United Kingdom and Germany, countries in which the trend even amounts to 85% of the respondents. In the euro zone, in general, the uncertainty remains the majority in the chief financial officers (61%).
Appetite constant of the CFO in france for the risk …
33% of financial managers in europe think that the current period is appropriate for the risk taken on their balance sheet. This is a trend that reinforces itself, since this percentage was 28% six months ago. In front of their German counterparts (26%) and English (26%), financial managers French are proof of going to and dare : more than a third of them considers that the period is favorable for risk-taking (35%).
… that encourage investment and hiring
And the opportunities for investment and hiring will suffer ! The financial managers, the French demonstrate a real will in the matter. They are 50% to qualify the investment prospects of increasing or strongly increasing over the next twelve months (versus 34% in Q3 2016), when they are 37% to have the same return as for the new hires.
“Even if it is still not reflected in the margins, we can consider that the optimism expressed by finance directors in French is embodied in their employment prospects and investment. Far from letting go of the uncertainty, they act in behalf of the future, placing themselves among the financial managers, the most turned to the future of the european Union,” said Anne Philipona-Hintzy, partner in charge of the CFO in areas at Deloitte.
More generally, in Europe, 40 percent of cfos believe that their company should be able to increase its capital expenditures over the next 12 months (32% in the third quarter of 2016). In the United Kingdom, officials are less optimistic about their future spending : only 18% of them expect an increase.
Furthermore, 34% of cfos consider it likely that their business increases the effective employee in the course of the coming year (32% in the third quarter of 2016). While the United Kingdom has the lowest share of optimistic (12% of CFOS british expect that hiring will strengthen) the country brand, all the same, an increase (9% in the last quarter of 2016).
European Union : financial managers diverge
The study reveals that they are 33% consider that it is likely that another country to leave the European Union in the next five years.
When it comes to going back on the measures which would be favourable to the success of the European Union, they are 47% saying that they would prefer an approach that is multi-speed, with a closer integration of some member States, and 38% to promote the enhancement of the integration for all. On this subject, the opposition north/south is obvious. The accession to european integration is strongest in Greece (80%), Spain (68%) and Portugal (66%) when the multi-speed Europe is approved by the chief financial officers germany (69%), belgium (65%), swiss, Dutch and austrians (57%).
“The recent political changes and elections in Europe have increased uncertainty in the FOS, without that it will not prosecute for all their optimism. The increase of this optimism is actually based on the strengthening of european growth”, explains Jean-Paul Betbèze, Economic Advisor to Deloitte. “The warm spell experienced by Europe began in the last quarter of 2016 and has been given a boost in early 2017 by a number of economic indicators that suggest a real resilience in the face of political uncertainty”.
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