Pluxee (PLXFP; NR, BBB+; S) Spanish start-up Cobee acquired

No surprise here; BS was flushed with net cash of €1.1b to end 1H/Feb and acquisitions down the road were well flagged. Management said it would not exceed net 2x on any M&A in CMD and we don't see any issue from S&P if it sticks to that. No price-tag disclosed but the Spanish start-up has 100k employee consumers which is ~1/3 of Pluxee. Cheap view on the €28s still valid, we flagged at Z+75 it is now at Z+84/B+124/3.8%

• Purchase of Cobee will be fully funded from existing financial resources. It is expected to be neutral to EBTIDA & FCF in year 1 before being accretive in "recurring EBITDA margin and net income" in year 2.
• Pluxee says Cobee is expected to deliver +100% yoy organic growth in FY24. Main presence is in Spain, 1500 clients & 100k employee consumers across meal vouchers, training, health & life insurance & others.
• For comparison Pluxee services 330k employee consumers and after the spin-off from Sodexo (perennially tight curve) standalone revenues are just north of €1b.

Today's pressor and ournote on M&A headroom from April.