Amadeus: stock-exchange squall

Less 16.25% in Paris, less 17.21% in Madrid: for the Amadeus share, 3 August 2000 was a black Thursday. The share dropped to 10.05 Euros in Paris and to 9.91 in Madrid, a figure which however is very superior to the introduction price at the Madrid and Barcelona Stock-Exchanges at the end of last year (5.75 Euros). The analysts explained this drop because of investors disappointment after the results of the first semester of the year 2000. If the travel booking agency, which is the main employer in Sophia Antipolis (1.300 salaried people) increased its turnover during the first semester (15.7% , 783.3 million Euros), on the contrary, its exploitation gross surplus, the Ebitda, only reached 15.8% instead of the 23% that were expected.

The profit, the firm explained, was affected by the competition lead by Sabre and Galileo on the American market, by the lost of a client (Aerolinas Argentines and by the increase of the dollar compared with the Euro. There is another explanation, the stocks dropped maybe because of the restructuring of capital, and of the contribution onto the market of a great number of stocks.