Poweo SA : Direct Energie : Cancellation of treasury shares. Customer base growth target of 10% between now and end-2014

Press Release

11 December 2013

The Board of Directors cancels treasury shares. Sales and marketing campaign stepped up.

Cancellation of treasury shares

Pursuant to the authorisation granted by the Ordinary and Extraordinary General Meeting of 9 December 2013, the Board of Directors of Direct Energie today resolved to cancel the 7,541,290 treasury shares (16.2% of the share capital) held as a result of the merger between Poweo and Direct Energie. Once this cancellation has taken place, and taking into account the subscription by warrant holders of new shares in the company, Direct Energie's share capital will amount to ?4,008,196.50, made up of 40,081,965 shares, broken down as follows:

 Double digit growth in the number of customer sites in 2014

The increase in regulated electricity prices recently announced for 2013 and 2014 confirms the favourable evolution of the regulatory framework for alternative suppliers. Together with the synergies resulting from the successfully completed merger with Poweo, this environment enables Direct Energie to pursue its strategy of acquiring new customer sites through an extensive sales and marketing campaign based on competitive, innovative electricity and gas offers.  

Strengthened by the recent launch of the "Tribu" offer, Direct Energie's range comprises five targeted offers:

• Directe: for customers seeking competitive prices with personalised support,
   
• Esprit Libre: for customers seeking a two-year fixed price, assistance services and consumption assessments,
   
• Online: for autonomous customers seeking to save whenever possible and manage their account solely online,
   
• Pur jus: for environment aware customers, a 100% green power offer at a lower price than the regulated tariff,
   
• Tribu: for the first Linky meter customers in the Lyon and Indre et Loire regions, who will be able to manage and streamline their consumption using a set of interconnected devices. 

The enhancement of the company's offers in tandem with a multi-channel sales and marketing campaign is expected to bring annual customer base growth to nearly 5% in 2013 with the acquisition of 131,000 new customer sites confirmed on the second half of the year.

In 2014, the full-year impact of the synergies generated by the merger with Poweo will boost margin growth. Following its policy of making increased business volumes conditional upon increased profitability, Direct Energie will pursue its commercial growth strategy. The group aims to grow its number of customer sites by 10% in 2014.

Next publication:

2013 full year results

Monday, 31 March 2014 after trading hours

Direct Energie, France's third-largest electricity and gas supplier, serves over one million customer sites.

After a period of deliberate stabilisation of its customer base to facilitate implementation of the operational merger, the Group has recently resumed its commercial growth strategy, underpinned by a nationwide communication campaign. By constantly developing its offers the group is able to target all consumer segments, from retail customers to large businesses.

Thanks to a competitive cost structure and the recent increases of regulated electricity prices, Direct Energie is now in a position to develop a profitable growth strategy.

The Group is also actively pursuing its industrial strategy of building power generation capacities with the goal of becoming a key player at all levels in the transition of the energy sector.

Direct Energie is a listed company on the Alternext compartment of the Euronext Paris Stock Exchange (ALDIR / FR0004191674).
www.direct-energie.com:
http://www.direct-energie.com/

Press contacts:
Image Sept
Grégoire Lucas - glucas@image7.fr:
mailto:glucas@image7.fr
Tel + 33 (0)1 53 70 74 94
Marie Artzner - martzner@image7.fr:
mailto:martzner@image7.fr
Tel + 33 (0)1 53 70 74 31 / + 33 (0)6 75 74 31 73

CM CIC Securities
Stéphanie Stahr - stephanie.stahr@cmcics.com
Tel + 33 (0)1 45 96 77 83

Institutional contacts:
Ivan Roussin:
Tel +33 (0)6 19 30 05 03
ivan.roussin@direct-energie.com:
mailto:ivan.roussin@direct-energie.com

Mathieu Behar
Tel +33 (0)6 12 48 85 85
mathieu.behar@direct-energie.com:
mailto:mathieu.behar@direct-energie.com