It is a key position, especially for a French company listed on the stock exchange, in a market such as that of hosting and the cloud, which has GAFAM as a competitor. On the occasion of the publication of its first quarter results, OVHcloud has just announced the appointment of Stéphanie Besnier as Chief Financial Officer. She therefore became one of the closest collaborators of President Octave Klaba and Managing Director Michel Paulin.
IPO a little over a year ago, OVHcloud had reached its historic low in October 2022 with a price reduced by 48% compared to the first day of its listing. Difficulties related to competition and the shortage of components, coupled with the war in Ukraine and the boom in energy prices, dragged the French nugget down. To raise the bar, it will be necessary to pursue the growth strategy, all adapted to a large company like OVHcloud.
From the State shareholder to OVHcloud
“Stéphanie brings us precise knowledge of the strategic financial issues and the best practices of the largest companies”, declared Michel Paulin on the announcement of the arrival of the new financial director. To join the OVHcloud adventure, she left her position as Deputy Director General of the Agence des participations de l’Etat, the public administration in charge of managing the State’s shareholding policy, in its participations (majority or not) in companies.
To explain the major financial choices to the general management of the French company, Stéphanie Besnier can count on a strong experience in finance and investment. After École Polytechnique and the Corps des Ponts et Chaussées, she began her career at BNP Paribas. From London where she worked for the French bank, she quickly ended up joining Bercy in Paris where she worked for the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
His rises in business are very rapid. For example, in 2007, after 5 years with Bercy, she returned to the private sector and to an investment team at Wendel, where in just one year she joined the position of associate director. Returning to the State in June 2021, she initially occupied the interim management of the administration in charge of the mission of the State shareholder, before joining more specifically the positions in charge of the administration. from Safran, Engie, Orange and Air France-KLM.
From this last very rewarding experience, Stéphanie Besnier has refined her knowledge of managing companies like those mentioned above, with challenges as big as those that OVHcloud expects in the future. Moreover, his previous role allowed him to be a member of audit committees, enough to have significant access to financial information and the strategy of the largest French companies in which the State owns its percentage.
On the OVHcloud server assembly lines, in Croix (Nord) © Presse-citron
Demand picks up again at OVHcloud
OVHcloud now has 33 datacenters installed on 4 continents and serves no less than 140 countries. The one that manages almost the entire value chain of the production of its machines (read here our report at the heart of the factory) announced a good start to the year 2023, where it aims for growth of between 14 and 16% , to 900 million euros in turnover.
In the first quarter, OVHcloud generated revenue of 216 million euros, up 15.4% year-on-year. According to the figures for the first quarter, sales would still have increased by 11.7%. Last year, even if the net result remained negative, the French company proved that its strategy of hosting server offers in the cloud was delivering its first results. The same goes for international deployment, while its revenues in France no longer weighed against the rest of its revenues around the world, particularly in the United States (80% growth in October 2022).
“The strong commitment of our employees and the very good fundamentals of the cloud market allow us to approach the year 2023 with a reaffirmed ambition, despite a still volatile macroeconomic environment”, commented enthusiastically Michel Paulin.
