PARIS (Reuters) - French catering, facilities management and vouchers group Sodexo said on Wednesday that its fourth-quarter would be weaker than expected due to the delayed start-up of some major contracts and so cut its full-year sales growth goal.
The world's second-biggest catering services company after Britain's Compass Group, which also said clients postponed investments in new mining projects in Latin America, Australia and Africa, said it now expects 2013/14 like-for-like sales to rise by between 2.2 percent and 2.5 percent compared with a previous forecast of 2.5-3.0 percent growth.
Sodexo made the prediction after reporting like-for-like sales growth of 2.3 percent to 13.822 billion euros (11 billion pounds) in the nine-months to May 31, a slight slowdown from 2.4 percent growth in the first half.
It however kept its forecast for 2013/14 operating profit growth of 11 percent at constant exchange rates, and for cost savings to lift its operating margin to 5.6 percent from 5.2 percent last year.
Nine-month revenue from on-site services, which make up the bulk of Sodexo's business, rose 1.7 percent like-for-like, while the vouchers business grew 14 percent, driven by strong demand in Latin America and a robust performance in Europe and Asia.
On-site services revenue rose 3.7 percent in North America, driven notably by strong demand from corporate clients and the ramp-up of new facilities management contracts with clients such as Unilever and Walt Disney World Resorts.
On-site revenue rose only 0.3 percent in Europe, where clients continued to reduce demand for catering services to cut costs, and eased 0.7 percent in the rest of the world.
This was due to a sharp slowdown in demand for remote-site services in the mining sector in Latin America, Australia and Africa, Sodexo said.
As it faces tough times in Europe, Sodexo has been focusing more on services outside its core catering business and betting on emerging markets to drive growth.
Facilities management services now represent 27 percent of revenue.
Sodexo trades at 19.55 times estimated earnings against 19.64 times for Compass.
(Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Andrew Callus)