OREANDA-NEWS. August 01, 2013. Very strong revenue growth to EUR4.762bn: +13.0% like for like vs. H1 2012, led by nuclear operations

Sharp increase in EBITDA* to EUR 473m: +11.4% vs. H1 2012 (excluding OL3 insurance indemnity awarded in H1 2012)

Very significant improvement in free operating cash flow1 to - EUR 313m: + EUR 278m vs. H1 2012; positive in the 2nd quarter

Good progress on continuing cost reduction plan

Confirmation of 2013 profitability and operating cash flow targets

Positive operating income including EUR 150m provision related to the OL3 project

The AREVA Supervisory Board met under the chairmanship of Pierre Blayau, to examine the financial statements submitted by the Executive Board for the period ended June 30, 2013.

Chief Executive Officer Luc Oursel offered the following comments on these results: “The first half of 2013 confirms the strategic relevance and successful execution of Action 2016. We are on track for growth, industrial performance recovery and cost control.

Our organic growth of 13% signals a very high level of activity, despite the uncertainties of the energy markets. With growth of close to 15% in our nuclear operations alone, the group is showing that it is able to find strong growth drivers in its historical core business.

The turnaround in performance continues with significant EBITDA improvement year on year, especially in our nuclear operations, where profitability levels are clearly outpacing sales revenue.

The greater attention paid to cash generation is also bearing fruit with the group’s return to positive free operating cash flow in the second quarter and throughout the half-year period for nuclear operations.

Particular attention will be paid to risk management in the second half.

I would like to hail the progress on our savings plan: today, we have secured 85% of our objective of one billion euros in reductions by 2015.

Our outlook for 2013 in terms of profitability and cash generation is thus confirmed.

A symbol of this successful half-year period is the high level of subscriptions to the employee stock purchase plan, a sign of employees' confidence in their company's turnaround and in the growth of the nuclear and renewables markets."

* Restated for the impacts of the asset disposal plan in the first half of 2012 (+92 million euros for EBITDA and +115 million euros for free operating cash flow)