OVHcloud's 2026 outlook disappoints market after 1-billion-euro revenue milestone

By Leo Marchandon (Reuters) -Europe's largest cloud provider OVHcloud reported annual revenue growth of nearly 10% on Tuesday, crossing the threshold of 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) for the first time, but a weaker than expected guidance for 2026 sent its shares falling. OVHcloud's shares fell around 18% by 0842 GMT, on track for their biggest single-day drop ever if the losses hold. The company targets organic revenue growth of 5% to 7% for fiscal 2026 that started on September 1, below the 9.3% seen in 2025. The market was expecting a higher growth forecast of roughly 10%, analysts from Stifel and J.P. Morgan said. OVHcloud also targets a higher adjusted core profit (EBITDA) margin, while capital expenditures are projected to be between 30% and 32% of revenue, as it aims to strengthen its Webcloud segment. It reported revenue of 1.08 billion euros for fiscal 2025, with an EBITDA margin of 40.4%. The company also said that its French-Polish founder, Octave Klaba, had returned as CEO with immediate effect, after the board decided to merge the chairman and CEO roles. Klaba, whose family owns an over 80% stake in OVHcloud, had led it from its founding in 1999 until 2018 before becoming chairman. He replaces Benjamin Revcolevschi, who had been CEO since 2024, and will oversee operations as OVHcloud addresses rising demand for AI services and growing emphasis on cloud independence amid geopolitical shifts. The company remains committed to global expansion, citing client demand in other countries such as Canada, Singapore and India. Revenue distribution showed that Private Cloud sales grew 8.5% and contributed 62% of the group total. Public Cloud revenue rose 17.5%, accounting for 20% of sales, while Webcloud revenue increased 3.7% to make up the remaining 18%. OVHcloud serves nearly 1,200 clients and competes with U.S. heavyweights Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. While declining to comment on discussions with the European Commission, the company acknowledged a 180-million-euro tender  for cloud infrastructure the bloc had launched on October 10. "It takes time, but we're happy to see the market is moving in the right direction," Klaba said. ($1 = 0.8575 euros) (Reporting by Leo Marchandon and Mateusz Rabiega in Gdansk; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Milla Nissi-Prussak)

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