Wendel (WNDLF)
NEUTRALFundamental
43
Price
$86.55
Market Cap
$3.33B
Part 1 · What the company is worth
Overview
Wendel is a French investment holding company: it does not sell a product of its own, it buys controlling or influential stakes in other companies and manages them over long horizons, then eventually sells. It also runs a separate business managing private-market funds for outside investors — the IK Partners and Monroe Capital platforms, together overseeing about €47 billion of third-party money. Its own capital, valued at €164.2 net asset value per share at the end of 2025, is invested across roughly a dozen companies spanning testing and certification, education, professional training, engineering consulting and specialty chemicals.
How it makes money
Wendel's consolidated financial statements report the full sales of the portfolio companies it controls, not just its share of their profits, which is why its reported 2025 net sales of about €7.6 billion are dominated by Bureau Veritas, a testing and certification company Wendel controls through governance rights despite owning only about a quarter of its shares. Companies where Wendel holds influence but not control, such as Tarkett and Globeducate, are booked only as a share of profit rather than added to consolidated sales. On top of this, Wendel earns management fees from the private-fund platforms it operates for outside investors.
The case for
Buyers argue that Wendel's stock has historically traded at a discount to the sum of its stakes' market and private valuations, that a shift toward managing third-party private-fund capital diversifies income away from any single portfolio company, and that experienced, long-horizon ownership lets the underlying businesses invest without quarterly pressure.
The case against
Sellers fear that a holding company's value depends on decisions made inside businesses it does not fully own, that concentration in a handful of large stakes such as Bureau Veritas leaves little room for error in any one of them, and that the conglomerate discount can persist indefinitely rather than close.
Written by the editors, published on August 18, 2026
Direct competitors
Who this company fights with for the same customers
No editorial profile for this company yet
No competitor list for this company yet.
Balance Sheet & Liquidity
Revenue
$6.70B
Trailing 12 months to the last reported quarter — estimated from per-share metrics
Net Income
$-77M
Trailing 12 months to the last reported quarter — estimated from per-share metrics
Free Cash Flow
$-353M
Total Equity
$3.06B
Total Liabilities
$5.65B
Current Ratio
1.38
Interest Coverage
-
Debt/EBITDA
5.34
Earnings Per Share
Revenue & Net Income
Free Cash Flow
Income Breakdown
Historical statement
Margins over time
Debt over time
How heavy the debt is
Growth grid
Growth — Revenue
Fair Value Estimation
Fair Value
$130.23
Current Price
$86.55
Margin of Safety
+33.5%
Fair Value Range
$100.76 - $159.70
Estimation Methods
Valuation Metrics
P/E Ratio
-
ROE
8.0%
P/B Ratio
1.09
P/FCF
-
Gross Margin
11.6%
ROIC
9.0%
Profitability Radar
Value Creation (Economic Moat)
ROIC
9.0%
WACC
4.0%
ROIC − WACC
+5.0 pp
ROIC exceeds the cost of capital — the company is creating value for shareholders.
Fundamental Analysis Criteria
Passed (7)
- ROIC 9.0%
- P/B Ratio 1.09
- Debt/Equity ratio
- Operating Margin 12.5%
- Current Ratio
- Debt/EBITDA
- Analyst Consensus 75% Buy
Failed (8)
- Price CAGR -2.36%
- Gross Margin 11.6%
- Positive Free Cash Flow
- DCF valuation (Unknown)
- ROE -2.6%
- Revenue Growth 5Y 2.1%
- Net Margin Trend -2.0% vs 3.6%
- Piotroski F-Score 2/9
Unavailable (12)
- EPS data insufficient
- P/FCF NaN
- Dividend Payout NaN%
- CapEx intensity
- Interest Coverage
- Return on Tangible Assets
- Low reliance on intangibles
- Price below Graham Number
- Earnings Surprise (Finnhub)
- PEG Ratio (need PE > 0 and growth > 0)
- Earnings Quality (OCF/Net Income)
- Share Dilution (missing shares data)
Piotroski F-Score
Serious financial concerns
Earnings Quality
Low quality: investigate accounting
Share Dilution
Buying back shares. Shareholder friendly
Governance
Executive Team
| Name | Title | Age |
|---|---|---|
| Mr. Laurent Mignon | Group CEO & Chairman of the Executive Board | 62 |
| Mr. David Darmon | Deputy CEO & Member of Executive Board | 52 |
| Ms. Harper Mates | MD, CEO of Wendel NA & Employee Representative Member of Supervisory Board | 43 |
| Mr. Benoit Drillaud | Chief Financial Officer | 50 |
| Mr. Cyril Marie | Executive VP of Asset Management & Member of Executive Board | 51 |
| Mr. Sébastien Metzger | General Counsel | 44 |
| Ms. Christine Anglade-Pirzadeh | Director of Communications, ESG & Sustainable Development and Advisor to the Executive Board | 54 |
| Ms. Laure Delabeye | Director of Human Resources & Services | 54 |
| Mr. Jérôme Michiels | Executive Vice President | 50 |
| Mr. Nabil Bennis | Head of Valuation & Investment Strategy Performance Monitoring | 35 |
Audit Risk
5
Board Risk
6
Compensation Risk
2
Shareholder Rights Risk
7
Part 2 · The price and when to enter
This part won't tell you whether the company is worth owning: it helps you choose when to buy it, once the fundamentals have convinced you. Inside: technical analysis, potential, historical drawdowns, gamma exposure.
Latest News
Recent headlines for WNDLF, sourced from Markets Gazette.