Operating margin :
The amount remaining after all a company's operating expenses have been deducted from sales. The operating margin reflects the financial health of a company before taxes, interest expense and extraordinary items.

Price/Earnings Ratio (PER) :
The ratio between a company's share price and its forecast earnings per share for the year in progress. PER measures how expensive a stock is and enables comparisons with other stocks in the same industry.

Public offer for cash :
A transaction whereby a person or a corporation publicly offers to buy shares in another company from its shareholders, in order to acquire a controlling interest in the company. To make the offer attractive, the acquiring company offers to pay more than the market price for the target company's shares. In France, companies issuing public offers for cash must submit their offer to the Conseil des Marchés Financiers (CMF), at which point trading in the target company's shares is suspended. They also have to prepare a prospectus to be registered with the Commission des Opérations de Bourse (COB).

Public offer for shares :
As above, except that the buyer offers to swap its own shares for those in the target company, in accordance with a pre-defined ratio or parity.

Return on capital employed (ROCE) :
The ratio between operating income (or operating margin in the case of PSA Peugeot Citroën) less interest expense, taxes and income from companies accounted for by the equity method on the one hand, and the total amount of capital employed in the company on the other. ROCE is a measure of a company's profitability.

Return on investment :
A measure of the profitability of a project in relation to the amount of money invested in it. Different ratios can be used, such as internal rate of return and net present value.

Sales :
The total revenues generated by the sale of goods and/or services over a given period of time.

Share :
A certificate representing one unit of ownership in a company.

Working capital provided by operations :
The cash and cash equivalents that a company clears from operations and uses to finance its operating needs (working capital requirement), pay dividends to shareholders and finance its future growth through capital expenditure.

Working capital requirement :
The difference between capital needed in a company's ongoing operations (inventory build-up, customer credit, etc.) and income provided by operations (supplier credit, customer advances, etc.).