Bouygues S.A.

Bouygues S.A.

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Q2 FY2026 · Earnings Call TranscriptJuly 30, 2026

APIChatGPT

Operator

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the presentation of the first half 2026 results. Please note that this presentation will be recorded.

You will be able to ask questions on the phone after the presentation. [Operator Instructions] I give the floor to Olivier Roussat, who is the CEO of Bouygues Group.

Operator

Olivier Roussat

Thank you. Good morning, everyone.

This is a busy day, and so we're doing everything online to give people a chance to attend as many presentations as possible. I'll give you this presentation.

Stephane Stoll will come in at some point, and then we'll be able to take questions together with all managers of this group. We start with Page 4.

Now, let me remind you that this is a seasonal business and the performance of H1 are not representative of the annual performance, but the geopolitical environment is very uncertain and volatile. In spite of this, the group's performance on H1 has been extremely robust.

Revenue is slightly down 1.3% on a constant ForEx. The COPA is up EUR 33 million at EUR 829 million.

As we expected, the significant improvement in EQUANS' COPA more than offsets the expected declines at TF1 and Bouygues Telecom. The net income group share is significantly up compared to last year in spite of the impact for the second year running of the so-called one-off surcharge -- tax surcharge for the large companies in France.

One-off is not the case. In any case, at end 2026, the net financial debt was reduced by EUR 2 billion following the trend that we've had over the past 2 quarters.

And a few words about the Equans book-to-bill found a new momentum in Q2 with an order book historically high, up EUR 1.7 billion compared to June 2025. Equans' increased business in Q2 made it possible to catch up with a slow start in Q1.

The profitability of Equans was 5.2% in H1, up 1.2 percentage points over 1 year. And so we confirm the group's outlook for the year 2026.

Move on to Page 5 with key figures. Group's revenue in the group was EUR 26.3 billion, down 2.2%.

Let me remind you that in Q1, the decline was 3.2% over 1 year. So the Q2 made it possible to compensate for some of the loss.

In operating results, COPA was up EUR 33 million at EUR 829 million. Net income group share came to EUR 287 million, a significant improvement over the year -- over 1 year, in spite of this tax surcharge for large companies in France, which came to EUR 35 million this year.

Our net financial debt stood at EUR 6.5 billion at 30 June 2026 compared with EUR 8.5 billion at 30 June 2025. Before we move on to the examination of the various businesses, we would like to give you a presentation of the various initiatives we've been taking in the CSR front.

We have a number of challenges, the heat wave, the wildfires. So one example of what we've been doing, Colas has developed an initiative to support communities with -- to face heat waves and also floods.

It's an initiative called street adapt, and it involves management of rainwater and adjustments in urban areas, creating cooling areas. And then we've developed -- Equans developed NEMOSYS FIRE, a fire detection device that can give early warning on possible fires.

It's being used in the Gironde department, and that made it possible to detect a number of fire starts this year and therefore, call the fire brigades early on. And Bouygues Immobilier published its white paper on cooling cities and housings.

And of course, that came out in good time. I mean, it took a few weeks to write that white paper, but it came in the nick of time with the heat wave.

And so we are offering cooling solutions for buildings and entire neighborhoods in cities to adapt to the new weather conditions. And this is how we do our part in addressing climate change.

And so other than doing ordinary business, we're trying to protect territories, their inhabitants and adapt the various housing solutions to new circumstances. And then -- we'll start with the construction business on Page 10 of the presentation.

There are 2 major highlights of Q2, illustrating our ambition to extend our geographical footprint. There's one acquisition in Germany.

We acquired Frauenrath. That's a company that builds roads in Germany.

That's a first for Colas in Germany. Up until now, we had an acquisition with Colas Rail, and that was in 2022, the Hasselmann Group in 2022.

And so we're continuing that extension in that territory in Germany because we believe this is very promising for the infrastructure business. We expect revenue in Germany to stand at about EUR 1 billion for all businesses.

As things stand now, we are around -- we stand at about EUR 900 million. Bouygues Construction also made an acquisition in the U.S., the Vannoy Construction company that covers 3 states in the U.S., Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Vannoy in 2025 had a revenue of about EUR 900 million. And so that makes it possible for Bouygues Construction to take another -- gain an additional foothold on the U.S.

market. And so we can start building buildings in the U.S.

market. And that opens the way for new synergies in the U.S.

because we're looking at about EUR 5 billion in revenue, thanks to the presence of also Equans and Colas in the U.S. The order book is pretty high.

It stands at EUR 33.4 billion, up 1% over the year. The favorable effects on the scope with the integration of Vannoy were slightly offset by the negative ForEx.

Moving on to Page 12, the order book of the construction business. We should be pointed out that in 2026, the share of orders to be performed in the next 18 months was up EUR 1.3 billion compared to end June 2025.

Now needless to say, the integration of Vannoy does make a difference. Of course, it has contributed to the order book, but we did not take into account Frauenrath's order book because that will be integrated as Q3 -- as of Q3 2026.

If we look at the detail, the Colas' order book is up 2% on a constant ForEx basis, not including main disposals and acquisitions. The road business is slightly down 1% and rail is stable.

The order book for Bouygues Construction stood at EUR 17.9 billion, down -- up, sorry, 4% over the year, up 1% on 1 year on a constant exchange rate basis, not including disposals and acquisitions. It is supported by Bâtiment International, whose order book is up 32% with the integration of Vannoy and Bâtiment France, whose order book is up 12% over the year.

Conversely, Travaux Publics, Public Works is down 18%, and this is very much to do with the unfavorable basis of comparison in H1 2025. And of course, big projects are worth hundreds of million EUR.

And depending on when they start, they can make a huge difference. So the comparison basis well, does not lend itself to actual comparisons in line with previous quarters with Immobilier facing challenging times.

At end June, its order books was EUR 0.7 billion, down 11% over the year, down 5% on a constant ForEx basis and not including disposals and acquisitions. We had, of course, disposed of the Polish business in July 2025.

If you do include reservations in the order books, well, then you'll find that Bouygues Immobilier's order books is actually up 10% over that period. If you look at the sales for Q -- for H1 in H1 2026, Colas had orders worth EUR 6.5 billion.

In the road business, there's a significant slowdown in France to be expected because of the election period, especially municipal elections, but there are positive developments in various parts of the world in H1, particularly in North America, Canada and the U.S. An example is Colas through its subsidiary, Sully-Miller, got a contract worth EUR 260 million in California to repair freeway motorway.

And in Canada, the subsidiary, Miller Group got a contract worth about EUR 350 million for the Bradford Bypass motorway. The rail business, well, there were several significant contracts worth more than EUR 100 million -- several hundred million euros in the U.K.

and Morocco, so a high basis of comparison. Colas Rail's contracts are very much like Bouygues Travaux Publics.

We're looking at significant and lengthy contracts. So -- but still in Q2 in spite of this high comparison basis got new significant contracts in the rail business in Chile for the Santiago metro with about EUR 100 million.

Bouygues Construction, of course, its business is related to large projects, but that doesn't happen on a regular basis. So there are big variations from one quarter to the next.

And so there's significant fluctuations in order taking the way in which we have a layering of our order book to gain visibility. We find that there's one significant order, EUR 4.8 billion in H1.

A significant portion of that is what we call the normal course of business activities under EUR 100 million. But these are businesses where competition is toughest.

And so when there's a good growth in that type of contract, it means that the company is, of course, more competitive. So a significant portion of these contracts are run-of-the-mill contracts accounting for about 60% of all orders.

In H1, we also had several contracts worth more than EUR 100 million, in particular, in Australia for data center in the U.K. for the Lower Thames Crossing and then another contract, Jersey for hospital.

Finally, Bouygues Immobilier's sales for service buildings is at the standstill. Residential remains challenging.

Indicators, however, for land purchasing are looking good. Unit reservations in housing are up 18% over the year.

But of course, that improvement is somewhat hidden by block reservations, which will only occur later this year. So watch this space.

There's a significant contract, a data center in Australia through our subsidiary, AW Edwards. It's a contract with AirTrunk.

That contract is to be performed over a 2-year period. And so the idea is to build a data center with a capacity of 400 megawatts.

As you know, these data centers are growing bigger and bigger because the demand for cloud computing is constantly increasing. What's the revenue then of our 3 construction companies.

The overall business stands at EUR 12.4 billion, down 2% over the year, but stable on the constant scope and ForEx basis. Colas' revenue was down 4% as published and down 3% on a constant ForEx basis.

That 2% increase in the Rail business did not offset the 4% decline in the Road business. Bouygues Construction business is up.

Sales were up 2% over the year, 3% on a constant rate basis. The activity is driven by Travaux Publics, Public Works, up 14%; Bâtiment France, up 6%, but Bâtiment International is down because, of course, a number of big projects we delivered in Morocco for a big hospital and another one in Australia.

Bouygues Immobilier's revenues were down 19% over the year, down 14% on a constant scope and ForEx basis. Of course, the disposal of the Polish businesses that distorts the basis of comparison, but we believe that we've reached -- I mean, H1 was marked by a number of operations that had a positive contribution to revenue.

So that decline now is not representative of the expected performance for the year. Let's look at COPA for our construction businesses.

Again, that COPA is not representative of the annual performance. However, COPA for the construction business was at EUR 43 million, up EUR 17 million over the year, driven by a significant improvement in COPA and margin at Bouygues Construction.

If we can move on to Equans at long last. As I said earlier on, by way of introduction, we have a good momentum of book-to-bail -- book-to-bill, sorry, in Q2, as you can see on the right-hand side of this slide.

Book-to-bill was very effective in Q2. And for H1 as a whole, we have a good performance.

The order book stands at EUR 27.6 billion, up EUR 1.7 billion compared to last year. So a 7% improvement.

The order book is made up of, well, orders worth less than EUR 5 million, and that is slightly up for the year, accounting for about 65% of all orders. Orders for contracts worth more than EUR 5 million account for about 35% of orders.

So this is significantly up over the year with significant, again, orders for a number of specialty segments, including, of course, data centers. This is, of course, booming in the U.S., and it's starting in Europe.

Solar and storage is also picking up. A number of -- well, a significant item in Equans' strategy and in line with the previous quarters, we find good margins upon order taking and Equans is expecting high large orders in H2.

And that, of course, will make a significant contribution to the order book as a whole. Let's look at the results.

Revenues, sales stood at EUR 8.9 billion in H1, down 3% on a constant ForEx basis, the sales in Q2 were almost the same as in Q2 2025. So partly offsets the slow start of the year.

But we're confident while ForEx had a negative effect on revenue worth about EUR 90 million, we find that COPA at EUR 460 million was up almost EUR 100 million over the year. Margin now stands at 5.2%, up 1.2 percentage points compared to what it was a year ago.

I should note that there were a number of one-off items. Equans disposed of its electric car recharging business in the Netherlands in Q2.

And that is one of the disposals we announced. And so all the asset-based businesses are being sold off.

Regarding M&As and in line with the strategy, Equans has had 3 acquisitions -- 3 bolt-on acquisitions in H1. You have a company called SV in Italy, ASTI in Singapore, MCI Faser Power in Austria and more recently, in July in -- that's Q3 rather than H1.

We acquired CV Services in Australia. So you have 4 acquisitions were generating about EUR 210 million in sales and other acquisitions are expected in the next weeks and months.

Regarding the Equans' outlook, let me remind you that Equans is continuing its strategic project. You may remember, as was presented at Capital Markets Day back in 2023.

So 2026, we're looking at revenue stable in 2026. We're looking, at in conversion terms, 80% to 100% of COPA in cash flow before WCR.

We are improving our guidance for the annual margin, looking at 5.2%. We were initially announcing 5%, 1 year ahead of schedule compared to what we announced at the 2023 Capital Markets Day.

And finally, on the last picture, you can see that for organizational reasons, we'll be having the next Capital Markets Day on the afternoon of the day when we present our numberswe present our numbers that will be 25 February rather than 27. So this means that you'll have by then the full picture for the year.

Now if we look at Bouygues Telecom's performance, we'll start with a little video celebrating 30 years of existence. [Presentation] Okay.

Back to the figures for Bouygues Telecom. Now let's begin with the key figures in fixed telephones, thanks to its customer satisfaction and quality of service and of course, its BIG offering, our commercial momentum has continued.

The number of new clients was 116,000 in the second half year, including 69,000 in Q2, which is a record quarter or second quarter since we launched this business back in 2008. Clients with FTTH now number 4.9 million.

Now we haven't been marketing ADSL for a number of years now, but they represent a total of 88% of the total fixed line portfolio, up from 84% a year ago. That's an increase of 185,000 customers in the first half, including 96,000 in Q2.

We've been acknowledged for the quality of our network, and we are now the first operator to propose XGS-PON technology across our entire fiber-to-the-home network. This improves throughput for customers.

Fixed ABPU rose EUR 0.20 over last year to reach EUR 33.20. As you can see on Page 24, Bouygues Telecom has performed well in mobile despite the fact that this is a difficult market impacted by ongoing price pressure.

At the end of June, Bouygues Telecom has 18.8 million mobile plan customers, excluding MtoM, that's an increase of 173,000 customers in the first half year, including 82,000 in Q2. That's bigger than in the first half or the first quarter of '25, where we added 105,000 new clients.

This is because of the continued good performance of BIG announced in late '24 and of course, its impact on churn. Mobile ABPU totaled EUR 16.7, down EUR 0.60 over the last 12 months.

This is because the market is still very competitive. ABPU is penalized by the acquisition of new customers whose ABPU is low, particularly in digital plans.

Page 25, what do we get in terms of key figures? Well, sales bill to customers in the first half of '26 was stable year-on-year.

The increase in fixed lines offsets the decline in mobile. Sales were up 3% over the period, which is comprised mainly of terminals, accessories and works up 16% over the period.

These sales being nonlinear, very seasonal over the year, if you prefer, and of course, with the fluctuations that imposes. EBITDA after leases of EUR 954 million, which was stable year-on-year despite the continuing and ongoing efforts in cost control, particularly in cost of networks and FTTH.

So Bouygues Telecom is continuing to contain its costs. Current operating profit from activities totaled EUR 274 million for the first half year.

This was in line with expectations, and particularly in view of the increase in amortization -- depreciation and amortization, in line with the CapEx trend of previous years with an average amortization period of 9 years. Now the outlook for Bouygues Telecom in 2026, sales bill to customers after leases will be close to 2025 and showing moderate growth by comparison with 2023 before La Poste Telecom.

Gross capital expenditure of close to EUR 1.3 billion, excluding frequencies, confirming a decline in the peak in CapEx observed over the last 5 years. Free cash flow before working capital requirements of around EUR 600 million, excluding La Poste Telecom and before the impact of income tax surcharge.

If we were to include La Poste Telecom and this income tax surcharge, it will be around EUR 500 million. I should clarify that this outlook does not factor in the potential impacts of the proposed acquisition of SFR.

So speaking of SFR, what is the lie of the land? There's a progress report.

On the 6th of June '26, we signed alongside Orange and Free-iliad, we signed a memorandum of understanding with Altice France with a view to acquiring SFR. Now there are a lot of things need to be done from the operational point of view, those things we've already commenced, and that involved quite a lot of people.

There's the whole process of consulting the relevant employee representative bodies, which is underway. So we need the opinion of these representative bodies before we can proceed with the signing of any deal.

There's also what we call the limit or known as the long stop date, which is the 6th of December 2026. As for the competition authorities, well, the French competition authority, ADLC has begun its work -- it's the French competition authority that will be competent in this instance.

So we've already given notice of our initial intentions. We have commenced a whole process of exchange with the competition authority and indeed with the telecoms regulator.

This transaction could not be closed until the whole transaction is approved by the various authorities, particularly the ADLC, which is the competition authority, and after fulfillment of the other conditions precedent as specified in the sale contract. Given the amount of time it takes for these things to be processed by the competition authorities, we now feel that the likelihood is that this -- the deal will not be closed before late '27 or even early '28.

I propose that we now move directly on to Page 29. This is the results of TF1 as published last Friday.

Rodolphe has already commented these with Pierre-Alain commented them on Friday evening. So I'll be brief.

TF1 in the first half year maintained its viewership leadership in terms of audience, particularly among the women decision-makers under 50 and young people. Audience leadership was respectively, 33.2% and 29.8% in these 2 areas.

TF1+ has also confirmed its success with 42 [ million ] monthly streamers on average in the first half year. That's up 20% year-on-year and a record of 44 million streamers in June of this year.

Finally, TF1 has set up a new unprecedented partnership under the leadership of Rodolphe that was with Netflix. Entered in 2025 was implemented in mid-June '26 France, whereby all Netflix subscribers can view TF1 and the TF1 content on Netflix.

The idea behind this was to seek out people who do not connect via linear channels. This launch, I think, has confirmed our expectations.

This has increased the number of streamers to a record of 8.3 million on the 25th of June. This was a record high.

So a very, very promising launch. TF1's performance, I think, is a reflection of the decline in linear advertising revenue in our revenue in the first half was almost EUR 1 billion, down 6% on a like-for-like basis.

The media figure was down 11% or 7% on a like-for-like basis given the disposals of MyTele, Paris and Fleetu in 2025. This includes advertising revenue, which is down 9%.

The advertising market in linear is now impacted by the macroeconomic uncertainties. In this context, TF1 has maintained a relatively stable market share.

In digital, TF1 has continued to perform well with advertising revenue up 19% over -- year-on-year, which goes to show how attractive this platform is for advertisers as well. Studio TF1 was down 3%.

A substantial amount of Studio TF1's income comes from the supply of series for the platforms. This often takes place in the second half of the year.

Now the COPA was down year-on-year as expected, but the margin of activity was 7.8%, in line with expectations. What about the outlook for TF1 in 2026?

Well, we can confirm them. Rodolphe confirmed them last year with very limited visibility, and that's the context, but we are aiming at double-digit growth in digital, a dividend policy that will be on the rise in recent years and a margin on activities in the mid- to high single-digit margin of activities before capital gains.

That is subject to the evolution of the linear market. Let me now give the floor to Stephane Stoll, who will give you a detailed presentation of our financial statements.

I see you have your notes, so you won't need mine.

Olivier Roussat

Stéphane Stoll

Thank you, Olivier, and good morning, everybody. Just a few words by way of additional explanation on the accounts as of June 30, beginning with the income statement on Page 33.

Now without dwelling on the sales figure at COPA, which you've already commented at some length. So no very significant comment required, no real changes this half year.

But 2 things I would like to point out. The first of these concerns nonrecurring items, which are booked under other operating income and expenses.

This is not a reflection of operating activity, but these include this half year, the booking at Bouygues Telecom and to a lesser extent at Bouygues SA, the booking of expenses relating to the proposed acquisition of SFR. As you can imagine, we are spending -- have been spending quite a lot of money on fees and consulting fees, et cetera.

This also includes expenses relating to the profit sharing program at Equans, which is to a lesser extent, of course, over this period. The second comment I wanted to make is that in the first half year, we booked a tax bill of EUR 173 million, not including the additional surcharge on large companies in France, which actually totaled EUR 39 million in the first half of this year.

This is lower than in the first half of 2025, and this drop in the income tax burden was due to the fact that pretax profit at Bouygues Telecom was lower, Bouygues Telecom and at TF1. Also that the effective tax rate was not as high at Equans and Bouygues Construction.

As a result, and taking into account the EUR 35 million surtax, the group's share of net income was EUR 287 million at the end of June, up EUR 114 million by comparison with the same period last year. Moving on to the change in net debt.

That's Page 34. Our net debt at the end of June was EUR 6.5 billion, up from EUR 4.2 billion at the end of September.

Now that's an increase of EUR 2.3 billion. This is the usual variation in the first half year and is a good reflection of the seasonal aspect of our business.

It is also in line with the increase we observed over the first half of last year. The important thing to point out here is that our net debt at June 30 this year is a EUR 2 billion improvement on the figure -- same figure 12 months ago.

This is part of the continued improvement that we have been talking about for several quarters. This variation by comparison with year-end is mainly due to acquisitions net of disposals for EUR 133 million, mainly the acquisitions made by Colas, Bouygues Construction that Olivier already mentioned, but also the smaller bolt-on acquisitions made by Equans in the first half year.

Furthermore, as is customary, net debt is impacted by the payout of a dividend for a total of EUR 924 million this year, including EUR 809 million to be paid to the shareholders of Bouygues, the remainder corresponding to the -- remainder paid to shareholders in TF1 and Bouygues Telecom. We also have another item at EUR 1.3 billion, that's operations and other, which is a historically low level for the first half year, which I propose to look at in some detail in the next slide.

Let's begin with net cash flow. This was down EUR 180 million by comparison with last year.

This was mainly due to TF1 whose results for the period were down. We also have a cash out for nonrecurring items that were not provisioned at Colas and a basis for comparison in 2025, which gave rise to a number of exceptional dividends from companies accounted for by the equity methods.

Our CapEx, excluding frequencies, totaled approximately EUR 900 million. This was almost EUR 100 million lower than last year.

The fact that the CapEx is lower is because of the fact that we invested less in Bouygues Telecom as announced. Free cash flow before working capital requirements at EUR 360 million, again, lower than in the first half of '25 when it was EUR 440 million and the change in working capital requirements at every year, impacted by seasonal effects.

That said, this year, the variation was a negative EUR 1.8 billion, which is an improvement on the variation we observed last year. Also various ForEx and IFRS 9 impacts that complete this change in net debt position.

Overall, we can congratulate ourselves on the fact that quarter after quarter, we have successfully improved our working capital requirements and cash situation. Let me conclude with the group's financial structure.

Because of this improvement in our net debt, we now have a financial structure, which is, as you can see, very robust. The net gearing is 46%.

That's a 16-point improvement over a 12-month period. Subsequent to the announcement last year of the signing of a memorandum of understanding for the acquisition of SFR, subsequent to that, Moody's announced on the 16th of June that it was maintaining the stable outlook on our A3 rating.

This has been confirmed with a stable outlook. And on the 13th of June, S&P put it under a negative credit watch.

It's A- with a negative credit watch. This rating is still A-, so still good.

The group's liquidity is almost EUR 16 billion at the end of June. It's a very high level of liquidity.

This breaks down into EUR 4.2 billion in cash and EUR 11.5 billion in undrawn medium and long-term facilities, undrawn, as I said, and covenants. Finally, as you can see on the bottom right, the bar chart, the debt maturity schedule is very well spread over time.

That brings me to the end of today's financial presentation. Thank you for your attention and Olivier, I give you back the floor for the outlook.

Stéphane Stoll

Olivier Roussat

Thank you. Thank you, Stephane.

We will now wrap up this presentation by reminding you about the outlook for 2026 for the Bouygues Group. This outlook has been confirmed.

We are operating in buoyant markets. We have great diversity, geographic diversity and diversity of our business segments that enable us to develop and grow over the long term with a great sustained resilience in a very uncertain macroeconomic and geopolitical environment.

We will continue to be agile and adapt to developments in our markets. For 2026, the group is aiming at stable sales at constant exchange rates and current operating profit from activities, what we call COPA at a record high after several years of significant improvement.

The improvement of Equans COPA will offset the expected decline in the COPA of TF1 because of the higher CapEx. And we've decided to add a little sentence just to say that we will remain very vigilant regarding the consequences of the conflict in the Middle East, between Ukraine and the Middle East.

We'll see what the future holds in store, but we are going to remain very vigilant and continue to adapt. Let me now move on to Q&A.

And alongside the different -- apologies, I was too fast. My apologies.

Before moving on to questions and answers, I was going to say before we leave for holidays, I was one step ahead of myself here because of the less significance of certain quarterly results that I keep reminding you of, this is because a number of our businesses are very seasonal, in particular, Colas. And in order to be better aligned with the expectations of our stakeholders, the group has decided to change its quarterly financial reporting beginning from the publication of our results in Q1 next year.

From that date onwards and for all subsequent Q1 and Q3, our first 9 months publications, our financial reporting will focus on the following main indicators. In terms of business activity, we will talk about order intake reservations and the backlog for the Construction division and Equans.

We will also communicate on the number of new fixed and mobile subscribers, the customer base and fixed and mobile ABPU for Bouygues Telecom. And in the case of TF1, we will communicate the main audience figures as well as metrics to track growth in online content consumption.

As for financial indicators, we will be communicating the sales and net debt of the business segments and the group and the liquidity situation of TF1 and the group. These changes mean that the group's financial communication will be aligned in the future with market practice.

This time, I think I have covered indeed, we've already given you the figure for the presentation of the first 9 months. That will be the 5th of November.

And I will now, alongside my colleagues, Head of the business segments, take your questions. You have the floor.

Olivier Roussat

Mollie Witcombe

Regarding Equans, you gave us a guidance for Equans, but group-wide, I don't see much of a change. Is there a part of the risk which is lower than expected?

Second, your competitors or Equans' competitors have enjoyed significant growth with the data centers. What's stopping you from taking advantage of that trend?

And then of course, you want to -- well, to protect the image of the group, but I would like to know about that. And on the Telco business, could you give us some detail on the competition, especially for the mobile business?

I believe there were signs of an improvement, but we don't see much in terms of ABPU. So maybe some color on the telecom market in France, especially the mobile business.

Mollie Witcombe

Olivier Roussat

All right. Jérôme will take the question about Equans and then Benoit as Jérôme makes his way to the little spot on the stage where he can be seen.

He'll give you an answer about the data centers. Of course, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to take advantage of that development.

In 2025, there was a sudden boom, but then it slowed down in Europe, while business picked up in the U.S. So I'd like to, of course, surf on that wave.

And indeed, we find that data centers, that business is picking up in Europe again.

Olivier Roussat

Jerome Stubler

I think you said it all.

Jerome Stubler

Olivier Roussat

No, no, no, you're trying hard to...

Olivier Roussat

Jerome Stubler

Yes, we have a plan -- development plan for data centers, both in the U.S. and in France and new technology towards direct cooling has led to lots of design work.

But now the orders are picking up, and this will translate into revenue in the months to come.

Jerome Stubler

Olivier Roussat

And Benoit?

Olivier Roussat

Benoît Torloting

Regarding telecom business and regarding the mobile business, in particular, we're in the same position as we said earlier. The mobile market has become mature in as much as there's no growth -- volume growth on the market in France.

And so with innovations, we can extend our client base. And in terms of ABPU, you have to remember, this is a competitive environment, especially for the entry-level contracts, which are very -- with lots of price pressure.

And so because of this, our strategy for the past 18 months has been to work on convergence between -- to satisfy customers and reduce churn, and we have a lower -- significantly lower churn, and that explains the high number of Bouygues Telecom customers.

Benoît Torloting

Olivier Roussat

Stephane, sorry, you had -- there was a question about...

Olivier Roussat

Stéphane Stoll

On the first question, we noted a higher guidance for Equans in light of the performance to date. We did not upgrade the group's guidance, but that doesn't mean to say that other businesses are in trouble.

We're just being cautious. The year isn't over yet.

There's an uncertain environment. We certainly hope that there will be an improvement in H2 as well.

For now, we're simply confirm the guidance, but the Equans' improvement is not significant enough to upgrade the group's guidance.

Stéphane Stoll

Olivier Roussat

Nonetheless, we have to recognize Jérôme's at Equans. They were able to bring up the margins.

When we first presented the acquisition in 2023, a few people believed in it, but they've gone very fast indeed.

Olivier Roussat

Mathieu Robilliard

I had a couple of questions. First, on Equans and the volumes, we find that we have an improvement on the top line on sales in Q2.

I believe that there are contracts that have come into force, the other businesses. But does that reflect the fact that the selection -- the selective process that you started when you acquired Equans is behind us.

There are a few unprofitable contracts? Or does that still make a difference that might that drive down profits this -- for the year, at least for the next quarter.

Regarding M&As, there have been acquisitions in various businesses, including Equans. And on Equans, you may have -- you were more cautious in the past.

Are you prepared to make more acquisitions now because you're more confident about the business, the fundamentals or at least your understanding of Equans' growth drivers? And how does that fit in with the fact that, presumably, hopefully, you will be finalizing the deal with SFR.

How does that fit in with your debt objectives or at least your rating objectives because I can imagine that the acquisition of SFR will -- might actually bloat your debt levels. So in other words, are your moves with Equans restricted because of the SFR project?

Or do you feel you have a full leeway for acquisitions? And about the energy business, we find that the cost -- the price of oil has been going up, price of electricity, maybe not so much.

But what is your halving strategy in the telecom business in particular?

Mathieu Robilliard

Olivier Roussat

All right. Well, thank you.

I'll take the second question. You -- Jérôme will give you details.

And then in terms of hedging, not halving, the hedging we've been conducting in -- to cover -- to hedge for energy prices. And then we'll talk about electricity PPAs.

On acquisitions, we will be passing the cap around the room to collect money for the next acquisition. Only kidding.

In fact, we want to grow Colas and Equans through acquisitions, through external growth. The reason we do this is either when we want to enter a new market, for instance, in the road business in Germany, where we can't just come in from France with our trucks to gain contracts.

You have to make acquisitions. So penetration of the new market means you have to engage in M&A.

And when you -- well, when we have a denser footprint, then we can grow our business. These are the main drivers you find in terms of which govern acquisitions in Colas and Equans.

In Colas, we want to -- well, we acquired Vannoy to be present on the construction business in America. But in as much as our companies have a regular flow of profitable deals, regular level of profit margin, then we create enough value to justify acquisitions.

But for EQUANS, you remember when we acquired Equans and we met you in February 2023, we said the profit margin was 2%. We said that by 2027, it will be 5%.

You didn't believe us. And then we decided that we would consider acquisitions country by country.

Now of course, Equans has been making headway. I mean, initially, they had a pricing issue to be able to ascertain their own weight.

And Jérôme has done a fine work in climbing up and turning down a number of contracts. So you had an initial status where you were tightening the screws and then you move on to situations where you make acquisitions.

And so the first stage maybe you pass up acquisitions. Others do it instead.

So that was the sort of the dry run. But now Equans' is back on track, and it is facing possible acquisitions and others are in the pipeline, but that is part and parcel, of course, of Equans' development model.

So the acquisition of SFR will not get in the way of Bouygues' strategy as regards to Colas and Equans because these are the 2 companies that need a lot of M&As. I mean Vannoy in itself was not a very costly acquisition.

We're talking about EUR 100 million. So that was not very significant.

Nonetheless, we certainly expect to keep this power of acquisition, both for Equans and Colas.

Olivier Roussat

Jerome Stubler

Regarding the first question, Mr. Robilliard's question.

Yes, on that question as to whether in 2026, we still feel the effects of selectivity. Well, of course, there are a number of businesses we decided to phase out, and we had actually listed them, especially in Britain, Netherlands and Switzerland, there's still -- we're still being selective on a number of businesses, but we are now looking to a growth path everywhere we can do it.

Jerome Stubler

Pierre Vanstoflegatte

In terms of hedging on the energy bill because we've been working hard ever since the Ukraine situation in 2022. Yes, on hedging on energy, there are 2 aspects for industrial sites and sites where you have -- you consume electricity, gas or coal, as is the case in Poland.

So we've been hedging contracts. So about 70% of the contracts are covered by hedging provisions.

And of course, the situation in Iran had less impact than the issue of diesel oil, the cost of fuel, of course, this is -- has a major effect on us. We put us -- we have 60,000 engines around the world.

Many of them are diesel fueled. And so we had to update our markets.

We had to pass on some of the costs to our customers. But we've been working hard on that.

And of course, the market has adapted to various crises, especially public procurements, but we were able, in many cases, to renegotiate many of the deals in view of these developments.

Pierre Vanstoflegatte

Olivier Roussat

Thank you and Benoit, about Bouygues Telecom.

Olivier Roussat

Benoît Torloting

Well, the power costs -- the energy cost is mostly power costs, electricity costs in Bouygues Telecom. So we've been hedging our electricity purchases.

We have a 70% coverage -- hedge cover for 2027. And we are working hard on energy efficiency for our radio equipment so that on the radio network, which consumes a lot of electricity, we have locking features that enable us to consume less electricity, and we're working on that as well.

Benoît Torloting

Olivier Roussat

Well, thank you, Benoit.

Olivier Roussat

Nicolas Mora

I had 3 questions, starting with Colas. Can you tell us what's going on?

We have a rather more complex environment at the beginning of the year. In France, things are stable, but there are challenges in North America.

So what's the outlook, the short-term outlook? We believe we sense that the margin is under pressure.

What's being done to address all this? That's question number one.

On Vannoy construction, what's the strategy there? I mean, how do you propose to grow in the U.S.?

We're looking here at residential -- the residential housing. And on Equans, I believe you have significant provisions in a volatile context.

You said you have one-off items in Q2. Can you give us color on that?

And then a final question about data centers. Can you tell us about the group strategy?

I mean, you have the big contract at AW Edwards in Australia. Bouygues Construction was also present in Australia.

In Equans, you have a data center in the U.S. and you have some data centers showing up in Europe.

How is it working? Does the group offer an integrated solution?

And in terms of revenue, how will that translate? You're talking anywhere between EUR 800 million and EUR 1 billion.

EUR 800 million to EUR 1 billion in 3, 4 years' time. So what sort of revenue are you looking at?

Nicolas Mora

Olivier Roussat

Let's begin with Colas. I think you need to clarify 1 or 2 points because what you have said is not quite what I think you said.

I think the news is a little bit better than you're suggesting.

Olivier Roussat

Pierre Vanstoflegatte

I'm a little surprised by your question, by the way. The first half year at Colas is in line, give or take, EUR 1 million, is in line with last year, same period last year, which was a good year for Colas.

So we don't see any particular difficulty. Admittedly, the economic environment is a little turbulent, but it's business as usual.

It's always perturbed one way or another. The only impact that we referred to at the time was the volume of business in France because of the fact that it's an election year, municipal elections, in particular, these are every 5 years and the year of municipal elections is usually a poor year with a decline in 3% to 5% in terms of the volume of activity.

This is what we've observed this year. In fact, the local government budgets are somewhat poor this year than the state doesn't have a lot of money to spend on its roads this year.

But this -- we anticipated this, we've managed and I think we've diversified a number of activities to offset that. But broadly speaking, I would say our first half year was good and in line with expectations.

Pierre Vanstoflegatte

Olivier Roussat

I think in practice for roads in Colas in France, we are not giving you an outlook because 20% of Colas' business in France is not in roads. It's in what we call urgent works particularly urban construction, particularly the thermal islands I've been talking to you about.

That's about 20%, which that 20% offsets the actual decline in roads, but this is not reflected in the figures we've quoted.

Olivier Roussat

Pierre Vanstoflegatte

As for North America, Canada and the U.S.A. are 2 large countries.

The market is faring well. I think we've considerably boosted the order intake and backlog, up 18% or 19%, particularly thanks to large contracts of over EUR 200 million.

In Canada, this was the Bradford bypass. It's a greenfield project, a greenfield motorway project.

And in the U.S.A., we have on the West Coast A number of projects underway are in the pipeline. This is for the interstate motorway.

So this is a market that's performing well, a market in which we have our market share. So from my mind, the North America is a good market.

So a good buoyant market with a good level of margin.

Pierre Vanstoflegatte

Olivier Roussat

So in practice on North America roads are doing well, as Pierre has said. These are markets where the margins are good, bringing now to the way we -- Vannoy Construction.

Pierre-Eric Saint-Andre, who's the Head of Bouygues Construction, will answer you.

Olivier Roussat

Pierre-Eric Saint-Andre

Vannoy Construction. The acquisition is part of the strategic plan that we have devised, which consists in rebalancing our activities in mature countries.

And of course, the U.S.A. is the biggest construction market in the world outside of China.

So Vannoy is in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S.A. This is the region which has the highest demographic growth in recent years.

So demographic growth usually leads to economic growth, which is a good platform for us via Vannoy, which is very well positioned geographically. In Vannoy, we're mostly in the field of education, health care, retail and industry.

So we're not in the retail segment in the U.S.A. We're also in a region where we have business with Colas with Equans or potential synergy for all our businesses in this area.

So this is a good stepping stone for us in a mature market.

Pierre-Eric Saint-Andre

Olivier Roussat

Your third question concerns Equans, Stephane?

Olivier Roussat

Stéphane Stoll

First of all, if I could just answer the first part of your question concerning nonrecurring items that we've referred to. These nonrecurring items, as we said, concern the capital gain on the sale of asset-based businesses, the EV charging stations in the Netherlands.

As you no doubt will have seen, the margin in Q2 was 5.6% for Equans. So not withstanding these nonrecurring items, the recurring margin will be closer to 5.2%.

And Etienne Jacolin will answer the second part of your question. But let me reassure you that the quality of our accounts at Equans is excellent and has been certified by our statutory auditors who have not made any observations.

So the whole issue of provisions and writing back provisions in the construction business, they're standard. That's the par for the course.

Stéphane Stoll

Etienne Jacolin

Of course, booking of provisions on historical contracts, depending on how these contracts advance, then we write back provisions even if that sometimes generates a cash outflow. But there's nothing unusual about that.

Our provisioning policy for difficulties is very strict when we identify difficulties. Once the problem is solved, then we reverse the provision.

Etienne Jacolin

Olivier Roussat

And to answer your last question about the data center business. In fact, we do not have a perfectly detailed French guideline.

We operate as our companies are present. And when we are -- have a foothold in Australia, we deal through ED, Edwards when we're in Europe and France, depending on which country we're talking about, we will work with the Bouygues Construction and Equans.

Sometimes in Italy, our solutions will be led by Equans in the U.S.A., these are solutions that will be driven by Equans. So we react depending on the strength of our foothold and our various businesses in the region of question.

This is how we submit tenders and to generate the best possible synergies. Finally, in Finland, for instance, Destia is our business.

It's a mini Bouygues even if it works with -- through Colas, but Destia is our figurehead in Finland. That's how we operate in these different markets.

It's to be put it simply, in a word, we are very pragmatic about the way we approach markets.

Olivier Roussat

Eric Ravary

I have 2. First one concerns Vannoy Construction.

You mentioned an acquisition price in the region of EUR 100 million for a sales figure of EUR 874 million doesn't strike as being very high. Could you tell us about the Vannoy's margin by comparison with the rest of Bouygues Construction?

My second question concerns Bouygues Telecom. You've talked about competitive pricing in mobile.

Given the market dynamics, can we expect the ABPU margin to continue to decline in the second half year?

Eric Ravary

Olivier Roussat

On Vannoy, I said in the region of EUR 100 million, that was a real rounding off because more specifically, the purchase price was -- well, I thought we said we weren't going to give that figure. My apologies.

It's an order of magnitude. That's all we're giving in the region of EUR 100 million or so.

So roughly speaking, around the EUR 100 million mark, but we're not going into details. The margin is the normalized margin.

We have 3.5%, in line with Bouygues Construction. It's kind of border line between what we can and can't say.

I'm only a beginner here. Benoit?

Olivier Roussat

Benoît Torloting

As for the impact of the competitive pricing on ABPU in mobile phones, clearly, if the market is fiercely competitive, we can expect ABPU to decline in mobile with simple dilution. When you have a mobile customer basis, we keep getting new customers or customers losing -- leaving, I should say.

But new customers tend to be below the average quarter after quarter, this drives our ABPU, our average ABPU down.

Benoît Torloting

Abhilash Mohapatra

I just had one, please, on Equans, where, obviously, this quarter, we've seen a sort of strong improvement in your top line trend despite which obviously 1H is down 3%, you're guiding to sort of stable top line for the full year, implying you could do at least 3% revenue growth in the second half. Given everything you've told us about the strong order intakes and the fact that you're expecting more sort of projects to come through, is there any reason why top line growth next year won't be better than this sort of 3% kind of implied exit rate in H2?

Abhilash Mohapatra

Olivier Roussat

So Mr. Stephane will answer you.

We are just trying to be sure that we catch up with catch your question.

Olivier Roussat

Stéphane Stoll

So as you rightly mentioned, we are catching up in terms of revenues after a slow start in early 2026, first quarter of 2026. You've also noted that we have a very strong order intake.

Having said that, as you may know, and partly because these order intakes are linked to larger projects. There's always a time lapse between the time when we do recognize those order intakes and when those order intakes translate into revenues.

So the plan, as we confirm the guidance for Equans in 2026 with revenues, which should be stable year-on-year, excluding exchange rate effects. That's the plan.

That's the plan. And as Olivier mentioned, these order intakes have led to a very strong order book, which will translate in revenues.

Having said that, again, we look at a prudent approach to 2027 for now. The year is still not over.

And part of these order intakes are also linked to projects where revenues will crystallize in the, I would say, not the short term, but longer term, for instance, in data centers, when we secure orders together with Bouygues Construction, first of all, the shell and core aspect of the building need to be completed before revenues for mechanical, electrical and plumbing activities can accelerate. So hence, the comments we had on the revenue and the top line of Equans.

But we are confident that with this order book plus the contemplated acquisitions, we are looking midterm to a growth in the top line at Equans.

Stéphane Stoll

Olivier Roussat

And we will see you again by February 2027 to explain what's the next path for the next 3 years. We will explain you by February to give you some -- how do we handle this next 3 years.

So let's focus on 2026 for now.

Olivier Roussat

Rohit Modi

Most of my questions has been answered. I have just one follow-up from Mollie's question around group guidance.

And looking at the commentary around individual segments and the order book position right now in construction and Equans and then also on the backdrop of easier comps in telecoms, I'm just wondering why you do not expect a better 2H than 1H in terms of trends, why you have a cautious -- still a cautious stance in the 2H. If you can give key reasons for that, just the geopolitics or French elections or anything?

Rohit Modi

Olivier Roussat

Stephane?

Olivier Roussat

Stéphane Stoll

Yes, for now, we've decided to confirm the 2026 guidance at group level. You've noted indeed that the first half of the year has been -- has proven robust.

Having said that, the year is still not over, and we indeed commented on the fact that the geopolitical and economical context are quite volatile and uncertain, hence, a form of prudence, which leads us for now to confirm the guidance.

Stéphane Stoll

Olivier Roussat

When you look at the geopolitical situation right now, for example, when we look about the consequence of Strait of Hormuz, the fact is closed, there is no real impact for us right now. But in case the situation will last long, it will lead to something negative at the global impact, and we will be as all in the world with some problem in the very future.

But right now, we don't really know what will happen for this kind of situation in the next months.

Olivier Roussat

Olivier Roussat

Well, we will conclude the presentation, wishing you a happy holiday. We look forward to seeing you on November 5 for the next presentation.

Thank you, and have a good summer.