Thank you very much, and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining this conference call to present Veolia—no?

Because the line is a little bit blurred, I thought you had finished your introduction. Sir?

No? Anyway, I will go on.

I'm accompanied by Emmanuelle Menning, our CFO, to present Veolia's Q1 key figures. I will start on slide 4 by highlighting the key achievements of the first quarter.

We delivered a strong Q1: resilient growth and solid EBITDA progression, fully in line with our annual guidance in spite of a difficult environment. Our unique multi-local model has proven its value again, combining resilience with growth potential based on sustained demand for essential services, which has led to limited impact from the Middle East conflict and even future opportunities.

I will come back to that in a minute. We are continuing our strategic transformation towards international markets and technology-driven solutions with new tuck-ins in Q1.

I will also come back to innovation after our dedicated day recently held in London, as it is core to our strategy, fueling growth and efficiency targets for years to come beyond the GreenUp plan. I, of course, will fully confirm our 2026 guidance as well as our GreenUp trajectory.

These results demonstrate that Veolia's business model and strategy is robust, diversified, and well-positioned to navigate uncertainty while capturing growth opportunities in essential environmental services. Now let's look at the specific numbers for Q1 2026, and I'm on slide 5.

Revenue reached 11.4—427 million—so 11.4, sorry, billion euros, up 2.1% at constant scope and forex and excluding energy prices. This represents resilient growth in a geopolitical wait-and-see environment and very comparable to the second half of 2025.

Our EBITDA came in at 1 billion 766 million euros, up 5.1% at constant scope and forex, and up 5.8% when including tuck-in acquisitions, and I recall, without any contribution of Suez synergies that we enjoyed during the previous quarters. This performance is therefore excellent, especially in a complex macro and geopolitical environment.

Particularly noteworthy is our EBITDA margin expansion of 73 basis points year-on-year, reaching 15.5%. This margin improvement is fueled by our strategic choices and operational efficiency.

Current EBIT reached 971 million euros, up 7.2% at constant scope and forex, demonstrating strong operational leverage. Our net free cash flow improved significantly by 144 million euros compared to Q1 2025, driven by strict management of both capital expenditure and working cap requirements.

Net financial debt stood at 20 billion point 8 billion euros, which is fully under control, and these results give me strong confidence for the full year 2026. I'm now on slide 6 and wanted to recall what makes Veolia truly unique, which is our positioning that combines both resilience and growth.

We are an international environmental services leader operating in 44 countries across 5 continents, which gives us the firepower to lead in technology and innovation thanks, in particular, to our 14 R&D centers and over 5,000 patents. We rank in the top three in Europe, the Americas, Asia, and the Middle East, which gives us pricing power.

No capital employed in a single country exceeds 10% outside the US in order to de-risk the group. This is a choice.

Our customer base is diversified, roughly 50-50 between municipal and tertiary and industrial clients. Our multi-local delivery model is anchored in local communities, and means we have no impact from tariffs, no impact on margin rate from forex volatility, only translation effects, and no dependency on subsidies or government contracts.

Our long-term contracts, an average of 11 years in duration, with 70% being inflation-indexed. We estimate that 85% of our business is macro-immune, and commodities are essentially passed through in our contracts.

By the way, and in addition to what I already said, we offer a unique way of integrating solutions, combining waste, water, and energy services. This combination of growth potential and resilience is rare in today's market.

Slide 7. Given the current headlines, I want to address the Middle East situation directly.

I believe it is a perfect illustration of the multiple strengths of our business model. We can see this first with the sustained demand for essential services.

In the region, we maintain constant and direct daily connection with local authorities and clients to ensure the continuity of critical services. This includes operating desalination units, for instance, which can account for up to 95% of the water supply.

These direct contacts confirm that our partners are already preparing for the post-crisis phase and require partners like Veolia to be by their side. Furthermore, our multi-local model ensures our direct financial exposure remains very limited, with 1.3 billion euro revenue in 2025 and capital employed around 300 million in the region, which is less than 1% of the group's total.

Consequently, the local impact on Veolia has been largely neutral: only limited operational disruption like a little bit lower hazardous waste volumes, and a slowdown, or I would say more a delay, in water technology projects being signed. Regarding consequences on other geographies, we are well-protected against rising costs.

Our long-term indexed contracts cover 70% of our contracts and covers all our cost base with some lag effect. For the remaining 30%, we have proactively already put in place specific fuel surcharges when needed, particularly in the waste business, and we secured key supply.

I'm on slide 8. In a way, this crisis in the Middle East highlights the power of our unique Veolia offer and explains why it may even lead to a few opportunities.

Our proprietary solutions help secure access to water supply, which is as critical as oil, if not more, as we see now. Our solutions give access to an untapped reservoir of local energy at fixed price instead of imports.

You can imagine how important it is, and lots of people realize it. In addition to that, our solutions can contribute to securing supply chains thanks to the circular economy, and those solutions can as well depollute industrial sites and protect human health.

You understand, I'm sure, why I'm very confident about our future performance, as we have built with Veolia a unique positioning as the environmental security powerhouse, addressing critical needs for our clients. Slide 9.

Our international footprint has largely contributed to our good results in Q1. I would like to highlight the continued standout performance in our region outside of Europe, which grew by a strong 3.1% and even 5.3% at constant forex.

I would insist on the performance of the USA, which grew by 7.5% at constant forex in spite of extreme cold weather conditions, which impacted hazardous waste volumes in January and February. The demand for our services is very strong.

We also passed the main steps in the Clean Earth acquisition process, which secures the closing at midyear, as announced. The Water Technologies segment performed quite well, up 4.3%, excluding the project business lines, which was penalized, or even more like delayed in signing, by the crisis in the Middle East, and continued to deliver a remarkable EBITDA growth in this segment.

In Europe, we grew by a solid 3%, anchored by strong performance of Central and Eastern Europe, the UK, as well as Spain, all enjoying strong commercial momentum and positive weather. Finally, France and hazardous waste Europe was resilient in spite of other adverse weather conditions, which has penalized a bit waste activities.

I expect hazardous waste Europe to grow faster in the coming quarters without the Q1 disturbances. Looking now at our performance by business line on slide 10, we see resilient growth and solid EBITDA progression across all our activities.

Our stronghold activities—municipal water, solid waste, and district heating—generated 8.4 billion euro in revenue, up 2.5% at constant scope and forex and excluding energy prices. Our booster activities—Water Tech, hazardous waste, and bioenergy—generated a little bit more than 3 billion euro in revenue, up 2.2% including tuck-ins.

You have to remember again that Q1 was quite specific with negative impacts from the Iran war on the delay of signing specific projects with Water Tech, added to extreme weather events and timing effect in hazardous waste. The demand for our booster activities keeps being very strong.

If we were to exclude Water Technologies project delay, our boosters would have grown by 4.6%. The combination of stronghold and boosters now represents already 30% of our revenue, demonstrating our strategic evolution towards high-growth, high-margin activities while maintaining the stability of our core business.

Emmanuelle will give you all the details by activity in a moment. I'm now on slide 11.

Veolia continues its transformation as set up in GreenUp towards more international, more technology-driven activities, which is our boosters. We are very active in strategic portfolio management, with 8.5 billion euro of assets which will have rotated over four years.

You remember that 2025 was a pivotal year, as we successfully achieved the Suez integration, but we've also crystallized strategic moves with two major acquisitions signed or closed: first, 1.5 billion euro invested in Water Tech to enhance our combined technology portfolio capabilities. We have already extracted 1/3 of the planned 90 million synergies, which is 30 million, including 10 million euros in Q1.

Of course, $3 billion with the acquisition of Clean Earth in the US. We have obtained both the antitrust clearance and Enviri shareholders' approval on Monday, which means we are fully on track to close the deal midyear.

Both acquisitions already create value, but also will enhance the group's profile going forward. Lastly, we announced 2 billion euro of non-strategic asset divestitures in the two years following the Clean Earth closing.

Process has started with clear lists and various scenarios. We have already achieved several small and medium divestments of mature assets or not in the top three, which are some of our criteria, and we will continue pruning our portfolio.

On slide 12, I would also like to say a few words about exciting growth ambitions related to innovative offers through 2030, which we have explained in a dedicated session last April. I will start with our new offer dedicated to AI industries, covering data centers and chips manufacturing.

Those industries are in high demand to secure steady water supply for cooling systems, continuity of supply of ultra-pure water, and they use large amounts of high-quality solvents and acids. Data centers are starting to see resistance from local communities to be granted permits, given the intensity in resource consumption.

Our Data Center Resource 360 new offers help secure local acceptance and license to operate with recycled water technologies and heat recovery, as seen in our recent contract with AWS in Mississippi. We already grew very quickly in those AI industries from 150 million in 2019 to 560 million in 2025, and we are now targeting approximately 1 billion by 2030.

We have a unique set of assets and technologies to support this growth: patented technologies such as electrodeionization for ultra-pure water, ZeeWeed membrane for water recovery, without mentioning a new Taiwan-based electronic-grade sulfuric acid recovery, which is really promising, but also a worldwide installed base of hazardous waste treatment facilities. In addition, we'll soon have a presence in all 50 states of the US with the Clean Earth acquisition.

I remind you that the offer we launched in 2024 on PFAS is already very successful, and I'm very confident we will reach our ambitious 1 billion revenue by 2030. We had zero revenue in 2022, 259 in 2025, which is up 25%, and our recent acquisition of soil remediation specialists in Australia, at a very reasonable multiple, will complement nicely our comprehensive solution portfolio and offer duplication opportunities.

This innovation-driven growth are testimony of the group transformation towards more value-added offers and services as an environmental security powerhouse. On slide 13, we will also derive from digital and AI innovative tools and an increasing contribution to our efficiency plans.

In 2025, 23% of our operational efficiencies were already derived from AI and digital, and we aim at 50% by 2030. This is by scaling up AI-based tools we've already tested to maximize plant productivity, to reduce energy or chemical consumption, or to help detect leaks.

Our Talk to my Plant tool dedicated to plant maintenance operators is particularly very promising. It is a very exciting journey, and we are only on the very beginning here.

Slide 14. I just want finally to fully confirm our 2026 guidance, which is reminded fully on this slide, in particular with EBITDA to grow 5% to 6% organically, and current net income by 8% at constant forex and before PPA.

This is, of course, excluding Clean Earth. Additionally, assuming a mid-2026 closing, the Clean Earth acquisition will be accretive to current net income from 2027 before PPA.

Confirmed as well our GreenUp trajectory. This reflects our confidence in our business model and strategic execution.

Emmanuelle, the floor is yours to elaborate on Q1 results.

Thank you, Estelle, and good morning, everyone. Revenue in Q1 amounted to 11.4 billion euros, up 2.1% excluding energy prices.

Organic growth of EBITDA was 5.1%, in line with our annual guidance, which is an excellent performance as we no longer benefit from Suez synergies, and our EBITDA margin continued to increase by 73 BP to 15.5%. We continue to enjoy a strong operating leverage leading to a 7.2% progression of current EBIT.

Net free cash flow increased by 144 million euros thanks to tight capex control, and net debt landed at 20.8 billion euros, including the seasonal reversal of working cap. Forex impact on EBITDA was 33 million euros, as forecasted, due to a lower US dollar, British pound, and LatAm currencies.

Forex is moving, notably due to the crisis in the Middle East, and the final impact on 2026 EBITDA is hard to predict. It would be lower than initially expected with the current exchange rate.

We will see, but remember that, as a multi-local group with very limited international trade, forex does not impact our businesses or margin rate, and forex has a very limited impact at net income level. Moving to slide 17, you can see the revenue and EBITDA evolution by geographies.

As Estelle mentioned earlier, growth outside Europe was quite satisfactory at plus 3.1% and even plus 5.3% including tuck-ins. Most regions registered mid-single-digit growth.

USA grew by plus 5.2% and 7.5% including tuck-ins, in spite of adverse weather conditions, which impacted hazardous waste volumes in January and February, and hazardous waste in the US still grew by 5.7%. Pacific grew by plus 8.1% including the successful acquisition in Australia, which extends our leadership in hazardous waste and PFAS treatment.

Africa Middle East revenue increased by plus 4.4%, and by the way, Middle East succeeded to be up plus 2% in a complex geopolitical context. Water Technologies was quite resilient, excluding projects, and progressed by 4.2% like last year, and as a remember, 70% of our activities are recurring, corresponding to products, services, and chemicals, while 30% is more volatile by nature, what we call projects.

In Q1, projects were impacted by several booking and milestone delays due to the Middle East crisis, and we forecast this to continue in Q2. Above all, Water Technologies continue to deliver a strong EBITDA growth, fueled by our business refocusing and efficiencies as synergies.

Europe grew by 2%, excluding energy prices, fueled by favorable weather in urban heating and by good water activities. Finally, France and hazardous waste Europe were resilient.

Now let's take a look at our performance by business. I will start with water.

It represents 40% of our revenues and 50% of the group EBITDA. Water revenue was up by 2%.

Water operations benefited from good indexation in Europe and in the US, except in France due to lower electricity prices. Volumes were on a very good trend: plus 1.1% in France, 2.4% in Central Europe, 2.9% in US regulated.

As I just explained, the underlying growth of Water Technologies, excluding the timing of project delivery, remained quite strong at 4.2%. Moving to waste, representing 35% of our revenues.

Waste activities succeed to stay flat despite unhelpful macro, and are very comparable to previous quarters. Indeed, excluding external factors as weather, recyclates, or electricity prices, waste revenue was up plus 1% at constant scope and forex.

Starting with solid waste, we did not experience in Q1 any significant impact of the higher diesel cost. In terms of diesel price increase, I remind you that it's pass-through.

The group diesel purchases for the waste activity amounted last year to 280 million euros: half for municipal contracts with automatic pass-through in indexation formula with three- to six-month lag, and half for C&I clients with immediate fuel surcharge. In terms of volumes and commercial developments, performance was mixed in Europe: slight volume decrease impacted by bad weather, icy roads, and frozen waste; good incinerators availability rates; and activity continued to progress in the rest of the world.

Hazardous waste grew by plus 1.7% and plus 6% including tuck-ins. Europe was slow due to the combination of adverse weather and maintenance outage timing, with rebound planned in Q2.

Growth remained strong in the US, plus 5.4%, with average price increase of 3.6% and volume up despite unfavorable weather conditions. For Q2, we expect further price increases alongside fuel surcharge and better volumes.

The performance of last year's tuck-ins in the US, Brazil, and Japan was very good. Finally, moving on to energy, I am on slide 20.

Regarding the evolution of gas and fuel prices, I remind you that our energy business model is very strong. As we demonstrated in 2022 and 2023, it is regulated, and our margins are protected.

We can also marginally take advantage of higher electricity prices and of volatility over mid-term. For 2026, we are largely hedged in terms of gas, CO2 costs, and electricity revenue.

Energy prices were down, as expected, but to a much lesser extent than last year. Excluding the energy price impact, Q1 growth was quite good, plus 4.1%, thanks to good volumes helped by a colder winter, and with a resilient activity for the booster.

The revenue bridge on slide 21 explains the driver of our resilient growth in Q1. Forex impact amounted to minus 2.2% due to US dollar, GBP, Argentinian peso, and yen.

Scope was positive by plus 69 million euros, including hazardous waste tuck-ins. We expect the consolidation of Clean Earth in the second semester 2026, and we are pleased to have now obtained both antitrust clearance and Enviri shareholder approval.

The impact of energy prices was, as expected, more than divided by two compared to Q1 last year. Recyclate prices were almost neutral, and the weather effect amounted to plus 66 million euros due to a colder winter in Europe, partially offset by adverse weather impact for waste activities.

The contribution of commerce, volumes, and pricing was plus 1.6%. Pricing in water and waste remained sustained, contributing to plus 1.4%.

Let me walk you through the EBITDA bridge, which illustrates our strong operational performance. We experienced forex translation impact of 33 million euros.

It's important to remember that forex has no impact on our margin rate. It's purely translation effects, since our revenue and costs are in the same currency in each of our countries.

Scope effect from tuck-ins contributed positively plus 1% EBITDA increase, showing good revenue to EBITDA conversion and fueling future EBITDA growth. Energy and recycled material prices had an impact of minus 16 million euros.

Weather effect contributed positively to 1% EBITDA growth. The most impressive component is our growth and performance contribution of 5.1%.

It's break down into 62 million from net efficiency gain with a very good retention rate, thanks to action plan implemented across Europe, and we have also 10 million euros from Water Technologies synergies. The volume and commerce contribution was limited and in line with revenue.

This represents organic growth of 5.1% at constant scope and forex, which is quite good. As mentioned, we do not benefit anymore from the 1.5 contribution of the Suez synergies.

A few highlights on the efficiency gain. I am on slide 23.

We delivered 96 million euros of efficiency gain in Q1, in line with our annual target. Two important characteristics you need to consider regarding efficiency: first, efficiency was indeed a permanent lever for value creation.

It's embedded into our operation. Efficiency gain at Veolia are not discretionary cost-cutting programs, but they come from a very diversified series of initiatives in our thousands of plants.

In case of headwinds, we can, and we know how to boost efficiency program, as we demonstrated in the past by specific plans like the one we have conducted in China, in Spain, and in France. Second, digital and AI gains, which already accounted for 23% of our recurring operational efficiency in 2025, will continue to increase, and we have set an objective of 50% of digital gain in 2030.

Let's now analyze our performance below EBITDA. I am on slide 24.

Going down to current EBIT, this slide illustrates perfectly the operational leverage of our business model: 2.1% revenue growth, 5.1% EBITDA growth, and 7.2% EBIT increase. Current EBIT grew to 971 million euros at a faster pace than EBITDA.

Let me highlight amortisation and OFA, which were slightly up at constant scope and forex, and industrial capital gain provisions were stable, showing a continued strong quality of results. Now, free cash flow generation, which is key, and net financial debt.

I am on slide 25. I am satisfied with the progression of the net free cash flow of 144 million euros, which was achieved despite the seasonality of working capital, and thanks to a tight capex control.

You see a strong discipline on industrial investments at minus 860 million euros compared to more than 1 billion last year. Limited increase of taxes and financial charges linked to last year Water Technology acquisition.

Working cap reversal was close to last year. Net financial debt is therefore well under control, reaching 20.8 billion euros, and this increase of 1.1 billion is due to the seasonality of working cap and financial investment for minus 172 million euros.

Our net debt is 85% fixed, our net group liquidity is very solid, 6.7 billion, and our balance sheet, therefore, remains very strong. Both rating agency confirmed strong investment-grade rating beginning of 2026.

Before concluding, this slide reminds you of our 2026 guidance, which Estelle fully confirmed earlier: continued solid organic revenue growth excluding energy prices, EBITDA organic growth between 5% and 6%, current net income of minimum 8% at constant forex excluding Clean Earth, which we will close mid-2026, leverage ratio equal or slightly above 3 times with Clean Earth acquisition, and as usual, our dividend will grow in line with our current EPS. As you see, we are very confident for 2026.

We deliver a strong Q1, resilient growth, and solid EBITDA increase, fully in line with our annual guidance. Thank you for your attention.

Thank you, Emmanuelle, and now we are ready, Emmanuelle and myself, to take the questions you may have.

Good morning, and thank you very much for the presentation. I have two areas I wanted to dig a little deeper.

Firstly, on cost-cutting and the retention rate over this quarter was quite a bit higher than you normally guide. I just wondered how should we think about that in the context of the full year?

Then, I guess, maybe alongside that, you talked about AI increasingly becoming a proportion of the overall cost-cutting efforts, increasing in size. I just wondered, is the retention rate on the cost savings that you make on the AI side higher than that of maybe the non-AI side, just to understand if there's any dynamics there that we should understand?

Then the last one is just referring to the bridge on slide 22. If you could help us with the volumes and commerce element being a limited contribution, just what headwinds, maybe break out a little bit more the headwinds that you experienced over Q1, and how should we think about that variable over the course of the year?

Thank you very much.

Thank you for your questions. First, on cost-cutting, you're right.

It's 62 million out of 96, basically, that we've retained. Which is higher than the usual.

Don't translate it into times four for the entirety of the year. Our good target is usually between 30% and 50%, but it's fair to say in the recent quarters we've been more around the 40% to 50% than the lower part of the range.

That's a good proxy for me. With regards your second half part of first question on AI, you're not wrong, as in our AI cost-cutting is mainly on operational things, that's why I mentioned the example of AI helps us to reduce energy consumption, to help us increase the plant efficiency, and so on and so forth.

This type of gains are typically more retained than what would be, say, SG&A type of cost-cutting. You're right, the more we can retain of the cost-cutting gain, or efficiency plan, the happier we will be.

There always will be the catch, let's call it that way, because it's part of our business model with our customers. When we renew contracts, we give some productivity back to the customer, and then we find other ways of gaining productivities in the years following the renewal of the contract.

That's why there will always be some type of leakage, and of course, we try to retain the maximum possible. In terms of the second part of your question, there is no slowdown in revenue.

When you look at H2 2025 and Q1 2026, we're exactly in the similar type of range of 2.something, revenue excluding energy price. In the pluses and minuses of this quarter, in terms of commerce, commerce is very good.

No question about that. Retention of our contract, or renewal of our contracts, is very good.

On the plus side, we had a little bit of weather effects in Eastern Europe. On the minus side, we had a little bit of weather effects, on a negative side, in the US and in Europe on hazardous and waste.

You may have noted that there was two times a week or a week and a half of the eastern part of the US being totally blocked by minus 15, minus 20 degrees Celsius, type of temperature with everything being closed. Of course, that means less volume in the end, and the trucks were not even allowed to be driven into any type of roads.

That's why pluses and minuses, but nothing which looks like a slowdown. Overall is good, the demand of our services is sustained, and again, the same type of pace in revenue as we had enjoyed in the second part of last year.

May I add one more question?

Please.

It was just the other thing just from opening comments. I think that when you were talking about the conflict at the moment, just wondered how does disruption work in your business model in terms of if a certain component doesn't turn up on time, or there are some restrictions on how you operate in terms of some form of rationing?

I know that we're not at this level yet, but if these types of impacts happen, are they pass-through, or is there some exposure on that side? I didn't quite necessarily get that from when I was listening to the presentation.

When it comes to the Middle East activity, we have not seen disruption in supply chain. The thing we've seen is a few days on and off in the refineries which were nearby our sites, therefore, a little bit less activity from one day to the next.

We don't depend on very sensitive components which or chemicals which only go through or a lot of it goes through the Strait of Hormuz, if it's your question. We are very very decentralized in our supply chain, we have, of course, some centralized procurements, but we usually are more on the regional basis anyway.

Honestly, we have not seen any disruption, and I don't anticipate any disruption in the supply of everything Veolia needs to operate.

Thank you. Very clear.

We cannot hear you. The line is super blurred.

The line is blurred, we cannot hear you, so...

I think Arthur Sitbon, please go ahead.

Yes, hello. Can you hear me well?

Yes, perfectly. Please.

Great.

Apparently the only line which doesn't work well is that of the operator, which is not exactly helpful, but we'll try to go ahead anyway. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much, and thanks for taking my questions. The first one would be just on the headwind to waste organic growth that you mentioned related to bad weather in Europe in January, February, and plant outage.

I was wondering if you could quantify that negative effect on EBITDA in Q1. I was also wondering, basically, more generally speaking, how should we expect waste volumes to look later in the year?

In particular, you're mentioning a bit of a slow start in January, February. How was it looking in March and April?

I suspect you already have some indications of trends for those two months. The second question is just on what's happening in the world at the moment, which is, well, higher inflation due to the geopolitical uncertainty.

I was wondering about the sequence of events for Veolia. Is it possible that, basically, you have a slightly weaker end to 2026 because of the slower volumes and higher costs, and then a recovery or a more positive effect in 2027 with your inflation clauses that you flagged that have a little bit of a lag?

Thank you.

Thank you. I guess, I would like to highlight, by the way, some opportunities, and I will start with that.

What we discover, rediscover, or the general public realizes when it comes to the war in the Middle East is be dependent on imports is never a good idea. We rely on supply of water, otherwise nothing happens.

Everybody is super concerned by their health and that of their kids. That's exactly what Veolia offers solutions to.

In a way, in my opinion, the crisis reveals anything but the strength of the business model of Veolia and its positioning. To answer specifically your question, there is no slow start to the year in terms of volume as it when it comes to, say, economy underlying this even in waste in the first part of the year.

We haven't seen that. The only negative, again, was weather-related, as in number of days where we cannot even circulate, our customer could not, they haven't generated waste, and that was it.

Don't take it as a slowdown in or slow start to the year in terms of underlying trend, because I think that would be a mistake. The underlying trend is exactly the same as the end of last year.

That's exactly what we've seen, to answer your second part of your question, in March and April, which were exactly good when you exclude the weather effect element, which were a few days here and there, and even two weeks in the US. That's the only component.

Again, the demand is sustained, the volumes are there, and they're coming back once you can transport them, if I may. In terms of the impacts beyond the Middle East itself of the Middle East crisis on cost, if I understand your second question.

As we've demonstrated through the war in Ukraine, in a way, we have the ability to pass on the cost to protect our margin. We've demonstrated it.

There is a little bit of lag effect, but we have a little bit of positive as well in terms of commodities and things like that. That's why I can confirm fully our guidance for the year.

We will maintain our 5% to 6% EBITDA margin growth for the year.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. I'm going to play the operator, I think the next question is coming from Philippe Ourpatian from ODDO BHF.

Operator, if you can please open Philippe's line. Thank you.

No? Let's move to Olly from Deutsche Bank.

Thanks. Morning.

Two questions from me, please. One is just on the free cash flow.

There's a bit of improvement versus Q1 last year. Does this put you on track, do you think, to see a similar improvement for the full year for net free cash flow versus 2025 so we can see a bit more meaningful growth there?

Then just coming back to the inflation point. Presumably with inflation expectations where they are currently, and we could concede those continue to increase, perhaps.

If there's any benefit from that with your tariffs indexation, presumably the bulk of that would start to come through in 2027. If you could just confirm the mechanics of that again, sir, that would be very helpful.

Thank you.

Emmanuelle, on free cash flow?

Yes. Good morning, Olly.

As mentioned, we are very satisfied with the progression of free cash flow beginning of the year. As you have seen, it has increased by plus 144 million euros, and part of it come from the very strong discipline we had on capex, I mentioned it.

We spent 860 million euros when it was more than 1 billion last year. That we are very committed to have strong free cash flow generation to be able to cover our dividend.

We are fully committed, and we have a lot of action regarding that: working on the time to invoice, putting control on our capex, improving the collection. Our targets remain for the year to have a strong free cash flow to be able to cover our dividend.

As you may see, we have a very strong liquidity, 6.7 billion euros, and a very strong balance sheet for 2026.

Our aim is always to grow free cash flow on a yearly basis. We don't give guidance because there is seasonality in this in Veolia, but of course, we always try to do our best to improve the free cash flow generation of the group, which allow us then to decide where to invest.

I remind you that it's free cash flow after gross investment, by the way, which is in our hands. In terms of inflation, maybe I was not clear enough, so, Emmanuelle, do you want to have a go at that?

Fuel surcharge, maybe.

Yes. Your question, Olly, was on the impact of inflation and fuel surcharge.

As mentioned by Estelle, you know that our model is well-protected against cost increase. We have 70% of our portfolio which benefit from indexation formula, and we have 30% where we have strong pricing power and where we can do price surcharge.

Coming to the specific element on inflation, we showed in the past that our model was very strong and able to pass the cost to our clients in 2022, 2023. What we have done since the beginning of the year is to be very agile and very reactive on the 30%, specifically on the fuel surcharge.

We start beginning of March. It has been put in place.

We can have a small time lag, but it's very efficient. You may remember that in 2022, 2023, we were able, sometime, to do three to four times increase when it was necessary, it's fully put in place.

The element to have in mind is that for our municipal clients, which is 50%, we may have a time lag of three to six months, but we have put in place all our action plan, as mentioned before, to have really strong discipline on cost, to not accept automatically the increase of our supplier, to have restricted move or displacement if it's not necessary, and of course, to increase our strategic inventory when necessitated. For the 70% which is indexed, if there is a little bit of lag effect on the revenue, there could be a lag effect on our supplier in the way in our cost base, in other terms, to protect our margin.

For the fuel surcharge, it's already in place, and if we have to do two, three this year, or one will be enough, we'll see. It's already in place now as we speak.

I would like to highlight again, if I may. I said it in my speech, but the type of discussion we have with customers is not only about cost protection.

Actually, it's quite the opposite, and I just want to share this with you. It's incoming calls on can you help us with energy efficiency?

Of course, energy is higher in price, therefore, can you help me with that? It's can you help me with securing local sources of energy?

It looks like you do that, Veolia. Can you help me with that?

Because it helps. Same with circular economy.

When you recycle, it avoids importing from far away and be dependent, therefore, from the ups and downs of commodity prices. All that means, we have a lot of incoming calls of customers where, for them, the war means, "I want more of Veolia's type of services."

Starting in the Middle East, by the way, where they already are preparing for the post-war and discussing about how can we be even more resilient going forward and in terms of infrastructure, reconstruction, or depollution of sites.

Thank you.

Yes, good morning. Not Philippe Oddo, I will be more rich than I am.

Not Philippe Oddo, but Philippe Ourpatian!

Philippe Ourpatian from Oddo, even if we have the same letters as Philippe and Oddo on my versus my first and last name. Just one question, most of my questions have been already answered, concerning the divestments.

You mentioned in your slide that three operations, means the top three programs, have been already signed or being closed in the coming months, I would say. Could you just give us, as you have also mentioned that there is your plan and several scenarios are prepared, could we have the idea of what's the amount of divestments already under bracket, secured, versus the 2 billion targeted without mentioning any specific operation, but just to give us where you are exactly, '26 and '27, because I do suppose that it's already started and you have some discussions and some assets which have been already determined to be divested?

Many thanks.

A few things, thanks for your question. A few things.

We said we will divest 2 billion in the two years following the closing, we're talking about from now till mid-2028. We have plenty of time, and de-gearing our balance sheet is compatible with the time scale I just gave.

In terms of what we've already done, the criteria, I said non-top-three, things which we are number five, number six on the market, and we don't see any possibility to be up very, very quickly; mature, as in we don't see how we can grow the EBITDA or the EBIT, even with our best efforts going forward; or non-strategic, like we've done with SADE, which was an activity in construction we didn't want to go on with. That's the typical criteria.

That's typically in the criteria of what we've already signed and closed, secured. We're talking about smaller and medium objects, which are listed there: plastic in Korea, industrial cleaning in Belgium.

All together, it will be a bit in excess of 100 million, 200 million, this type of order of magnitude, if I remember well. In terms of the larger objects, I will consider them secured when they are signed, and when they will be signed, they will be announced, and you will have to wait till that date to have them secured.

I'm very confident. I'm very confident because we've done a few market testing, and we have alternatives in case, for whatever reason, one doesn't go ahead in the type of price range we were expecting.

We have plan A and plan B, if you want. We will secure this 2 billion in good condition in two years following the closing.

May I have an additional comment, because it's very interesting what you say concerning your capacity to choose some assets. In order to do 2 billions, what's going to be your, let's say, global potential of divestment?

Are we discussing about 3, 4, 5 billions? Means the bucket of or the basket of potential disposal regarding the size of your group and the numbers of subsidiary you have around the world?

Just to have an idea about where we are exactly when you mention two, you can raise your calculation on how much more than that?

We have enough headroom to be able to be very confident. That's the only thing I can say.

Those businesses, it's always is a choice. The businesses which are plan B are businesses we like, they earn money, they're a little bit less interesting than others so have no problem in selling them, but they still are good businesses, we don't have any problematic one in the list.

Therefore, I guess we have sufficient security on the achievement of this program, I can tell you.

If I may,

yes. Many thanks.

Just one element I wanted to share with you. We told you already: very clear plan, we know what we want to do, we have different scenarios allowing us to be agile.

There is no pressure on timing, because our balance sheet is very strong. We don't need to do this divestment to be able to finance Clean Earth, that's not the issue.

You may have seen that in terms of transactions delivery and execution, we have been showing an amazing track record. Not under pressure of time.

We have also shared with you before that we will divest part of the 2 billion will be business which will be divested, the other one will be and once 1/4 to 1/3 will be linked to the portfolio cleaning that we have also launched before and that we will continue. We don't need to do everything everywhere.

We have a very clear picture on where we want to go, and a very good track record in terms of execution.

Just to illustrate what we said by portfolio pruning. We said plastic in Korea.

It doesn't mean that we don't like plastic or we don't like Korea, but it looks like plastic in Korea, we were not in the top three and not being able to get in the top three. That's why we've sold it.

In terms of our industrial cleaning activities in Belgium, it was more the non-strategic criteria here. Industrial cleaning is not a priority for the group, and therefore had no ability to be duplicated anytime soon in the nearby geography, we decided to sell it.

Each time with a value-added sale, it was good sale for us. I think it gives you an idea of what Emmanuelle said by the smaller ones, which are more portfolio pruning type of activities of selling of disposal.

Many thanks. Very clear.

Thank you. I think the next question is coming from Bernstein, Thibault Dujardin?

Yes. Hello, thank you very much.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you very well.

Yes. May I ask what is the impact of the delays in terms of project in the Middle East in terms of EBITDA impact, or the order of magnitude?

Basically, Water Tech EBITDA has progressed very, very, very well in the first quarter, like it had been in the quarters before. The short answer to your question is none.

As we always said, project are lower-margin type of activities within Water Tech. It's only 25% of the business.

We like it because it fuels potential buy of membranes and stuff like that in the end. Plus, it's a positive margin still, but lower than the average.

The answer is none, roughly. Very very nice improving of the EBITDA in the first quarter in Water Tech.

Again, Water Tech excluding project was plus for plus 4.2% revenue increase, which is very nice. EBITDA increased by even more than that thanks to, again, the usual cost efficiency and so on and so forth, added to the 10 million synergies we've delivered in the first quarter, in addition to the 20 million we already had delivered for the second part of last year.

No impact is the answer.

Thank you very much.

I'm very confident, again, that it's only delays in signing, and we still have discussion with the customers about not only signing whenever they will be a bit able because the war will be a bit more under control, and we've even have specific orders like for mobile units and stuff like that in emergency type of situation in the Middle East in Water Tech, it has created even some opportunities.

is coming from Alex from Bank of America?

Hi, good morning.

Hi.

Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my question.

Two follow-ups and one question on guidance, please. The first follow-up on the weather headwinds for waste.

I don't think that was a specific item that was disclosed in the revenue bridge before, and maybe because the impact was just always much smaller than this quarter. Is that something we need to consider on a more recurring basis, given climate change around the world?

Similarly on phasing, just to expand on some of the other questions, should we not see good volumes in Q2 to catch up on the miss rounds you've had in Q1, which would then normalize in Q3? Second follow-up on disposals.

Why not perhaps rotate capital more rapidly? I think you mentioned that you had a lot of headroom beyond the 2 billion of asset disposal target.

If these assets are not top three, mature, and are non-strategic, why not also increase the pace of disposals and perhaps get money back to shareholder, or even create plenty of headroom for yourself to do some more strategic acquisition? Last question on guidance.

Given the operating leverage of the business, revenue up 2%, EBITDA plus 5%, EBIT plus 7%, is the plus 8% net income guidance not too conservative for the year, or are there any below-the-line items we need to be mindful of? Thank you.

Weather on the bridge, Emmanuelle?

Yes. Good morning, Alex.

Regarding the bridge on the column weather, we have the same methodology than before. It's just that in the past, we were not facing this type of weather condition.

You had in the past mainly in the weather column the energy impact, almost all time, and you had one or twice some effect from waste when it was the case, but it was more an exception than the rules. You were mentioning the impact of volume, you're right.

We benefit in Q1 in terms of weather from good impact on energy, we will not have that in Q2. We will not have this positive effect, but we will benefit from a form of rebound, as we'll not have, as we had in Q1, the weather impact having impact on icy road, icy waste, no project on soil remediation, we will have a form of rebound in Q2.

That's for sure, and we are starting to see that in April. Which is positive, and as we are speaking a bit on the month of April, what we could see is that we have plus and minus.

On the waste, as mentioned, we had more outage in Q1, and we'll not have that in Q2, Q3, Q4. We'll not have the negative impact of the meteo.

We may have a slight fuel surcharge or delays, but between three and the six months lag we have mentioned. On the energy side, we had the positive effect of weather that we had in Q1 are not going to be in Q2, and we may have a small impact on energy prices, as I mentioned, linked to fuel surcharge, but we have opportunities for the non-spark which has been hedged.

That we have full visibility on energy on our energy margin. On the waste business, we have part of the electricity we are hedging 85%, for the 15%, we can have a positive impact.

Also positive impact, as mentioned before by Estelle, potentially on the recyclates, notably on the plastic side. It's marginal, because you know that we have put in place back-to-back contract.

On water, we spoke already about Water Technology, timing effects on project top line. We see the good trend we have seen on water, specially in terms of pricing and in terms of volumes, we don't see any change of trend in April.

All together, April has been good, and we haven't seen any change in underlying trends. You have the ups and downs of weather, but apart from that, nothing specific.

No, it was really exceptional in waste. It never happens.

It happens once every, I don't know, five to 10 years, this type of circumstances. It was really, really exceptional, I don't anticipate that it will come again very much.

In terms of the capital allocation, yes, we have headroom. That's a question you always ask: what about we sell this and that, and then we give money back to the shareholders?

I'm really keen on, one, we still create value with those assets by increasing, thanks to our operational efficiency, thanks to everything we're doing. We are creating value.

Shall I remind that we've increased the dividends quite a lot in the last few years, and the net result by basically 12% year-on-year in the last two years, and doubled the net result in the last five years. This creates value.

We already are giving to the shareholders some elements via dividends. We have topped up that, starting last year, by a first in the history of the group, which was a share buyback to avoid the dilution program.

I guess I'm very very focusing on delivering shareholder value, but I think we do create shareholder value with the business model we have. In terms of the will we stop there, irrespective of the buying opportunity, we are doing the pruning of portfolio anyway.

The non-top-three is a strategy which was in the GreenUp plan, you may remember that. We've tried typically in the plastic in Korea I just mentioned, we've tried for two years to try to see if we could be in the top three.

We didn't succeed to be successful, therefore, we decided to sell it. That's more the way to see it.

There is an up-or-out strategy here, which we are implementing. Yes, I can confirm we are very confident about the 8% net income.

Emmanuelle, do you want to elaborate on that?

Yes, with pleasure. That when you look at our performance this year, very strong performance with the increase of EBITDA of 5.1%, as mentioned before, without the Suez synergies, meaning that we are cruising at the same pace, showing that our strategic decision to go for faster-growing and higher-margin activity is delivering results.

Down the line, we will, of course, continue to benefit from our operating leverage. We have shown that before: plus 2.1% revenue increase, plus 5.1% EBITDA increase, and plus 7.2% EBIT increase.

As you see, we keep a tight control on capex so that our DNA will not increase significantly. Our total cost of financing, which decreased slightly in 2025, will only grow in 2026 a bit, linked to the financing, for instance, of Water Tech acquisition we did last year in June.

We believe we can sustain a tax rate between 25% and 26%, meaning that we are fully confident to confirm our target in terms of current net income for the year. Thank you.

I think the next question is coming from Kepler, from Juan?

Hi, thank you. Good morning.

Can you hear me?

Yes, you can hear we very well.

Excellent. Perfect, thank you.

It's just a follow-up, as most of the questions have been already answered. I want to have more clarity on the net income guidance, because you signaled that the closing for Clean Earth is expected on June, after the two major steps, the AGM and the antitrust clearance.

Can you help us quantify the expected net income effect from the integration for 2026, as you're signaling the 8% growth is ex Clean Earth with a positive contribution from 2027? What is the expected net income effect that you expect to have from the integration of Clean Earth for '26?

Thank you.

I will refresh what we've said, in a way, which we can confirm on when we've announced the acquisition of Clean Earth, which should be assuming it's midyear. Therefore, since we publish so we can have if we were to do accounts at midyear with everything and dividend, and so on and so forth, which is not the case, it would be a different story.

Basically, given the fact that it's likely to be midyear, it means it will be accretive before PPA, the Clean Earth acquisition, from 2027, and accretive even after PPA by 20 from 2028. The PPA, we don't know yet what is going to be, we have a few uncertainties on dates, on things like PPA, we cannot give you numbers.

It will be accretive very soon, in a way, before PPA from year one, and even after PPA from year two. That's what we've announced, and we're confident we will deliver.

In terms of integration, you remember we plan over four years of synergies, we have not included any synergies in 2026. It will start in 2027.

Again, all that depends on the date and the detail of it. Of course, if we are able to manage some synergies this year, we will be very happy with it, but it is not what we've included in our business plan or what we've announced so far.

Understood. Thank you.

No longer questions on the line, maybe I will conclude. Yes?

Just to say again, thank you very much for attending this conference call. I think we're very pleased with the Q1 results, showing the strength of our strategic choices such as the booster activities, as well as our positioning, which is quite unique in essential services and critical needs.

When we talk about access to water, when we talk about access to local sources of energy, when we talk about securing supply chains, this is exactly what Veolia offers to its customers. If anything, the crisis in the Middle East reinforces the importance of our services and the demand for our services.

I'm very confident not only in confirming the guidance for this year, but in the years to come. The last point is, of course, we'll have various opportunities, myself, Emmanuelle, and the investor relations team, to see some of you in the roadshows to come, I'm sure you will have plenty of opportunities to ask detailed questions.

See you otherwise in July for H1 results. Thank you very much.