Veolia Environnement SA

Veolia Environnement SA

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Q4 FY2025 · Earnings Call TranscriptFebruary 26, 2026

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to Veolia Annual Results 2025 Conference Call with Estelle Brachlianoff, CEO, and Emmanuelle Menning, CFO, and also Daniel Tugues, Country Director of Spain. At this time all lines are in listen-only mode.

Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press star zero for the operator.

This call is being recorded today, Thursday, February 26, 2026. I would now like to turn the conference over to Ms.

Estelle Brachlianoff. Please go ahead.

Estelle Brachlianoff

Thank you and good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining this conference call to present Veolia's 2025 results.

I'm accompanied by Emmanuelle Menning, our CFO, and by Daniel Tugues, Head of Spain. I'm on slide 4.

2025 was the second year of our four-year GreenUp plan, and I consider it as a truly pivotal year in our trajectory, and I will tell you how. 2025 was another year of outperformance and historical high.

We exceeded our guidance with an organic EBITDA growth of plus 6.3%, above the target range of 5 to 6%, despite a complex environment, and with a particularly robust fourth quarter. In the two years since the start of GreenUp, we have significantly improved our profitability with an increase of 150 bp in our EBITDA margin, and plus 11.8% average annual growth of current net income.

The first half of GreenUp is a real success, and we are fully in line with our trajectory, even ahead when it comes to our ROCE at 9.4% after tax at the end of 2025. This is two years in advance of our target.

In 2025, above all, we resolutely resumed external growth, with two major multi-billion-dollar acquisitions in water technologies and hazardous waste, two of our growth boosters, accelerating therefore the group's transformation towards more international and technology-driven businesses, and enhancing the group's growth profile for the years to come. We have also enhanced our shareholder return in 2025, as we complemented our dividend policy with a multi-year share buyback program related to our employee shareholder plan.

The excellent 2025 result, as well as our strong fundamentals, allow us to be very confident for 2026, with an ambitious guidance and full confirmation of our GreenUp trajectory, building a stronger group going forward. I'm now on page 5, where you see that 2025 results are at a historical high and largely exceed our initial objectives.

Revenue reached €44.4 billion, up 2.8%, excluding energy price, which are essentially pass-through for us, as you know. EBITDA increased by a substantial 6.3% on a like-for-like basis, above our 5 to 6% guidance range, and shows a margin improvement of 70 basis points, above plus 80 basis points in 2024.

We are now at the historical high of 15.9% EBITDA margin rate in Veolia. This is thanks to our continued performance improvement and recurring efficiency gains, with an enhanced performance outside Europe, where EBITDA jumped by plus 9.3%, complemented by the last synergies coming from the Suez acquisition four years ago.

Current net income was up plus 9.1%, in line with our guidance and demonstrating our strong operating leverage. Net financial debt remains well under control at €19.7 billion, even after €2.3 billion of net financial acquisitions closed in 2025.

Our leverage ratio is at 2.79 times at the end of 2025, well below three times, testimony to our strong financial discipline and our capacity to have room for maneuver in the future. Finally, we reached our ROCE targets two years in advance and achieved a remarkable 9.4% after-tax ROCE in 2025.

Page 6 illustrates our enhanced growth in international markets, notably outside Europe, where our businesses are not only faster growing but also more profitable, with an EBITDA margin already at 17.8%, which is better than the 15.9%, nevertheless historical high for the group as a whole. Our revenue grew by 4.1% organically outside Europe, with excellent performances in Latin America, Africa and the Middle East, notably.

Emmanuelle will detail each of the performance in a minute, but I would like here to highlight a few key commercial successes. In the Middle East, after years in the making and technical design, we were awarded, and we've just signed a few days ago, a $500 million project in Saudi Arabia for the Saudi Aramco-TotalEnergies consortium SATORP.

We will design, build and operate a massive new plant to treat the super-complex effluent of this petrochemical site. In the U.S., in addition to a strategic acquisition of Clean Earth, which we expect to close mid-2026, our biggest and most transformative acquisition is the merger with Suez, as you know.

We've complemented the strong organic growth with three tuck-in in hazardous waste, which are high-value creative. In Chile, we signed the first hybrid municipal industrial decentralization plant in Valparaiso.

In India, we secured two strategic contracts for two of Mumbai's larger water treatment plants. Both facilities will use Veolia cutting-edge technologies.

Finally, in Europe, we also enjoyed a very encouraging commercial momentum. Page 7 shows our performance split by activities.

On the one hand, our booster activities, which is water technologies, as well as waste and bioenergies, have continued to grow at a steady pace in 2025, plus 4.3% organic and plus 8% including tuck-ins, almost two times faster than Strongall. Strongall, on the other hand, confirmed their resilience and infrastructure-like profile with a 2.2% growth.

As Strongall and boosters go hand in hand, with 30% of our revenue coming from a combination of activities. Those numbers are confirmation of the sustained demand for our proprietary solutions to tackle critical needs, from securing water supply to treating pollution and protecting health.

This top-line performance translates well into value creation, with EBITDA up 4.8% for Strongall and jumping by 12.1% for boosters. Emmanuelle will give you all the details in a few moments.

2025 was also the year of the successful launch of new technology and offers. I would like to give you two examples on slide 8.

First, in PFAS treatment, which, as is a fast-growing and very promising business opportunity for Veolia. We achieved €259 million of revenue in PFAS in 2025, which is up 25%, versus zero in 2022.

As we aim to reach €1 billion by 2030. In 2025, we developed BeyondPFAS, our end-to-end management solution from detection to disposal, combining water technology and hazardous waste and including our Drop-Fast proprietary technology to optimize HTI disposal.

We already provide PFAS treatment in the U.S., in France and in Australia, and we have already deployed 30 PFAS removal units in our U.S. water operations and plan an extra 50.

In the area of new urban energy, we presented our new eco-thermal grid offer in Poznanń last November. It's a truly green heating and cooling solution for existing and greenfield networks, using untapped local sources of energy, which is really unique at Veolia.

We target €350 million extra revenue in 2030. We actually already have a pipeline of one billion pounds sterling of projects in the UK as part of the deployment of our new EcoThermal Grid offering.

I'm very pleased we were recently awarded the first in this UK pipeline with flagship scientific Wellcome Genome Campus in Cambridge. I'm now on slide nine.

In two years, the delivery of the GreenUP plan, combining resilience and growth, was above our own expectations, both in terms of growth performance and strategic transformation. This in spite of a complex economic and political context, which impacted foreign exchange rates, fiscal stability and production costs, notably energy costs.

These first two years were indeed marked by a strong improvement in our profitability and value creation, with an average annual 11.8% growth in current net income group share between '23 and '25, combined with the spectacular improvement of our ROCE post-tax to a record high 9.4% in '25. Our performance during these first two years was also augmented by the completion of Suez Energy plan, which evidenced our capacity to boost the performance of the businesses we integrate.

On slide 10, given our very strong '25 results, the board will propose to the AGM a dividend of 1.5 euro per share, up 7% versus '24 and 20% since '23 and in line with our EPS growth. Since the start of GreenUP, as I mentioned in the beginning, we have also enhanced our shareholder return as we complemented our dividend policy with a multi-year share buyback program in order to offset the impact of our employee shareholding program.

This represented 402 million euro in 2025. 2025 was a pivotal year in many ways.

I'm on slide 11. First, 2025 was the last year of Suez integration.

We successfully completed our integration plan with 534 million euro of synergies delivered in four years, above our initial target of 500 million. This clearly demonstrates our track record in securing delivery of value creation when it comes to external growth.

We'll of course apply those skills to the Clean Earths acquisition. Moreover, 2025 has also been the year where we've crystallized strategic moves consistent with our GreenUP strategy: investing in priority in highly innovative and technology-driven activities, our boosters, and outside Europe.

Two major acquisitions were signed or closed in '25, creating value and enhancing the group's growth profile going forwards. This began in the spring with 1.5 billion euro invested in water technologies to buy out the minority interest and to fully merge our entities and be in a position to extract 90 million euro of additional synergies and enhance our growth capabilities on a worldwide dynamic market.

We then accelerated external growth in Hazes Waste, first with several tuck-ins for a total amount of almost 370 million euro in the U.S., in Japan and in Brazil, and finally with a strategic acquisition of Clean Earths in the U.S. This three billion dollar acquisition, the largest since Suez, will allow us to double our size in Hazes Waste in the U.S., positioning us as number two.

Veolia will strengthen its presence in the U.S. altogether, with more than six billion dollar turnover and a very strong position to deliver unique solutions and technologies to remove pollutants, to secure water supply and support reshoring of strategic industries.

The complementary of Clean Earths and Veolia's asset in the U.S. will enable us to extract significant synergies of 120 million dollars and will be accretive from 2027, excluding PPA, assuming a closing mid-year 26.

On slide 12, we've illustrated the accelerated portfolio transformation underway, with eight billion euro of asset rotation in four years towards a group that is stronger, more international and more technology-rich. This transformation enhances our sustained growth profile and will create additional value for many years to come.

We started GreenUP with a divestment program of around a billion euro, including the disposal of our French construction activity and the non-duplicable surface recovery generation activity, Regen. In '25, we will have crystallized major acquisitions in our boosters, specifically in water tech and with Clean Earths, to close in 26.

We will divest an additional two billion euro in the two years post-closing of Clean Earths. The typical candidates for disposal are assets that are mature, non-strategic or undercritical in size.

I would like to highlight the fact that these divestitures are not for financing purposes, as we'll finance Clean Earths on our balance sheet and recover a three times leverage as soon as 27, but rather in order to keep flexibility for investment in faster-growing activities or geographies. Acquisitions net of disposal will present a committed net financial investment of 2.5 billion euro compared to the 2 billion euro initially envisaged for GreenUP.

Before we move to our guidance for 26, I would like on slide 13 to emphasize the group's sustainable growth engine, which explains how we could be confident about our future performance. The demand for our services has never been stronger, and it is here to stay while the crisis may.

Because the proprietary solutions Veolia provides are answers to critical needs for industries and cities alike. Indeed, our customers, businesses and communities, are facing growing challenges in terms of water scarcity, water quality, pollution control, supply chain interruption, and a growing determination to achieve strategic independence and accelerate industrial reshoring.

In short, for cities to deliver essential services, for industries to produce, for economies to grow, one thing is non-negotiable: this is environmental security, securing water, securing energy, securing supply chains, protecting health. We secure water supply to cities by leveraging our unique panel of technologies, our efficient network distribution using AI, by recycling wastewater and running energy-efficient desalination plants.

We secure closed supply chain for industries by mining waste or waste heat to secure local sources of energy or critical minerals, thus avoiding dependence on long-distance imports. We protect health with hazardous waste management and depollution, ensuring that drinking water is at the highest standard and securing the license to operate for strategic industries such as micro-E or pharma.

Whatever the turbulence in the world, Veolia's mission and unique offer is therefore to keep vital resources available, reliable, and affordable to enhance strategic autonomy and to take advantage of sustained demand for our services and technology. On slide 14, I would like now to share how Veolia is uniquely positioned to benefit from this sustained demand, as we have built a unique powerhouse for environmental security.

Our worldwide leadership and presence in 44 countries, always in the top three, gives us the size to innovate and develop unique technologies through our 14 R&D centers. As you may remember, we hold more than 4,400 patents in water treatment, for instance.

Our proprietary solutions are then locally delivered and tailor-made to fit each community or industrial complex's specific needs. We are really multi-local in our delivery, which explains why we are not affected by tariffs and why forex does not impact our margin rate, and central government are not central to us.

In addition, our customer base is really varied: 50% from municipalities or public authorities, 50% from private customers, and wide-ranging, from retail and hospitals to microelectronics, pharma, or oil and gas. This variety is combined with a long duration of our contracts: 11 years on average, a high net promoter score, which ensures a renewal rate of over 90%, and with no one single contract representing more than a small percentage of the group revenue.

This offers massive resilience in our performance. Finally, we provide a unique combination of waste, water, and energy solutions.

That's our edge. It's already delivering: one-third of the group's new wins from these combinations.

Veolia has really transformed into a unique global powerhouse for environmental security, organized to grow and innovate, while ensuring resilience and long-term performance in an uncertain world. This sustained demand and unique positioning gives me high confidence for the years to come, as the group has never been stronger.

I'm on slide 15. The green-up trajectory is fully confirmed.

I would like to highlight why our organic EBITDA and net results growth are sustainable for the years to come. Because they are fueled by top-line growth, supported by sustained demand for critical services, boosted performance in certain activities, notably hazardous waste and water technologies, superior and continued effort on efficiency and cost control, as well as an ability to react quickly and strongly when needed with specific action plans, as we will see in a minute with Spain, and a good track record in successfully integrating companies, when we complement organic with external growth.

For 2026, we have very ambitious targets on an organic basis, which will be complemented by the Clean Earth acquisition when we close the deal. On a standalone basis, we expect a continued solid organic revenue growth, excluding energy price, an organic EBITDA growth of 5 to 6%, and I would like to highlight this is without Suez synergies, since they are now behind us, a current net income growth of at least plus 8% at constant forex, the dividend will continue to grow in line with current EPS, and our leverage ratio will be below or equal three times before Clean Earth, and after Clean Earth equal or slightly above three times.

As we would consolidate Clean Earth for only part of the year, and we'll be back to three times, or below three times, in 2027. As we have to go through various regulatory approvals before we close the Clean Earth acquisition, which we said will be accretive from year two in current EPS.

Assuming the closing happens mid-2026, which is the best assumption we can do now, this would mean synergies will start in 2027, and the transaction will be accretive to current net income from 2027 before PPA. The two billion euro disposal program should be delivered in the two years post-closing of Clean Earth acquisition.

Before Emmanuelle details our 2025 results, I will hand over to Daniel Tugues, head of Spain. He will give you some color about how we can drive performance improvement and sustained margin increase as well as top-line growth in what is a historical activity and typically a stronghold for us, thanks to our agility.

Daniel, the floor is yours.

Daniel Tugues

Thank you, Estelle, and good morning, everyone. I'm Daniel Tugues, country head for Spain.

I'm very happy to be here today to present Veolia's 2025 results and illustrate our green-up execution with a focus on our activities in Spain over the past two years. As Estelle just mentioned, Veolia is unique because we are an environmental security powerhouse, and this is highly relevant in Spain, where climate change and the scarcity of resources, notably water, are central to our citizens' concerns.

Indeed, 70% of Spanish people believe that they are vulnerable to the effects of climate change, which are already happening in Spain. Citizens feel vulnerable, and I'm of the opinion they are right.

75% of our land is threatened by desertification. We just went through the worst drought on record, which ended last spring, and it is going to get worse, with 20% less precipitation expected by 2050.

As it is recognized, these impacts could prove far more costly than the capital expenditure required for adaptation. This is precisely what Veolia is doing in Spain: driving ecological transformation by providing efficient water networks and reuse solutions, by securing supply chains for industries, providing them with local energy, and by protecting health with waste management and depollution.

Given this geography, it is no accident that we developed innovative solutions early on, such as wastewater reuse, which already accounts for 15% of our water supply and growing, and other non-conventional resources, such as desalination. To illustrate the point, during the past drought, the water coming out of the tap in Barcelona was sourced one-third from traditional sources, rivers and wells, one-third from desalination, and one-third from water reuse.

We have shared this experience with our Veolia colleagues, first with our French colleagues across the Pyrenees, and also with our American teams, who are very much looking forward to deploying those solutions in their countries. Veolia is strongly positioned to tackle Spain's critical needs.

Spain is the fourth largest country of operations for Veolia, with 2.8 billion euros in revenues, or 3 billion if we include the activities of our specialized business units for water technologies and hazardous waste. Our presence has grown significantly since 2022 with the integration of Suez and notably Aguas de Barcelona.

The defining feature of our presence in Spain is our strong local footprint, deeply embedded across territories and communities. Starting with water, which represents 70% of our revenue.

In a nutshell, Veolia is the number one water provider in the country. Locally anchored and positioned across the complete water cycle management, from production and distribution of drinking water to the collection and treatment of wastewater.

We run long-term concessions, such as Aguas de Barcelona, Aguas de Murcia, Aguas de Alicante and many others, and we are also active in water technologies and operate several industrial wastewater treatment plants and desalination facilities, such as those in Tenerife and Almeria. In energy, Veolia is the number one in building energy services and also leader in energy efficiency.

Examples include EcoEnergies, the Barcelona district heating and cooling network using residual energies, and energy efficiency projects for sites like Hospital Reina Sofia in Cordoba and many other similar sites around the country. In waste, we provide circular economy solutions for municipalities and industrial clients, notably in plastic recycling, waste-to-energy, and hazardous waste, the latter including a high-temperature incinerator near Tarragona.

Our strategy going forward is not only to continue developing those businesses and enhance profitability, but also to constantly innovate as one Veolia, especially given the strong demand for treating new pollutants, for more circular solutions, and for new sources of local energy from waste or wastewater. On a personal level, having spent many years focused on water, I can say that the One Veolia approach fits like a tremendous opportunity to me.

As for the whole of Veolia, 2025 has been a pivotal year for Spain, and I would like to show you how we have been able to recover while improving our profitability over the past two years, since the launch of GreenUp. Given the underwhelming performance we faced in 2022 and 2023, notably in water concessions, we decided to launch a specific action plan mid-2023, called Hunter, associated with specific objectives and incentives for managers, not only at the national level, but also at the regional one.

I must say that Hunter benefited a lot by leveraging Veolia's performance culture and tools in our Spanish operations, including internal benchmarking on operational costs and KPIs, as well as a proven methodology. To boost the top line, we launched a tariff campaign to catch up with costs in water concessions, with a tailor-made approach for each of our more than 1,000 contracts.

In parallel, we deployed a commercial excellence program to hands over offers. We also complemented our organic growth with 13 tuck-ins, mainly in energy efficiency, which were highly value-creative, as they are actually plug and play.

Over two years, this represented 87 million in enterprise value bought at an average multiple of 7.4 times EBITDA. In terms of operational performance, we largely improved our efficiency, not least with AI.

For instance, we put in place an AI customer service tool across Spain that currently deals with more than 1,000 daily transactions, improving availability of our customer service, omnichannel 24/7, no waiting, while at the same time saving nearly one million euros. Those efficiency measures were complemented by the synergies delivered from the Suez integration.

All in all, Spain delivered 109 million in efficiencies plus synergies from 2023 to 2025. All that resulted in a very significant improvement of our growth and performance.

In two years, revenue has grown by 12% and EBITDA by no less than 40%. We are very proud of these results, as we are even ahead of our plan for Spain's performance.

This is not the end of the journey, as I am focused on continuing to deliver sustainable and profitable growth for Veolia. Demand for all our services in the country is strong, and the power of one Veolia offers many possibilities for combining our diverse expertise to secure essential services.

Thank you for your attention, and I will now hand over to Emmanuelle.

Emmanuelle Menning

Thank you, Estelle, thank you, Daniel, and good morning, everyone. Veolia 2025 results are very strong, perfectly aligned with our GreenUp trajectory and above our initial guidance, and that on many grounds.

First, growth: we continue to deliver solid growth thanks to strong underlying business trends, ensured by boosters, which progressed by 4.6% and even 8% if we consider tuck-ins. Second, performance: in the first two years of GreenUp, we considerably improved our profitability, driven by strong intrinsic growth and synergies, leading in 2025 to an EBITDA organic growth of 6.3% and to a very strong improvement of 70 bp of our EBITDA margin, in 16%, which reflects the success of our strategic choices.

We maintain a robust operational leverage, enabling us to grow current net income at a faster pace. Third, capital allocation: while we resume external growth in 2025, we maintain a very strong balance sheet, with a leverage ratio below three times at year-end, thanks to our strong free cash flow.

Finally, value creation: the successful GreenUp execution led to an outstanding ROCE, which is the best measurement of our value creation, at 9.4%, which was our objective for 2027: so delivered three years in advance. With 34.4 billion euros in revenue, we experienced a solid growth of 2.8%.

The operating leverage and the delivery of efficiencies and synergies were excellent, and resulted in solid organic EBITDA growth of 6.6%, above guidance, current EBIT growth of 8.9%, current net income growth of 9.1%, with underlying higher growth, even higher if we restate for last year, said capital gain. Net financial debt reached 19.7 billion euros.

The leverage ratio reached 2.79 times, below three times as expected. Forex impact was significant, as announced, due to lower U.S.

dollar and Latin currency. This reflects the improved performance of our international activities, which is increasing value creation.

As as a multi-local group with very limited international trade, forex has very limited impact on margin rate and on net income level. Moving to slide 23, you can see the revenue and EBITDA evolution by geography.

The main features in 2025 was the enhancements of our growth outside Europe and the superior growth of EBITDA in both outside Europe and water tech segments. In Q4, EBITDA growth accelerated as announced at the end of Q3, thanks to the benefit of our action plan in France and the good performance of water tech.

I will start with water technology, for which 70% of our activities are recurring, corresponding to products, mobile unit and chemicals, while 30% is more volatile by nature, what we call projects. In 2025, and especially in the first nine months, project revenue was impacted by the timing of milestone delivery and a strong comparison basis versus last year.

As we announced in Q3, Water Tech revenue rebounded in Q4 and grew by 3.6% for the full year, excluding projects, by 4.6%. Operational performance was excellent, with EBITDA growth of 14%.

America, Africa, Middle East and APAC performed well in 2025, with revenue growth of 4.1% and EBITDA growth of 9.3%. Europe grew by 3.3%.

Finally, France and hazardous waste Europe revenue was flat, but EBITDA increased by a significant 6.6%, thanks to good hazardous waste performance, efficiency action in solid waste and resilient water activity. Now let's take a look at our performance by businesses.

Very solid revenue growth in our strongholds, which proved themselves very resilient, with very high margins and capacity to continue increasing EBITDA growth. Let's start with municipal water.

Revenue increased by 3.5%, with a remarkable EBITDA progression of plus 6.1%. We continue to benefit from good indexation, have achieved successful tariff renegotiation in Spain and in the U.S., which protect our future earnings.

Volumes were on a very good trend, up close to 3% in Europe. Solid waste revenue grew by plus 0.5% with a very strong EBITDA progression of plus 6.8%, which illustrates our capacity to implement efficiency plans supporting EBITDA improvements.

Revenue from district heating networks increased by plus 1.7%, excluding energy prices, thanks to a sustained tariff. Let's move on to our boosters performance on slide 25, which have done very well, with revenue up by 4.6% and by 8% including tuck-ins.

Overall, EBITDA performance is excellent, up by 12% with an increase of the average EBITDA margin by 100 bp, which confirms GreenUp choices. Skipping water tech that I have just commenting and starting with hazardous waste.

Revenue increased by 5.7% including tuck-ins and 3.8% organically, with EBITDA up by 12.8%, which is outstanding. I would like to highlight especially the strong growth in the U.S., up 9.7%, including tuck-ins, fueled by incineration volumes and mix.

In bioenergy, revenue was up 5.8%, excluding energy prices, and EBITDA increased by 5.1%, with strong sales momentum in Belgium, Southern Europe, and in the Middle East. The revenue bridge on slide 26 explains the drivers of our growth in 2025: negative forex impact, decreasing Q4.

Scope was slightly negative as the impact of 2024 disposals, sadly Dec and RGS, was compensated for a large part by the favorable impact of 2025 external growth. The impact will turn positive in 2026.

The expected consolidation of Clean Clean Earth in the second semester 2026 will further contribute. The impact of energy prices was as expected, divided by two compared to last year.

Recycled prices were neutral. Weather effects, after a colder winter at the beginning of the year in Europe, Q4 was marginally helpful.

The contribution of commercial volume was comparable to last year, and finally price effects were as expected lower than in 2024 due to lower inflation and contribute plus 1.4% to top-line growth. On page 27 you have the EBITDA bridge detailing our organic growth of 6.3%, above the annual guidance between 5% and 6%.

Negative forex impact increasing Q4, as mentioned earlier, this impact was very much offset down the line for EBIT and current net income. Scope was slightly negative, but as expected was positive in Q4.

The impact of energy was minus 40 million euro, less than last year as expected, while recycled prices were slightly up, plus 10 million euro. Intrinsic growth contributed by a significant plus 4.8% to EBITDA growth, thanks to the combination of commercial volume works for 2% and pricing, productivity, efficiency for 2.8%.

It accelerated in Q4 thanks to the benefit of our action plan in France and the rebound in Water Tech, including new synergies. I’ll come back later to further synergies.

Now let's dive into our second lever of value creation after growth, which is performance and efficiency. I am now on slide 28, which shows our 2025 performance.

In terms of our yearly efficiency plan, which is 399 million euro in gain, in line with our annual target of 350 million euro, which we will for sure renew in 2026. Efficiencies are indeed a permanent lever of value creation, embedded in our operations, and therefore one we can count on for years to come, not to say forever.

It is worth noting that digital and AI gain already accounts for 22% of our recurring operational efficiency. Suez synergies are fully completed, as Estelle mentioned.

We have achieved another 100 million of gain in 2025 for a cumulative total of 534 million euro since day one, well above our initial objective of 500 million euro, which, as was raised a year ago to 530 million. This overachievement is a testimony to our capacity to successfully integrate our acquisition and the clear marker of the success of the Suez merger.

Going forward, we will benefit from the synergies coming from the merger of our two Watertech Technology entities, following the buyout of the 30% minority stake of CDPQ in June 2025, with a target 90 million euro by 2027, and 20 have already been achieved. On top of that, after we close the acquisition of Clean Clean Earth mid-2026, we will start the integration process and target a total amount of 120 million dollars of synergies between 2027 and 2030.

Let's now analyze our performance below EBITDA, and I am on slide 30. Going down to current EBIT, this slide illustrates perfectly the operational leverage of our business model: 2.8% revenue growth, 6.3% EBITDA growth, and 8.9% EBIT increase.

Current EBIT grew to 3.7 billion euro at a faster pace than EBITDA. I am particularly pleased with our financial results, which, excluding financial capital gains, show a slight decrease of 21 million euro of our financial charges.

This was due to a combination of a well-controlled cost of debt and lower other financial charges coming notably from French extraordinarys. We did not benefit in 2025 from net financial capital gain, contrary to 2024 with the sale disposal.

Tax charges were only slightly higher by 11 million euro and our current tax rate decreased from 27.1% to 25.4%, thanks to the benefit of Water Technology’s fiscal synergies. Finally, current net income increased by 9.1% at constant forex, in line with our guidance.

Moving to net income group share, I am on slide 31. Non-current charges were stable at minus 433 million euro.

They included additional integration costs coming from Water Tech merger, one-off restructuring charges, and an exceptional litigation provision in 2025. Net income group share reached 1.2 billion euro, showing an excellent growth of 10.9%.

Now free cash flow generation, which is key, I am on slide 32. I am satisfied with the progression of the net free cash flow of 39 million euro at constant forex, which we achieved despite a working capital evolution due to less project down payment in Q4 and one-off litigation payment in 2025, including Flint, for around 70 million euro.

The underlying evolution of our working capital was in fact quite good, with another reduction in the DSO of five days to 74 days, thanks to our dedicated plan, which will continue: quicker invoices. We have a clear plan to reduce time to invoice, cash collection, newer ERP with use of AI.

Capex was once again under tight control and was stable in 2025. Capex will remain under control, but continue to include significant growth capex, which will generate EBITDA.

As you can see on slide 33, net financial debt is well under control, with 19.6 billion euro at the end of 2025 versus 17.8 billion at the end of 2024. This increase of 1.8 billion euro is due to the resumption of external growth, with 2.3 billion euro of financial investment, which includes the purchase of the Water Tech minority stake for 1.5 billion euro.

This was not at the detriment of our leverage, which remained well below three times at 2.79 times. This bridge also reminds you of our share buyback program, which has been launched to offset the dilution of the employee shareholding program for 400 million euro in 2025.

We have again, in 2025, successfully issued new bonds, which attracted market interest and was done with very good market conditions. I will also mention that 85% of our net financial debt is at fixed rate.

Our balance sheet therefore remains very strong. Both rating agencies confirmed strong investment grade rating in 2025.

Before concluding, this slide reminds you of our 2026 guidance, which Estelle has commented 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-26 and which will be accretive as soon as 27, excluding TPA. Leverage ratio equal or below 3 times, including Clean Earth, and equal or slightly above 3 times with Clean Earth acquisition.

As usual, our dividend will grow in line with our current EPS. We fully confirm our green-up objective.

Finally, let me remind you that we have started our €2 billion non-strategic asset divestiture program, which I cannot of course give you details, but which will also contribute to the continued soundness of our balance sheet while providing us with balance sheet headroom. Thank you for your attention.

Estelle Brachlianoff

Thank you, Emmanuelle. Thank you, Daniel.

We are ready, three of us, to take your questions.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session.

To ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. If you wish to withdraw your question, you may do so by pressing star 2 to cancel.

Once again, that would be star 1 to ask a question. Your first question comes from the line of Arthur Sitbon with Morgan Stanley.

Please go ahead. Hello.

Thank you for taking my question and thanks for the presentation.

Arthur Sitbon

I was wondering basically about your 2026 current net income target, which is at constant FX and basically without the Clean Earth impact. I was wondering if you could provide some more thoughts on, at the current FX levels, what do you see as the mark-to-market impact from FX on your 2026 numbers, as well as potential comments to understand a bit the magnitude of the Clean Earth impact for 2026.

You confirmed the green-up target. You talk about 8% growth in net income in 2026, but there is more growth.

It's a 10% pace annual by 2027 for the green-up target. I was wondering basically if we should understand that net income growth will considerably accelerate in 2027?

My second last question is just on your broader medium-term objectives. I was wondering if at some point you would consider rolling over your targets and maybe guiding to 2028 and 2029, or if we should wait for early 2028 for your new business plan.

Estelle Brachlianoff

Thank you very much. Thank you for your questions, many different ones.

Just a few things. We're very happy about the 2025 results, which was very value-creative and history-high.

On our trajectory of green-up and even exceeded some of the targets in EBITDA and in ROS, just to mention the two of them. In terms of the guidance for 26, you have noted that the guidance, left-hand side of the slide, if you want, is without Clean Earth and after Suez merger.

In a way it's a kind of standalone. Of course, the acquisition of Clean Earth will be accretive for years to come.

The way to have a look at it, and that's why it's an ambitious one, we are saying that without any Suez synergies and before the accretion and the synergies of Clean Earth, we are able to deliver in 26 5% to 6% organic growth of EBITDA and at least 8%, it can be more than 8%, but it's at least 8% of net results. That's what the guidance says.

I just wanted to highlight that it was after Suez and before Clean Earth, which means that it's really a confident and ambitious guidance, which I'm very confident we will deliver. In terms of the global forex element, and it's not only on net results, it's on everything, I just want to highlight again that forex for us is a translation, not a transaction.

In other terms, as I try to explain, we are a multi-local delivery company, which means that the cost and revenue are in the same currency, and therefore forex, for example, doesn't impact our margins. We've proven it in 25, we've proven it in 24, within two years plus 150 business points, sorry, of margin increase.

Proof is in the pudding, as they say in English, that it doesn't impact our margin. As forex translation at 100 at the top of our P&L goes down to 20, basically, 20%, or divided by five when it comes to net results.

That's the global figures that we've already mentioned. Again, forex for us is not a real thing, as it doesn't impact our margin.

It's more a sign of our being international and goes up and down, but it's not a question of anything but the translation of us being very international. In terms of the targets midterm, the green-up trajectory, which I could fully confirm today and I have fully confirmed it today, is 10% on average over four years, assuming, of course, more than 8% this year, and there is no reason why it should slow down going forward.

We've achieved already 12% in the first two years of the plan, we are really on at least 10%, which we've said we would deliver in the green-up trajectory. I guess that's a confirmation again.

Another way to see the guidance for 26 on net results is in 25 we said, and we have delivered around 9% of net results increase, and this was with Suez synergies in. In 26 we said we'll do more than 8% without Suez synergies, and again before any positive effect of the Clean Earth synergies.

In terms of rolling over targets, that's always a good question. We have a few moving parts here, and the big one is the timing of the closing of Clean Earth, which everything is running exactly as we expected so far, but I will wait till we have the various authorizations before we can have a clear timing.

That's a good point. At one point we will be able to show visibility over years beyond 2027 green-up.

What I can say from now on is we've already crystallized with the acquisition of Clean Earth value creation beyond 2027 with the synergies, as well as enhanced revenue growth. The more the company is international and innovation-driven, which we are transforming quite rapidly the portfolio into, the more in the years to come and beyond 27 you will have a company which is enhanced growth and enhanced value creation, in particular thanks to the synergies of Clean Earth.

If you want to complement something, Emmanuelle?

Emmanuelle Menning

Maybe one element. Good morning, Arthur.

Very quickly, as mentioned by Estelle, the figure that you see and the 2026 guidance is fully aligned with GreenUp. We have demonstrated in the past very good results for the first part of GreenUp.

I'm not going to mention again the routine, which is absolutely amazing two years in advance. As mentioned by Estelle, you have seen the trajectory in terms of EBITDA, with a target between 5% and 6%, which is very strong, which is long term, and which also shows our capacity to grow on high potential growth and high margin businesses, as without the Suez merger synergies, we are continuing on the same trend.

In terms of forex impact, you will have at net results level, it's our estimation based on the forex rate for at the end of December, an amount which is similar to what you had in 2025. So 26 equal to 2025.

You were mentioning.

Estelle Brachlianoff

It's difficult to say because forex goes up, forex goes down. It's super uncertain.

Emmanuelle Menning

Yes, it's with the estimation that we have for the end of 2025. Where you are right is that of course in 2027 we will benefit from synergies from Clean Earth and the full synergies also of Water Technologies.

The element which is for us very important is that you know at Veolia that the train arriving on time. You have seen what we were able to do with ROCE, with EBITDA, and we don't have any intention to stop and to not have the same path.

Estelle Brachlianoff

You confirm that. Thank you very much.

Thank you, and

Operator

your next question comes from the line of Bartek Kubicki with Bernstein. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much and good morning and thank you for the presentation.

Bartlomiej Kubicki

I would like to discuss two aspects as well, please. Firstly, if we think about tariffs overall in waste and water in 2026, where do you see them moving, and more specifically in France, as 2025 was relatively subdued in terms of revenues increase in both waste and water.

Secondly, if we think about your M&As, which has just happened and which are about to happen this year, just two sub-questions: A, what will be the contribution of Clean Earth into your net income once it is being acquired? Secondly, what will happen to your integration costs?

We have now two companies, or in 2026 two companies being integrated into your growth. Shall we expect an increase going forward, or shall we stay flat at around whatever 30-40 million per annum as in the past?

Thank you very much.

Estelle Brachlianoff

Thanks for your two questions. In terms of waste and water price, more so than tariff probably, I don't know, and specifically in France, a few things.

Altogether, in terms of price for activities, as 70% of Veolia revenue is indexed and 30% is price as in pricing. As we said, inflation is relatively neutral or slightly positive for us, which means that when the cost base goes up, the price goes automatically up, or via pricing, and vice versa.

Everything is a way to protect our margins. I think the priority for us is to protect our margins.

In terms of anticipation for 26 in France, it will depend on inflation and a few indexation formulas, which have anniversary dates. I don't expect a big plus in 26 in terms of this indexation, given the inflation is relatively low.

That was anticipated, and, again, cost base and revenue base are in the same type of range. What I could say in addition is, in a way, the proof is in the delivery of our performance in France in 25, because we had a revenue which was relatively flat, roughly, but a big plus in EBITDA, which you see on slide, I can't remember where it is, but anyway, we'll see that in our pack.

This is thanks to our action plan. In a way, that's exactly the same example which Daniel just highlighted in Spain.

We increased our EBITDA by a lot more than our revenue, thanks to a lot of efficiency plans, and it was specifically the case in Spain and France because we anticipated it. We knew that there wouldn't be a big push from the revenue, from tariff, or specifically on indexation, or from the economy.

We launched specific action plans, it was Hunter in Spain, it was called Ariane in France, and it delivers results. It delivers results in EBITDA level.

What we expect in 26 is exactly the same as we've seen in 25, top line probably modest, but EBITDA will grow again in 26 in France and in Spain. Plus, Daniel has ambition on the top line as well, as you've heard him explaining earlier on.

In terms of M&A and Clean Earth's net income, basically, the question is the timing of the closing. We said it would be accretive in current EPS from year two.

Assuming the closing is mid-2026, it will mean year two is mid-2028. Mid-2028, is not a point where you look at net result because it's end of the year.

Assuming again mid-26 we close, it will mean that in 27 it will be accretive before PPA, and in 28 accretive even after PPA, if you want. More accretive before PPA and accretive altogether, including the PPA.

It's a very modest dilution in 2026, again assuming the timing as I've highlighted, modest as in really, really less than 0.5% of potential dilution, again assuming the timing I just highlighted. Integration costs, we've highlighted we will have integration costs in the four years of the delivery of the synergies.

Synergies, $120 million in four years, and integration costs, we said —

Emmanuelle Menning

We communicated when we did the signing at the end of November, it's less than the $120 million. It would be around 90.

It

Estelle Brachlianoff

was 90. We said $90 million over four years.

You have years with a bit more, years with a bit less. Roughly if you divide on average $90 million by four years, you have a good estimate.

Thank you very much. Thank you,

Operator

and your next question comes from the line of Olly Jeffery with Scotia Bank. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much.

Olly Jeffery

Two questions for me as well, please. The first one is staying on the topic of M&A.

You're looking to divest €2 billion of investment, or assets rather, within two years of closing the Clean Earth deal. Could we expect you to get on the front foot of that and do that, potentially some divestments by the end of this year?

Do you have any color at all now on what type of assets you might be looking to, or geographies you might be looking to divest in? The second question is on hazardous waste in the U.S., again connected to Clean Earth.

In the U.S. we've got finite incinerators, potentially more incineration coming to the country.

That seems like quite a good combination for having pricing power going forwards. Compared to when you made the Clean Earth acquisition, do you think actually the environment for hazardous waste in the U.S.

has improved? We've seen some hazardous waste peer share prices in the U.S.

do particularly well year to date. Thank you very much.

Estelle Brachlianoff

Two quick questions. On the two billion euro disposal in the two years following the closing of Clean Earth, a few things.

The timing— we have, as you can imagine, a list with Emmanuelle and with various options, and I will not detail them today. Nevertheless, I can give you a bit of colors on this list.

We have not anticipated a big sale in 26. We will go on with the traditional small and medium, portfolio rotation, which we do every year anyway, but nothing, as a big object is in our plan so far.

What are the typical candidates in this list, which is another way of answering your question? I guess threefold.

One is mature. The other one is non-strategic, and the third one is not in the top three.

Let me explain them one by one. What I mean by mature, it means a business which we don't think we can grow much more the profit in the years to come.

I'm talking about the profit here. As you can imagine, in some of our stronger activities, we still have a way to increase our profitability, and therefore we would keep them.

It's really if we have the max of profitability and we don't anticipate any way to go better. The second criteria is what I call non-strategic.

Non-strategic typically is what we've done when we've divested the SAD, which is a construction business. We said years ago we don't want to be in construction; we want to be in technology, and that was a good example of that.

The third one is what I call non-top three. As you've seen in our geographical strategy, there is an amount of when we are in a country, we want to be in the top three of this activity in this country.

It's a key element to have pricing power, for instance, which is what we said earlier on. We have a few smaller objects which are not yet in the top three.

Either we have a way to put them in the list in the years to come, or if not, we will divest them. That's the three criterias list, which met the list which we have with Emmanuelle, and we have various options and will deliver in the two years following the Clean Earth closing.

In terms of hazardous waste, you're right, we're super happy about hazardous waste business in the U.S., and there is nothing in the last few months which is anything but confirming it's a very good acquisition, the Clean Earth one. Synergies-wise, platform-wise, including to be able to develop other services of Veolia beyond hazardous waste.

You're right, the trend is good. We seen a very good Q4 in hazardous waste in the U.S.

for us. If I remember right, it's a 7% organic growth for Q4, which is a very good positive way to end the year and to begin the next one.

All the lights are really on green lights. We are very, very confident it will create a lot of value for years to come.

Thanks very much.

Operator

Next question comes from the line of Juan Rodriguez with Kepler. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning, thank you for taking our questions.

Juan Rodriguez

I have two on my side if I may. It's more follow-ups.

The first one is on guidance at the net income level in 2026. I want to be clear.

You said that you expect no synergies from Suez, but it does include water tech synergies on 2026. Is that right?

Can you please quantify the fiscal positive effect that the water tech synergies had on your 2025 results? Because it supported a lower tax rate, and are they part of the 90 million synergies that you're targeting?

This is the first one. The second one is on France.

You said that performance was slightly better in 2025 despite weaker revenues. Can you please quantify the level of the performance that you had in here and what is expected ex-hazardous waste and what is expected for 2026?

You signaled some improvement in the region, but can we say in the low to mid-high single digits? Some coloring that would be helpful.

Estelle Brachlianoff

Thank you. I've tried to note down all your questions, hopefully I won't miss anything.

You're right, the net income guidance before Clean Earth acquisition in 2026 does not include any Suez synergy because it's over. It does include, of course, the recurring gains, which will again, efficiency gain more than 350 million again in 26, and does include some of the CDPQ water tech synergies, but they are not of the same magnitude of the Suez acquisition.

That's why I won't compare apple and pears, but you're right, they do include some synergies of the water tech. I want to say that it started well with H2.

We already had 20 million, if I remember well Emmanuelle, of synergies from the Water Tech acquisition, which was delivered in H2. We closed on the 1st of July.

So 90 million over three years, 20 million already delivered in H2. There will be another lot in 26 and another lot in 27.

That's when I mentioned the synergies as in 90 million over three years, this is the EBITDA synergies, if you want, because we said clearly that there were, on top of that, fiscal and, in a way, net income synergies, which were already delivered a lot in 25. So 20 million of EBITDA, if you want, synergies already, plus already some fiscal synergies in 25.

Do you want to comment on the fiscal, tax rate? Maybe Emmanuelle?

Emmanuelle Menning

With pleasure. Thank you for your question.

As in the green-up plan, we targeted a tax rate of 27%. Our current tax rate in 2025 decreased significantly from 27.1% at the end of 24 to 25.4%, thanks partially to the benefit of our water technology synergies.

As an example, in the UK, we have been able to offset past and future tax losses, which were not recognized before. In France also we were able to merge the two tax groups of water technology, and also in 2025, we benefited from a positive impact led by the anticipation reduction of the CIT rate in Germany.

All of that is contributing to the good tax rate, and we have also a positive ambition for 2026, which participate to the net result, plus the fact that we have the cost of debt fully under control. On your question about France EBITDA, hopefully you have the answer on slide 23, where you see the business unit France and hazardous waste Europe, with a revenue which was basically flat compared to all, slightly negative compared to 24, with all which we said about indexation formulas and so on so forth, but a plus 6.3% EBITDA growth.

I think, that's the type of result we see from the specific action plan we've launched two years ago. In Veolia we just don't wait, we anticipate and act quickly and strongly.

This was called Ariane in France, and you see the results. This was called Hunter in Spain, and you've seen in Spain, and it was presented by, because it's kind of a bit the same, plus 14% EBITDA growth in 25 compared to 24 in Spain.

We won't stop here. You can go on with this type of improvement in 26 for France and for Spain.

Quite helpful. Thank you very much.

Thank you,

Operator

and your next question comes from the line of Davide Candela with Intesa Sanpaolo. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my question and for the presentation.

Davide Candela

I have two, if I may. The first one is if you can share with us the sensitivity on energy prices, mostly with regards to Europe.

I know that in most cases the energy component is a pass-through for you, but at least if you can provide a bit of sensitivity that would likely mostly refer to your WD plants throughout Europe and so on. That would be the first one.

The second one is with regards to your approach to demand. You said that the demand for your services is strongly increasing, and I was wondering if you can share how you approach that, in the sense that you are being selective in waiting and so taking the most valuable contracts or opportunities, or on the other hand you are taking a more aggressive approach in trying to put more pressure on your prices and just being proactive in trying to take demand from your clients directly, and with regards to that also on volumes, which is the capability you have to attract more and more, and if there is a risk of saturation in that respect.

That would be the second one.

Estelle Brachlianoff

Thank you. Thank you.

Energy price sensitivity. You're right.

Energy price for us are globally pass-through. This is why we publish, and we've been publishing for years now, excluding energy price.

Why is that so? Because we mainly sell heat, and when the price of the entrance, as in what we have to buy to produce the heat for the district heating network goes up, the tariff goes up.

That's why it protects our margin again. The little effect, which is not what I said, is on the cogeneration of electricity, if you want, and the ancillary services associated with it, where it's a little bit more into our margin.

It's not the main product for us. We're not a producer of power, we're not at all, but we use all the equipment and infrastructure we have, specifically in district heating and things like that, to try to deliver ancillary services in addition and on top.

This top-up is what can go up and down, and is a little bit more like a variable for us. If you have a view over three, four, five years in a way, you can see that in our figures, because, as you can imagine, the price of energy in Europe has gone through the roof in 22 and then down very massively in 23 and 24.

You can have a look at the sequence of our EBITDA in our energy business over four years. There was a big plus, a small minus for the reason I just mentioned in terms of the cogeneration of electricity, but altogether the curve is on the up over these few years.

In a way, we've demonstrated what I said in the figures from 22 to 25. In terms of the demand for our service, what I was trying to highlight is, I was asked a lot of questions about, okay, is Veolia about ecology, the environment?

Yes, we are, but we are more about critical needs. I think this is important.

Whatever the election results are in a country, we're not about politics here. We're about critical needs for industries and population.

That's what makes us super resilient. When it comes to supply of water, when it comes to supply of critical materials and critical minerals, when it comes to supply of energy, we produce local resources, therefore they don't depend from far away imports, disruption of supply chain, and so on and so forth, which is very clear for all our customers.

That's why the demand is, in a way, the more the crisis, the more the demand is paramount, because we are really critical for our customers. In terms of your question about are we selective?

Are we shooting everywhere? It's the former, not the latter.

We still are very selective. We don't want revenue for the sake of it.

We want revenue which can create value not only for one year, but for years to come. The two keywords are resilience and growth here.

The business model of Veolia is really sustainable growth and for years, which means that we've intentionally decided not to bid for specific tenders, for instance in waste municipal collection, because it was not value-creative for us, to focus on what is very value-creative, typically our growth boosters. We are very selective, and the choices are clear: the growth boosters.

What are technologies? Hazardous waste and bioenergy.

In terms of will we go for saturation at one point in terms of volume, we have a limit, in a way, in our plants and install base. This is not exactly the way it works.

In water, the needs go with the growth of the population or the growth of the industries, and the plants do follow, if you want, and that's what we've seen regularly. In terms of hazardous waste, it could have been a limiting factor, and that's exactly why we have invested in five new facilities across the globe, which are just ramping up from last year till 2028, exactly to be ensuring we unlock the future growth.

We're not only at Veolia talking about the guidance for 26. When I say we have an enhanced profile of growth for years to come, I can talk to you about 28, 29, 2030 even, with the Clean Earth acquisition synergies and investment we made.

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Philippe Ourpatian with ODDO BHF.

Please go ahead. Yes, good morning.

Philippe Ourpatian

I have three questions, in fact. One is a slight, I would say, clarification concerning the efficiencies.

Means that the slide 27 is showing 326 million growth and performances, on which you have some price effects and volume effects. I would like to know exactly what was the amount of the efficiencies you were mentioning, in fact, previously in your slide, as separated from works, volumes and commerce.

That's the first question. In this question there is also another one concerning the next slide, which is 28, where you are mentioning 399 million.

It's over the target of 350 of efficiencies. Could you spread it a little bit more by activities or geographies?

You mention France and Spain as a specific plan, but to have more color about where these 399 were generated. Second question is hazardous waste.

Could you just remind us or elaborate a bit more about the new facilities? Because Germany, in hazardous waste, Germany has started, if I'm not wrong, and there is some other geography where you are working: U.S., U.K., Saudi Arabia, and Asia.

Could you just remind us in order to take into account those volumes and maybe value creation effects? Last, you just issued a press release concerning India.

Your famous French competitor also issued a lot of press release concerning this area. It seems to me that India was not an easy country.

We have seen Suez losing a lot of money years ago in this contract. What has changed in this market concerning water, and what are the level of risk or capital employed you are injecting in this kind of country, even if I do think that it's mainly through O&M contract.

Estelle Brachlianoff

Many thanks. Looks like you have not only the questions but the answers, and you're right.

I will elaborate in a minute. Efficiencies, in a way, the answer is on page 28.

Efficiency, 399 million, which we've retained 47%, right, Emmanuelle?

Emmanuelle Menning

Absolutely. Bonjour Philippe.

Roughly, when you take, you are absolutely right, from the 299 million euros, which have been fueled by all the specific action plans, also which were in France and in Spain, and the rest is, as fully embedded in our business for 77%. We have been able to retain 47%.

When you look at this number, if you want a precise number, we have volumes, commerce, which is around 10% growth, and pricing, that efficiency, which is around 2.8% growth. Roughly 140 and 190 million euros.

Estelle Brachlianoff

So 47% of 399 equals 189, plus volume and commerce, roughly equals what you see on the slide. Where is it mainly?

The beauty of Veolia's model, it's everywhere. That's why we are so confident we can keep it forever, because it's a series of plants everywhere on the globe, which have initiatives, which combined, give you the number.

The specifics where you have more than the average are France, Spain, and China. France, Spain, and China launched specific plans, which were more than the average, given the fact that we're disappointed by the result in 2023, basically, for those geographies, we've launched specific action plans with specific names, the Hunter, the Ariane, and there was an equivalent one in China, and that's why on those geographies, we have a particularly big disconnect between revenue and EBITDA growth, because this was thanks to the very, very well executed delivery of the plants, which again won't stop.

Hazardous waste. The various hazardous waste— Ah yeah, do you want to add something on that?

Emmanuelle Menning

Yes, with pleasure. Us perfectly well, Philippe.

Regarding the efficiency, one point that I wanted to add: as 70% is fully embedded in our business model. It's what we sell, pricing increase, purchasing and procurement improvements, and on top of the three specific plans that Estelle has mentioned, and which are taking a lot of energy for the French team but also to Daniel in Spain, with very, very specific action plans where you have strong SG&A efficiency on top of procurement and on top of operational improvements, we have launched this year a new seed in our results, what we call it was a project which was called MOBi.

We are dealing with a lot of energy of what we consider as assets which are not as performance as we wanted them to be, meaning that for us it's the clear approach of pour out, and all the team is working very, very strongly to it, and it's in all our geographies, and it is contributing to our leverage operational leverage that you see and the increase of EBIT of 8.9%.

Estelle Brachlianoff

In terms of hazardous waste, you're right, we have five new plants which are under construction or under commissioning. In terms of the sequence, we've showed it during our deep dive on waste a few months ago, we are exactly on the trajectory we showed you at that time, which means that, just to refresh your memory, you have a phase of construction, but then you have what we call cold commissioning, and then hot commissioning, and then ramping up of operational performance, with commercializing the plants.

Depending on the difference, what we call by ramping up, again, cold commissioning, hot commissioning, and then commercializing progressively the total capacity of the plants, it takes quite a while. It's not you press a button and it's on and off and 100% instantly.

It takes usually between the cold, hot commissioning and the full capacity two to three years, just to give you an idea. This is classical in this business.

Then you're here forever, which has its merit. In terms of the various orders of being in this situation, the first to come online has been the Saudi one, which has already gone through the—I hope I won't miss one— but, the cold and hot commissioning, and we are in the ramping up of the commercial activity.

Then the next on the line is Blue Jay, which is our facility in the UK, in Solvent, which is in the ramping up mode as well. I think we've finished the hot commissioning and we are in the ramping up of the commercial activity.

Then the next on the near will be the German one you mentioned, but which is not there yet. We are more at the end of the construction phase, if you want, not yet in the commissioning one.

The next one will be in Asia, and the next one will be in the U.S. All that means that combined, if I remember well, we've put, again, the figures in our presentation, but if I remember well, it's 285,000 tons of capacity, which will be active at the end of GreenUp, but out of 130,000 tons of capacity when they are fully, fully ramped up 100%, one or two years after the end of GreenUp.

India, you are exactly right. We're not doing crazy things in India.

That's why I was super proud about this contract, which is a new of its kind. You answered yourself the question, there is not funds employed at all of Veolia.

We've delivered technologies, and then we'll have 15 years of O&M contract. It's not about funds employed here, it's about selling technology and know-how in terms of maintaining plants.

Those are massive ones. We are talking about plants which will be able to sustain water supply for 60% of the entire Mumbai global population, which, if I remember well, is a 12 million population.

Those are massive, and I'm very happy that it was without risk associated, exactly as you said. We're not chasing revenue for the sake of it.

We said we will exit construction. In India, many, many— so it's a 250 million euro backlog, by the way.

We are not chasing revenue for the sake of it. That's why a lot of the contracts which were announced by competitors, we didn't even bid, to be honest, because we don't want to be in construction and pouring concrete.

This is not what we do. We do sell technology, plus we do want to be in the O&M.

All the rest, we just don't go for it at all. We are super selective in India as elsewhere.

This opportunity was a very, very good one.

Operator

Many thanks. Once again, if you would like to ask a question, simply press 1 on your telephone keypad.

Your next question comes from the line of Charles Swabey with HSBC. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning.

Charles Swabey

Just one question from me on efficiency gains, and the 23 that came from digital, AI and 25. Could you give us an idea how this compares to your assumptions when you put together the GreenUp plan?

Would you say that they have exceeded expectations? How should we think about this going forward?

Estelle Brachlianoff

Thanks. Thanks for your question.

We had no idea there would be AI at this level when we launched GreenUp, which was at the end of 23. We conceived the whole thing and launched it beginning of 24.

We had no specific expectation. We knew we were already very much into digital or AI but not GenAI, if you want, and this is really ramping up and a big potential for future efficiencies in the years to come.

I think 23% is already a big figure. We're not the style of talking about things, we're trying to deliver instead, instead of talking too much.

I think that was a proof of it. We've picked our battles as well, because some of it is more a myth than delivering real results.

We picked the tools which actually are delivering real efficiencies. Real efficiencies for us means consume less water, produce more green energy.

This is a criteria which, we picked a few proof of concept, and there were many of them. We picked a few just to be on the scaling up front.

Emmanuelle Menning

What is also absolutely amazing is the increase of the percentage of digital. It was in the past 5%, 10% of our efficiency gain, and now it's 23%, and it will continue to increase.

Estelle Brachlianoff

You're right. Very helpful.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

I would say thank you very much. It looks like we have no further questions.

I just wanted to say how happy we are about 2025. We not only was on target, or even beyond target in a few different KPIs, but as well was really a pivotal year for Veolia, with crystallized major transformation of our portfolio, which will generate really enhanced growth and value creation for years to come, and years with a lot of Ss, as in 26, 27, 28, 29.

I'm very confident about Veolia's trajectory, and there is more to come. Thank you very much, and let me, before I finish, invite you not to miss what we've put on the slide, which are a few dates.

If you want to have more information about our ESG agenda and multifaceted performance, that's Women on the 23rd of March, and we'll have a deep dive on innovation, tech and AI in London on the 14th of April. Thank you very much.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, this now concludes today's presentation.

Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.