Bouygues SA (EN) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the presentation of the first half 2026 results. Please note that this presentation will be recorded. [Operator Instructions] I give the floor to Olivier Roussat, who is the CEO of Bouygues Group.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. This is a busy day. And so we're doing everything online to give people a chance to attend as many presentations as possible. I'll give you this presentation. Stephane Stoll will come in at some point and then we'll be able to take questions together with all managers of this group. We start with Page 4. Now let me remind you that this is a seasonal business and the performance of H1 are not representative of the annual performance, but the geopolitical environment is very uncertain and volatility. In spite of this, the group's performance on H1 has been extremely robust. Revenue is slightly down 1.3% on the constant ForEx. The COPA is up EUR 33 million at EUR 829 million, as we expected, the significant improvement in Equans' COPA more than offsets the expected declines at TF1 and Bouygues Telecom. The net income group share is significantly up compared to last year in spite of the impact for the second year running of the so-called one-off surcharge, a tax surcharge for large companies in France. One-off is not the case. In any case, at end 2026, the net financial debt was reduced by EUR 2 billion following the trend that we've had over the past 2 quarters. And a few words about upon book-to-bill found a new momentum in Q2 with an order book historically high, up EUR 1.7 billion compared to June 2025. Equans'’ increased business in Q2, made it possible to catch up with the slow start in Q1. the profitability of Equans was 5.2% in H1, up 1.2 percentage points over 1 year. And so we confirm the group's outlook for the year 2026. Move on to Page 5 with key figures. Group's revenue in the group was EUR 26.3 billion, down 2.2%. Let me remind you that in Q1, the decline was 3.2% over 1 year. So they made it possible for compensate for some of the loss. In operating results, COPA was up EUR 33 million at EUR 829 million. Net income group share came to EUR 287 million, a significant improvement over the year over 1 year. In spite of this tax surcharge for large companies in France, which came to EUR 35 million this year. Our net financial debt stood at EUR 6.5 billion at 30 June 2026 compared with EUR 8.5 billion at 30 June 2025. Before we move on to the examination of the various businesses, we would like to give you a presentation of the various initiatives we've been taking in the CSR front. We have a number of challenges, the heat wave, the wildfires. So 1 example of what we've been doing in Colas has developed an initiative to support communities with to face heat waves and also floods. It's an initiative called Street adapt and it involves management of rainwater and adjustments in urban areas, creating cooling areas and then we've developed -- Equans developed NEMOSYS FIRE fire detection device that can give early warning on possible fires. It's being used in the Gard department, and that made it possible to detect a number of fire starts this year and therefore call the fiber grades early on. And with Immobilier published, it's a white paper on cooling cities and housings. And of course, that came out in good time. I mean, it took a few weeks to write that white paper, but it came in a nick of time with the heat wave. And so we are offering cooling solutions for buildings and high neighborhoods in cities to adapt to the new weather conditions. And this is how we do our part in addressing climate change. And so other than doing ordinary business, we're trying to protect territories, the inhabitants and adopt the various housing solutions to new circumstances. And then -- we'll start with the Construction business on Page 10 of the presentation. There are 2 major highlights of 2 illustrating our ambition to extend our geographical footprint. There's 1 acquisition in Germany, we acquired Frauenrath that's a company that builds roads in Germany. That's a first for Colas in Germany. Up until now, we had an acquisition with Colas Rail that was in 2022, the [ Hassmann ] Group in 2022. And so we're continuing that extension in that territory in Germany because we believe this is very promising for the infrastructure business. We expect revenue in Germany to stand at about EUR 1 billion for all businesses. As things stand now, we run -- we stand at about EUR 900 million with construction also made an acquisition in the U.S., Vannoy construction company that covers 3 states in the U.S., Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Vannoy in 2025 had a revenue of about EUR 900 million. And so that makes it possible for Bouygues Construction to take another gain an additional foothold on the U.S. market. And so we can start build -- the buildings in the U.S. market. And that opens the way for new synergies in the U.S. because we're looking at about EUR 5 billion in revenue. Thanks to the presence of also Equans and Colas in the U.S. The order book is pretty high. It stands at EUR 33.4 billion, up 1% over the year. The favorable effects on the scope with the integration of Vannoy were slightly offset by the negative ForEx. Moving on to Page 12. The order book of the construction business. We should be pointed out that end 2026, the share of orders to be performed in the next 18 months was up EUR 1.3 billion compared to end June 2025. Now needless to say, the integration of Vannoy does make a difference. Of course, it has contributed to the order book, but we did not take into account Frauenrath order book because that will be integrated as Q3 as with Q3 2026. If we look at the detail of the Colas order book is up 2% and on a constant ForEx basis, not including main disposals and acquisitions. The road business is slightly down 1% and rail is stable. The order books Bouygues Construction stood at EUR 17.9 billion, down -- up, sorry, 4% over the year, up 1% on 1 year on a constant exchange rate basis. not including disposals and acquisitions. It is supported by [ Batima Tenasina ], whose order book is up 32% with the integration of Vannoy and [ Batima ] France, whose order book is up 12% over the year. Conversely, Travel Public Works is down 18%, and this is very much due with the unfavorable basis of comparison in H1 2025. And of course, big projects are worth hundreds of million euros. And depending on when they start, it can make a huge difference. So the comparison basis well, does not lend itself to actual comparisons. In line with the previous quarters, with Immobilier is facing challenging times at end June, its order book was EUR 0.7 billion, down 11% over the year, down 5% on a constant ForEx basis, and not including disposals and acquisitions, we had -- of course, disposed of the Polish business in July 2025. If you do include reservations in the order books, well, then you'll find that Bouygues Immobilier's order books is actually up 10% over that period. If you look at the sales for Q -- for H1 in H1 2026 on as had orders worth EUR 6.5 billion. In the road business, there's a significant slowdown in France to be expected because of the election period, especially municipal elections, but there are positive developments in various parts of the world in H1, particularly in North America, Canada and the U.S. An example is call us through its subsidiary, Sully-Miller got a contract worth EUR 260 million in California to repair freeway motorway. And in Canada, the subsidiary, Miller Group got a contract with about EUR 350 million for the Bradford bypass motorway. The Rail business, well, there were several significant contracts worth more than EUR 100 million -- several hundred million euros in the U.K. and Morocco. So a high basis of comparison. Colas Rail contracts are very much like Bouygues Travel public, we're looking at significant and lengthy contracts. So -- but still in Q2 in spite of this high comparison basis got new significant contracts in the rail business in Chile for the Santiago metro with about EUR 100 million. Construction of course, its business is related to large projects and that doesn't happen on a regular basis. So they are big variations from 1 quarter to the next. And so there's significant fluctuations in order taking, the way in which we have a layering of our order book to get gain visibility. We find that there is 1 significant order, EUR 4.8 billion in H1. A significant portion of that is what we call the normal course of business activities under EUR 100 million. These are businesses where competition is toughest. And so when there's a good growth in that type of contract, it means that the company is, of course, more competitive. So a significant portion of these contracts are run of the mill contracts accounting for about 60% of all orders in H1. We also had several contracts with more than EUR 100 million, in particular, in Australia for data center in the U.K. for the Lower Thames crossing and then another contract Jersey Hospital. Finally, Bouygues Immobilier sales -- service buildings is the sand still residential remains challenging. Indicators, however, for land, purchasing are looking good. Unit reservations in housing are up 18% over the year. But of course, that improvement is somewhat heading by block reservations, which will only occur later this year. So watch this space. There's a significant contract -- a data center in Australia through subsidiary, AW Edwards. It's a contract with AirTrunk. That contract is to be performed over a 2-year period. And so the idea is to build a data center with a capacity of 400 megawatts. As you know, these data centers are growing bigger and bigger because the demand for cloud computing is constantly increasing. What's the revenue then of our 3 construction companies. The overall business stands at for EUR 12.4 billion, down 2% over the year, but stable on the constant scope and ForEx basis. Colas' revenue was down 4% as published and down 3% on a constant ForEx basis, that 2% increase in the real business did not offset the 4% decline in the Road business. Bouygues Construction business is up sales were up 2% over the year, 3% on a constant rate basis. The activity is driven by travel, public works up 14%, Batiment France, up 6%, but Batiment International is down because, of course, a number of big projects we delivered in Morocco for a big hospital and another 1 in Australia. Bouygues Immobilier's revenues were down 19% of the year, down 14% on a constant scope and ForEx basis, of course, the disposal of the Polish businesses that distorts the basis of comparison, but we believe that we've reached -- I mean, H1 was marked by a number of operations that had a positive contribution to revenue. So that decline now is not representative of the expected performance for the year. Let's look at COPA for our construction businesses, again, that COPA is not representative of the annual performance. However, COPA for the construction business stands at EUR 43 million, up EUR 17 million over the year, driven by a significant improvement in COPA and margin at Bouygues Construction. If you can move on to Equans. As I said earlier on, by way of introduction, we have good momentum of book-to-bill, book-to-bill sorry. as you can see on the right-hand side of this slide. Book-to-bill was very effective in Q2. And for H1 as a whole, we have a good performance. The order book stands at EUR 27.6 billion, up EUR 1.7 billion compared to last year. So a 7% improvement. The order book is made up of, well, orders worth less than EUR 5 million, and that is slightly up for the year accounting for about 65% of all orders. Orders for contracts worth more than EUR 5 million account for about 35% of orders. So this is significantly up over the year. with significant again orders for a number of specialty segments, including, of course, data centers. This is, of course, booming in the U.S., and it's starting in Europe, solar and storage is also picking up. A number of -- well, a significant item in Equans' strategy and in line with the previous quarters, we find good margins upon order taking in Equans is expecting high large orders in H2. And that, of course, will make a significant contribution to the order book as a whole. Let's look at the results. Revenues sales stood at EUR 8.9 billion in H1, down 3% on a constant ForEx basis. The sales in Q2 were almost the same as in Q2 2025. So partly offset the slow start of the year. But we are confident while ForEx had a negative effect on revenue worth about EUR 90 million. We find that COPA at EUR 460 million was up almost EUR 100 million over the year. Margin now stands at 5.2%, up 1.2 percentage points compared to what it was a year ago. I should note that there were a number of one-off items. Equans disposed of its electric car recharging business in the Netherlands in Q2. And that is 1 of the disposals we announced. And so all the asset-based businesses are being sold off. Regarding M&A and in line with the strategy, Equans has had 3 acquisitions -- 3 bolt-on acquisitions in H1. You have a company called [indiscernible] in Italy, ASTI in Singapore, MCI Faser Power in Austria and more recently, in July in -- that's Q3 rather than H1. We acquired CV Services in Australia. So you have 4 acquisitions were generating about EUR 210 million in sales and other acquisitions are expected in the next weeks and months. Regarding the Equans' outlook, let me remind you that Equans is continuing its strategic project. You may remember, as was presented at Capital Markets Day back in 2023. So for 2026, we're looking at revenues stable in 2026. We're looking at in conversion terms, 80% to 100% of COPA in cash flow before WCR. We are improving our guidance for the annual margin, looking at 5.2%. We were initially announcing 5%, 1 year ahead of schedule compared to what we announced at the 2023 Capital Markets Day. And finally, on the last picture, you can see that for organizational reasons, we'll be having the next Capital Markets Day on the afternoon of the day when we present our numbers, that will be 25 February rather than 27 so this means that you'll have by then the full picture for the year. Now if we look at Bouygues Telecom's performance, we'll start with the little video celebrating 30 years of existence. [Presentation]

Okay. Back to the figures for Bouygues Telecom. Now let's begin with the key figures in fixed telephones, thanks to its customer satisfaction and quality of service. And of course, it's BIG offering. Our commercial momentum has continued. The A number of new clients was 116,000 in the second half year, including 69,000 in Q2, which is a record quarter or second quarter since we launched this business back in 2008. Clients with FTTH now number 4.9 million. Now we haven't been marketing ADSL for a number of years now, but they represent a total of 88% of the total fixed line portfolio, up from 84% a year ago. That's an increase of 185,000 customers in the first half, including 96,000 in Q2. We've been acknowledged for the quality of our network, and we are now the first operator to propose XGS-PON technology across our entire fiber-to-the-home network. This improves throughput for our customers. Fixed ABPU rose EUR 0.20 over last year to reach EUR 0.33. As you can see on Page 24, Bouygues Telecom has performed well in mobile. Despite the fact that this is a difficult market impacted by ongoing price pressure. At the end of June, Bouygues Telecom at 18.8 million mobile plan customers, excluding MtoM that's an increase of 173,000 customers in the first half year, including 82,000 in Q2. That's bigger than in the first half of the first quarter of '25, where we added 105,000 new clients. This is because of the continued good performance of BIG announced in late '24. And of course, its impact on churn. Mobile ABPU totaled EUR 16.7, down EUR 0.60 over the last 12 months. This is because the market is still very competitive. ABPU is penalized by the acquisition of new customers, who's is low, particularly in in digital plans. Page 25, what do we get in terms of key figures? Well, sales build to customers in the first half of '26 was stable year-on-year. The increase in fixed lines offsets the decline in mobile. Sales were up 3% over the period, which is comprised mainly of terminals accessories, works up 16% over the period. These sales being nonlinear, very seasonal over the year if you perform, and of course, with the fluctuations that poses. EBITDA after leases of EUR 954 million which was stable year-on-year despite the continuing and ongoing efforts in the cost control, particularly the cost of [indiscernible] and FTTH. So Bouygues Telecom is continuing to contain its costs. Current operating profit from activities totaled EUR 274 million for the first half year. This was in line with expectations, and particularly in view of the increase in amortization, depreciation amortization, in line with the CapEx trend of previous years with an average amortization period of 9 years. Now the outlook for Bouygues Telecom in 2026, sales both customers after leases will be close to 2025, and we're showing moderate growth by comparison with 2023 before La Poste Telecom. Gross capital expenditure of close to EUR 1.3 billion, excluding frequencies confirming a decline in the peak in CapEx observed over the last 5 years. Free cash flow before working capital requirements of around EUR 600 million, excluding the La Poste Telecom before the impact of income tax surcharge. If we were to include La Poste Telecom and this income tax charge, it would be around EUR 500 million. I should clarify that this outlook does not factor in the potential impact of the proposed acquisition of SFR. So speaking of SFR, what is the life of the land. There's a progress report. On the 6 of June '26, we signed alongside Orange and Free-iliad, we signed a memorandum of understanding with Altice France with a view to acquiring SFR. Now a lot of things need to be done from the operational point of view, the things we've already commenced and that involved quite a lot of people. There's the whole process of consulting the relevant employee representative bodies, which is underway. So we need the opinion of these representative bodies before we can proceed with the signing of any deal. There's also what we call the limit or known as the long stop date which is the 6 of December 2026. As for the competition authorities, well, the French Competition Authority ADLC has begun its work. It's the French competition authority that will be competent in this instance. So we've already given notice of our initial intentions. We have commenced a whole process of exchange with the competition's authority and indeed with the telecoms regulator. This transaction could not be closed until the whole transaction is approved by the various authorities, particularly the ADLC, which is the competition authority. And after fulfillment of the other conditions precedent as specified in the sale contract. Given the amount of time it takes for these things to be processed by the competition authorities, we now feel that the likelihood is that this deal will not be closed before late '27 or even early '28. I propose that we now move directly on to Page 29. This is the results of TF1 as published last Friday [indiscernible] has already commented with commented on Friday evening. So I'll be brief. TFR in the first half year maintained its viewership leadership in terms of audience, particularly among the women decision-makers under 50 and young people. audience leadership was respectively 33.2% and 29.8% in these 2 areas. TF1 plus has also confirmed its success with 42 monthly streamers on average in the first half year. That's up 20% year-on-year and a record of 44 million streams in June of this year. Finally, TF1 set up a new unprecedented partnership under the leadership of Rodolphe that was with Netflix, entered into '25 was implemented in mid-June '26, France, whereby all Netflix subscribers can view TF1 and the TF1 content on Netflix. The idea behind this was to seek out people who do not connect via linear channels. This launch, I think, has confirmed our expectations. This has increased the number of streamers to a record of 8.3 million on the 25th of June. This was a record high. It's a very, very promising launch. TF1's performance I think is a reflection of the decline in linear advertising revenue in our revenue in the first half was almost EUR 1 billion, down 6% on a like-for-like basis. The media figure was down 11% or 7% on a like-for-like basis given the disposals of [indiscernible] and 2 in 2025. This includes advertising revenue, which is down 9%. And the advertising market in linear is now impacted by the macroeconomic uncertainties. In this context, TF1 has maintained a relatively stable market share and digital, TF1 has continued to perform well with advertising revenue up 19% over year-on-year, which goes to show how attractive this platform is for advertisers as well TF1 was down 3%. A substantial amount of TF1's income comes from the supply of series for the platforms. This often takes place in the second half of the year. Now the COPA was down year-on-year as expected, but the margin activity was 7.8%, in line with expectations. About the outlook for TF1 in 2026. Well, we can confirm them. Rodolphe confirmed them last year with very limited visibility, and that's the context, but we are aiming at double-digit growth in digital, a dividend policy that would be on the rise in recent years and a margin on activities in the mid- to high single-digit margin activities before capital gains that is subject to the evolution of the linear market. Let me now give the floor to Stephane Stoll, who will give you a detailed presentation of our financial statements. I see you have your notes, so you won't need mine.

Thank you, Olivier, and good morning, everybody. Just a few words by way of additional explanation on the accounts as of June 30, beginning with the income statement on Page 33. Now without dwelling on the sales figure and COPA, which we've already commented at some length. So no very significant comment required no real changes is this half year, but 2 things I would like to point out. The first of these concerns nonrecurring items, which are booked under other operating income and expenses. This is not a reflection of operating activity. But these include this half year, the booking at Bouygues Telecom and to a lesser extent, at Bouygues SA, the booking of expenses relating to the proposed acquisition of SFR. As you can imagine, we are spending -- have been spending quite a lot of money on fees and the consulting fees, et cetera. This also includes expenses relating to the profit sharing program at Equans, which is, to a lesser extent, of course, over this period. The second comment I wanted to make is that in the first half year, we booked a tax bill of EUR 173 million, not including the additional surcharge on large companies in France, which actually totaled EUR 39 million in the first half of this year. This is lower than in the first half of 2025 and this drop in the income tax burden was due to the fact that pretax profit at Bouygues Telecom was lower, Bouygues Telecom and TF1. Also that the effective tax rate was not as high at Equans and Bouygues Construction. As a result, and taking into account the EUR 35 million surtaxe. The group's share of net income was EUR 287 million at the end of June, up EUR 114 million by comparison with the same period last year. Moving on to the change in net debt. That's Page 34. Our net debt at the end of June was EUR 6.5 billion up from EUR 4.2 billion at the end of September. Now that's an increase of EUR 2.3 billion. This is the usual variation in the first half year. an is a good reflection of the seasonal aspect of our business. It is also in line with the increase we observed over the first half of last year. The important thing to point out here is that our net debt at June 30 this year is at EUR 2 billion improvement on the same -- the figure -- same figure 12 months ago. This is part of the continued improvement that we have been talking about for several quarters. At this variation by comparison with year-end is mainly due to acquisitions, net of disposals for EUR 133 million, mainly the acquisitions made by Colas, Bouygues Construction that Olivier already mentioned, but also the smaller bolt-on acquisitions made by Equans in the first half year. Furthermore, as is customary net debt is impacted by the payout of a dividend for a total of EUR 924 million this year, including EUR 809 million to be paid to the shareholders of Bouygues. The remainder of corresponding to the -- remainder paid to shareholders in TF1 Abu Telecom. They also have another item at EUR 1.3 billion. That's operations and other, which is a historically low level for the first half year, which I propose to look at in some detail in the next slide. Let's begin with net cash flow. It was down EUR 180 million by comparison with last year. This was mainly due to TF1 whose results for the period were down. We also have a cash out for nonrecurring items that were not provisioned at Colas and a basis for comparison in 2025 which gave rise to a number of exceptional dividends from companies accounted for by the equity method. Our CapEx, excluding frequencies totaled approximately EUR 900 million. This was almost EUR 100 million lower than last year. The fact that the CapEx is lower is because of the fact that we invested less in Bouygues Telecom. As announced, Free cash flow before working requirements at EUR 360 million, again, lower than in the first half of '25 when it was EUR 440 million and the change in working capital requirements as every year, impacted by seasonal effects. That said, this year, the variation was a negative EUR 1.8 billion, which is an improvement on the variation we observed last year, also various ForEx and IFRS 9 impacts that complete this change in net debt position. Overall, we can congratulate ourselves on the fact that quarter after quarter, we have successfully improved our working capital requirements and cash situation. Let me conclude with the group's financial structure. Because of this improvement in our net debt, -- we now have a financial structure, which is, as you can see, very robust. Net gearing is 46%. That's a 16-point improvement over a 12-month period. Subsequent to the announcement last year of the signing of the memorandum understanding for the acquisition of SFR. Subsequent to that, Moody's announced on the 16th of June, that it was maintaining the stable outlook on our A3 rating. This has been confirmed with a stable outlook. And on the 13th of June, S&P put it under a negative CreditWatch. It's A- with a negative CreditWatch. This rating is still A- still good. The group's liquidity is almost EUR 16 billion at the end of June. That's a very high level of liquidity. This breaks down into EUR 4.2 billion in cash and EUR 11.5 billion in undrawn medium- and long-term facilities undrawn as I said, and covenant less. Finally, as you can see on the bottom right, the bar chart, the debt maturity schedule is very well spread over time. That brings me to the end of today's financial presentation. Thank you for your attention and Olivier. I'm giving you back the floor for the outlook. Thank you. .

Thank you, Stephane. We will now wrap up this presentation by reminding you about the outlook for 2026 for the Bouygues Group. Its outlook has been confirmed. We are operating in buoyant markets. We have great diversity, geographic diversity and diversity of our business segments that enable us to develop and grow over the long term with the great sustained resilience in a very uncertain macroeconomic and geopolitical environment, we will continue to be agile and adapt to developments in our markets. For 2026, the group is aiming at stable sales at constant exchange rates and current operating profit from activities what we call COPA at a record high after 7 years of significant improvements. The improvement of Equans COPA will offset the expected decline in the COPA of TF1 because of the higher CapEx and we've decided to add it [indiscernible] to say that we will remain very vigilant regarding the consequences of the conflict in the Middle East between the Ukraine and the Middle East. We'll see what the future holds in store. But we are going to remain very vigilant and continue to adapt. Let me now move on to Q&A. And alongside the different apologies. I was too fast. My apologies. Before moving on to questions and answers. I was going to say before we leave for holidays, I was -- want to step ahead of myself here because of the lesser significance of certain quarterly results that I keep reminding you of this is because a number of our businesses are very seasonal, in particular Colas. And in order to be better aligned with the expectations of our stakeholders, the group has decided to change its quarterly financial reporting beginning from the publication of our results in Q1 next year. From that date onwards, and for all subsequent Q1 and Q3 are first 9 months publications, our financial reporting will focus on the following main indicators. In terms of business activity, we will talk about order intake or reservations and the backlog for the Construction division and Equans. We will also communicate on the number of new fixed and mobile subscribers the customer base and fixed mobile ABPU for Bouygues Telecom. And in the case of TF1, we would communicate the main audience figures as well as metrics to track growth in online content consumption. As for financial indicators, we will be communicating the sales and net debt of the business segments and the group and the liquidity situation of TF1 and the group. These changes mean that the group's financial communication will be aligned in the future with market practice. This, I think I have covered indeed, we've already given you the figure for the presentation of the first 9 months. That will be the 5 of November. And I will now. Alongside my colleagues ahead of the business segments, take your questions. You have the floor.

[Operator Instructions] Next question comes from Mollie Witcombe from Goldman Sachs.

Regarding Equans, you gave us a guidance for Equans, but group-wide, I don't see much of a change is there part of the risk, which is lower than expected. Second, your competitors Equans' competitors have enjoyed significant growth with the data centers. What's stopping you from taking advantage of that trend? I mean, of course, you want to, well, to protect the image of the group, but we'd like to know about that. And on the Telco business, could you give us some detail on the competition, especially for the mobile business? I believe there were signs of an improvement, but we don't see much in terms of ABPU. So maybe some color on the telecom market in France, especially the mobile business. All right. Jerome will take the question about Equans. And then Benoit, as Jerome makes his way to the little spot on the stage where he can be seen. He'll give you an answer about the data centers. Of course, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to take advantage of that development. In 2025, there was a certain boom, but then it slowed down in Europe, while business picked up in the U.S. So I'd like to, of course, see that even that wave. And indeed, we find that the data centers, that business is picking up in Europe again. I think you said it all. No, no, no, you're trying hard to Yes, we have a plan -- development plan for data centers, both in the U.S. and in France and new technologies towards direct cooling has led to lots of design work, but now the orders are picking up and this will translate into revenue in the months to come. And Benoit, regarding telecom business and regarding the mobile business, in particular, we're in the same position as we said earlier, the mobile market has become maturing as much as there's no growth -- volume growth on the market in France. And so with innovations, we can extend our client base, and in terms of ABPU, you have to remember, this is a competitive environment, especially for the entry level contracts which are very -- with lots of price pressure. And so because of this, our strategy for the past 18 months has been to work on convergence between -- to satisfy customers and reduce churn. And we have a low -- significantly lower churn, and that explains the high number of Bouygues Telecom customers. Stephane, sorry, you had to.

There was a question about -- on the first question, -- we noted a higher guidance for Equans in light of the performance to date. We did not upgrade the group's guidance, but that doesn't mean to say that other businesses are in trouble, we're just being cautious. The year hasn't isn't over yet, there's an uncertain environment. We certainly hope that there will be an improvement in H2 as well. For now, we simply confirm the guidance, but the Equans' improvement is not significant enough to upgrade the group's guidance. Nonetheless, we have to recognize Jerome's at Equans, they were able to bring up the margins when we first presented the acquisition in 2023. A few people believed in it, but they've gone very fast indeed. So congratulations on.

Next question comes from Mathieu Robilliard from Barclays.

Good morning, and thank you for this presentation. I had a couple of questions. First, on Equans and the volumes, we find that we have an improvement on the top line on sales in Q2, I believe that there are contracts that have come into force other businesses. But does that reflect the fact that the selection -- the selective process that you started when you acquired Equans is behind us. There are a few unprofitable contracts or does that still make a difference that might -- might that drive down profits this -- for the year at least for the next quarter. Regarding M&As, there have been acquisitions in various businesses, including Equans and on Equans, you may have -- you were more cautious in the past. Are you prepared to make more acquisitions now because you're more confident about the business, the fundamentals or at least your understanding of Equans' growth drivers? And how does that fit in with the fact that -- well, presumably, hopefully, you will be finalizing the deal with SFR. How does that fit in with your debt objectives or at least your rating objectives because I can imagine that the acquisition of the SFR will -- might actually bloat your debt levels. So -- in other words, you moves with Equans restricted because of the SFR project? Or do you feel you have full leeway for acquisitions. And about the energy business, we find that the cost -- the price of oil has been going up, price of electricity, maybe not so much. But -- what is your halving strategy in the telecom business in particular?

All right. Well, thank you. I'll take the second question. You -- Jerome give you details and then in terms of hedging of having, the hedging we've been conducting in -- to cover -- to hedge firm energy prices. And then we'll talk about electricity PPAs. On acquisitions, we will be passing the cap around the room to collect money for the next acquisition. Only kidding. In fact, we want to grow Colas and Equans through acquisitions, the external growth. The reason we do this is either when we want to enter a new market, for instance, in the road business in Germany, where we can just come in from France with our trucks to gain contracts. We have to make acquisitions. So penetration of the new market means you have to engage in M&A. And when you -- well, when we have a denser footprint, then we can grow our business. These are the main drivers you find in terms of which govern acquisitions in Colas and Equans. In Colas, we want to -- well, we acquired Vannoy to be present on the construction business in America. But in as much as our companies have a regular flow of profitable deals a regular level of profit margin, then we create enough value to justify acquisitions. But for Equans, you remember when we acquired Equans we met you in February 2023, we said the profit margin was 2%. We said that by 2020, it will be 5%, you didn't believe us. And then we decided that we would consider acquisitions country by country. Now of course, Equans has been making headway. I mean, initially, they had a pricing issue to be able to ascertain their own weight. And Jerome has done a fine work in climbing up and turning down in a number of contracts. So you had in the initial status where you were tightening the screws and then you move on to situations where you make acquisitions. And so the first stage, maybe you pass up acquisitions. Others do it instead. So that was sort of the dry run. But now Equans is back on track, and it is facing possible acquisitions and others are in the pipeline. But that is part and parcel of course, of Equans' development model. So the acquisition of SFR will not get in the way of Bouygues strategy as regards to Colas and Equans because these are the 2 companies that need a lot of M&As. I mean, Vannoy in itself was not a very costly acquisition. We're talking about EUR 100 million. So that was not very significant. Nonetheless, we certainly expect to keep this power of acquisition, both for Equans and Colas. Regarding the first question now, Mr. Javier's question, yes, on that question as to whether in 2026, we still feel the effects of selectivity. Well, of course, there are a number of businesses we decided to phase out -- and we had actually listed them, especially in Britain, Netherlands and Switzerland, there's still -- we're still being selective on the number of businesses, but we are now looking to a growth path everywhere we can -- everywhere we can do it. Pierre, in terms of hedging on the energy bill because we've been working hard ever since the Ukraine situation in 2022. Yes, on hedging on energy there are 2 aspects for industrial sites and sites where you have -- you consume electricity, gas or coal as is the case in Poland. So where we've been hedging contracts. So about 70% of the contracts are covered by hedging provisions. And of course, the situation in Iran had less impact then the issue of diesel oil. The cost of fuel, of course, this is -- has a major effect on us. We put us, we have 60,000 engines around the world. Many of them are diesel fueled. And so we had to update our markets. We had to pass on some of the cost to our customers. But -- we've been working hard on that. And of course, the market has adapted to various crises, especially public procurements but we were able, in many cases, to renegotiate many of the deals in view of these developments. Thank you. And Benoit about Bouygues Telecom.

Well, the power cost, the energy cost is mostly power cost -- electricity costs in Bouygues Telecom. So we've been hedging our electricity purchases. We have a 70% coverage hedge cover for 2027 and we are working hard on energy efficiency for our radio equipment so that on the radio network, which consumes a lot of electricity, we have locking features that enable us to consume less electricity, and we're working on that as well.

Well, thank you, Benoit. The next question comes from Nicolas Mora from Morgan Stanley.

Good morning, gentlemen. I had 3 questions, starting with Colas. Can you tell us what's going on, we have a rather more complex environment at the beginning of the year in France, things are stable, but there are challenges in North America. So what's the outlook? The shorter metric, we believe, we sense that margin is under pressure. What's being done to address all this? That's question number one. On Vannoy construction, what's the strategy there? I mean how do you propose to grow in the U.S.? We're looking here at residential -- at the residential housing. And on the Equans, I believe you have significant provisions in a volatile context, you said you have one-off items in Q2. Can you give us color on that? And then a final question about data centers. Can you tell us about the group's strategy? I mean, you have -- you have the big contract at AW Edwards in Australia. Bouygues Construction was also present in Australia. In Equans, you have a data center. In the U.S. and you have some data centers showing up in Europe. How is it working? Does the group has offered an integrated solution? And in terms of revenue, how will that translate? -- you're talking anywhere between EUR 800 million and EUR 1 billion. EUR 800 million to EUR 1 billion in 3, 4 years' time. So what sort of revenue you're looking at? .

Let's begin with Colas. I think I need to clarify 1 or 2 points because what you have said is not quite what I think you said. I think the news is a little bit better than you're suggesting. I'm a little surprised by your question, by the way. The first half year at Colas is in line, give or take, EUR 1 million is in line with last year -- same period last year, which was a good year for Colas. So we don't see any particular difficulty. Admittedly, the economic environment is a little turbulent. But it's business as usual. It's always perturbed in one way or another. The only impacts that we referred to at the time was the volume of business in France because of the fact that it's an election year, municipal elections in particular. These are every 5 years. And the year of municipal elections is usually a poor year with a decline in 3% to 5% in terms of the volume of activity. This is what we've observed this year. In fact, the local government budgets are somewhat poor this year than the state does not have a lot of money to spend on its road this year. But this we anticipated, this we've managed and I think we've diversified a number of activities to offset that. But broadly speaking, I would say our half year was good and in line with expectations. I think in practice for roads in Colas in France, we are not giving you an outlook because 20% of Colas' business in France is not in roads. It's in what we call urgent works, particularly urban construction, particularly the thermal islands I've been talking to you about. That's about 20%, which -- that 20% offsets the actual decline in roads but this is not reflected in the figures we've quoted. As for North America, Canada and the U.S.A. are 2 large countries, the market is faring well. I think we've considerably boosted the order intake and backlog up 18% or 19%, particularly thanks to large contracts of over EUR 200 million in Canada. This was the Bradford bypass. It's a greenfield project, a greenfield model project. And in the U.S.A, we have on the West Coast. A number of projects underway are in the pipeline. This is for the interstate motorway. So this is a market that's performing well, a market in which we have our market share. So from my mind, the North America is a good market. So a good buoyant market with a good level of margin. So in practice on North America roads are doing well, as Pierre has said, -- these are markets where the margins are good, bringing now to the way -- Vannoy construction. Pierre Saint-André who's the Head of Bouygues Construction will answer your Vannoy Construction. The acquisition is part of the strategic plan that we have devised, which consists in rebalancing our activities in mature countries. And of course, the U.S.A. is the biggest construction market in the world outside of China. So Vannoy is in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. A. This is the region which has the highest demographic growth in recent years. So demographic growth usually leads to economic growth, which is a good platform for us via Vannoy, which is very well positioned geographically. In Vannoy we're mostly in the field of education, health care, retail and industry. So we're not in the retail segment in the U.S.A. We're also in a region where we have business with Colas with Equans, so potential synergy for all our businesses in this area. So this is a good stepping stone for us in a mature market. Your third question concerns Equans, Stephane -- Stephane, first of all. .

If I can just answer the first part of your question concerning the nonrecurring items that we've referred to these nonrecurring items, as we said, concern the capital gain on the sale of asset-based businesses, the EV charging stations in the Netherlands. As you no doubt will have seen -- the margin in Q2 was 5.6% for Equans. So notwithstanding these nonrecurring items, the recurring margin will be closer to 5.2%. And [indiscernible] will answer the second part of your question, but let me reassure you that the quality of our accounts at Equans is excellent and has been certified by statutory orders have not made any observations. So the whole issue of provisions and writing back provisions in the construction business, their standard. That's power for the course. Of course, booking of provisions on historical contracts, depending on how these contracts advance and we write back provisions even if that sometimes generates a cash outflow but there's nothing unusual about that. Provisioning policy for difficulties is very strict when we identify difficulty once the problem is solved, then we reverse the provision. And to answer your last question about the data center business. In fact, we do not have a perfectly detailed French guard and we operate as our companies are present. And when we have a foothold in Australia, we deal through AD Edwards, 1 were in Europe and France. -- depending on which country we're talking about, we will work with Bouygues Construction and Equans. Sometimes in Italy, our solutions will be led by Equans in the U.S.A. These are solutions that will be driven by Equans. So we react depending on the strength of our foothold and our various businesses in the regional question. This is how we submit tenders and to generate the best possible synergies. Finally, in Finland, for instance, Destia is our business [ Miniboygue ] even if it works with -- through Colas, but Destia is our figure head in Finland. That's how we operate in these different markets. It's to be putted simply in a word, we are very pragmatic about the way we approach markets.