Bureau Veritas SA (BVI) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Welcome to the Bureau Veritas Q3 2025 Revenue. [Operator Instructions] Now I will hand the conference over to the speakers Hinda Gharbi, Chief Executive Officer; and Francois Chabas, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

Good evening to everyone. Welcome to Bureau Veritas' Third Quarter 2025 Revenue Presentation. Thank you for participating today through the webcast or the conference call. I'm joined by Francois Chabas, our Chief Financial Officer. Bureau Veritas has demonstrated another robust performance this quarter. We have continued to make significant progress in implementing our LEAP | 28 strategic framework, leveraging Bureau Veritas diversified and resilient business portfolio and geographical footprint. I'd like to thank our colleagues around the world whose commitment and efforts have contributed to our strong results. Starting with our revenue performance. Our revenue in the third quarter reached EUR 1.6 billion. Our organic revenue growth demonstrated remarkable resilience progressing by a healthy 6.3% against challenging comparables. This performance demonstrates the effectiveness of our strategy and highlights our team's strong execution capabilities. Additionally, we continue to execute our LEAP | 28 active portfolio strategy through targeted acquisitions, accounting for 3.1% of the growth and net of divestments contributing 0.8% to our revenue. These acquisitions are aligned with our portfolio objectives and contribute to further focus our portfolio. As anticipated, the euro strength against most currencies resulted in a negative currency impact of 4.8% for the quarter. Based on our robust year-to-date performance and taking into account our consistent strategy execution, we confirm our 2025 financial outlook. If we look at our mix, there are several key elements I would like to highlight. All geographies and activities demonstrated resilient growth. Three of our core businesses representing 61% of our portfolio, including Building & Infrastructure, Industry and Certification grew mid- to high single digit organically, while Marine & Offshore grew a strong double digits. Geographically, Africa and the Middle East, once again posted a strong organic growth of 15.7%, driven by energy projects and by building an infrastructure activity in the Middle East, specifically. In Asia Pacific, we achieved an 8.6% organic growth with strong performance in South and Southeast Asia. Our performance in China recovered with a high single-digit expansion. Our European operations delivered an organic growth of 5.2%, led by activities in France and Southern Europe. Finally, the Americas region recorded a 1.9% organic growth. Our activities around Buildings & Infrastructure and energy achieved very high growth offsetting softness in Brazil. Excluding Brazil, our growth was over 10%. Let me now update you on our LEAP | 28 strategy and the evolution of our largest business. We have been executing the strategic shift in our B&I portfolio development strategy, which is articulated in three-fold. First, geographically, we used to have 3 main growth platforms: Europe, the United States and China. Our Europe platform is well established, mature outperforming the market, thanks to our resilient portfolio activity, predominantly geared towards the OpEx business. The U.S. is doing well in all subsegments, and we are building on this momentum to keep growing organically and to expand our capabilities inorganically. To offset China that continues to struggle from a lack of public investment, we are assessing new markets around the world. We identified growing opportunities in emerging markets in countries such as Australia, Indonesia or the Middle East. These are growing markets where a buildup of infrastructure and urban facility is ongoing and where we want to continue to expand our services organically and through M&A. Second, we are working on evolving our mix of services by increasing our exposure to infrastructure. One strategic move that perfectly illustrates our growth approach, the acquisition of the APP Group in Australia last year. This transaction expands our geographical presence and enhances our capabilities, gaining critical expertise in project and construction management. Third, we are boosting our digital capabilities. The recent acquisition of IDP in Spain is a good example of what we are currently doing. This company provides building information modeling, project management assistance and digital twin services for public and private companies. Finally, we consider that evolving market trends in the Buildings & Infrastructure space favor specific strategic and high complexity assets that represents an opportunity for growth. Looking at some of these strategic assets, we would like to share with you the progress we have made with our data centers business. The data center construction market is growing significantly at double digits. The overall need for data centers is driven, of course, by increasing demand for cloud services and the rapid AI technology and rapid AI technologies adoption. We are a key player for commissioning and QA/QC, quality assurance, quality control services around the electrical, mechanical, plumbing and control systems that support data centers. The aim of these services is to ensure that the facility delivered the expected performance and required uptime. Our strong technical expertise comes from the acquisition we completed late 2017. We have since multiplied our organic revenue by more than 7x, growing at a CAGR of 28.6%. Over the period, we expanded from 2 to 35 countries. Clients wise, we are expanding from the hyperscalers to Tier 1, 2 and 3 clients. As we look forward, we expect this business to become a critical driver of growth for B&I. I also would like to say that we are looking very closely at such strategic assets as we consider that these are very important markets and target markets for us to expand our B&I activities. Looking now at our inorganic growth across the overall -- the portfolio overall. We are showing good progress on the M&A front with 8 transactions signed or closed this year, representing an annualized revenue of EUR 92 million. As you can see, we have been focused on the new strongholds and the expand leadership streams in line with our LEAP | 28 portfolio plans. Since the beginning of the plan in 2024, we have closed 18 acquisitions, adding over EUR 270 million of annualized revenue. In October 2025, we signed 2 acquisition agreements. The first one, London Building Control, will help us strengthen our market leadership in close compliance in Building & Infrastructure CapEx operations in the U.K. It is a leading Registered Building Control Approver, adding EUR 14 million of revenue. Solida, a company specialized in technical advisory and project management assistance, grid connections, mainly for wind and solar assets, will help us strengthen our capabilities in the fast-growing renewables market. This addition to our portfolio will create a global end-to-end CapEx platform serving our clients. This company generated EUR 18 million in 2024. I will now hand over to Francois for the financial review for our Q3 revenue.

Thank you, Hinda. Good afternoon to everyone. Starting with the revenue bridge on the slide. As you can see, we delivered above EUR 1.58 billion in the third quarter, with an organic growth of 6.3%. The scope part of the growth added 0.8% on a net basis. It reflects the impact of the bolt-on acquisition on the one hand, those ones realized in the past few quarters. We're looking here about roughly plus 3.1% in accretion in terms of revenue. And second, the offset or the partial offset by the disposal of our food testing business, which has been initiated at the end of last year, as you may remember, and that we have now completed in July this year. ForEx represents a drag of minus 4.8%. This is mainly attributed to the strength of the euro versus most currencies. In line with what we had already indicated in July to you on the call, we can model that the full year FX impact for 2025 should be negative by around 4%. So no major changes on that front. Overall, in the quarter, we posted a total growth of 2.3% on a net reported basis. If we take a step back now on the first 9 months of the year, we delivered robust organic growth for the period at 6.6%, reinforcing our commitment to consistent expansion across the markets. On a reported basis, the growth achieved 4.5%. And again, here, taking into account on the scope part, on the one hand, the acquisition, which have contributed 3.2% and the partial offset by disposal at minus 2.1%. So the net is the one you see on the page at 1.1%-plus for the first 9 months of the year. If we look now at the growth by business, both on an organic point of view and a scope point of view. Four divisions delivered double-digit growth at constant currency. We demonstrate the relevance and good execution of our strategy roadmap. I would like to focus on 2 main divisions here. First, the growth of our Building & Infrastructure division, it's particularly noteworthy, and it fully highlights the combined effect of -- on the one hand, a solid earning growth momentum, coupled with the positive impact of our recent acquisitions. As highlighted earlier by Hinda, we delivered 10.8% growth, scope and organic in the first 9 months, constant currency. So it starts to be the materialization of the change of our portfolio mix when it comes to Building & Infrastructure. The second element I would like to draw your attention upon is the Agri-Food & Commodities division, which is in contraction at constant currency. The organic reflects the now fully completed divestment of our food testing activity. Organic aggregates growth is 4.2% in the first 9 months, and it reflects different dynamic of processes. Here again, we see the pivot between Building & Infrastructure on one hand and Agri-Food and Commodities on the other hand. So these 2 examples illustrates our active portfolio management success so far. This dynamic will continue as we execute our inorganic plan. On a side note, to support this M&A strategy, we have just completed a structuring financial operation. As at the end of September, we issued a bond for EUR 700 million, leveraging on our A3 Moody's rating to face attractive market conditions at the time. I'll now hand over back to Hinda for the portfolio business highlights of the quarter.

Thanks, Francois. Starting with Marine & Offshore, our top performing division with 16.2% organic growth in the third quarter. The market remains strong, enabled by the modernization of the global maritime fleet. This growth dynamic is reflected in our year-to-date new orders reaching 12.3 million gross tons and expanding our order book to 32 million gross tons for the year, a significant 19.3% increase year-to-date versus last year. By segment, we have achieved a double-digit growth in new construction, primarily driven by accelerated delivery in key Asian markets, specifically here, China and Korea. Core in-service activities or OpEx activities have also shown robust growth, delivering high single-digit expansion from both volumes and pricing benefits. In our commitment to sustainable maritime innovation, we were selected to classify and certify 6 dual fuel utilizing LNG container ships for a major French shipping company, and we also secured 4 LNG carriers with dual fuel systems for a Greek shipowner. Moving to the Agri-Food & Commodities segment. It delivered a low single-digit organic growth at 2.5% this quarter with contracting trends among subsegments. Oil & Petrochemicals showed low single-digit growth with European markets gradually recovering, and marine fuel assessments providing additional growth momentum. The Metals & Minerals, however, continued to deliver high single-digit expansion driven by strong precious metals and laboratory volumes -- homesite laboratory volume increases across the Middle East, Europe and the United States. With the recent acquisition of GeoAssay in Chile and with our existing network, we're strategically positioned to capitalize on the copper market fast growth. Agri activities experienced organic revenue contraction impacted by underperforming activities in Latin America and operational disruptions linked to the war in Ukraine. Government Services achieved mid-single-digit organic growth through contract ramp-ups in Africa and Asia. Finally, I'm pleased to report, as Francois was mentioning, that the divestment of our food testing activities is now complete. On the green object front, we have successfully secured an on-site laboratory outsourcing project for a sustainable aviation fuel producer in the United States. Turning to Industry. We have achieved a robust 6.9% organic growth in the third quarter against what I would consider very soft comparable at over 20% with our 9 months organic performance, reaching 10.4%. In our Oil & Gas segment, we have delivered consistent double-digit organic growth. Our CapEx activities have shown strong performance with a solid backlog conversion of projects mostly in the Middle East and Asia. The Power & Utilities segment recorded double-digit organic revenue expansion. Our services for the renewable energy sector have been particularly strong in the North American and Asian markets. Nuclear power subsegment has delivered also robust organic results with emerging opportunities, especially as we progress in onboarding our new business, the Dornier Hinneburg acquisition we completed last quarter for decommissioning-related services. For Industrial Product Certification, we posted high single-digit organic growth. This performance was powered by strong momentum in European and U.S. markets and the rollout of innovative digital tools for machinery or machine safety. For green objects, we were selected for -- by a construction management services contract for -- sorry, for construction management services contract for a renewable energy developer delivering 125-megawatt solar and 280-megawatt battery energy storage system in California. Additionally, we were awarded a 3-year contract to help a Spanish energy company detect, quantify and set up fugitive emission reduction plans. Moving on to Buildings & Infrastructure. This business was among the strongest performing ones within the portfolio this quarter, reaching an organic growth of 7.1% and achieving 4.1% growth in the first 9 months. By subsegments, our CapEx Building segment delivered high single-digit organic revenue increase. The U.S. platform was a critical growth driver in the quarter with strong growth in data center commissioning from the ongoing buildup of AI infrastructure. The U.S. activity was further strengthened by increased permitting for new buildings, positively lifting the code compliance activity. The Asia Pacific region also delivered strong organic growth through increased code compliance activities in Northeast Asia, namely Japan, from favorable new buildings control regulations. On the OpEx Building services segment side, performance was solid overall, up mid-single digits organically in the third quarter. France contributed significantly to growth through an increased volume of services, favorable pricing programs and increased activity from energy efficiency-related projects. In the U.S., real estate transaction-related services performed very well, driven by a pickup in commercial real estate transactions. Lastly, Business & Infrastructure delivered high single-digit organic revenue increase in the quarter. Strong growth in Europe from sustained projects in Italy, where we have seen the government sustain their investments there. In the Middle East region, we also recorded very strong organic growth across key markets with the developments of numerous large-scale projects. Lastly, we're building a good basis for sustained organic growth with the APP Group in Australia, where we secured in Q3, a major multiyear project management services contract with the Department of Defense. In transition services, we are partnering with the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group to expand resilient verification services globally. Our Certification division delivered solid results in Q3, achieving 5.9% organic growth despite tough comparables and a strong 7.7% growth year-to-date. This performance reflects the solid trends underlying assurance services, risk management and mitigation imperatives are driving many services, specifically supply chain resilience activity and overall specialized schemes are growing. Breaking down our different subsegments' revenue growth. For the Quality, Health, Safety and the Environment & Specialized Schemes, growth was high single digit on an organic basis, driven by customized certification programs and robust public sector contracts, particularly in food safety inspections. Sustainability & Digital Solutions delivered double-digit growth to a high demand for greenhouse gas verification, forestry services, ESG audits and cybersecurity services. We also continue to expand our customer base in cyber. So recently, we secured a cybersecurity contract with a major social media company in the United States. In transition services, we secured a substantial Life Cycle Assessment contract with a major energy company in the Middle East. We also won a sustainability reporting contract for a large for an international pharma company, providing specialized consulting on Scope 3 emissions and data management. Finally, our Consumer Products Services division posted a solid 3.5% organic growth in Q3 against very tough comparable, leading to a 4.1% year-to-date performance. By subsegments, Softlines, Hardlines and Toys recorded low single-digit growth driven by South and Southeast Asia as Western companies gradually shift their sourcing from China mostly. Our Healthcare, Beauty & Household delivered double-digit growth, driven by favorable dynamics in the United States and a strong performance in the Chinese domestic market. Supply Chain & Sustainability services recorded high single-digit growth with CSR audits, benefiting from increased demand for new supply qualification as the sourcing shift progresses across Asia. Technology remained stable with mixed performance, facing challenges in wireless and mobility products, but benefiting from favorable trends in the electrical consumer area. The ongoing diversification of this business is progressing well, as recent acquisitions start to contribute to organic growth. On the transition services front, we won -- in Q3, we had a strategic global partnership and the commitment to supply chain. We secured a significant contract with a multinational clothing retailer for supplier data management. We also won an eco-design and Life Cycle Assessment verification project with a global industrial technology leader. Turning now to the outlook. Considering our robust 9-month performance, the solid backlog and taking into account the strong underlying market fundamentals and again, in line with the LEAP | 28 financial ambition, we confirm our full year 2025 outlook and expect to deliver mid- to high single-digit organic revenue growth, improvement in adjusted operating margin at constant exchange rates and a strong cash flow with cash conversion above 90%. Coming to the end of this prepared remarks and to conclude, this is another quarter we're delivering an excellent operational performance while navigating complex market dynamics and with challenging comparables versus last year. This performance is a testament to the consistent and reliable execution led by our teams and to the clear strategic priorities for the whole organization. I'm also pleased on the strategy execution front as we progress with our portfolio pivots, while also modernizing our ways of working and while building a differentiated people model. We're also fully committed to progressing on our portfolio transformation in the coming months and year as we accelerate our M&A program. Finally, we'll continue to navigate an evolving macro and market conditions. We remain confident as to the strength of our market fundamentals, the superior capabilities of our people and teams and the resilience of our portfolio. Thank you for your attention. Francois and I are now ready to answer your questions.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Annelies Vermeulen from Morgan Stanley.

Hinda and Francois, I have 3 questions, please. Just firstly, on the structural reorganization you announced at the H1, it sounds like that is progressing, but any comments there on how that has progressed in the quarter? I think previously you spoke about starting to see some payback on that in the first half of '26. So just curious if that's still the case. Secondly, on B&I, it sounds like it was a fairly broad-based recovery. But are there any particular end markets or geographies that you would call out in terms of driving that very significant sequential improvement, such as data centers? And are there any one-offs that boosted that growth in Q3 in particular? And then lastly, just on China, just what you're seeing on the ground across your divisions in China, if you're seeing anything sequentially improve or deteriorate relative to the first half?

All right. Thank you, Annelies. Yes, thank you for the question on the reorg. It's -- as it was mentioned, in July, we launched the first phase of the reorganization in June, so that was for our executive committee. The team is in place. We launched the Phase 2 for the next player in September, and that team is basically in place. We work through the summer. That team is in place and working on Phase 3. What's really good is there is clear alignment across the organization as to the value of this organization. Just to remind you, it's about scale, structure and speed. It's about our capacity to make sure that we can actually execute even faster our organization. It's about making sure we boost our cross-selling, our global sales, we scale faster new businesses and we integrate better as we are in this dynamic of acquisition and portfolio pivoting. So, so far, I would say, so good. And we'll continue to monitor how that progresses. I think the payback is, as I said, actually, last time I believe you asked me that question, this wasn't a new program. This is something we have thought through since we were building the strategy and we have baked in the fact that we'll have this organization done in 2025. And therefore, we consider that the impact is within the commitments and ambitions of LEAP | 28. Going to B&I. We're very pleased with the performance of B&I in Q3. You're right, it's a great recovery. I would say, first of all, I think the North American market has delivered really nicely. And you have seen, right, it's a high single-digit growth in CapEx overall, and we've seen good performance on the infrastructure and also a very decent performance on the OpEx. The North American market has done very well. We have seen growth across all subsegments. Data center is doing great. The market is growing double digits, and we're growing with the market. Code compliance started to recover now with the interest rates starting to come down. Commercial transactions picked up. And we have, I would say, overall, there is a good momentum on the B&I side in the United States. China is finally hitting a trough. As you recall, we have been suffering from contraction -- ongoing contraction of that market. So finally, China now were starting to stabilize. And at the same time, we have the emerging markets. I talked about picking up great performance in our Middle East business. Southeast Asia, some countries there as well. So we're seeing a very nice emerging markets growth. And then finally, the mature business of Europe is actually doing well as well. As I mentioned earlier, good volumes, reasonable pricing in some parts of it, particularly France and some good projects on the energy management. So I would say across, it's a broad performance. And not a surprise, Annelies, for us because we predicted this for the simple reason that we are executing our strategy on the B&I side and expecting to see this. And what's even nicer is now, if I look at -- if I take the organic growth and the scope, we are basically growing 10.8% at constant currency, and that really is going to be a very nice foundation for growth going forward. I'm going to ask Francois to comment on China.

Yes. On China, I think, as you know, we are exposed when it comes to most of our product or business lines, so Certification and Industry, Marine & Offshore, Consumer Products and B&I. From a sequential point of view, I think we are quite positive and optimistic about China. It used to be growing in H1 around mid-single. It now contributes in Q3 between mid to high. So we are actually seeing an acceleration of growth overall as a geography, point one. Point two, very important to us the solvability of clients is as good as it has been. So meaning, we don't see any cash restriction whatsoever coming from our client base, which is a very important element to us when it comes to operating in this country. The dynamic by segment, very rapidly, the -- you have obviously an outlier, which is the Marine & Offshore division, which the fact that the shipyards are concentrating in China is actually -- if I said double digit, it's almost an understatement. So it's very good. The Certification business as well is very solid. Industry in which we are very much exposed to renewable energy is -- remains very, very strong. And I think overall, what we see is the B&I China remains a drag, but less and less as time goes by. And our Consumer Product business, despite all what you can read on the newspaper from supply chain shift and so on, maintains a good growth on a year-to-date basis. So overall, I think we see China very positive.

The next question comes from Suhasini Varanasi from Goldman Sachs.

A few for me, please. I think the Q3 number, given the tougher comps, was actually a very strong print and you're having easier competitors going into Q4. Is there any reason to suggest that the underlying momentum that you've seen year-to-date should not continue over the next quarter? And maybe specifically on Marine & Offshore, it continues to surprise on the upside. Order book also continues to grow double digits. Can you maybe help us understand what has surprised you positively? Because I think previously, you have been talking about a potential slowdown. Is that getting pushed out further and further, basically?

Yes. Thanks, Suhasini. You're absolutely right. I think this was a strong performance in Q3, considering that last year we grew 13% in Q3. And let's remember as well, Q4, we grew 10%. So very, very strong performance last year. So the comparables are quite tough. Having said that, I think we're confirming our outlook because we think we have a solid basis with our backlog, with our projects, with the visibility on our execution and with the team that we expect that to -- we're reasonably confident on that. Of course, I cannot be very specific on the current trend, but we had a good exit of September. We have good visibility on the project. So we expect that Q4 will deliver and confirm the outlook for the year, considering again, that 10% growth last year. So I would say we don't expect surprises on that front. On the M&O side. Look, it has been a good performance, very good performance. Maybe a little bit beyond what we expected because we were modeling that the performance of the shipyards was not going to be as strong as what we expected, what we actually -- what turned out to be. And that's why we've always modeled that we will see some moderation because at some point, 2 things will work against you, one, the capacity, you're not going to keep converting. You don't have that capacity. And two, your comparables are getting tougher, right? And -- but actually, the performance of the shipyard has been very good to the point that the conversion was much faster than what we predicted. Now a few times, I said I'll expect it to happen in the next quarter, and it didn't materialize. So I would say now we're sitting in a space where we think that probably won't be the same level of growth, but we will have to watch how the shipyards perform. We also are monitoring whether there will be some capacity additions for the shipyards in China. And if that's the case, then we could see some reasonable momentum maintained. I wouldn't commit to exactly the same performance you've seen in Q3, but some reasonable momentum. It all depends how many hours are added, how quickly they come up to speed, and that's really extremely hard to predict. But look, great performance this year for -- from our M&O teams and the backlog, as I said, is 32 million gross tons. So it's not going to go anywhere when we expect it to be executed at some point [indiscernible].

The next question comes from Geoffroy Michalet from ODDO BHF.

Yes. Congratulations for the strong results. Three for me. The first one is on your Consumer business. The Tech division is rather subdued for quite a while now. My question is, when do you expect the turnaround? Do you think it will take more than 1 year? That was the first question. The second question is on certification and notably the other solutions, including training that were negative this quarter. Could you elaborate a bit on that? And the third question is on capital allocation and the pipeline. We still haven't seen mid to large M&A deals, so do you feel more pressure to bring back cash to shareholders with the new share buyback?

Yes. Thank you, Geoffroy, for the questions. Look, CPS tech, I think we've been extremely clear that we had a portfolio that was misaligned with the trends of the market. And if you recall, we talked about the fact that the wireless and automotive side or the mobility side, as we call it, were really -- they were suffering from their own market conditions and the demand has fallen. And what we -- as we examine that and worked on the portfolio, we knew that we needed to do a few things. One, diversify geographically because we were quite heavy on the kind of Asia mix. And two, we needed to diversify and ensure that we expand our capabilities in the electrical appliances side, specifically around the world. Which is what we have been doing is, we made an acquisition in Mexico. We have made an acquisition more recently in Brazil. We have acquisitions in Korea and we have acquisitions in India. So all these are coming together. And my expectations on the turnaround, I think a good 12 months is probably a reasonable time line to really work through and as all these businesses get onboarded, integrated and we start seeing some impact. But it's true, it has been a drag on the overall performance of CPS, of our Consumer Product Services division, and we're watching that very, very closely. Look, on -- Francois, do you want to take certification...

Yes. You had a very good high here. Let's say, training -- to make your life simple, training grew mid-single. And the other section that we mentioned, represents the contraction of EUR 2.8 million out of EUR 1.6 billion business. So we guarantee you a one-to-one with Laurent Brunelle so that you have a full extent explanation of this slight contraction. I would not overread it, if you see what I mean.

All right. Thanks, Francois. Look, on the capital allocation side and M&A, and thank you for that question. I think it's a very important one. As you have seen on the bolt-on side, we're not into a number game. We're really into a quality of target game where we have very, very specific gaps, both geographically and from a capabilities perspective, and we are filling in these gaps very carefully and very deliberately. So the bolt-on track, if you will, is working, and we're pleased with the acquisitions we're making. And see, the key thing with this small bolt-ons is the scaling across the group because that, for me, is a very important dynamic for us to profoundly change how the portfolio is working and to make sure we deliver on our commitment. So that's the first track. The second track of the midsized ones, the 100 to 500. The pipeline is good. There are opportunities we're very focused on. We have engagements ongoing, and we have discussions ongoing. Now there are a couple of things to keep in mind when we talk about these targets, obviously dealing -- it is a very rich private equity space. So the pace and the -- I guess, the exit of these deals may vary, may take some time. And that's really what we are working on. So you have seen us right, Francois talks about the EUR 700 million bond we issued recently. We're preparing ourselves for the ongoing discussion to make sure that as they materialize, we're very well prepared to finance that. So I think a good description of where we are today is slight I would say, sure about what we're doing on the bolt-ons, and we're working really to focus their integration and scaling. On the midsize, we are preparing ourselves, and we're engaging with a number of targets. And as I said, in the coming months and year, we expect that we will materialize. And all this -- very important to mention, these are very important pivots we're making with some of these midsized acquisitions we're working on, so we can prepare our portfolio to be future-facing. So this is absolutely about remaking a portfolio that will be resilient in the future, building our new strongholds, be it in the renewable space, be it in low carbon, I would say, be it in very strategic space in the B&I, I talked about strategic assets before, be it in cyber, be it in sustainability. This is really what we're looking at or consumers have potentially. So these are the kind of things we're focused on. So there is no confusion as to what we want to do. And we've always also said, just to come back on the share buyback and the shareholder returns, that when the time is right, we will consider share buybacks. And just for kind of clarity, we have done 2 share buybacks in the last 18 months, I think it was 18 months. And those are the only 2 share buybacks the companies have ever made. So I think there is no shyness from our perspective to consider that, but we want to make sure that we're really at this point, privileging the M&A because [indiscernible] finally remake the portfolio.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from François Digard from Kepler Cheuvreux.

Congratulations for the figures. Sorry to just point on the only negative points, that is Brazil. It has been a drag on your performance in the Americas. Is this primarily driven by macro factors or are there company-specific issues that play here?

Thank you, Francois, for the question. It's a fair question. Look, Brazil is a very important country in our portfolio. There are a number of dynamics. There are some operational issues we had specifically on our agri activity. Market is good, really operational issues. And the second one were more project delays. And this is very important because on the sales front, we're doing well. We're securing deals, and we're working on these deals, and that goes from B&I to Industry. But on the execution side, customers for a variety of reasons, they have projects being a little delayed. I don't think it's a trend overall in the market. We haven't seen major economic concerns at this point, but we're seeing some of these delays. And we are, of course, working on mitigating, looking at other revenue streams and trying to make sure we are managing all this. So I would say a bit of a disappointment for us, I have to say, this quarter, but an area we are extremely focused on, and we have a number of actions to address that.

The next question comes from Arnaud Palliez from CIC Market Solutions.

Yes. I have, in fact, just last specific one. Regarding the nuclear segment that you mentioned as a solid performer in power and utilities. So I would like to know, what is your exposure to this business? And in which countries you have some presence and how much of your total revenue does it represent? Because it's a sector that is seeing a revival. And I think it's interesting to get your real exposure to this trend.

Yes. Thank you for that question. I think you're absolutely right. I think the nuclear space is a bit of in a revival. Now what's nice about our portfolio, we have quite a broad portfolio in nuclear. And of course, we have a very nice anchor of our portfolio in France, right? We've been a long-term player in France, and that helped us build very nice capabilities. Now what we're seeing here, what's important, though, to keep in mind, it's a long cycle business. And today, it just it represents circa 1% of the group. So it's not massive yet in scale. But definitely, we're watching very carefully the pipeline that is being built up. And we have already worked with other European countries. U.K. is one of them to mention. What's nice now is because of the needs in terms of energy and power and because of the concerns around decarbonization, nuclear is a bit in vogue at the moment. So there are a number of countries that are building up plans. There are a number of companies that are coming up with the investment proposals, and we are really engaging with all of these. So our idea here is, one, is to scale the capabilities we have in France; and two, to expand our capabilities. So the first move we've made was the acquisition of the Dornier Hinneburg company in Germany, which gives us access to the decommissioning market. Very nice market in places like Germany and certainly others as we go forward. It also has capabilities in training. And we are now looking geographically how do we expand. So Eastern European countries, there's some South Indian continent countries. There are also capabilities probably we can do in the U.S. So it's -- I guess, it's a long game, but it's a business we're very interested in. And in a way, if I step back a little bit, nuclear is just part of the puzzle of energy that we're trying to build. We have a strong position in oil and gas. We have strong position -- we are building a strong position in renewables, nuclear's part of it, and we're really expanding that. So it's not a surprise in a way. It's going to take a while, though. I'm trying to be cautious in terms of time because these deals take from 5 to 10 years, I would say, rather than 5.

The next question comes from James Rowland Clark from Barclays.

My first question is, once again, you sort of flagged some of the price opportunities that you put through in a couple of segments. So I just wondered if you could talk more broadly about price versus volume trends in the third quarter and how that compares year-to-date? And what the opportunity looks like for pushing more price through on to clients in the near term? Secondly, on consumer, you mentioned that in Softline, Hardline and Toys, supply chain shifts have been a bit of a headwind to your growth. A key peer to you is saying that it's actually a tailwind for them. So I just wondered what it is about your mix that makes it a headwind for you? And then finally, just on data centers, thanks very much for the color there. I just wondered if data center work is accretive to your B&I margin.

Yes, yes. So look, let me start with the data centers. So data centers for us are really what we call machine-critical assets, right? These are beyond all the hype on the AI. It's basically objects that need very high performance specifications. And therefore, the kind of services we do and the specialization we have developed in services with commissioning are very high-tick intensity businesses. So we're not peripheral to the data centers. We're at the core of the performance delivery of these constructions. So it's a very important business. It's high barriers to entry, very complex and very specific expertise and therefore, highly accretive to the group margin not only to B&I. So very, very good business there. On the CPS side, on the consumer side, just to clarify, I think I might have -- maybe it wasn't clear, that the supply chain is rather a tailwind for us because we see the sourcing shift as an opportunity to requalify suppliers. And we had a lot of engagements with customers who actually see it as an opportunity to question some of their practices, some of their suppliers, some of their choices. So I would say it's not a headwind for us. And in fact, the growth was high single digit on the supply chain side. Where we had lower growth was on the actual testing activity in terms of Softlines, Hardlines & Toys. And there, first of all, the comparables are very, very difficult versus last year. That was one. And we were quite -- we're not surprised by the performance there. We expect it to be in the kind of low single digit there this quarter. But no, we don't consider supply chain as a headwind. It's rather a tailwind at this time. And the other thing to keep in mind is we have actually done some of these moves in the past, and we're quite well practiced to do them. We've done that in 2018 with the first Trump administration. With the sourcing shifts, we were able to build a learning curve there on how to quickly come up to speed. We're expanding today our capabilities in Southeast Asia seeing that sourcing shift happening. We're diversifying our services as well in the supply chain, so we can help beyond the traditional kind of basic audits you do. So it's really -- it's a normative performance, I would say, on CPS. But I expect it to be a good foundation for us as we build momentum and as we increase -- as we actually develop our portfolio. And just to be clear, we have been also acquiring companies. And year-to-date, the growth of consumer products at constant currency, including acquisitions is 6.4%. I'm going to pass -- Francois is going to talk about the price versus volume clarity.

James, from the price volume front, I would say, by and large, very limited change compared to the H1 situation. Primarily, the growth is driven by volume to 1/3 of it, 1/3 is being priced, very limited contribution of high inflation in various geographies. So 2/3, 1/3 remains where we sit at the end of September year-to-date. When it comes to further pricing and the adjustment or pricing opportunities, I think the situation is now well ingrained into our European and American operation when it comes to being able to pass inflation. But we are currently developing or, let's say, running out pricing programs by segments or by division, by [indiscernible] if you prefer. We did it 2 years ago in Marine & Offshore with good successes. We are now entering the game for Building & Infrastructure. So whether it compensates for lower inflation at some point in 1 or 2 years or whether it creates moment on the top line, it's too early to say at this stage. But we are not giving up on being able to have a pricing component that is part and parcel of our growth trajectory.

There are no more questions at this time. So I hand the conference back to the speakers for closing remarks.

Right. Thank you. Thank you, everyone, for your time and questions. I think we delivered a very robust performance against very challenging comparables. I hope we shared with you -- what we shared with you show that we are actively working on transforming our portfolio, and we are really in the middle of that. And I hope you understand now better how we are shaping this new portfolio and how we are building businesses that are resilient and will be future-facing. And that, we will be in the coming months and year coming back with more clarity on that as we accelerate our M&A. Thank you very much.