Eiffage SA (EFGSY) Earnings Call Transcript

Good evening all, and welcome to this presentation of the half year results of Eiffage. As you have seen in the opening of the project of the substation [indiscernible] for the wind farm [indiscernible] and the Baltic Sea implemented by consortium HSM Offshore Energy, smolders and IV. The new-how of [indiscernible] and the smallest are very complementary, and we have we have the opportunity to reacquire [indiscernible], while we had already 4 projects in common and that the teams noted the well. This acquisition strengthens our presence as constructure on the market of substations very dynamic in Europe. Let's move to the highlights of the first half year. It went very well according to our expectations and confirms our outlook for 2025. As expected, organic growth goes on to contribute to the growth of the group, plus the external growth. As announced, the Construction division, in spite of a downturn at the first quarter is back to growth as of end of June. This half year signs again a very strong growth in Europe outside of France, to a rate of 17.4%. Commercial activity remains important all our business lines. The recovery plans in some countries in Europe, especially in Germany, will absolutely support and amplifying the development of our activities. The strong multiannual visibility acquired last year remains present. As illustrated by our order book always its highest and which has been strengthened the game. Construction side, the offer was marked by intake of orders, very diversified in size in all of our countries of operation. Good example of emblematic contract, the design build project of Frontex headquarters in Poland. 69,000 square meters building that will welcome 2,000 employees. Project will there on the expertise of the for Polish subsidiary of [indiscernible], who is working there for over 35 years in this country. The teams of Eiffage and [indiscernible] were entrusted the implementation of Eco District of [indiscernible] in [indiscernible], an ancient disused site of 5 actors that will leave the place to a new borrow with 450 housing units, landscaped areas, shops and economic activities. EFS Construction was entrusted [indiscernible] in contract the design building of Institute of Biology and Pathology of Bordeaux on the hospital of [indiscernible]. The now Institute of the surface of over 16,000 square meters will have labs, offices and storage areas. [indiscernible] global specialist in drug delivery devices devoted to as construction, the implementation of its new production sites, 7,000 square meters in [indiscernible] team. heating, ventilation, air conditioning will be carried out by Eiffage Energy System. Eiffage was entrusted far Gentil won the market of securing the 22 against the [indiscernible] by the construction of 300 meters of [indiscernible] tunnels on several parts of the existing channel of Borne in [indiscernible]. [indiscernible] Energy System won the contract of modernization of the [indiscernible] tunnel on [indiscernible], linking [indiscernible]. Projects [indiscernible] the replacement of switch ports for low voltage cables and ventilation system and implementation of maintenance, predictive maintenance capacities. Works will be made at night off-peak hours for a minimal impact on traffic. In Spain, [indiscernible] won the contract of construction of 250-megawatt Cabra powerhouses and 50-megawatt Oliver for an amount of EUR 134 million. The turnkey project integrates the provision of main equipments, infrastructures of linking to high voltage as well as the services of exploitation and maintenance. Our Spanish teams also were on the maintenance of installation of climatization and airports of Malaga, Grenada, and [indiscernible], [indiscernible] the efficiency of the systems. This project foresees also the maintenance of various infrastructures, including high-voltage low-voltage and auxiliary systems. Eiffage Energy Systems also strengthen its position as a leader in the health system in Spain with the contract of maintenance of center of health of [indiscernible] Universal. This [indiscernible] audits on all the centers in order to increase the energy efficiency of the establishments. X-ray systems maintenance has also been reconducted extended. As announced last week, if Gene system won several major contracts in Germany since the beginning of the year. consolidating its position of player -- first rank player in the area of energy services. First half year, the order intake in the country is at EUR 950 million among the many contracts of first half year, ACOs won the market for the construction of high-voltage lines, replacement of cables on 31 kilometers between Philippsburg and [indiscernible]. Globally speaking, on all of the businesses of the works of the group, the order book is end of '25 -- G5 is growing by 4%, confirming its good visibility on medium and long term. Let's get to the activity. The revenues of the group is growth again at plus 8.4%, enjoying organic growth and also the support of external growth in 4 contributing to the strengthening of the European meshing, especially in Germany. In France, family delivered the project grouping a foster hotel, housing units, shops, parking Parking and [indiscernible], the works were devoted to [indiscernible], project within the project of revitalization of the city. In Belgium, as construction delivered at the center of Brussels, the new headquarters of the Belgian television, a building of 38,000 square meters for 18 studios. Matching the technical acoustic energy challenges of the media, which is in full transformation. [indiscernible], we laid the foundation stone of the new headquarters of Defense, 4,000 employees and it will be almost neutral in carbon. Ceremony was the presence of the Ministry of Defense here on screen for the kicking off of the works, the site opposing the headquarter nature will be operational in 2028. In Switzerland, [indiscernible] Construction delivered the Tivoli Garden project, 110,000 square meters of floor area 45 housing units, 5 buildings, 2 towers of 19 floors, our parking spaces, offices and commercial premises. On the road, the new factory LEA inaugurated in July in Peru is making plant-based asphalt mixes to increase the combination of the road industry. Production of binders and emulsions attended by the group was made in small quantities and now we'll be moving to the industrial scale. Since 2016, leads several experimentation on roads and motorways everywhere in France and has developed a whole range of plant-based asphalt mixes. Another illustration of the evolution of the businesses of the road a demonstration -- full-size demonstration inspired by the concept echoes. On the portion of the road to San Jose, our teams implemented a 100% road, which is permeable. In the case of heavy rain, the rain is stored in the reservoir before infiltrating the water table. This realization is a new generation of urban infrastructure. combining technical performance, sustainability and adaptation to climate change. Civil engineering, our teams integrated an unit of primary settling unit in [indiscernible] the largest in Europe, enabling to process waste water for 6 million inhabitants. In Montpelier, we made a cycle of gallery 400 meters long with secure lanes to improve the urban mobility. This project regulated by the [indiscernible] will be totally transformed to soft mobilities participating to the creation of a new regulation. In the framework of the renewal market of truck equipment, our teams are [indiscernible] on the LGV Atlantic and LGV, Southeast Europeans. -- works are made special at night as to preserve the traffic of TVs [indiscernible]. Some equipment may be 220 meters long. On the project of APR of Panel, the earthworks that have been launched at the beginning of the year now reached 1.2 million of cubic meter. The first of the seawall at Sea work started March '25 are almost finalized. Over 2,200 grouped Cubic concrete blocks are made now. 14,000 blocks will be prefabricated on site to implement the double shell that will recover the the seawall to protect it from the well. The 21st phase of the connection [indiscernible], meeting the south part of the new train stations are now finished. Our client now can switch trucks and transfer the traffic on this platform so that we can restart, resume the work of construction of the northern part in September '26. This phasing enables to maintain an ongoing service during works. In Germany, the rail teams implemented works of renovation of the trucks on 11 kilometers of the trucks between [indiscernible], an essential line to link the local population to the capital city of Berlin. And in Norway, the motorway project it reached 90% of progress. Access already made tunnels on board. As you see, the deck of the cable state bridge is being fabricated, manufactured right now. The second of the [indiscernible] of the future wind park and Golf Julian is assembled by [indiscernible], [indiscernible] 16 kilometers offshore. This will produce the consumption of a city of 50,000 inhabitants. The capital bridge has been commissioned beginning of last week and the new step of the [indiscernible] Express. This bridge manufactured in Eiffage [indiscernible] replacing a 100-year-old bridge. [indiscernible] finalized the facets on the refurbishing of the further headquarters of RTF in Paris. Teams finalized over 10,000 square meters of face in aluminum blocks and the framework of the enlargement of the [indiscernible] also adds manufactured by fresh construction. Our teams in Belgium are transforming the [indiscernible] port in a smart space implementing 100 sensors IoT and a new software structure to optimize the communication of the connected devices. Besides an efficient functioning operation of the port, sensors enabling energy monitoring, enabling also the management of waste and enabling fire detection. In Spain, we started the installation of a new storage system with recycled batteries in the sun farm of [indiscernible]. In this framework, new batteries and used batteries coming from electric cars are used in parallel. The challenge is to analyze the performance and the behavior of the recycled [indiscernible] compared to new batteries contributing to the promotion and development of [indiscernible] economy. [indiscernible] Construction Association with Joe, [indiscernible] open tower at [indiscernible] built in 2002. It has been totally restructured and raised. The project washed a requalification of this building IGH with a lateral extension on 26 levels and a hiding on 3 stores. In Marseille, the new gel of [indiscernible] has also been delivered following 4 years of work by [indiscernible] Construction, [indiscernible]. Market was about the demolition of the jail for men as well as the design construction and development of a new gel on the same place. Data Center of the American Group Cloud HQ in lease has inaugurated June '25. With its future extension to become the largest data center in Europe, construction and equipment of this building have been made by [indiscernible] and [indiscernible] 2.5 years. The waste heat produced by this data center will be made available by Grand Paris Sud, who will develop a heating network to fuel 7,000 housing units in 3 months. as construction finalized the transformation of the former headquarter of the newspaper [indiscernible], transforming into 48 housing units of high-standing, ambitious projects meeting the iconic facets of [indiscernible] of this building. This operation was made by [indiscernible] System in charge of the electricity for this project. [indiscernible] system contributed to the Barracuda program with the implementation of welcoming infrastructure and all the electrical infrastructure for conversion of energy for the power of the submarines, on screen, the integration of July 4 by the Minister of the Army on the [indiscernible] base of [indiscernible] which will be for the maintenance of Barracuda type nuclear attack summaries. It was an occasion to commemorate the the commissioning of the submarine travel. In the U.K., on HS2, the teams of [indiscernible] have finalized installation of the 16 prefabricated beams of the [indiscernible] of 94 meters. It was a challenge since those 20 meters beams, 30 tons were brought from Ireland and needed the use of a 600-tonne crane. Beyond this organic growth, we have continued our development, external development. During the first half year, 25, we acquired 6 companies, all active in energy services. As alluded to in the opening of my speech, we have finalized the acquisition of HSM Offshore Energy in the Netherlands, provider of integrated solution of engineering, construction, installation, especially in the electrical systems, mechanical systems for the wind farms, offshore wind farms. This company specialized in the specific structures for emerging markets as the capture and storage of carbon and the production of hydrogen. In the area of Rotterdam, this company generates a revenue of EUR 300 million and employs 140 people. By the acquisition of HSM. We have also the jacket and substation of the wind farm East [indiscernible] I in Northern Sea for [indiscernible] by smelters. On the same field, smelters have been retained in 24 for the manufacturing of 64 pieces of transition for an amount of EUR 150 million. The 5 other acquisitions contribute to strengthen our meshing in Europe in the energy services. In Germany, after the acquisition [indiscernible] of [indiscernible], [indiscernible] acquisition with the company's IFT and SACOM, representing EUR 35 million of revenues and 100 employees. We just concluded 3 acquisitions in Spain, enabling energy system to strengthen its territorial coverage and its expertise. [indiscernible], CVS specialized in the refrigeration solution as well in detection and fire protection, EUR 60 million and 300 employees [indiscernible] so as to have a national coverage on the centralized management of buildings, 15 million of sales and 100 employees. Major implementation of energy F system in Europe, Spain had over 5,000 employees in 24 for a sales of EUR 1.1 billion. As said in the annual results, the dynamic of the various markets in the different businesses and the external growth enabling the speeding up of the [indiscernible] mission is modifying in time the relative weight of the various businesses of the group with the branch energy system representing now 38% of the global activity. Besides the major trends in February 26, the urbanization of the business of the group growth in Europe outside of France by organic growth parts of market share and external growth, the group has now 42% of the activity outside of France as compared to 31%, 4 years ago. Concession side, preparation works of Motor [indiscernible] are carrying on to finalize the regulations to get the aforementioned regulation. The winning by tender of the new headquarters of the port Marseille Force is illustrating again the capacity of the group to mobilize all of its business lines to secure new assets. Eiffage Concession signed on July '25, the partnership contract for the financing, the design, construction and maintenance of this new headquarters. Projects has also a real estate and ambitious operation valuing the adjacent plant. Those 2 operations represent EUR 120 million of work that will mobilize all of the businesses of the group. Upon delivering 2030, the project will integrate buildings of offices, a museum, auditorium shops and restaurants on over 17,000 square meters. Nova is continuing its strong traction -- operational traction and its capacity to deploying its project of construction, renovation and real estate management. 1,000 housing units, building and renovation have already been delivered end of July 25. More than 100 projects are underway in all fronts. Concession-wise, motorways. Traffics are robust on the vast majority of our concession, especially APRR, with a progression of 2.2%. To be noticed, the ramping up always dynamic on [indiscernible] with a growth of traffic of 11.7%. Our motorway networks are welcoming more and more electric cars we have a very dense network of charging station, high power of 100% of our areas. To meet the demand the number of charging stations increased by 50% between July 24 and July [indiscernible]. And the unavailability rate, which was very weak, has been the same time divided by 2 To participate in the development of sustainable mobilities, we support also the collectivities and the development of multimodal areas by cofinancing areas of car pooling. We inaugurated last April in the area of [indiscernible] and presence of the Cabinet Mr. [indiscernible]. It's already today over 6,000 parking spaces on 78 parties of car pooling on our network. [indiscernible] is always a source of very great activity our networks especially on our areas where our teams are mobilizing from the petrol people to the manager to welcome as best as can be for our clients to make for them to take a break, which is something paramount for the safety of everybody. Over [indiscernible] mobilized employees and our concessions to support our customers. After the highlights of our businesses, let's not forget the challenges, which are of concern to everybody, our capacity to attract, promote and gain loyalty, more and more talent to support the development of the group. Over the 4 past years, our workforce moved from 73,500 to 84,400 employees, 15% increase. Also our capacity to roll out the carbon strategy, climate strategy of the group, bearing on 3 pillars: Reduction of our greenhouse gas effects, preservation of resources via promotion of circular economy and concrete actions in favor of preservation of biodiversity. The CDP climate ranked us end of '24 to a recognition of our commitments and our efforts. To push this in our value chain in the ecosystem of the building, the group had the initiative of [indiscernible] on, the first marketplace put it on the same level, technical data, financial data and carbon data or product so that each and every buyer can be able in real time to integrate the carbon data in the acquisition. This marketplace has already over 40,000 references. We just released the sixth edition of our climate report. [indiscernible] of our commitment for ecological transition illustrating our determination to describe the environmental strategy and the core of the businesses of the group. After this 360 of our highlights, let's get back to the major figures of the half year. Sales growth of 7.5% compared to the same period of '24, differences of dynamic given the businesses, but all of our business lines have are back to growth. As expected, organic growth is sustained and external growth in the branch energy system significant. And the Concessions, the motorway traffic is robust. An operational performance was solid within the bringing profit and increase in [indiscernible] Concessions and a net result, which is increasing impacted by the exceptional contribution to corporate tax in France. A significant decrease of debt by EUR 700 million in spite of external growth. and the order book again. up again to EUR 29.5 billion, so a 4% increase over a year. Those elements confirm our perspective for '25, an increase of activity and our current operating profit in the concessions in works, especially supported by new improvement of the profitability of a fashion energy system. [indiscernible] systems will have an activity close to EUR 8 billion and an operating profit margin reaching 6%. Net [indiscernible] group result will be an increase as to tax constant and after an exceptional contribution to the corporate income tax in France. Businesses remain well oriented. Our visibility is strong. All this delivers confidence to maintain the strategic direction we set in spite of the geopolitical turbulences of the political instability amplified again in the past couple of days. Thank you for your attention. I invite Christian Cassayre to give you a detailed explanation of our financial elements.

Good evening, everyone [indiscernible] into the details of these figures. Revenue was up significantly at 7.5%, so including 4.3% organic growth. These growth rates is similar to those of last year. The geographic mix is unchanged [indiscernible] growth in France, but strong momentum in Europe outside France. And you can see on the chart that the -- we're looking at 15% to 20% annual growth over the past 5 years because of targeted acquisitions and strong organic momentum, 6% to 10% per year. on our European subsidiary. On this half year, we have a 17.4% growth in Europe outside France, including 6.7% organic in the work business, Organic growth stood at 4.5%, and this is because we are well positioned on very promising markets such as transportation, infrastructure, nuclear energy electricity transmission, renewable energy, wind power and solar plants and, of course, strong positions in Spain and Germany and in line with our investment policies as Benoit just said. And so 42% of works businesses outside France compared to 30% in 2021. And profit from ordinary activities was slightly up EUR 9 million. This is limited in spite of the good performance, and this is because we have a much higher expense for the employee shareholding plan, an additional EUR 60 million compared to 2024, including EUR 51 million in the holding company and EUR 9 million in the concessions. And so this is because the share price went up significantly during the period where employees could subscribe to the employee shareholding plan. And so this is completed and all that amount was recognized on H1. Other than that, we have a 20 basis point growth in the works business. And so profit from ordinary activities was up 34 million, up 16.4% where revenue was up 8.4% and a slight decline in concessions. Then again, that's because of the shareholding plan. recognition under IFRS 2. In the construction business, revenue was stable over the half year. The first quarter was significantly down, but second quarter was up plus 4.4% new buildings, both residential and service property, commercial property remain deteriorated slightly well compensated by renovation, especially energy renovation public communities, and of course, the gearing out of the Nova contract. Property development was down more than 24%. And in this context, you can see that our profit margin was pretty resilient at 3.4% because of a very selective policy in picking new businesses, but also being very careful to keep our SG&A under control in a very agile mode. And so that means that our margins remained up in the building industry, not just in France, also in Belgium, fine performance over time, and that good performance of the profit margins in the works business is essential because property only generates EUR 11 million in profits for ordinary activities compared to EUR 24 million in 2024 for the half year, but still that's a 5% profit margin in the property business. And finally, our order book was pretty good, upwards of EUR 5 billion, and that doesn't include the 2 new deals that you have on the slide that was very recently added. We published a reference guide on water and marine environments, and we just published this. We have specific applications. All our businesses are implementing this. And that shows our ability to address the water shortages. Here, you have the combo project in [indiscernible] part of the partnership, urban development project is implementing water management [indiscernible] integrated management water management principles to limit soil sealing, having expansion zones for natural floods and recovering in storing rainwater and gray water. In the infrastructure business, we have a sustained growth in France in spite of a lower volume in metal. If Genie was up because of big operations, the Metro in [indiscernible], [indiscernible], motorway Tunnel and work in preparation we in pen and of course, the gearing up of the 15 metro line. [indiscernible] Eiffage Route in France had a growth of 2.5% in revenue compared to plus 0.7% in 2024. And internationally, Eiffage [indiscernible] grew 8.9% with big infrastructure projects, the high-speed line, HS2, the motorway in Norway in our German subsidiaries going up more than 6%, still internationally for ag met significant growth in revenue, up 25% on wind project, but also because of its German subsidiary, SEH, we don't mention it much, but it works on metal bridges and heavy structures, industrial structures renovation HSM has been integrated into our accounts since the first of June. So the growth in metal, which is stronger than the rest of that business line. So this is business is less seasonal and that has improved the profit margin, which stands at minus 0.2%. But as usual, we remind you that this is not representative of the performance for the year as a whole. ECO, as is Benoit de Ruffray mentioned that, again, this is about district cooling and reducing the environmental impact of public facilities. On the picture, you have an operation in [indiscernible] on Boulet, buffer storage of about 500 cubic meters was built under the road -- and this is a % for vegetation that was planted along the road. And you also have water coming from the brain local drain pipes. [indiscernible] Revenue from AF energy system remained pretty dynamic, even though there was a slight decline in organic growth to 3.2%. In France, revenue was up 2.7% in organic terms. And so it is outside France that we generated growth on well designed, well targeted European markets, Spain and Germany, in particular. -- with the acquisitions of IFT this year and ease at the end of 2024. These 2 big markets are the main markets of that business line outside France, and we have a critical mass upwards of EUR 1 billion in revenue in both countries, and we are -- we will be building on these positions. Operating profit margin keeps going up in France in spite of lower growth than around the world, but our order book has been growing as well to EUR 8.7 billion, especially in 2 countries I mentioned, up EUR 700 million 1 year and 5 since the beginning of the year. Energy System as a new offer of diagnosis and detection of leagues in forced without stopping operations, it uses high-frequency ultrasound mechanisms that can sense acoustic waves from the equipment. In concession, we find all our assets consolidated, not including Getlink. On the left-hand side, you have the end of the concession year and the holding rate, we have about EUR 400 million in revenue in businesses not including APRR and IR. These are young concessions, so they are still a long way to go, and they are gearing up. You can see A79 is a case in point where traffic was up 11.7% percent. One point you have lower revenue for NOV. That may seem surprising, but this is part of the plan. This is because of vacancies during work projects and of course, where projects have been growing up and so there are more vacancies. On APRR traffic remained robust at plus 0.22%, including 2.6% on light vehicles. Of course, the comparison basis was favorable. There's a slight decline in the EBITDA margin. That's simply because of the additional charge under IFRS 2, the shareholding told you about, and that was a decline of 50 basis points for the half year, but that will be less over the year because the entire expense was recognized for this first half year, you may remember that the lower performance in 2024 was because of the tax of Motorways and that amounted to EUR 61 million for this half year. And we refinanced at the beginning of the year for a 5-year period with a possible extension of banking credit lines of FRE and APRR. And we also issued a bond in May of EUR 500 million, the rate being 2.875%. Regarding our other assets outside the APR network, -- we have the EBITDA margins, about 80% on motorways in France. With the exception of ALA net margin is diluted by the service areas that we have there. On the right-hand side, we have the contributions of concessions and PPPs to the current operating profit for ordinary activities. -- as well as goodwill amortization in 2029 and 2022, over 35 kilometers on long motorways, we build multifunction water basins worth EUR 50 million. So this is to manage surplus water when they are heavy rains, they also depollute water on a daily basis. and prevent accidental pollution. They are compulsory on new motorways where we decided to have them also for on other sections of the APR AI motorways with catching up work. A few words about Getlink that was consolidated on the equity basis since April 2023. On the right-hand side, you have the key figures at 100%. And Getlink's contribution to net profit in the H1 is EUR 31 million. You have 3 parts in that. Our quota of EUR 130 million stood at EUR 23 million, a leftover or residual quota for 2024, EUR 15 million. And of course, we have goodwill amortization, a charge of EUR 7 million. So that gives you the details of revenue and current operating profit on the other items, you have other expenses and other income and expenses, noncurrent EUR 24 million compared to EUR 18 million last year. This is a net charge that it was EUR 28,000,002 years ago. So there's some volatility there. The net financial debt net cost of financial debt is under control, down EUR 5 million, but with the new bonds for APR have been issued at higher rates than the previous ones, but the net debt is coming down. And then, of course, the key item in the whole story is the additional tax burden up 50% to EUR 353 million. That's because of the special corporate income tax tax -- additional tax for big companies in France, and this is, of course, overrepresented in the half year because most of this is recognized upwards of 70% in the first half, EUR 135 million. Its effect on the net profit group share is EUR 83 million. Having taken into account the quotes from minority interest including APR. So the net profit group share stands at EUR 308 million would be up had the tax basis being unchanged. If you look at the net debt bridge, you have all the figures there. EBITDA was up EUR 90 million, including the EUR 60 million additional charge I mentioned dividends from companies on an equity basis, EUR 72 million, mostly getting, of course, the seasonal variation of WCR is higher this year, EUR 892 million. But for 5 years running we actually had a surplus of EUR 8.8 billion in cash, especially coming from works. And so after taxes and interest, we have operational cash flow standing at EUR 451 million in green, down, therefore, EUR 100 million. Then in red, you have CapEx higher in works and concessions, you're talking about development CapEx for new assets -- and these have been growing you have Nove, you have Yotharbors, you have the A412rather than renewal CapEx. So all in all, we're talking about EUR 542 million in CapEx. And so the free cash flow is slightly negative, EUR 91 million. You have the double effect of growth CapEx for conventions and seasonal. Higher seasonal variations of WCR. You have to keep in mind that cash flow generation is structurally low in H1. Sometimes it's negative because of the seasonality of most of our construction and Works businesses external growth stood at EUR 23 million, and these are the acquisitions of HSM and IFT might think this is not much. But that's because it includes as a trade-off of CapEx you have cash coming from these companies to the tune of EUR 180 million. It's mostly negative WCR. So they are cash generating from these companies. And so the EUR 23 million is EUR 205 million for the acquisition per se and EUR 182 million of cash generated by these companies. And then in blue, you have dividends. You have treasury shares. You have dividends paid by APR to its minority shareholders and the dividends that we as have been paid to our shareholders, EUR 452 million. And so you end up with a debt of EUR 9.9 billion, down EUR 700 million over 1 year. Of course, this was made possible, even though we had significant capital expenditure -- you may remember that in H2, 224, we acquired Ecos and then we had acquisitions this year. On the right-hand side, you have the debt, EUR 9.9 billion. We have -- the debt is down EUR 700 million. You have a decline in EUR 170 million in nonrecourse debt that's in black. And then the cash available to the holding company and in the works businesses, EUR 578 million. This is net cash -- the gross cash managed at the holding company is EUR 2.5 billion. And so at the low point in cash flows in the year, we have sufficient cash to continue develop our activities. On the order book, a few words, which already mentioned by Benoit, order book is up again. You have to keep in mind that even without major new orders, we've been renewing our order book in our legacy business with, of course, differences from 1 business to the other. You can see this on the right-hand side, that reflects variations on the market. Rather than that's an overview of the position. Thank you for your attention.

I have 4 questions. First, can you give us your feeling about the real estate market in France, given the recent turbulence in politics, can we imagine that this will bear on the confidence of the households. I'd like to have your point of view on that. Second question about the variation of the the WCR, what can we expect on the whole year. And on the German point of view, you also mentioned, can you tell us the quantity I mean, what could it mean for Eiffage. What can you hope as a contribution for the activity of fat in Germany? And one last one. On the [indiscernible] had discussion with the authorities on the investments to be made in order to make the motorways to be in good shape at the end of the concession. So what did you hear about those discussions underlying question. Is there a risk of surprise, investment of the -- on the motorways.

Not insight regarding the recent decision for the past few days. We are in a market which is extremely impaired. The market of the tertiary is halted. Residential market is really, really impaired. First half year, this impairment was increased by the disappearance of the individual investors because the French system P&L disappeared. And to go in the direction of what you mentioned, it will not be better in months to come. The weakness of the delivery of building or construction pyramids. We suffer a lot from that. weighing on our offer. So indeed, no improvement to be foreseen in the months to come. Hence, we have to remain slightly optimistic. We're working for the medium and long range with our activity of redeployment, aggregating our expertise as a builder and a real estate to work with the local collectivity in the various neighborhoods and in this period of scarcity of areas, so we can focus on the medium range that will enable us to come up with operations when things will improve.

Basically, we had the decrease already. We are very low. I don't think we can go even lower because the real market today is the accession to ownership. So basically, it's people who are in necessity to [indiscernible] are paying to provide because we had no construction permit. So -- but what is happening is never good for trust. Trust is really the engine for a decision in terms of real estate. Christian, can you deal with [indiscernible] WCR [indiscernible]. EUR 160 million on the works. This is where we have to be really attentive to WCR. Look at our balance sheet, we have an increase of current provision. So we are a decrease of [indiscernible] and this decrease is explained. We'll have a WC that will vary slight increase. This is what should be taken into account with this difficulty to foresee the payment of our public customers by the end of the year. it's difficult to give you more precisions. I think we can anticipate a slight decrease. These variations of WC are on 6 months at but the -- the for the group in terms of days has decreased over the rolling year in June. Let me remind you the figures of [indiscernible]. We had a cash exit of EUR 700 million and income 700 million, meaning that we cashed EUR 1.4 billion in the second half year, 24 million minus the EUR 800 million that were sell out in the semester. We have a reduction of our WCR in number of days compared to last year. If we have the support of the companies that we acquired the decrease of 5 days. So we have a good global performance. One part is done over the major contracts that we are repaying on the go. Part of the equation depends on our question, possibility to secure new projects and that will secure less than what we secured in the past years. And so it's prudent to anticipate a slight release of cash by the end of the year. It's long and difficult, but we can really discuss that later. Thank you, Christian. Regarding the German plan we have a lot of businesses which are exposed since in the metal construction. We are exposed on many railroad renovation, the major stations that were bombed during World War II, rebuild not a lot of maintenance Well, today, there's a lot of work to be performed. It's an activity that will take a lot of time, a certain amount of bridges, which are limited for the traffic in Germany, there are tremendous amount of them. So the -- if you want to have a resumption of the economy, you have to rebuild the bridges. So it's been some years that were between 10% and 20% of growth. At the end of that, we have men and women to all do that in the capacity for me. In the short run, it's a lot of visibility. It's -- I would say that the first good news of the German plan is the attractiveness of our businesses when there's a certain amount of restructuring in Germany, our businesses are back to retaining people and attracting people. So we're on the way to increase our workforce. It's the metal work. It's the civil engineering, it's the railroad and the energy system district. We have also the additional challenge of the mutation of the energy in Germany. So the production of E&R, which on the north of Germany, you have to bring them back on the industrial sites. We talked about the annual results of the major contract, which is a corridor of civil engineering once the civil engineering will be done, you have also to lay the cables. This is typically the activity of energy system work, but do not expect a tremendous step up immediately and there's the capacity to prepare this project in terms of engineering. And all this needs requires growth in the workforce. So what we expect -- what we hope will have the models. PPPs that will be an accelerator of the implementation of those projects. So medium, long range, it's excessively positive short range is going to take time to have a real effect in our activities. It remains excellent news for all of our businesses which are exposed -- last question was regarding the return of the motorways to the state. Thank you for your question. I was to tell you that the government is maintaining the highways, the motorways that are well maintained. We are also meeting the indexes of performance as in the contracts. Regarding the end of concession, we are delayed because the termination of our contracts is in 2035, 2036 we're not in the same level with the Cabinet ministries. Our friends of [indiscernible] told us that the discussion with the ministry went rather normal. And we anticipated also because we are sharing as of now with the Ministry of the Cabinet Ministry in very constructive terms. So it's boding well for the future. Christian?

[indiscernible] here to extend the question of [indiscernible] the German plan regarding the construction and defense we have not to expect a fallback on '26, '27. This is what you mean to say. And on civil engineering in France, we didn't talk a lot about that. What is the magnitude of the growth this year to be expected now that the FNTP, after the good performance of '24 had forecasted for '25 and '26. It slowed down. Do you confirm? Are things improving. On the German part, I think it's going to be before '27, but there's also -- you have to be cautious because some elements -- and this plan that have already been launched. We acquired more certainty under implementation because they are finance and those projects will be materialized earlier because the studies started things which were not foreseen and which are in this recovery plan will be -- will take longer. It's going to take more time to ramp up. Regarding the French side, we have to separate things, really. You have the road businesses Classically, we always heard about the electoral cycles. Municipal elections in '26 are good news -- end of '25 in the beginning of '26. The good news is in the beginning is always bad news for the next period. So what's important for you, you see it, we are in growth now but it's not hyper significant. There is a basic evolution compared to the former electoral cycle. The decision in terms of road maintenance is much more taken and collectivity of municipalities and not for the elections. And we have slightly more activity, but the amplitude we experienced 2 or 3 elections ago, which were tremendous before has globally disappeared, has been totally mitigated. This is the road side, where we have more problems to understand is the part, the French department, which has lost somewhere. There's no activity. The municipal part is working correctly. Then on the other investments, which are more supported by the government, the major investments that we have experienced in the defense on the major [indiscernible] on the nuclear [indiscernible] that's carry on. And we have orders and that will carry on will be supported by those projects. whatever happens nationally, we already have a tremendous activity to be implemented. So we have a visibility on that for the years to come in France. There are further questions yes. [Foreign Language]

So many things are going on on Getlink side. So any expectations on Getlink? Would you be buying more shares, more getting a greater stake in Getlink?

All right. You're talking about the [indiscernible] competitor in the purchasing of shares. Well, if there are more competitors, you could expect that the various players will see their share prices go up. So it's the good time to buy the share now or not. Well, look, regarding Getlink and possible new comers while you'd have to ask getting about that. from a more general standpoint, and I said this before. What you have to realize is that the rail network, the French rail network or [indiscernible] British rail network, this is a highly dense network. So it will be pretty difficult to add tracks and routes. I mean, you can't do that overnight. There are all sorts of issues building or rather operating railway stations, maintenance and such like. So getting is done not to address a number of technical challenges, but that takes a lot of time. I mean, right now, in France, you have a train that might leave Marseille late because somewhere else in the country, another train has run into delays. I mean you have a complicated sort of [indiscernible] so one delay somewhere causes delays all over the country, and there are also issues of maintenance under investment that we all know about that. And that means that developments are very slow in the real business. But eventually, you could expect more traffic in the channel tunnel. That may well be the case. We will take a lot of time. It will take a long time. We still have the non view for this asset. We're delighted to be invested there. But I mean, right now, the concession won't start until 1986. So we have 2086, we have plenty of time. due to on organic growth targets and acquisition targets, by the way, I mean, you have to know before you make an acquisition, you have to make sure you can take it on board. Well, there were 5 acquisitions since the beginning of the year. So this is a sustained pace of M&A our strategy very much remains the same as last year. In other words, we are building up our presence in those countries where we do have a presence either to cover the geographic area or to acquire new areas of expertise. And then in France, we -- there's already -- it's already a pretty tight network and the only acquisitions will be for new areas of expertise. But -- so we work on an opportunistic approach for possible acquisitions. And as you said, in Germany, we're looking at consolidating the acquisitions made last year and the years before. But we see that the order book paid off, I mean -- and even though these companies were bought up, they were still taking orders to the same pace. So there's no disruption there. And other than acquisitions, you have to know that we've been working hard in Germany, our legacy companies there were not -- they did not have the critical mass or the type of management needed to drive growth and to position at Eiffage on the German map. So we had to make more significant acquisitions. We are taking them on board as it were. There are 4 big markets, have industry infrastructure commercial services and local authorities. And so we have a full coverage of the German market. But of course, that means it has to be integrated into our operations. But now that we have these platforms, of course, it makes sense to have bolt-ons with geographic or expertise acquisitions on much smaller companies acquired on a smaller basis, so easier to take on board. But most of the time, these are -- have been identified by our own people working in one area or one field of expertise. And so these acquisitions are much less risky. So that's what's going on now. And so in big countries such as Spain and Germany or the Netherlands, Belgium, France, of course. But also in Switzerland, we have now resident platforms that enable us to have bolt-ons whereas before that, we didn't have this ability in Germany. Regarding guidance on profit margins, there's no change really compared to the annual numbers, the annual profit on the construction business, I think I hope you can appreciate the performance of our construction teams because they were able to compensate the loss of profit that profit losses from property development, and this was offset by developing the building industry. If over the year, we can keep an equal profit margin, that would be pretty good. But even if it's down, it won't be more than, say, 10 basis points. On the infrastructure department, and where we have roads, civil engineering and metal [indiscernible] we hope to see some improvement in profitability, but I told you the same back in February. [indiscernible] would have been disappointed if we did ask you about traffic, road traffic. Well, yes. Thank you. You asked about road traffic. This summer is not over yet because you have people coming back from their summer vacations. So far, things went well on an operational viewpoint in terms of traffic, we're looking at a 1% growth compared to the summer of 2024. There is strong momentum on [indiscernible] and that means that people have to go to the mountains for the summer vacations, you can learn from that, maybe you can make your own subplants based on that. Right. Further questions from the floor? If not, we'll have questions online. Thank you.

[Operator Instructions] We have a question from [ Elodie Rall ] JPMorgan.

And sorry, I couldn't make it in person. First question is about the energy business that you mentioned, margins are up 30 basis points in H1 and you're looking at 6% for the year. So that would be an additional 20 basis points for the year. But it would mean that the profit margin growth would slow down in H2? Is this being conservative? Do you think you can do better? Would you have real reason to believe that margins will slowdown in H2? That was question number one. Question number 2 is about the effects on this special corporate income tax. This -- you had citing that you postponed to H2. But the total impact of that tax is what will it be for the year as a whole. I mean we're talking about EUR 25 million, I believe, for the year as a whole based on the profits in 2024. But can you give us the full impact, the tax impact for the year as a whole? And do you have any expectations about what you expect for 2026? And what's your take on recent developments the French government, would that make -- will that make any difference to Eiffage's business? And the question about dividends. If taxes keep going up, you increased your payout of 45%. Do you think you could do still more to offset the tax effect?

[indiscernible], it's all yours.

Right. Well, you have noticed that for the past few years, we've been working on improving profitability. We've been doing this steadily. Of course, that doesn't prevent us from looking for growth and growth has remained steady as well in H1. And so current prime from ordinary activities has been going up as well as revenue. So am I confident that we will make the margin, yes, and EUR 8 billion in revenue. Again, I'm confident that we will reach that number. Well, you should add to [indiscernible] earlier on, we have to be very selective when we take new deals, new contracts, a 30 basis point improvement in the margins in H1. You find this in France and elsewhere. But in France, the volumes didn't grow as much as internationally. So it's not exactly an offset, but it does mean that we're working on making our teams more efficient. And of course, we'll do our utmost 6% margin is something we normally propose to achieve, but we want to improve as well. On the tax impact, Christian?

Well, I can't give you the net profit for the year as a whole, I mean, that will determine the tax level. But you may remember that the EUR 135 million because they were recognized in H1 that we expect to be roughly 70% for the year as a whole. So we're looking at about EUR 200 million for the years we can't give you the exact number. But the effect for the year, the full effect, not including minority interest, the tax effect will be about EUR 200 million. And regarding the dividend, we did pay attention and our investors wanted to have a clear policy. Of course, we stated defined a policy last year, we're not going to change halfway through. So we're sticking to that policy. But we -- will this special tax this year, of course, you can expect that this will have an effect on dividends. But nonetheless, the business is looking good for the year as a whole. And the Board is well aware of the fact that we have to have a clear position at the end of the year to see just how we can pay out a dividend. Now things are pretty unstable right now. Of course, we'll have to wait and see what comes out in terms of budget, in terms of possible changes in the corporate income tax in France. But one thing is for sure, that dividend policy when we introduced it, that was well appreciated by our investors. And of course, investors want to have visibility on dividends, and so we're working on that. But I can assure you that this will be part of the discussions we'll have at the Board when the issue of dividends comes up next year. Other further questions.

Yes, next question comes from a call in English.