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Welcome to the SPIE's 2026 Third Quarter Revenue Presentation. [Operator Instructions]

Now I will hand the conference over to Markus Holzke, CEO, to begin today's conference. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for our 9 months revenue call. I'm with Jérôme Vanhove, our Group CFO; and Alexandra Bournazel, our Head of Investor Relations. SPIE delivered a very strong performance in the first 9 months of 2026, with accelerating organic growth and M&A contribution culminating in an exceptional third quarter.

We successfully executed our bolt-on acquisition strategy, further strengthening our high-value technical service offering and our local footprint across Europe. Despite an increasingly volatile macroeconomic and political environment, we continue to benefit from powerful long-term drivers and remain focused on the most attractive growth segments in our markets.

To begin, I would like to share a few recent contract examples that reflect our strong positioning. Let's start with Germany. In Germany, SPIE is modernizing the electrical and control systems at Block 4 of Uniper's Staudinger power station, a critical asset for grid stability and security of supply in the Rhine-Main region. This project showcases SPIE's expertise in modernizing critical power infrastructure while maintaining plant operations throughout the project. Importantly, the upgrade will also lay the foundations of the site's transition towards low-carbon technologies and greater grid flexibility.

With the acquisition of SGS, we are now -- we have now even the capabilities to deliver the installation of the full technical scope of a gas-fired power plant, further strengthening our positioning as Germany will deploy new gas-fired generation capacity.

Moving to France. In France, SPIE Building Solutions is supporting the transformation of a critical data center for the French Customs Administration, combining our climate and electrical engineering expertise to make it both more energy efficient and more resilient. The project targets the power usage effectiveness of below 1.33, which would make the data center one of the most energy efficient of its kind in France, while ensuring continuity of operations throughout the transformation.

This is a good illustration of how SPIE combines technical expertise and environmental performance to support the energy transition of data centers, a strategic market for the SPIE Group.

In the Netherlands, SPIE has been awarded a contract by the municipality of Zwolle for the electrical and mechanical maintenance of 14 movable bridges. The agreement took effect in July 2026 for an initial term of 2.5 years with options for 3 1-year extensions. By combining electrical and mechanical expertise, SPIE provides an integrated approach to enhance the reliability, safety and durability of this critical infrastructure.

In Poland, SPIE Energy Poland has been selected to lead the consortium in order to deliver the first section of the strategic 400 kV transmission line. Our scope covers around 50 kilometers of the 125-kilometer line which will help connect Baltic Sea offshore wind farms to Poland's national power grid.

These offshore wind farms are expected to reach a combined capacity of close to 18 gigawatts, making grid infrastructure a key enabler of Poland's energy transition. Our installation work has already been started in H2 with completion targeted for 2029. This project is a strong illustration of the growth opportunities we see in High Voltage, particularly around grid expansion and the integration of renewable energies in Poland.

Now moving to the key 9 months takeaways. Revenue growth was up plus 7%, including 2.3% organic growth and a 4.8% contribution from bolt-on acquisitions. Organic growth accelerated throughout the period and reached an exceptional plus 4.7% in Q3. The contribution from bolt-on acquisitions also accelerated, reaching EUR 362 million, including 4 months of contribution from ROFA in Germany as the largest contributor. Based on this very strong performance, we confirm our full year 2026 guidance.

Regarding the key financial highlights. Overall, revenue over the first 9 months reached EUR 8.043 billion. Just in the third quarter, revenue was up plus 13.7%, including plus 4.7% organic growth. This is a very clear acceleration compared with 1.2% in the first half. We also continue to successfully execute our bolt-on acquisition strategy. Since the beginning of the year, we have announced 7 acquisitions, representing close to EUR 800 million of annual revenue, including SAR ANLAGENBAU, which we announced last Wednesday.

Looking now at the performance by geography. At constant exchange rates, revenue grew 7% over the first 9 months with organic growth led by Northwestern Europe and Germany. Germany grew by 10.4%, supported notably by ROFA integration and the high level of activity in Q3, underpinned by strong structural demand. Northwestern Europe grew by 6.3% with an outstanding organic growth of plus 12.5% in Q3. Central Europe grew by 15.1%, driven by sustained M&A activity, notably the integration of BLOCK Group. France grew by plus 1.6% with plus 0.3% organic growth in Q3, confirming that Q2 marks the trough. Global Services Energy benefited from the integration of Worley Power Services, while Oil & Gas activities remained impacted by challenging market conditions. Overall, this performance once again demonstrates the strength and balance of our decentralized multi-technical model.

Looking now deeper into the geographies and starting with Germany. Germany delivered a strong performance over the first 9 months. For High Voltage and City Networks & Grids, following the catch-up of the weather-related disruptions at the beginning of the year, momentum remains strong in electrical transmission and distribution networks.

Also, the high-voltage order backlog is at a record high level. Technical Facility Management really stood out with excellent contract retention, new contract wins and growing demand for energy efficiency and decarbonization solutions. Building Solutions remains supported by data centers, defense and tunnel infrastructure. Industry Services delivered solid growth, while ICS continued to strengthen its position in cybersecurity. External growth contributed 7.7%, mainly reflecting 4 months of ROFA alongside the 2025 acquisitions.

Moving to France. In France, organic growth of plus 0.3% in Q3 confirmed that Q2 marked the trough, reflecting a resilient level of activity over the first 9 months. 4 of our 6 divisions continued to perform well in terms of growth. Technical Facility Management remained a key growth engine with the ramp-up of several nationwide multiyear contracts. Industry remained robust, supported by energy transition projects, notably solar photovoltaic power plants and battery energy storage systems.

ICS maintained solid growth, while Nuclear Services posted a very strong performance. Growth remained constrained in City Networks as fiber rollout programs gradually come to an end and activity shifts towards recurring maintenance. In Building Solutions, revenue still contracting, while we see encouraging order intake, notably in data centers, health care facilities and defense. Finally, the Artemys acquisition contributed 2% to revenue growth over the period.

Northwestern Europe. Northwestern Europe delivered an outstanding performance in Q3, with organic growth accelerating plus 12.5%, bringing 9 months organic growth 5.3%. In the Netherlands, this sharp acceleration was mainly driven by High Voltage as several substations and transmission line projects entered intense execution phases. Building Solutions also contributed strongly in Q3 as several projects moved into production.

ICS maintained good momentum, supported by data centers, while Industry Services remained resilient with electrification and high-tech manufacturing offsetting weaker petrochemical activity. In Belgium, performance was again very strong, driven by High Voltage and battery energy storage systems despite the demanding comparison base in 2025. Finally, acquisitions contributed 1.3% to revenue growth, reflecting the 2025 acquisitions of Rovitech and Voets & Donkers.

Moving to Central Europe. Central Europe delivered a strong organic growth of 5.8% in Q3 despite a demanding comparison base of close to 10% in Q3 2025, bringing 9 months organic growth to 1.9%. This performance still partly benefited from the catch-up following the adverse weather conditions at the beginning of the year. Just a few highlights.

In Poland and Slovakia, High Voltage continued to benefit from grid expansion and energy transition investments as illustrated by the Polish transmission line project presented earlier. In Austria, growth remains supported by tunnel infrastructure and battery energy storage systems. The order book continued to build, providing strong visibility across the region. Finally, acquisitions made a significant 12% contribution to growth, notably BLOCK Group in the Czech Republic.

Global Services Energy remained under pressure with organic growth of minus 6.7% recorded over the first 9 months. In Oil & Gas, market conditions are becoming more challenging, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, where increasing local competition is reinforcing our disciplined and selective commercial approach.

In the Middle East, activity was disrupted in certain areas following the outbreak of the conflict with Iran. This situation continues to be monitored closely. At the same time, Worley Power Services contributed plus 8% to revenue growth over the first 9 months. Its integration is strengthening our positioning in power generation, particularly in wind, battery energy storage systems and solar photovoltaic.

Now I come to the highlight. You are now very familiar with SHARE FOR YOU, our annual employee shareholding plan, which we launched during Q3. This new plan was the 10th edition and proved once again a great success. More than 27,000 employees from 18 countries subscribed, including more than 6,000 first-time investors.

Following this plan, employees, including management, are invested to hold around 9.2% compared with 8.4% at the end of H1 2026. Involving our employees in the SPIE entrepreneurial adventure is very important to us and a key factor of our success. Final results will be announced in December, and we will renew our anti-dilutive share buyback program in early 2027. Now I hand over to Jérôme.

Thank you, Markus, and good morning, everyone. I will start with our revenue bridge, which provides a breakdown of our 7% revenue increase over the first 9 months of the year. As already pointed out, organic growth contributed 2.3%, accelerating throughout the period to reach an exceptional 4.7% in the third quarter. This partially reflected intensive execution in Northwestern Europe this quarter, where organic growth reached 12.5%.

Our bolt-on acquisitions contributed 4.8% or the equivalent of EUR 362 million revenue, mainly reflecting, on the one hand, the acquisitions completed in 2026, notably the 4 months contribution of ROFA in Germany and on the other hand, the acquisitions completed in 2025. The SGS acquisition was completed in September 2026 and did not contribute to the 9 months revenue presented today. It will start to contribute from the fourth quarter onwards.

As already mentioned in previous quarters, the internal transfer of former Robur non-German operations were neutral at group level. This was transferred to Global Services Energy and Central Europe to a lower extent. Finally, minor disposals of nonstrategic activities, including a small elevator business in the Netherlands and residential Building Solutions activity in France, which altogether had a very limited impact of minus 0.1%. Foreign exchange had a limited negative impact of minus 0.1%, mainly reflecting movement in the euro-U.S. dollar exchange rate.

Moving to M&A. Let me now turn to the bolt-on M&A activity, where we continue to deliver strong execution in Q3. We announced 7 acquisitions since the beginning of the year, representing close to EUR 800 million of annual revenue and further strengthening our technical capabilities and local footprint across Europe.

Germany accounted for the largest part of this activity, namely with ROFA and SGS, significantly scaling up our industrial activities and platform in our largest market. We also continued to expand our footprint in Central Europe through targeted acquisitions in Czech Republic, Slovakia and Switzerland.

But the momentum continued in Q3 with 2 further acquisitions. CLAUSER in France strengthens our position in industrial maintenance and high-power electrical installations, bringing around 100 employees with long-standing expertise in aluminum production and processing. And most recently, as announced on the last Wednesday, SAR ANLAGENBAU announced yesterday and further expands our exposure to attractive infrastructure and industrial automation markets in Austria and Germany, bringing around 230 highly skilled employees to the group. The integration of all our acquisitions is progressing well and in line with plan, while our pipeline remains active and well diversified across highly fragmented markets.

And our acquisitions are self-financed, we remain firmly focused on maintaining a sound leverage profile in line with our financial policy. And maintaining this financial discipline also means proactively managing our debt maturities and our level of liquidity on the balance sheet. This leads us to the successful refinancing of our EUR 400 million ORNANE convertible bond due in January 2028. As such, in September, we successfully placed a sustainability-linked bond of EUR 500 million with a 5.5-year maturity and associated to a coupon of [ 4.78% ].

Despite the challenging debt environment, this operation reflects strong investor demand and our continued access to debt capital markets. The use of proceeds was mainly dedicated to the refinancing of our ORNANEs. To this extent, we first launched a repurchase invitation in cash, and then we exercised the issuers soft call fully in shares for the balancing amount.

In total, and as a consequence, EUR 400 million of outstanding ORNANEs were redeemed in cash and around 3.5 million new shares were issued. This represents a final dilution of 2% with an underlying average conversion share price of around EUR 43.80. This refinancing extends our debt maturity profile now until March 2032. As of today, 100% of our debt remains sustainability linked and our liquidity permanently exceeding EUR 1.5 billion. This provides ample financial flexibility to support our development strategy, notably our bolt-on M&A strategy. Thank you for your attention. I now hand back to Markus.

Thank you, Jérôme. Let me now move to our outlook for 2026. Based on this very strong performance, we are pleased to reaffirm our 2026 outlook. We expect a strong total growth driven by further organic growth and active bolt-on M&A. We expect continued expansion of our EBITA margin. Finally, as every year, we intend to maintain a dividend payout of around 40% of adjusted net income. Thank you very much for your attention this morning. And as we like to say at SPIE, it remains a great time to be a European electrical engineer. With Jérôme, we are now ready to take your questions.

The next question comes from David Cerdan from Kepler Cheuvreux.

This is David Cerdan from Kepler Cheuvreux. I have a couple of questions. I will go directly. First question is regarding Northwestern Europe. Do you think 0.5% like-for-like in Q3 is sustainable? If I'm right, there are some exceptional. So can you give us maybe the trajectory for Q4 and this will be [Technical Difficulty]. Second question is regarding Germany. Do you see some tangible benefit from the German infrastructure stimulus program in your order intake? And can you give us maybe some numbers? Third is regarding France, and this will be my last question. So what do you think about the trend? Are you more confident for 2027 in terms of organic growth for France?

Yes. Thank you, David. Well, starting with Northwestern Europe, as we said, very exceptional 12.5% organic growth in both countries, Netherlands and Belgium. And as we said and stated that this was due to a high production level of projects with an extraordinary phasing effect. Yes, we consider this more like exceptional and not sustainable. We will come down to normal levels in Q4. Germany, we don't guide by order intake, but we see tangible impact in our order intake of the infrastructure package. And France, finally, we do confirm that we see a better trend in 2027 as we always stated that we are more confident than in this year.

Just maybe to rebound on your answer regarding Q4 for Benelux. So you said that it should be back to normal levels. So does it mean go back to something close to 9 months?

Yes, I think that is a good proxy.

The next question comes from Aleksander Peterc from Bernstein.

I just have 2. The first one is on France. You did already note that the backdrop for '27 is a little bit better. I'd just like to understand how sustainable this return to growth is that we saw in the third quarter. Would you say that Q2 was really just a blip and we will now have at least flat to slight growth for the foreseeable future. There's a lot of uncertainty, obviously, on France. So that's why I'd like to frame this a little bit for us.

And the second question is, can you give us an early view of the potentially positive contribution of recent acquisitions that carry above group average margins? I think that before you said you weren't sure of the seasonality of the margin of the newly acquired businesses in the second half. I'd just like to understand on this.

Yes. Thanks a lot, Aleksander. I can share those 2 questions with Jérôme. I'll tackle the first one. On France, we always said this year that we have ups and downs from quarter-to-quarter, but we still want to have a performance better than last year, but still with a minus in front of the organic growth. And for 2027, we expect that we cross the mark to positive. And whether this is sustainable, from our business positioning, we hope so. Order intake also improved, but you cannot really predict the economic -- macroeconomic and political environment. There are a lot of uncertainties. But we are more positive than we have been.

Yes. On the contribution from M&A, you rightly pointed out, Alex, that in the first year of integration, especially because this is pro rata temporary, the contribution in terms of EBITA margin might be sensitive to profit -- seasonal profit recognition. So as such, we have essentially ROFA, which we announced already is trading with a high single-digit EBITA margin. That will contribute only for 7 months, so I caveat on that. Worley Power Services was much more in the mid-single digit in terms of EBITA margin. And finally, SGS also coming with an attractive expected dilutive margin on the group, very high single digit will contribute only for 4 months. So all this being said, a bit early to say, but we are not expecting a sizable dilutive impact from M&A on margin as from 2026 because of that.

The next question comes from Eric Lemarie from CIC CIB.

I got 3, if I may. First, regarding the Q4 organic growth, should we expect -- how do you see so far the Q4 organic growth? Do you expect an acceleration or a slowdown compared to Q3 dynamic? And a second question on the 4.7% growth reported in Q3. Could you tell us maybe what was the pricing contribution within this growth? And the last question following the comments on M&A impact on margin. Should we expect -- I guess, we should expect a positive impact on M&A on EBITA margin in 2027. But could you maybe, I don't know, help us to quantify that?

Yes. Thank you for your questions. As for the previous ones, I also shared with Jérôme, the questions. And I begin with the Q4 organic. And can we expect a Q4 like Q3, I think that's a major question, yes. We did not provide quantified organic growth guidance for the '26 and also not in terms of the quarter. Well, Q3 was very strong. And -- but we would have to look at it with a little bit of caution of extrapolating those effects to Q4. When we go by region, Q3 in France supports our view that Q2 was likely really be the lowest point of the year. However, overall, our message remains unchanged. As I said already, we have a resilient year in 2026 still being negative, and we expect a positive growth in 2027.

So Q4 will also not be a major game changer here.

On Germany, yes, Q4 faces, first of all, a very demanding comparison base of 6.1%, which we had in Q4 2025. So -- and on Central Europe, the catch-up initiated in Q2 continued in Q3, but is not necessarily extended to Q4, implying a return to more normal growth levels. Northwestern Europe, Q3 benefited from favorable project phasing, notably in High Voltage and Building Solutions. And then on GSE, the market conditions are becoming more challenging for the oil and gas environment. That's what we wanted to point it out, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Just to give you one example, what we mean with disciplined approach, a very big international player sold their offshore platform to a local to a local company. And this local company is looking at high competition amongst us and local players. And for us, this is a clear no-go to stay in such areas. This leads to an erosion in margins first in process standards, second and leading to very bad health and safe situations.

So all in all, this is not a place for us to stay. So this is given my answer of not extrapolating the Q3 to Q4. Yes. You want to tackle the EBITA percentage contribution on M&A, Jérôme?

Happy to do so. Eric, I will not start guiding on an EBITA margin for next year, bear with me. But this being said, I think you can do a bit of math. We already have EUR 800 million of annual turnover being acquired, of which at least EUR 600 million, considering predominantly ROFA and SGS, where we announced already that they would be performing with high single digits, so a bit above where the group would land already at the end of the year. So inevitably, we can expect for next year a couple of bps of dilutive impact from M&A. But I would let you modeling all of that, I will not guide more precisely on that.

And the pricing effect within the organic growth of [indiscernible] in Q3?

Sorry, can you repeat the question?

You mean [indiscernible] whether you can maybe share with us the pricing effect within the growth in Q3?

Yes. Generally, we have -- we say that 50% is pricing and 50% is the rest.

The next question comes from Annelies Vermeulen from Morgan Stanley.

I have 2 questions, please. Just a follow-up on France and specifically for Q4. Have you seen any disruption to your activities from some of the protest activity in France? And could that impact the Q4 organic? And then secondly, just a follow-up on the margins as well. And sorry if I missed it. I think at H1, you said you were confident of margins being at least 20 bps plus year-on-year in the second half. Is that still the case? Or could that be a bit better given the growth acceleration you've seen in Q3 and as you digested some of those acquisitions?

Yes. Thanks a lot for your questions. On the situation in France, with the protests we have seen, no disruption. No impact on our business reported. And then on the second question regarding the 20 basis points, what we said at the H1 level is that historically, when we reach a certain level, we tend to stay on that level. So what we first gained, we never want to give up.

The next question comes from Tim Ramskill from BofA.

I've got 3 questions, please. Maybe just sticking with the performance in Northwestern Europe, you made a number of observations about comp effects in Q4, et cetera. Again, I appreciate you've already told us that the performance there was exceptional, but also the comparator in Q4 does get quite a bit easier.

So maybe you just sort of comment specifically on that comp effect. Just coming back to France, perhaps more broadly, given, I guess, we've all faced a number of inbound queries from investors around political sensitivities. Maybe just some comments around your public sector exposure, certainty of pricing there, kind of contractual terms that give you confidence regardless of what happens with the political environment in 2027.

And final question is, again, you make a number of observations in both your prepared remarks today and in the statement about backlog dynamics in particular geographies and segments. But if you look at it overall at a group level in your overall backlog, how would you say things are shaping up now versus 12 months ago?

Okay. Thank you, Tim. Well, starting with Northwestern Europe. You already gave your answer on the Q4 that Q3 was benefiting as well from a lower comparison base and then the project phasing. That's why we expect also Q4 more down to a normalized level. On France, while the political environment, I don't want to judge on that. It's producing a lot of uncertainty.

When we look at our business in France, we firstly have an exposure of roughly 18% to the public sector. And then our portfolio in France is, especially with the public clients, very diversified with many municipalities all across the country with long-term maintenance contracts for mission-critical assets in hospitals, in authorities and so on. And we don't expect any disruption of those political things which are going to happen.

And regarding on the backlog, well, generally, we can say throughout all geographies, we are well orientated, and we see a strong growth dynamic. And maybe when we can distinguish the geographies besides GSE which is clearly giving us with a disciplined approach and our strategy implementation there a negative situation.

Maybe just a quick follow-up on GSE. Again, just to sort of help us understand the things you wanted to call out obviously mentioned it's got a little more challenging in certain pockets. I guess actually, your performance in Q3 was a little bit better than Q2. So the points you're alluding to more relevant for Q4 and beyond? Or do they start to have an influence in the third quarter that we've seen reported today?

Well, I think for us, it is important to -- especially in the regions where we operate to keep high standards on the one hand for our employees, on the other hand, for the company, that means in terms of margins, but also in terms of compliance. And for me, it is key that we move into such countries with the big ones with the big international players, and we move out with the big international players. And that can cause some revenue disruptions up and down, which we now more see in a more down phase. And that does not mean that the up phase do not come, but that is what we see in the moment.

Sorry, that's worse into Q4 relative to Q3 because as I say, Q3 was actually better than Q2.

Yes. Q3 on the GSE portfolio was in the end in the quarters we had H1. It's a little bit weaker. But all in all, we expect more of the impact coming in Q4 where we see the impact of this disciplined approach. And the example I gave you, this is a real example of a contract we do not have anymore, and this is directly flowing -- or showing an impact in our revenue.

The next question comes from Rory McKenzie from UBS.

Just 2 questions from me, please. Firstly, I wanted to ask about the Technical FM businesses. Across a lot of regions actually, you've got strength in new contract wins. Can you just talk more about the kind of offering you have here, why you think you're winning good share in that market and what you're getting kind of payback on from previous investments?

And then secondly, I want to ask about actually a relative acquisition you announced this week, SAR. It sounds a great fit. But given that it's exposed to electrical engineering and automation for infrastructure, that's pretty much every buzzword I think people are looking to invest in. Can you just give us any insight into the competitive process for that acquisition? Are you meeting any more competition in the market as you're looking to kind of buy small assets? And just how maybe some of the excitement around European infrastructure is translating into your M&A hopes?

Yes. Okay. Let's talk about Technical Facility Management, and that's really a great question because I can point out how happy we are about this business. It's really giving us a lot of visibility with contracts 3 to 5 years or even longer maintenance contracts. And on top of that, we can seek for a lot of synergies to our other operational divisions, notably Building Solutions or Industry Services.

And we have a strong position in Technical Facility Management in France, in Germany and the Netherlands, but also in Poland. We are one of the leaders, and this business is all very technically orientated. And as we move along the technical value chain, we moved predominantly more also to industrial clients, and we have a great synergy to our industrial division.

And in a lot of cases, we are winning contracts or being able to retain the contracts we have with an addition of industrial services coming from the industry divisions. This is the case in Germany. This is the case in France, but also in the Netherlands. So it's a great contributor, and we are very happy with that kind of business. Performance plays a role. Our customers are explicitly giving us a very good feedback. And we have a lot of emphasis to permanently collect the feedback of our customers and do improvement workshops and bring improvements on -- in the field. So this is the reason why this kind of business is really doing very well.

And just to follow up on that point. Is it -- is there a particular acceleration in demand for, I guess, the energy efficiency side of your offering? And I know that that's something less than with previous acquisitions as well. Do you think that that's you've got somewhat of a unique stance in parts of these markets?

Yes, absolutely. That's a key issue of all the contracts. A lot of them are performance-based in terms of energy efficiency, and that's a key element of the demand as well. You're right. Then with Technical Facility Management for you. Then I -- then I'll switch over to SAR ANLAGENBAU. SAR ANLAGENBAU was a one-on-one situation. We were able to create with -- on the back of the good relationships our management had -- to the management of SAR ANLAGENBAU, and they are well connected in their markets.

And SAR ANLAGENBAU is really strengthening our approach to have a broader technically orientated value chain in Austria, but also to have a lot of synergies because this kind of business is not so far away from the existing business, especially when it comes to infrastructure projects or projects in the industry and we enlarge only our competence spectrum. So we can benefit from cross-selling synergies because we sometimes serve the same customers. We now have an enlarged portfolio to sell. And we have also an additional customer base that we can tap on and have a vice versa cross-selling opportunity. So very, very good situation here. And generally...

Sorry, I was going to say I'm sure it will be a great fit for revenue, but do you think that owners of small engineering businesses are having rising expectations about what their businesses are worth given the environment we're in?

You mean in terms of pricing? Well, I think we always have to have a reasonable discussion on it. But especially for owners who are selling their business, they do not necessarily look at the euro at the end. The price obviously has to fit, but they more seek for a home, a platform where their employees can have a home company and the business still exists and is enlarged, will grow.

And explicitly in SAR ANLAGENBAU, the owner is still holding 24% and will also ensure that the business plan will be delivered. This is also something which is gratefully seen by us that we have a strong commitment from the management moving forward.

The next question comes from Allen Wells from Jefferies.

Just 2 quick ones from me, please. Firstly, just on France. If we strip out the City Networks fiber weakness in Building Solutions, is it possible you could provide what underlying growth is excluding those kind of 2 headwind areas? And specifically, maybe also what was the benefit seen in Q3 from sequentially easing comps in that fiber business?

I think some of the CapEx side started to ease on France. That's my first question. And then secondly, just on Germany, you obviously continue to describe kind of high-voltage backlogs, but can you just talk about how visibility is changing at all in that business?

Obviously, we see a bit of phasing changing quarter-by-quarter. But as we think about that backlog building, how does the visibility on that phasing and on growth into next year generally help? And maybe any comments just in terms of the pace of tendering and order intake from German grid investment, that would be really helpful as well.

Yes. Happy to start with France. As we stated, 4 of the 6 divisions in France are growing and have a very good dynamic. And the ones which are constrained are City Networks and Building Solutions. This is what we ongoingly have to tell you. And the reasons do not change. In City Networks, it's the FTTx, which we see coming to an end in '27 in terms of decline, and we move into the maintenance portion.

So this topic is largely behind us. And in Building Solutions is a very disciplined approach from us in this challenging market environment. And on the other hand, we experienced some good growth drivers already with notably good wins on the data center side on projects in the health care sector with clean room technology, where we reach our margin level and have a good contribution to order backlog.

This is very, very visible. So we are quite confident moving forward. And well, we do not guide on the growth level of our divisions, but the growth is strong on the 4 other elements -- on the 4 other divisions.

Regarding the backlog dynamics, well, especially in Germany, energy infrastructure is one growth driver, where we see the same dynamic, not an acceleration. And from my point of view, there is -- it is hard for the clients to accelerate even further.

What they do is they more like to extend the volume of the contracts in terms of size and in terms of years of implementation of projects. One example is the bundle order we received from TenneT with several substations being conducted beyond [indiscernible] and giving us a good visibility on utilization of our workforce moving forward, better planning capacity, better being able to bid for other tenders to fill really qualitatively our order backlog. So this is what we see, and this is really coming into play for us. That's very positive.

And then just specifically just to follow up on the -- can you confirm if you can't give me the exact number -- confirm if there was some benefit in France from easing comps in fiber as well and that carries on into 2027? Or has that not started yet? That was what I was just trying to understand.

No, that did not start yet. So we see it is -- the decline is a bit weaker, and we see where it might end. That's why we say that '27 is for us the bottom line and the turnaround on that type of business into a maintenance portion, but it is still -- still in Q4 a decline.

The next question comes from James Beard from Deutsche Bank.

I've got one question on Germany. You noted that you saw solid growth in industry services despite a more challenging environment in selected end markets. I was wondering if you could give a bit more color around that. Obviously, one of large European infrastructure players warned recently regarding Germany. So just any more color there would be quite useful.

Yes. Happy to give some light. On the one hand, you have industry like defense industry creating demand. And our exposure to defense industry is, for example, very low. It was not a place to be in the past in terms of growth area and our exposure is around 1% in Germany. So every order we are winning here, and there are a few is creating already growth for us and good prospects.

What is at stake? It is a combination of industry and facility management, service and maintenance, and it starts with automation projects and from big international players and German players in the defense industry.

Then when it comes to more difficult industries, I would like to say that to see it more from the positive side as a service supplier, we benefit from restructuring plans of, for example, the big automotive players as long as plants are existing, they tend to outsource services, and this is then a field for us to tap in. So a lot of discussions we have to extend our services for these automotive clients as well. So it's not necessarily said that we are going into a downturn together with our clients.

The next question comes from Eric Lemarie from CIC CIB.

Two follow-up questions, if I may. Regarding Germany T&D sectors, I was wondering if the switch decided from underground cable lines changed anything for SPIE. And I was wondering as well whether you are penalized or not by any supply chain constraints in the -- for the T&D activity.

Yes. First of all, for us, it's good if we have more transmission lines above ground because we didn't focus on the underground cables. That's positive. But do we see a huge growth driver? Honestly, the expectation on a huge deployment of underground cables that was not there in reality because it was much too expensive and also the public did not react as positive as it was expected to those underground cables.

So the portion which was deployed and shall be deployed was really minimum. So not really a growth driver for us, but the decision generally is positive. Penalized by supply chain disruptions. No, I think we saw a good trend of more robustness in the supply chains following the big supply chain disruptions, which we experienced a few years back. All that has been settled back well. A lot of the risk is being carried by our clients. They often provide the large components to us like the transformers or bigger high voltage or mid-voltage components. But also here, we do not see projects being distorted by this.

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

Yes. Thanks a lot for those questions, and we are happy to see you again next year. Thanks a lot.

Welcome to the SPIE 2026 half year results presentation. [Operator Instructions]

Now, I will hand the conference over to Markus Holzke, CEO, to begin today's conference. Please go ahead.

Good morning, and thank you for joining us for SPIE's 2026 Half Year Results. I'm here with Jerome Vanhove, our Group CFO; and Alexandra Bournazel, Head of Investor Relations.

This is my first half year results call as Group CEO, and I'm pleased to be opening it on the back of such a very strong first half year performance, marked by further margin expansions and excellent M&A strategy execution.

It also reflects broader long-term trends, particularly around Europe's accelerating drive towards energy and digital sovereignty, which will continue to create attractive opportunities across many of our end markets.

I will also start with a few projects to illustrate this. In Germany, we are building the FRA7 AI-ready data center for firstcolo in Rosbach vor der Hohe. The project will provide 16 megawatts of IT capacity and is scheduled for phase delivery through to the end of 2028.

We're carrying out 75% of this project ourselves in-house under our One SPIE model, covering all critical systems from power distribution and cooling to fire protection and building automation.

The facility is designed to meet very high energy efficiency standards and will run on renewable electricity. This is exactly the type of project where being present across the full value chain makes a difference.

Investors who joined us for our data center site visit near Frankfurt at the end of June, saw firsthand on another project. We see more and more opportunities of this kind as demand continues to grow for integrated, energy-efficient data center solutions.

In France, EDF has entrusted SPIE present on the Le Bugey site since 2011 with maintaining the highest level of cybersecurity for the strategic systems that monitor and manage nuclear waste processing.

Three SPIE entities are working together on this project, combining nuclear, industrial and digital expertise. I was able to see this myself during my recent visit to SPIE's nuclear operations in Gravelines. It was my first visit to a nuclear site as the CEO and a great opportunity to witness the depth of expertise with our teams and how the One SPIE model brings together complementary skills to deliver critical services to our customers.

This example in Le Bugey with EDF is a good illustration of both the trust our nuclear services franchise has built over more than a decade and how our One SPIE capabilities are becoming an increasingly important differentiator for SPIE.

In Belgium, we're delivering the full electrical integration of a large-scale battery storage facility, including 180 Tesla battery units and a new substation for projects worth more than EUR 100 million.

Battery storage at this scale with several hundred megawatt hours of storage capacity is still relatively rare in Europe, and this highlights our strong positioning in energy transition infrastructure.

It also demonstrates the strategic value of the European framework agreement we signed with Tesla in 2025 with several ongoing negotiations for additional projects across Europe at different stages of development and of various sizes.

More broadly, battery energy storage systems becoming a key market for SPIE across a broad range of customers and technologies.

Moving to Central Europe. Over the past few years, our acquisitions have significantly expanded our capabilities in Central Europe, enabling us to deliver increasingly complex integrated projects like this one in Poland.

Here, we have deployed a full telecommunications and building management system for the new academy in Poland, including fire detection, voice alarm, CCTV, access control, intrusion and gas detection, all on a single-digit platform.

The project was delivered in a particularly demanding environment with around 100 acoustically insulated rehearsal rooms requiring bespoke installation solutions.

Now moving to the key H1 highlights. Revenue growth accelerated with organic growth rebounding as expected in the second quarter. Our EBITDA margin continued to expand. Working capital management was outstanding. We kept a dynamic pace of bolt-on M&A, and we are today confirming our full year guidance. This is a very strong first half year performance building on the record results achieved in 2025, and confirms that our positive momentum continues in 2026.

More specifically, looking at the key figures of H1, revenue reached EUR 5.157 billion, up 3.6%, including 1.2% organic growth plus 2.7% from acquisitions.

EBITDA was EUR 321 million, up 6.9% with margin expansion of 20 basis points to 6.2%. This is a very solid trajectory in line with our permanent commitment gradually increasing our margins year-on-year.

Our leverage ratio increased only moderately by 0.2x versus H1 2025 despite more than EUR 640 million of cash out for M&A since the beginning of the year.

Let us now focus on revenue growth. Revenue grew 3.7% in H1 at constant exchange rates. The rebound in Q2 confirmed the progressive catch-up scenario we had outlined following the weather-related disruptions at the beginning of the year in Germany and in Central Europe.

Germany grew by 4.6% despite a demanding comparison base of plus 15% in H1 '25, and Central Europe was up 13.9%, supported by sustained M&A activity in '25.

France grew by 1.2%, a resilient performance overall, which deserves a deeper dive later on in this presentation. Northwestern Europe returned to positive organic growth despite a demanding comparison base of 8.1% in H1 '25.

Global Services Energy continued to operate in a more selective market for oil and gas activities and was further impacted by the Iran conflict.

Overall, this performance underscores the strength of our model with its well-balanced geographical footprint and diversified multi-technical expertise.

M&A activities. In H1, we announced 5 new acquisitions, representing around EUR 670 million of combined annual revenue. In Germany, we significantly scaled up our industrial services platform with ROFA Industrial Automation and SGS Industrial Services, adding together EUR 610 million in annual revenue. The closing of SGS is expected in Q3.

We also completed 3 targeted bolt-on M&A in Central Europe, adding together around EUR 60 million of revenue, BLOCK Group and Czech Republic, Invizo in Slovakia and Nemak in Switzerland. As usual, all acquisitions are expected to be accretive to adjusted EPS from the first year of consolidation. Meanwhile, the integration of all 2025 acquisitions is progressing well and according to our plan.

Looking ahead, we continue to see a robust and well-diversified pipeline of bolt-on acquisition opportunities across all our territories, enabling us to densify our footprint, further move up the value chain and create more value through the deployment of our One approach.

Looking to our EBITA margin. We delivered a further 20 basis points expansion to 6.2%, following the 40 basis points increase achieved in '25.

Germany and France contributed positively with margin expansion of 20 and 10 basis points, respectively, while Northwestern Europe delivered an exceptional 90 basis points increase. These 3 segments represent together 90% of the total EBITA in H1.

In Central Europe, we expect a catch-up in H2. At Global Services Energy, the margin evolution was entirely attributable to the dilutive impact of the former ROBUR Wind activities, while the underlying business remained resilient in a selective market environment.

Once again, this margin expansion reflects our unwavering focus on rigorous contract selectivity, pricing discipline and a high quality of delivery as well as a favorable mix across the group.

Looking at the segments and starting with Germany. Germany delivered a remarkable performance in H1 despite a demanding comparison base with organic growth accelerating to 7.3% in the second quarter. This was driven particularly by high voltage and city networks, confirming the progressive catch-up scenario we had outlined following the weather-related disruptions flagged at the start of the year. Beyond this catch-up effect, underlying activity remained very strong, notably in technical facility management.

Building Solutions continued to benefit from sustained demand in data centers as illustrated by the project example I shared earlier in this presentation.

ICS strengthened its cybersecurity and audiovisual offering through recent acquisitions, while Industry Service delivered another solid performance across automation, logistics, pharmaceuticals, and LNG.

Acquisitions contributed 2.2% to this growth, reflecting the acquisitions of PIK and Cyqueo in 2025, while the acquisitions completed in 2026 are expected to support growth further in the second half of the year.

EBITDA margin increased by 20 basis points to 5.8%, reflecting continued operational discipline, rigorous contract selectivity and our pricing power.

France, strong dynamic in 4 main activities, good resilience overall. Revenue in France increased by 1.2% in H1, driven by a 1.9% contribution from the Artemis acquisition, while organic growth was slightly negative at 0.7%.

Looking more closely, 4 out of the 6 divisions continue to deliver dynamic growth, while the slowdown in mature fiber rollout programs and the selective market environment in Building Solutions continue to weigh as expected on the performance.

Technical Facility Management maintained a strong trajectory, while industry proved resilient, fueled by demand in solar PV and battery energy storage systems.

ICS continued to grow at a healthy pace in cloud, cybersecurity and data management and Nuclear Services delivered a strong performance, underpinned by a high level of maintenance activity in the frame of the Grand Carenage program. The 10 basis points EBITA margin improvement to 6.2% is a clear illustration of the strength of our business model and the quality of its execution.

Northwestern Europe delivered a strong performance in H1 2026. Organic growth was 1.9% against an exceptionally high comparison base with momentum building to 4.7% in the second quarter.

In the Netherlands and Belgium, T&D remained a key growth engine, driven by substations and power distribution networks. Growth also benefited from continued expansion in data center services and battery energy storage systems as illustrated by the project at the beginning of the presentation.

EBITDA margin expanded by an exceptional 90 basis points to 7.8%. This reflects continued operational discipline alongside a favorable mix effect in first half, especially in energy transition services.

Central Europe delivered total growth of 13.9%, mainly driven by a 12.7% contribution from acquisitions, reflecting sustained M&A activity in Poland, Switzerland and Austria in 2025.

Organic growth rebounded strongly in Q2 with 7.3%, initiating the anticipated catch-up and fully compensating the weak Q1 impacted by adverse weather conditions. The order book continued to build, providing strong visibility.

Poland and Slovakia saw continued strong demand in high voltage, supported by grid expansion and energy transition investments and tunnel infrastructure projects continue to underpin activity in Austria.

The 90-basis point decline in EBITDA margin reflects the more seasonal profit recognition pattern and the temporary impact of unfavorable weather conditions in Q1, amplified by smaller scale of the countries within the segment.

Global Services Energy. Revenue declined by 4.6% in this semester. Against the more selective market environment for oil and gas overall, operations in the Middle East were further impacted by the conflict in Iran from March onwards.

Wind activities, on the other hand, continued to grow, supported by the successful integration of the international wind operations transferred from Germany.

While the EBITDA margin on the historical parameter remains stable, it decreased by 40 basis points in H1 '26 due to the dilutive effect of these wind activities transferred.

Thanks a lot very much for this first part. I will now hand over to Jerome.

Thank you, Markus, and good morning, everyone. Let me start with our income statement highlights for this first semester. Revenue grew by 3.6% to EUR 5.157 billion. EBITDA reached EUR 321 million, up 6.9% at a combination of a 20 basis point margin expansion, as said, to 6.2% and the total growth.

Adjusted net income increased by 11.9% to EUR 187 million. Reported net income rebounded sharply to EUR 112 million, which I will further comment on.

I'm now moving on to the revenue bridge, which provides a breakdown of our 3.6% total revenue growth in H1 2026. As already pointed out, organic growth contributed plus 1.2%, including a significant rebound to 3.1% in the second quarter, following a weaker Q1 at minus 0.9%.

Our bolt-on M&A activity contributed 2.7% or approximately EUR 130 million revenue, driven primarily by acquisitions we completed in 2025, such as SD Fiber in Switzerland, with a smaller contribution from the acquisitions such as Artemis and Invizo that we closed in 2026.

The main acquisitions we announced in 2026, namely ROFA, SGS, World Power Services or BLOCK were neither consolidated as at June 30th, nor did they contribute to our H1 reported results. Please note that in the case of SGS, we are still contemplating a closing before the end of the third quarter, so not done yet.

The 2026 pro rata temporary contribution from these acquisitions, namely ROFA, SGS, World Power Services will be reflected in our H2 results.

The internal transfer of former Robur non-German operations was recorded as a disposal for the German segment and conversely, as an acquisition for both Global Service Energy and Central Europe, obviously, absolutely neutral at group level on the top line.

The disposal of a small elevator business in the Netherlands had a negligible minus 0.1% impact and currency movement had a modest minus 0.2% impact, mainly reflecting the euro-U.S. dollar exchange rate.

Moving to Slide 21. At EUR 186.5 million, our adjusted net income was up 11.9% year-on-year, primarily driven by the increase in EBITDA. This progression also reflected a slightly lower cost of net debt and the material other financial charges decrease. And this reduction is mainly due to a rather normalized net FX impact, which was largely unfavorable in the first semester 2025.

Our normal tax rate increased slightly from 29.2% to 30.2%, reflecting the gradual changes in our geographical mix and the applicable corporate income tax rate, notably the growing taxable profit contribution in Germany.

Turning now to our usual bridge from adjusted net income to reported net income, which includes the main noncash IFRS items as usual.

Reported net income rebounded sharply to EUR 112 million compared with a loss, exceptional loss of EUR 13.4 million in H1 2025. This is mainly explained by the change in fair value of the convertible bond or derivative component, which I remind you, is a noncash accounting item and did hit significantly our P&L last year.

The accounting treatment remains absolutely unchanged, but the impact amounted to EUR 19.7 million in H1 2026 compared with EUR 162 million charge in H1 2025, and this was as a consequence of the very strong appreciation of our share price over that period in H1 '25.

The decrease of the amortization of intangible assets is due to the completion in '25 of the amortization of the intangible assets recognized in connection with our SAG acquisition in 2017 and that were amortized over 9 years.

The increase in other costs mainly represents acquisition costs that's IFRS 3, in line with our very, very active M&A activity during the first half.

Turning to working capital, which remains a very structural strength of SPIE's business model. As you know, we consistently operate with structurally negative working cap in this throughout the year.

Last year's outstanding improvement reported as at June end has been finally maintained in 2026 with a continuing focus on intra-year working capital management that was our commitment, minus 28 days of revenue, representing nearly minus EUR 800 million is another outstanding achievement for the first half.

Overall, our continued focus on early invoicing and disciplined cash collection contributed to this excellent pattern alongside a favorable mix of activities.

Moving to our free cash flow. Operating cash flow reached EUR 163.5 million compared to EUR 25.3 million in H1 2025, benefiting, of course, from EBITDA increase and from the improved change in working capital requirement.

As a consequence, our free cash flow turned positive at plus EUR 25.7 million for the very first time in the half year, which -- with obviously EUR 133 million improvement year-on-year. In line with our commitment to protect shareholders' interest, we completed a EUR 59 million anti-dilutive share buyback program in the first quarter of this year at an average share price of EUR 47 per share, representing the same number of shares bought back last year meaning 1,250,000 shares.

Overall, net debt increased by EUR 822 million over the first half, reflecting, of course, our very dynamic self-financed bolt-on M&A activity.

Moving to leverage ratio. Thanks to our outstanding operating cash flow performance in H1, the leverage ratio increased only moderately from 1.9x at the end of June '25 to 2.1x at the end of June '26, following the nearly EUR 640 million cash out for M&A over the H1 period.

Our track record clearly demonstrates the strong deleveraging capacity of our business model with leverage increasing only temporarily following significant value-creative acquisitions during the period. We intend to pursue our dynamic bolt-on M&A while strictly observing our disciplined financial policy.

The achievement of investment-grade status from Fitch in April with a BBB- rating and stable outlook marks a very important milestone in SPIE's history, reflecting on our strong free cash flow generation, disciplined leverage profile and increased scale.

Building on this, we successfully issued a EUR 600 million sustainability-linked bond in May with a 5 years maturity and an associated coupon of 3.875%, extending our debt maturity profile to 2031 and maintaining a consistently high level of liquidity.

This was the case at the end of June 2026 with a total liquidity of more than EUR 1.5 billion, supported by EUR 562 million in net cash as well as EUR 1 billion of undrawn revolving credit facility.

SPIE's entire debt profile remains fully sustainability linked in line with our long-term ESG strategy. And 86% of our drawn debt is at fixed rate at an attractive weighted average cost of circa 3.7%.

I thank you for your attention, and I now hand back to Markus.

Yes. Thank you, Jerome. Based on these strong H1 results, we confirm our full year outlook. We expect strong total growth driven by further organic growth and a very active bolt-on M&A. We also expect continued expansion of our EBITDA margin. And also, as every year, we intend to maintain a dividend payout of around 40% of adjusted net income.

Thank you very much for your attention this morning. And as we like to say at SPIE, it remains a great time to be a European electrical engineer. With Jerome, we are now ready to take your questions.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Aleksander Peterc from Bernstein.

Congratulations for another set of solid results. I have 3 questions, if I may. The first one is on the Q1 weather-related miss. Could you give us an idea how much of that was caught up in the second quarter? Is it more than half or 3/4 or 90%, just kind of a ballpark?

Second question on France. Can you still grow this year? If you could explain why we had this relapse into negative territory again in terms of organic sales growth. We had a bit of a bounce into positive and now we're down again. So I'm just wondering what's the direction of travel from here?

And then my third question would be, isn't it reasonable to expect that second half margin progress year-on-year will be as strong, if not better in the second half versus what you have in the first half, that's the 20 basis points you just printed. I think the businesses you added are margin accretive and they're quite sizable. So my thinking is maybe there should be an acceleration actually in H2.

Yes. Thank you very much. Well, tackling your first question, idea of the catch-up in Q2. Well, the second quarter was, as expected, very strong. So majority portion is expected to be catched up, but the rest gradually will be catched up until the end of the year. So you're right.

France rebounds back to negative growth. Yes, we communicated that the quarter 1 is not expected to be fully go through until the year-end. And business is seasonal, and we see an ongoing decline in the fiber activities and the selective market environment of Building Solutions.

Well, we can expect a year-end being better than last year. EBITDA margin, 20 basis points. Well, we tend to deliver what we increased in H1 also at year-end. And so I think we are fully confident to show the 20 basis points improvement at year-end.

And maybe one more word with respect to the accretion from M&A. Bear in mind, Aleksander, that M&A is definitely in what we've done in H1, definitely accretive on a full year basis. When it comes to contribute on a pro rata temporary basis in one -- in the first year, let's see what happens. And so back to Markus' point, 20 bps being ensured for the full year, let's see with respect to M&A effective accretive impact in the first year.

The next question comes from Rory McKenzie from UBS.

It's Rory here. Again, just a follow-up on the France trends. Can you just quantify where we're at in terms of that drag from the fiber ramp down and what we should expect as we head into next year?

And also some of your wording sounds a bit stronger in terms of the segments such as Tech FM and ICS or nuclear. So are you seeing a bit more kind of divergent trends within the French market as where spending is being reallocated?

And then secondly, I wanted to ask about the kind of European data center market, where I think we're seeing accelerating projects across many countries. I know that historically, you focused on maybe more midsized projects where you can self-deliver the majority of the contracts, I guess, as on your Slide 3 as of today. But how much of that market do you think you can capture with that strategy? And would you ever think about evolving your kind of offering here to address more of that?

Okay. I might ask you to repeat one or the other question. But starting with France and fiber and the situation in the French business. I traveled extensively in my first rebound in France and made myself familiar with the French business. And I think the perception has to be really changed. We suffer from the decline in fiber.

But as we said, 4 of our activities are really experiencing strong growth. This is ICS, this is a resilient industry. It's a strong facility, and it's a very strong nuclear business. This is a dynamic, which cannot fully compensate the decline in fiber. And also, we stayed with our policy to be very selective in the Building Solutions market.

Well, this being said, we see that order intakes in data centers, order intakes in battery energy storage systems, they will help us in the future to being able to compensate a further decline in fiber, which is going on, but also not keeping us busy for the next years. So we see that, we more and more reach to the bottom line. And well, we will see at the end of the year where we end up. But I'm fully confident that this effect will phase out over the near future.

Data centers. Data centers is for us a key market. But to remind you, we are not the fans of the very big projects with hyperscalers. We focus more on medium-sized smaller projects and the overhaul of the existing data centers. And then also the maintenance portion within plays a significant role for us. So this is a key market where we want to grow and emphasize this in all our territories. Which question did I not answer?

No, that's perfect. And Markus, maybe just a follow-up in terms of the approach to kind of contract size and selectivity and now you're kind of Group CEO. And obviously, I appreciate you said you're Gautier's disciple. But in terms of the contract review limits at the group level and the kind of size that you focus on, do you envisage making any changes to that approach, maybe particularly as Europe starts to scale up in some of the larger investment programs that have been spoken about for a while?

Well, first of all, I did not tend to change the rules internally within the first 3 months and rather to make myself familiar and experience. So I had a busy period and reviewed above 90 projects within the first 3 months. Well, this is certainly a ramp-up of our activity, which is good. You directly feel it. But also it brings us the connectivity to the very bottom of our organization to the project managers, you exchange with them regarding terms and conditions, client perception and all such things, which are really worth discussing.

But of course, I mean, with the growth of the group and also the managers growing as well in my team, we might take a look at that. But for me, the disciplined approach and the focus of managers in the very first phase of our -- of the lifetime of our projects is a very essential one. This will not change.

The next question comes from Eric Lemarie from CIC CIB.

I've got 3, if I may. First, on a question on the regular improvement of operating margins. I was wondering, do you recon this gradual improvement is somewhat linked with higher risk, higher operational risk for SPIE or maybe project with a larger component of risk? It's my first question.

The second question on this EUR 644 million in your cash flow statement for acquisition investment in H1. Could you remind us the equivalent revenue acquired in H1 to compare with EUR 644 million? So out of the revenue, the EUR 670 million of revenue acquired. And last question on hyperscaler. You mentioned you are not a fan of a very large project with hyperscaler for data centers. Could you explain why you are not a fan of this project?

Yes. Happy to take question 1 and 3 and Jerome to take the second one. Well, on the margin improvement, short answer is it does not come along with taking more risk. It's absolutely forbidden. It's exactly the opposite. We keep our risk profile and have that fully under control.

Margin improvement is happening across all the measures we can draw on. It's operational discipline, being closer to the risk of the project, having a different business mix, having a better client selectivity and all such things, which I could mention to this.

Tackling the hyperscaler, hyperscaler projects are very large. Often procurement is fully in the hands of the client and is done across several projects. So it's out of our value creation. The design is often very standardized. So our engineering know-how which we can bring in is limited. So also value creation is not so good and margins tend to be thus less attractive for us, whereas the risk profile on those larger projects is increasing.

So this is why we tend to be there where our know-how as technical service company is better valued with also coming along with less risky project profile. That's the reason. And for the second question, I hand over to Jerome.

Yes. With the corresponding turnover we acquired on an annual basis with what we have signed so far and already announced, this is the EUR 670 million of equivalent annual turnover. In terms of expected contribution pro rata temporis to the year, including as well the impact from the 2025 acquisition, I think above EUR 600 million in total of contribution from M&A on top of organic for '26 is a good proxy.

The next question comes from Tim Ramskill from Bank of America.

Three questions from me as well, please. So I just wonder if you could spend a few moments on Germany with regards to both the Q2 acceleration in organic growth. Again, just trying to understand how much of that was sort of weather influenced or if you can sustain growth at a similar level to Q2? And then related to that, obviously, lots of positive commentary about the book of business. So again, is that -- does that help to sustain growth at a similar pace into next year? Or could you see a further acceleration in Germany?

And second question is margin related. You called out in Northwest Europe that the strong margin performance in the first half was partly a function of mix. Obviously, when you were talking about margins a moment ago, you referenced that obviously, business mix has an influence. Just want to understand, is that sustainable? Or is there any risk there that in the second half or into next year, those margins in that region start to sort of mix back the other way, if that makes sense.

And then the final question, just on cash flow, very strong performance in the first half. Is there anything at all as you look out into the second half that might reverse and see that strength in free cash flow generation year-over-year lessen?

Yes. Thank you, Tim. Also here, I would like to share the question also with Jerome. I would like to take the question for Germany. Well, acceleration was really there. We said that, we are going to catch up in Q2, and this was explicitly visible in our High Voltage and City Networks divisions. In the end, the divisions working outside being affected with the construction sites from the harsh weather conditions.

Well, we expect further organic growth, and we are prepared for more. So if more is available, then we do our best to catch it. Also, with the tailwind ahead of the German investment packages, which should be visible more on beginning '27, I'm very confident that we are there.

Well, Northwestern Europe, 90 basis points, we pointed out exceptionality. Maybe Jerome can point out a bit more detail. And then for the cash flow, you can also make the question.

Absolutely. Well, the direction of travel in Northwestern Europe very clearly is well set in H1. When we mentioned that it does include a bit of exceptional effect, it was especially with the completion on certain projects in the domain of high voltage with some very good projects and rather very decent margin recognition on those projects.

But no mistake, for the whole of the year, it would stay with a very impressive progression in comparison to last year. Our intent was to specify that it's not necessarily up to plus 90 bps for the whole segment, but it would definitely stay with a remarkable progression in comparison to last year for the whole of the year, and that is a very sustained profit recognition, sustained level of EBITDA performance.

And to your third question with respect to the free cash flow, there is no adverse effect or impact to be expected in H2. The remarkable performance in H1 was especially the fruits of our permanent focus on working cap management every single day in the year at every single month, with the aim to gradually reduce the seasonality impact in H1.

So what has been reached at the end of June will definitely make us very comfortable on the fact that our permanent objective of 100% cash conversion for the whole year can be reached, and we are heavily confident in that respect so as to deliver for FY '26 a free cash flow very likely higher than the one of last year.

Great. Can I just squeeze in a fourth question with apologies for being a bit cheeky. But the -- you obviously had a couple of questions already about hyperscalers, and you've been very clear on kind of why that may not be the best piece of business for you to win. But just interested in your thoughts as to whether that level of data center investment activity in the marketplace does bring you indirect benefits. So if you're not going after that business, does it help with -- particularly in the French market with some of the characteristics that are a little challenging? Does that uptick in activity bring you some indirect benefits?

Well, the indirect benefit is that the larger competitors are moving on to these larger projects and give us more room for the projects we emphasize with co-locators. And yes, that's the direct benefit.

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

Well, thanks a lot for participating our H1 results presentation, my first results presentation. And I'm happy to be CEO and part of the team of SPIE and happy to hear you next time. Thanks a lot.

Welcome to the SPIE 2026 First Quarter Revenue Presentation. [Operator Instructions] Now I will hand the conference over to Gauthier Louette, Chairman and CEO, to begin today's conference. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for our first quarter revenue call. I'm with Markus Holzke, the CEO of SPIE Germany, Switzerland, Austria; Jérôme Vanhove, our Group CFO; and Alexandra Bournazel, our Head of Investor Relations. As you know, Markus will become Group CEO as of April 30, and I'm very pleased to welcome him on this call.

On the M&A front, SPIE has made a strong start to 2026. Underlying trends remain fully intact and are even strengthening as the current geopolitical crisis further highlights the urgent need for Europe to transition to low-carbon electricity.

Let me start with safety, which remains a core commitment for the group. Next Tuesday, on April 28, SPIE will hold its Safety Day 2026. Safety workshops will be organized all across our sites in all our countries. Safety is a continuous training effort. Our health and safety code and its 10 life-saving rules apply to everyone across all trades and activities, making sure that every employee returns home safely each day is at the very heart of our commitments.

Next, I'd like to share a few recent contract examples that reflect our strong positioning. In Germany, we have been mandated to install 5 new substations for transmission system operator, TenneT, a long-standing client relationship built on sustained trust. The framework agreement runs for around 8 years. Implementation is scheduled to begin in summer 2026 with phase commissioning continuing through to the end of 2033. The award of this contract highlights SPIE expertise as an implementation partner for complex grid infrastructure projects and demonstrates how the structured approach is helping to accelerate grid expansion and the energy transition.

In France, SPIE built on several years of successful collaboration with ALK, a Danish pharmaceutical laboratory, covering both maintenance operations and clean room construction. We completed an electrification project for the plant located in Vandeuil, in Marne. We replaced gas equipment with electrical solutions, installing heat pumps and new electrical infrastructure, allowing the site to reduce its CO2 emissions by nearly 305 tons per year while also improving its energy performance. This contract illustrates the ability of SPIE's team to combine the skills to offer bespoke multi-technical solution while supporting both performance and decarbonization objectives.

In the Netherlands, we entered in a new multiyear maintenance contract for Hutchison Ports ECT in the Port of Rotterdam, a site where we have been leveraging our expertise over many years. The contract covers all electrical maintenance activities at the ECT Delta and in the Euroromax terminals, including inspection and high-voltage servicing of more than 200 cranes as well as the installation of 7 strategically located EV charging hubs to support the energy transition across the Port area. With this contract, SPIE reinforces its role as a trusted partner to support the energy transition, valued for its ability to incorporate sustainability requirements into maintenance operations.

Now moving on the key highlights for the quarter. on Slide 8. Total revenue grew by 1.7% at constant FX, including minus 0.9% in organic growth and 2.7% of M&A contribution. We made an exceptionally strong start to the year on the M&A front with 4 bolt-on acquisitions in Q1, representing approximately EUR 667 million of acquired annual revenue across our core geographies. With a solid balance sheet, continued focus on operational excellence and financial discipline, we reiterate our strong confidence in achieving our 2026 guidance.

On the first quarter, organic growth was hampered by a stronger-than-usual impact from seasonality, which was more than offset by the contribution from acquisitions. Both Germany and Northwestern Europe faced a very demanding comparison base with organic growth of 7.2% and 7.5%, respectively in Q1 2025. Central Europe as well as Germany were also temporarily impacted by adverse weather conditions during the first weeks of the year, but will gradually catch-up over the coming quarters. During the quarter, the internal transfer of the former ROBUR non-German operations from Germany to Global Services Energy and Central Europe has no impact at group level. Overall, this performance once again demonstrates the resilience and balance of our multi-local multi-technical model.

In Germany, revenue grew 1.2% year-on-year and organic growth was flat against a high comparison base of 7.2%. Outdoor activities, in particular, High Voltage and City Networks and grid were affected by adverse weather conditions at the beginning of the year, but we have secured operational capacity to ensure that we catch up on this over the coming quarters. Beyond the short-term seasonality effect, the underlying momentum in Germany remains very strong, driven by sustained demand for energy efficiency solutions and solid positioning in fast-growing segments such as data centers, cybersecurity or cloud and managed solutions.

In Industrial services, our performance was supported by recurring maintenance operation and our pertinent exposure to attractive end markets such as automation, logistics, food and pharma. The PIK and Cyqueo acquisitions completed last year contributed close to 6% with integration progressing well and the internal reallocation of the former ROBUR non-German operations to Global Services Energy and Central Europe had a minus 1.4% impact with no impact that we see at group level.

France on Slide 11, France delivered a solid performance in Q1 2026 with 1.9% total growth, of which 0.6% organic. As expected, City Networks and Building Solutions continued to weigh on overall growth. City Networks remained impacted by the slowdown in mature fiber optic rollout programs, while Building Solutions reflects both a degree of macro-related customer caution and our disciplined selective focus on high-value projects. The other 4 divisions, Technical Facility Management, Industry, ICS and Nuclear Services continue to perform well, supported by long-standing client relationships and a diversified sector exposure. In particular, Industry benefited from the fast-growing renewable and battery storage markets where ICS leveraged strong positions in cloud, cybersecurity, digital workplace solutions, data and AI.

Lastly, Nuclear Services performed strongly, driven by high-quality execution of maintenance programs, notably the Grand Carénage. The Artemys acquisition completed at the end of January 2026 contributed 1.3% to the growth.

Northwestern Europe, the total growth was slightly positive at 0.3% despite a minus 0.9% organic growth against a demanding comparison base in Q1 2025 of plus 7.5%. The organic decrease was more than offset by the 1.6% contribution from the 2025 acquisition of Rovitech and Voets & Donkers.

In the Netherlands, project-driven activity in Building Solutions reflected a degree of seasonality with several larger contracts recently launched and set to contribute more meaningfully as they ramp up over the coming quarters.

ICS delivered strong growth, capitalizing on its strengthened position in data center services and the contribution of recent acquisitions.

Industry Services remained resilient, driven by energy storage and advanced technologies despite structural pressure in the petrochemicals.

Belgium also had a slower start to the year against a high comparison base, notably in High Voltage services, while the order book continued to show strong momentum. In Central Europe, total growth reached plus 7.5%, while organic growth was minus 8.2% as adverse weather conditions in the first weeks of the year weighed on outdoor activities such as high voltage, telecommunications and transport infrastructure. This disruption were, however, short-lived and production is expected to catch up progressively over the next quarters. The backlog continues to build up, supported by strong investment dynamics linked to the energy transition.

Bolt-on acquisitions contributed to growth by 13.2%, reflecting the sustained M&A activity of last year and also the internal transfer of former ROBUR operations located in Austria, which contributed to an additional 1.4%.

And finally, Global Services Energy. It was down minus 4.4% year-on-year, including minus 4.1% organic. In an already challenging backdrop for oil and gas activities, operations began to be affected in March by the outbreak of the conflict in Iran, which did lead to the suspension of certain ongoing maintenance contracts in Qatar and in Iraq.

In wind activities, momentum remained strong. The business was expanded through the internal transfer of the international wind operation, formerly ROBUR Wind from SPIE Germany. It brings around 600 new colleagues and approximately EUR 14 million of annual revenue, ordering the offering across the full life of wind assets and adding maintenance capabilities for wind turbine generators and [indiscernible] related.

Regarding M&A, as I said earlier, SPIE kicked off the year with an outstanding level of M&A activity, announcing 4 acquisitions and adding EUR 667 million annual revenue. In Germany, SPIE signed agreements to acquire ROFA Industrial Automation Group and SGS. Markus will elaborate on this. Executed at a high single-digit EBITDA multiple, both acquisitions are expected to be accretive to adjusted EPS from the first year of consolidation. SPIE also expanded its footprint in Central Europe through 2 acquisitions, contributing a combined EUR 57 million of annual revenue. BLOCK Group in the Czech Republic is a recognized specialist in clean room design, engineering, procurement and construction. INVIZO in Slovakia is a provider of building security system and smart technical solutions. All these 4 acquisitions will be self-financed in line with SPIE's disciplined financial policy and commitment to maintaining a sound leverage profile. This acceleration of our M&A activity reflects the group's continued focus on high-value technical services and its proven ability to execute selective, high return bolt-on transactions.

And now I will hand over to Markus for a deep dive into the German acquisition.

Thank you, Gauthier, and good morning, everyone. ROFA Industrial Automation Group is a leading player in industrial services in Germany with EUR 430 million in revenues in 2025 and a sustained high single-digit margin. ROFA brings leading capabilities in industrial automation, conveyor systems and intra-logistics with more than 1,200 highly qualified employees. This acquisition will enable SPIE to move further up the industrial value chain while adding a resilient diversified customer base across automotive, food, health care, logistics and pharmaceuticals, providing significant cross-selling opportunities for SPIE. At the bottom of the slide, you can see a selection of well-known blue-chip customers.

And moving over to the acquisition of SGS Industrial Services. SGS will strengthen the group's expertise in electrical and mechanical installation for power facilities and industrial plants. The company generated EUR 180 million of annual revenues in 2025 with an EBITDA margin slightly north of 10%. SGS employs 800 skilled employees who can be deployed flexibly to meet project-specific requirements. Together with a diversified client base, this broadens SPIE's value chain and creates additional meaningful cross-selling opportunities. ROFA and SGS will significantly reinforce SPIE's industrial services platform, building on the successful integration of ROBUR in '24. And as Gauthier mentioned earlier, both acquisitions are expected to be accretive to adjusted EPS from the first year of consolidation. The closing of these 2 acquisitions is expected before the end of June 2026.

And with that, I will now hand over to Jérôme.

Thank you, Markus, and good morning, everyone. Let's move on to the revenue bridge, which provides a breakdown of our 1.5% total revenue growth in Q1 2026. Our bolt-on M&A activity contributed plus 2.7% or the equivalent of nearly EUR 65 million. This reflects, on the one hand, the contribution from the 2025 acquisitions, mostly notably SD Fiber in Switzerland. Voets & Donkers and PIK AG. And on the other hand, the 2 months contribution from the 2026 acquisition, Artemys in France following its closing end of January 2026. The minus 0.1% disposal impact reflects the sale of the small noncore elevator service business in the Netherlands, which represented an annual revenue of circa EUR 7 million. The former ROBUR non-German operations previously reported within SPIE Germany were internally reallocated into 2 blocks. First, the international wind activities representing approximately EUR 40 million of annual revenue were transferred to Global Service Energy. Second, the industrial activities based on Austria -- in Austria amounting to around EUR 10 million were transferred to Central Europe. This internal reallocation is, of course, and as said already neutral on the total group revenue.

Currency effect had a marginal impact of minus 0.2%, mainly driven by the euro-U.S. dollar exchange rate and partially mitigated by the appreciation of the Polish zloty against euro. Thank you for your attention.

I now hand back to Gauthier.

Thank you, Jérôme. And moving on to our outlook for 2026. So we do fully confirm the 2026 outlook that we shared at the beginning of the year. We expect strong total growth driven by further organic growth and active bolt-on M&A, which will contribute significantly from this year onwards. We have no doubt that the EBITDA margin will continue to expand. The proposed dividend payout ratio will remain at 40% of adjusted net income attributable to the group. Today marks my 44th and last presentation of SPIE performance. And more than ever, it is a good time to be a European electrical engineer. Following our AGM on April 30, Markus will take over as the new CEO of SPIE. We have worked closely together for more than 13 years, and I'm fully confident that he will lead the group to great successes. I would like to thank you for your continued interest in SPIE and for the quality of our exchanges. Thank you for your attention.

And now Markus, Jérôme and I are happy to take your questions.

[Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Remi Grenu from Morgan Stanley.

Just I mean, 3 on my side. So the first one would be on the impact of weather in Q1. So if you could potentially help us a little bit quantify what was the impact, so we can try to assess what was the underlying business momentum. And maybe as part of that discussion, it could be helpful to hear a little bit about the organic growth in March and the exit rate, which I guess was probably less impacted by the weather. So that would be the first topic.

The second one is on France. It seems to be doing a bit better. So where are we in terms of growth within Building Solutions? Is it back to kind of flattish trend or still negative? And on the fiber rollout there, do you expect -- when do you expect the drag to completely disappear?

And then the third topic, just taking maybe a step back, I think, you made some comments back in '22 and '23 that higher oil and gas prices were pushing clients to invest in energy efficiency, electrification and back then you -- SPIE was benefiting from that. So given the current context, is it something that you would expect to happen again? And do you have any discussion with clients that would support that view basically?

Yes. Well, thank you, Remi. Regarding weather, it was during the first weeks of the year, particularly in Germany and in Central Europe, we see in Poland, people told us these are worst winter in 10 years or more than 10 years. It also had some impact elsewhere, but to a lesser extent. It's obviously linked with the proportion of works we do outdoor. So typically, high-voltage distribution works are impacted. But also when you have areas where civil works contractors get delayed, then we have to come after them, obviously, they create some postponement as well. But it's something that is obviously behind us. And coming to your point, we did see a distinctly stronger March, that's for sure. The important thing that we were able to save capacity by way of holidays, trainings, so we managed to save productive man hours for later, which will help us catch up on this delay in the beginning of the year. And that's something that has been done very efficiently in all countries where we operate.

Regarding France, there's still a drag from optic fiber and it's is going to be less than last year, but it will further create a drag this year, and it's possible that it will plateau next year. We're not sure yet.

Regarding Building Solutions, we are in negative growth territory and we are very selective in terms of order intake, and this was the case we see last year, which with an impact on the revenue this year. But we are -- when we are selective, it means we target interesting projects, a bit more sophisticated, with more and more demanding customers in terms of quality and intricacy of what they do. And it means it's a better margin. So I think the important message for Building Solutions is that we managed to protect, if not progress our margins further. And I think it's good that you mentioned the trend. And clearly, the war in the Gulf is a stark reminder of how important it is to move to electricity. As you have seen in France, the government has issued a plan to foster further electrification of the country and we still have a very significant usage of fossil fuels. And it's a trend that we see with all our customers. So it is only further reinforced by the current events. But if we look at Industrial customer moving from gas fired furnaces to electrical ones, we see a lot of work with regard to heat pumps, et cetera. So it's a major concern. We see quite a surge now also in the electrification of fleet and so with an impact on the recharge point network. So it is a very positive trend, which will only be reinforced by the current events. And that's something where -- which will create a headwind for SPIE going further.

And just congratulations on the fantastic job you've done at SPIE over the last few decades.

Thank you, Remi. It's always a team effort.

The next question comes from Aleksander Peterc from Bernstein.

I'd also like to extend my congratulations to you, Gauthier, for your excellent stewardship of SPIE over the years and great success here. Just a couple of things from me. The first one, I'd just like to come back to France. We had this nice surprise with the return to year-on-year growth. Was there anything outstanding in the first quarter that drove this outperformance? Or should we now model growth for France at the like-for-like level more confidently in positive territory for the rest of the year?

And the second question, just on the recently announced acquisitions, there's quite a lot of them. Can you tell us if they altogether will have a positive contribution to group EBITDA margins already this year or next year?

So with regard to France market, it is -- there is nothing really outstanding in terms of a peak in a project or something for the start of the year. It is a very normal course of events. And we mentioned the parts which have been helping such as technical facility, such as Nuclear, which has a positive trend. The year is still young, so I will not make any guess on the organic growth for the whole year. We see, as I said, positive trend in some areas, but we see also on other areas, customer with an element of cautiousness. So early to say how the whole year is going to shape.

And with regard to acquisitions, altogether, they do create some margin variation. We have to see when it happens over the year, depending on the exact timing of closing. Specifically, the last year acquisition in Australia, Worley, which is Worley Power Services and which we plan to close hopefully by the middle of the year. This one is dilutive. It's dilutive to group, but it's also dilutive to the oil and gas or the GSE segment. But overall, positive impact.

The next question comes from Christophe Chaput from ODDO.

Again, I wish you the best for the coming months and the coming years. The first question is on EBIT margin. So your guidance is obviously an improvement for the full year. But would you say that H1 is going to improve as well because it probably depends in a certain extent on the level of catch-up. In Q2 you are going to make regarding the weather condition because the high voltage, let's say, could create a kind of negative mix on profitability in H1, I assume. So I just wanted to check that.

By the way, regarding the weather condition, I'm not sure you quantified in terms of EUR 1 million, the impact on top line regarding the Q1. If you can help us, let's say, in that respect, it could be great.

And the last one is regarding the life pipeline of M&A. So obviously, you signed a lot of deals year-to-date. Usually, the life pipeline represents an amount of sales of EUR 400 million, EUR 500 million. What -- how much it represents, let's say, actually after, again, the fantastic deal you signed in H1?

Thank you, Christophe, and thank you for your kind words. With regard to EBITDA margin, we -- even with this impairment we had on the first quarter, we're not worried about the margin progression over the year. And as you have seen in the past, it tends to be fairly continues over the year. So we do not expect H1 to be affected -- H1 margin to be affected by the slower start to the year and definitely not. Yes, I didn't quantify weather conditions because it's not easy to do. And -- but again, I think the main thing is to see this ability to catch up over the rest of the year, thanks to the capacity saved. And that's really something we are very confident about. And maybe for the pipeline of acquisitions, Jérôme, you say a word?

Yes. Definitely a strong start to the year, as you noticed, Christophe, but not making our pipeline empty, not at all. It does not pertain only to what we could do for the rest of the year 2026. We also have in the pipeline some very interesting targets that might generate concrete realizations for '27 and beyond. So again, we still benefit from the heavily fragmented nature of our market, constituting all along the year, new opportunities to come.

[Operator Instructions] the next question comes from Allen Wells from Jefferies.

Just 2 quick ones from me, please. Firstly, maybe just in France, you've talked about obviously being selective given the challenges in the Building Solutions business for a while. But can you remind us the negative growth seen in the first quarter, is that sequentially an improvement? Or is that still getting worse versus maybe what we saw in the second half of last year? I'm just trying to understand if this is getting better, is it getting stable or if we're still seeing headwinds in that market?

And then secondly, just in the Energy business, could you just maybe just expand out what the exposure is to the Middle East within that business and how you think about the potential impact for the year? And then maybe linked to that, is there a chance of catch-up in that business as we move through the year should the conflict end? Or are there kind of capacity limitations that may prevent that?

Allen, thank you. Well, with regard to Building Solution, it's -- again, as the quarterly organic growth for a given division has its limits in terms of meaning. But yes, we see an improvement compared to where we were for the whole year last year in this first quarter. So -- and again, it's on the back of the work we did last year to really focus on interesting contracts, and we didn't have a bad order intake at all at the end of the day last year. So we're at a gradual -- it is so far an improvement compared to last year, definitely.

With regard to Middle East, our overall exposure is in the range of EUR 100 million. It is euro. So it is in Qatar, in Iraq, in Saudi and a bit in Abu Dhabi. So we have demobilized fairly swiftly with good understanding with the customers. So first, we have paid on standby and then we demobilized some of the sites. Nobody has been hurt at SPIE, which is also obviously very important. We are in talks with customers. Some of them, they want us to stay. And for instance, in Iraq, we work for Total, and we are staying working at some -- preparing some works for or doing some sort of maintenance right now. In other areas like in Qatar, we did demobilize the site. So it will have an impact on the top line at least in H1, obviously. And then it's early to say what's going to happen next. So we are following this, obviously, on a day-by-day basis. It will be difficult to catch up per se. I think in this range, in this field compared to what we had for the winter in Europe. I think what is lost is lost and because it's maintenance. So you tend to do the same amount of maintenance with the same amount of people. So there might be a bit of need to restart the operations to a bit more people, but it will not be very significant.

In terms of margin, this is not the best area for our oil and gas activities, Middle East. So the margins tend to be in the mid-single digit compared to the rule of oil and gas. So the EBIT margin is not significant at all. The EBIT impact for [ these are significant ].

The next question comes from Eric Lemarie from CIC CIB.

I got 4 questions, if I may. The first one on weather. I was wondering if you have been over pessimistic regarding the impact from the weather, notably in Germany, the consensus expected minus 2% in organic and it was flat. And actually, I was wondering whether you had any positive impact from the weather for some of your activities at it was -- it is the case for VINCI as the group mentioned last night.

I've got a second question on GSI. Could you tell us maybe the split between oil and gas, wind and solar and the trend for this market in Q1? Because you mentioned notably a strong momentum in wind activities, but -- maybe you can tell us an idea of the growth there in Q1.

Third question on the German stimulus package. I was wondering if you have any new comments on the way you see the potential impact of the German plant on your business?

And the last question on Markus. I was wondering what will be your priorities and what will be -- what will you do differently compared to Gauthier in your view?

Well, I would be hard put to find a positive impact of the weather conditions. We -- I think it's not that we've been over pessimistic about the weather impact. I think we have been positively surprised by the strength of catch-up at the end of the quarter. So that's mainly that and that's as an overall picture. Oil and gas and wind and renewables, the split is roughly 90-10, so 90% oil and gas, 10% renewable, which is mainly wind. We have a few operations for maintenance of solar plants in Qatar, but it's mainly wind. And yes, the start to the year has been good in our wind connect activity. So the former Correll acquisition, we had a good start to the year, which is linked to the schedules of the various projects we're involved in. So we -- I won't give an organic growth by subsegment, but we had a good start -- definitely a good start in wind. And maybe for stimulus package, I will hand over to Markus.

Yes. Thank you, Gauthier. Well, the stimulus packages, they are supporting the sectors where we already work in. So for us, it is always hard to identify, is it an additional project or is it a regular budgeted project. The authorities, they do not necessarily tell us. But we see an increased pipeline in these sectors and also an increased number of won orders. So we already see some effects within this year.

And then I'll take the fourth question right away regarding priorities and what am I going to do differently. First of all, I'm completely honored to be able to take this role, and I have a deep respect for what Gauthier has done over all these decades. Working 13 years together with Gauthier, he has been a great role model to me. And I am a child of this compounder model of SPIE. So what I've done over the last 13 years is visible in Germany and Central Europe and Switzerland and Austria. So the priorities, you can see as well from these periods. For me, there is no reason to change. That is the first fact. And from the priorities, I got a good view on the territories I was touched on in the past. And now for me, it is to get a very detailed view on the geographies where I had less exposure so far.

There are no more questions at this time. [Operator Instructions].

All right. If there are no further questions, thanks a lot for your attendance this morning. Thank you for your interest in SPIE. Do not forget, it's never been a better time to be a European engineer in electricity, and the yet -- the best is yet to come. Thanks a lot. Have a good day.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. That concludes our call.

Welcome to the SPIE 2025 Full Year Results Conference Call.

[Operator Instructions]

Now I will hand the conference over to Gauthier Louette, Chairman and CEO; and Jerome Vanhove, Group CFO. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for our full year results. I am with Jerome Vanhove, our Group CFO; and Alexandra Bournazel, our Head of Investor Relations.

In 2025, we recorded a high-quality performance with outstanding cash generation. It does illustrate once again the strength and agility of our model, the relevance of our strategy and the quality of our execution. We are well ahead on our EBITA margin trajectory, and we are upgrading our 2028 margin ambition accordingly.

To begin, I would like to share a few recent contract examples that reflect our strong positioning. In Germany, we have been awarded 3 new substation contracts in Baden-Wurttemberg, supporting Netze BW grid expansion plan. This builds on a long and trusted partnership with more than 70 projects delivered together since 2006.

As general contractor, SPIE will oversee the full project scope from planning to commissioning. This project will enhance grid reliability and support the integration of renewable energy, fully in line with Germany's energy transition priorities. This award reaffirm SPIE's ability to deliver end-to-end grid infrastructure projects and its contribution to modernizing Europe's power networks. In France, SPIE is strengthening its long-standing partnership with Bouygues Telecom for the operation and maintenance of its national data center network.

This new contract builds on 15 years of collaboration and covers mission-critical services across Bouygues Telecom's historic data center sites in the Paris region from high and low-voltage power systems to generators, inverters, ventilation and air conditioning. SPIE is also expanding its support to wider footprint, with the assignment now extending to additional sites, reflecting Bouygues Telecom's trust in SPIE facilities operational capabilities. And this contract underscores SPIE's ability to run critical digital infrastructure at scale while supporting both performance and decarbonization objectives.

On Page 6, SPIE has signed a European framework agreement with Tesla for the deployment of battery energy storage systems, building on existing collaboration in Belgium, the Netherlands and France. This renewable 3-year agreement applies to SPIE subsidiaries across Europe with BESS installation expertise and will support further expansion in Europe, notably in Poland and Germany.

SPIE will deliver high value-added services for Tesla Megapack projects, including engineering, Balance of Plant works, grid connection and commissioning. This agreement highlights SPIE's ability to deliver standardized multi-country execution in fast-growing energy infrastructure segments. And now to Global Services Energy, SPIE is reaching a new milestone in offshore wind with a major contract on Dogger Bank, set to become the world's largest offshore wind farm. Through its subsidiary, SPIE Wind Connect, the group will carry out the full termination and testing of the inter-array cables on the final phase of the project on behalf of DEME. Once operational, Dogger Bank will be capable of supplying renewable electricity to around 6 million U.K. homes. This project showcases SPIE's ability to deliver highly complex offshore energy infrastructure and reinforces its role in accelerating the energy transition.

Now moving on to the key takeaway. So total revenue grew by a solid 4.8%. Our EBITA margin reached a record 7.6%, a new step-up of 40 basis points, driven by pricing power, selectivity, operational excellence and accretive acquisitions. Free cash flow was outstanding at EUR 424 million (sic) [ EUR 524 million ] underpinned by best-in-class working capital management and 108% cash conversion, well above our 100% target. Bolt-on M&A activity remained active with 9 acquisitions in 2025. And we also have done a very dynamic start to 2026, with the signing of an agreement to acquire ROFA Industrial AG, a strategic step-up in industrial services in Germany. Finally, we reaffirmed our sustainability leadership with 50% of revenue aligned with EU taxonomy. This is the number one position within the SBF 120.

So on Page 9, let's take a closer look at our main financial KPIs. I'm pleased to report that revenue was well above the EUR 10 billion mark as announced in our 2025 guidance. The 5% constant FX growth was well balanced between a 3.2% contribution from acquisitions and a 2% organic growth. EBITA was close to EUR 800 million, up 11.4% with a further 40 basis point step-up in margin after the 50 basis points increase in 2024. The outstanding free cash flow reached EUR 524 million, bringing leverage down to 1.3. Bolt-on M&A was sustained with the 9 acquisitions we have completed, representing EUR 347 million in annual revenue. And finally, our adjusted net income grew by 9%, and we will recommend a dividend of EUR 1.08 per share, up 8%.

Looking at the top line growth on Page 10. At constant exchange rates, revenue grew by 5%, driven by 2 segments: Germany, which continued to deliver a very high growth of 10.3%, well-balanced between organic growth at 5.3% and the contribution from acquisitions at 5%. Northwestern Europe, which also performed strongly with revenue up 5.1%, driven by a 4.3% organic growth. Meanwhile, France maintained a solid level of resilience against a muted economic backdrop with a slight 0.8% revenue contraction.

Central Europe increased sharply by 13.6%, mainly driven by a 12.1% contribution from acquisitions, while organic was at a robust 1.5%. Global Services Energy was down 4.4%. This reflected a more selective approach as well as the leveling off following an exceptional H1 2024, which benefited from a one-off shutdown maintenance contract. Overall, this performance underscores the strength and balance of our multi-local, multi-technical model. Looking at acquisitions, the 9 acquisitions completed this year were well balanced across our European footprint.

Together, they add EUR 347 million of annual revenue. Just to mention the most recent ones, PIK AG and Cyqueo in Germany, adding EUR 62 million in annual revenue in the integration and maintenance of complex audiovisual systems as well as cybersecurity, cloud and data. Artemys in France adding EUR 82 million in annual revenue in digital transformation and strengthening our offer in the strategic areas of cloud, big data and cybersecurity. Worley Power Services, EUR 70 million in annual revenue in technical maintenance for power generation assets. Building on its presence in Australia since 2012, SPIE Global Services Energy is now positioned to play a key role in the country's energy transition from coal and gas to renewable resources.

Meanwhile, the integration of all 2024 acquisitions has progressed well and according to plan. Looking ahead, we maintain a robust pipeline of bolt-on acquisition opportunities within a highly fragmented market. And we have had a very good start to this year with the signing of an agreement to acquire ROFA Industrial AG, which I will describe in more detail on the next slide. On Page 12, ROFA Industrial Automation is a leading player in highly attractive markets such as industrial automation, conveyor systems and intralogistics.

Building on the Robur acquisition completed in 2024, it will enable SPIE to move further up the value chain while bringing a diversified client portfolio and new cross-selling opportunities. ROFA will add around EUR 430 million in annual revenue and 1,200 highly qualified employees. It also offers a sustained high single-digit EBITA margin profile and it will be mid-single-digit EPS accretive from the first year. ROFA is a very welcome addition that will reinforce our leadership position in the German industrial services market, the largest and most dynamic in Europe. Looking now at our EBITA margin, we delivered a new step-up of 40 basis points to a record 7.6%. Germany improved by 40 basis points, reaching 7.9% and remains our best-performing geography.

It is also our largest contributors in terms of EBITA in absolute value. Northwestern Europe delivered a remarkable 110 basis point increase, reaching 7.4% margin, now only slightly below Germany. Central Europe continued to catch up, posting an 80 basis point improvement. France held firm at 7.1%. Global Services Energy remains our top performer with an EBITA margin of 10.2%. Once again, this margin expansion reflects our unwavering focus on rigorous contract selectivity, pricing discipline and high quality of delivery.

Moving now to the segment and starting with the largest one, Germany. Germany delivered a 10.3% revenue growth and is now firmly established as the group's primary growth engine. High-voltage activities were particularly dynamic, as illustrated by the example I mentioned earlier. We also benefited from sustained demand for energy efficiency and from our strong positions in data centers, tunnel emission systems and battery energy storage systems. In Industrial Services, performance was supported by our maintenance activities and our targeted presence in fast-growing segments such as automation, logistics, food and pharmaceutical. EBITA margin increased by 40 basis points to 7.9%. This reflects a favorable mix from high-voltage growth, the accretive impact of recent bolt-on acquisitions and our continued focus on operational excellence and contract selectivity.

On Page 15, France. Revenue in France was broadly stable, demonstrating strong resilience amidst a muted economic backdrop. Revenue decline was concentrated in 2 divisions: City Networks, reflecting the ongoing ramp down of mature fiber optic rollout programs and Building Solutions, where we continue to apply a high level of selectivity to preserve margin quality, and we did secure a solid backlog of high-value projects.

The other 4 divisions delivered sound performance supported by the diversified sector exposure, including aeronautics, defense, BESS Systems and the mission-critical nature of the services, particularly in data center or nuclear facilities. Our healthy EBITA margin held firm at 7.1%, thanks to our lean and flexible cost structure and our sustained operational discipline. Northwestern Europe delivered strong performance, both in terms of revenue growth and EBITA margin improvement. Revenue growth was driven by a strong organic performance of 4.3% despite a very high comparison base in Q4. As a reminder, we had a growth of 11.9% in Q4 '24. EBITA margin improved by 110 basis points, the highest gain across all our segments to reach 7.4%.

The Netherlands has now become the group's second largest growth contributor. This reflects SPIE's strong positioning in key markets such as high-voltage services, building energy efficiency, data center services and critical infrastructure. It also underscores our exposure to high-growth sectors like food and pharmaceutical, energy storage and advanced technologies. In Belgium, rising investment in energy efficiency remains a key growth driver with a step-up in grid investment and booming demand for battery energy storage systems. Building Solutions and Technical Facility Management also contributed meaningfully to the performance.

In Central Europe, I'm on Page 17, revenue rose by 14.7%, fueled by the 12.1% contribution from bolt-on acquisition, reflecting sustained M&A activity in Poland and Switzerland since the start of the year. Poland and Slovakia confirmed the return to organic growth in the second half, driven by renewed momentum in high-voltage activities after delays in the first half. The substantial backlog continued to grow. Austria maintained a high level of activity underpinned by strong dynamics in transport infrastructure and transmission and distribution services. Overall, EBITA margin increased by 80 basis points, supported by operational excellence initiatives and a particularly robust contribution from Australia and Switzerland.

Lastly, in Global Services Energy, revenue declined 4.4% organically due to an exceptionally high comparison basis in H1 2024 as well as a highly selective approach in oil and gas maintenance activities. We preserved strong margin levels in the context of low oil prices with a 10 basis point EBITA margin increase to 10.2%, marking the highest level among all segments. Currency had a negative 4.2% impact, driven by depreciation of the U.S. dollar. Offshore wind activities continued to gain momentum, supported by our strengthened market positioning and enhanced technical capabilities following the successful integration of Correll Group.

And a word on the shareholding structure on Page 19. As a service company, our employees are our greatest asset. SPIE's 2025 employee shareholding plan was once again a success with around 2,025 people across 70 countries participating, a 16% increase compared to 2024. Employee now own 10% of the company. And as a result, SPIE now ranks among the few companies in the SBF 120 where employees are the largest shareholder. After the SHARE FOR YOU 2025 plan, more than 1 employee in 2 is the group shareholder. By involving our employees in our entrepreneurial journey, we enable them to participate in our long-term value creation. In H1 2026, we will launch a share buyback program to partially offset dilution.

And now I will hand over to Jerome, who will take you through our financial performance.

Thank you, Gauthier, and good morning, everyone. I'm starting with a brief overview of our 2025 income statement. We delivered a solid revenue growth at EUR 10.4 billion, up 4.8% year-on-year or 5% at constant foreign exchange. This reflects a healthy 2% organic growth, mainly driven by Germany and Northwestern Europe. EBITA margin improved by 40 basis points year-on-year, another step up to 7.6%. As a result of both top line growth and margin expansion, EBITA reached EUR 793 million, up 11.4%. And finally, I would highlight our adjusted net income at EUR 458 million, up 9% year-on-year.

Moving on to our revenue bridge, which provides a breakdown of our 4.8% total revenue growth. In addition to the already mentioned organic growth standing at 2%, our Bolt-on M&A activity continues to support our total growth. The acquisitions contributed materially to the overall increase with 3.2% impact, representing nearly EUR 318 million of additional revenues, of which EUR 198 million of full year contribution effect from transactions which were closed already in 2024 and EUR 120 million on a pro rata temporary basis for -- from the 2025 acquisitions, as most of them were closed rather late in the last quarter and will contribute fully from 2026 onwards. The disposal of our small Belgium IT support business in late 2024 had just a limited impact of minus 0.2%. Finally, the currency effects at group level were close to neutral over the period at minus 0.1%.

Let me now turn to our adjusted net income for the year. At EUR 458 million, adjusted net income was up 9% year-on-year, and this reflecting on strong EBITA growth. Net interest mainly include a rather steady cost of net financial debt and growing IFRS 16 interest cost, this in line with the business expansion. The other financial charges increased mainly as a consequence of negative net foreign exchange impact this year, especially at Global Service Energy and this due to a weaker U.S. dollar against euro.

Our normative tax rate increased slightly to 30.2% and reflecting the gradual change in geographical mix at group level, notably the growing profit contribution from Germany. So a strong adjusted net income evolution overall despite some FX-related headwinds and a slight increase in our normative tax rate. Turning now to our usual bridge from adjusted net income to reported net income, which includes the main noncash IFRS items, starting with the IFRS accounting treatment of the ORNANE convertible bond. As a reminder, the derivative component of the ORNANE is revalued at fair value at each closing period, and this based on SPIE's share price.

Given the sharp increase in our share price over the period, plus 64% from January 1st to December 31st, we recorded a noncash IFRS charge of EUR 176 million, supporting the fair value adjustment of the ORNANE, thus mitigated by a EUR 43 million deferred tax asset. Let me remind you that under U.S. GAAP, the accounting treatment of this convertible bond ORNANE would have just no P&L impact. You will find in the appendix of this presentation the updated version of the slide we presented already at midyear on that topic. As a direct consequence, reported net income group share decreased in 2025 compared to '24.

Turning to our working capital, which remains a structural strength of SPIE's business model. As a reminder, we operate with structurally negative working cap and this throughout the year. At December end, it remained practically stable at around negative EUR 1 billion. Expressed in days of revenue, our working cap stood at minus 34 days, a slight 2 days deviation, mainly in comparison to the previous year, and this mainly due to the reduction of an historical factoring program in Germany and a decrease of net tax liabilities at the end of December. Overall, our continued focus on early invoicing, disciplined cash collection contributed to this excellent performance.

Once again, I'm turning now to free cash flow. Once again, our cash conversion based on our operating cash flow was above 100% target at 108%, supporting obviously a very strong free cash flow at EUR 524 million. This remarkable cash conversion reflects the quality of our earnings, but as well as the close monitoring of the working cap. This high level of free cash flow puts us well on track to deliver on our 2028 midterm target, which I remind is a cumulative EUR 2 billion of free cash flow over the period 2025 to 2028 included.

Moving to Page 26. As mentioned, this outstanding EUR 524 million free cash flow allowed us to self-finance first EUR 234 million of acquisitions, pay out EUR 182 million of dividends to our shareholders and carry out EUR 39 million of anti-dilutive share buyback to partially offset the dilutive impact of our employee shareholding plan, so-called SHARE FOR YOU program. All this was achieved while slightly reducing net debt from EUR 1.262 billion down to EUR 1.145 billion, evidencing once again our cash-generative model.

Moving to our leverage ratio. We further deleveraged throughout the year, and our leverage ratio decreased to 1.3x at the end of 2025. This is excluding IFRS 16 impact. Historically, we have consistently demonstrated the deleveraging capacity of our business model, and we have only releveraged twice each time following the self-financing of rather more significant value-creative acquisitions.

Finally, our financial structure. Our financial and balance sheet structure remains strong, supported by a well-diversified long maturity debt and attractive financing condition. In May 2025, we successfully issued a EUR 600 million sustainability-linked bond, which was largely oversubscribed. It carries out an attractive fixed coupon of 3.75% and matures in 2030.

Now SPIE's entire debt profile is linked -- sustainability linked, in line with our long-term ESG framework. 81% of our gross debt is at fixed rate with a very stable weighted average cost of debt at 3.4%. Liquidity at the end of 2025 stood at EUR 1.8 billion, including nearly EUR 800 million of available cash and EUR 1 billion of undrawn revolving credit facility, which allows us, obviously, to finance upcoming M&A, starting with ROFA. Lastly, our credit rating is unchanged at BB+ with a stable outlook from Standard & Poor's and a positive one from Fitch.

Turning to our dividend, recommended dividend. In light of that strong financial performance, the Board of Directors will recommend to the AGM a dividend of EUR 1.08 per share up 8% year-on-year. This represents a 40% payout ratio, fully in line with our long-standing commitments to a sustainable and growing dividend distribution. This dividend to be paid fully in cash includes an interim dividend of EUR 0.30 per share, which was already paid in September 2025, thus with the remaining EUR 0.78 per share to be paid in May 2026 after the approval of such a dividend by the AGM. As usual, an interim dividend will also be paid in September 2026, representing 30% of the approved 2025 dividend.

Thank you for your attention, and I'll hand back to Gauthier.

Thank you, Jerome. As you know, sustainability is at the core of our business. In 2025, we met all our environmental targets, underscoring the commitment and effectiveness of our approach to sustainability. To highlight some metrics in particular, 50% of our revenue is now aligned with the EU taxonomy. Our Scope 1 and 2 emissions have decreased by 30% since 2019. We also made significant progress on Scope 3 with 68% of our procurement-related emissions now made with suppliers that have set ambitious reduction targets.

Safety remains an absolute priority. The absolute number of severe accidents was only 6% lower in 2025 than in 2019. However, the severe accident frequency rate improved by 22% over the same period, demonstrating our relentless improvement efforts in this area. Regarding our people, our efforts toward gender diversity did pay out and building on the strong progress achieved by the end of 2025, we are now launching a new 2030 sustainability roadmap with increased ambition across both environmental and social dimensions.

Regarding our people, again, at SPIE, our employees are our greatest asset with 55,000 talented and highly committed professionals, including 2,700 apprentices. In 2025, our recruitment strategy led to approximately 7,400 new hires. The resignation rate continued to decrease, standing at 5.9% in 2025 compared with 6.6% in '24 and 7.3% in '23. To the taxonomy, after 6 years of measuring our progress, the share of our revenues aligned with the EU taxonomy reached 50% in 2025, which makes us a top performer within the SBF 120.

SPIE is part of the solution and a key enabler for energy transition.

Looking at our carbon footprint. Today, SPIE's direct carbon footprint is 30% below its 2019 level, beating our 2025 target of a 25% reduction. This performance is mainly driven by the widespread adoption of electric vehicles across our fleet, a critical lever for us, since vehicles account for around 90% of our Scope 1 and 2 emissions. And on Scope 3, when we say that 68% of our suppliers are now engaged in reducing their carbon footprint, it's important to understand that it means more than 3,300 suppliers.

Moving now to our outlook for 2026. We anticipate another year of strong financial performance. We are targeting a strong total growth, driven by further organic growth and active Bolt-on M&A. We aim at continued expansion of our EBITA margin, obviously translated to 100% cash conversion. The proposed dividend payout ratio will remain at 40% of adjusted net income attributable to the group.

And now to the governance evolution. I informed the Board of Directors of my decision not to seek the renewal of my mandate of Chairman of the Board and CEO. I'm very pleased that the choice of the Board has fallen on Markus Holzke as the new CEO. Markus did build up Germany to become the largest segment and top contributor of the group. We have worked closely together for more than 13 years, and I am absolutely confident that he will be very successful in his new role.

And looking at our 2028 guidance. In light of the remarkable progress achieved along our EBITA margin trajectory, we are upgrading our 2028 margin ambition. We now expect EBITA margin to expand further to reach 8% by 2028, resulting in EBITA surpassing EUR 1 billion by the end of the period. Our other financial targets remain unchanged.

Thank you very much for your attention. And before we move to Q&A, just in case you would have forgotten, let me repeat once again, it's a good time to be a European electrical engineer.

[Operator Instructions]

The next question comes from Aleksander Peterc from Bernstein.

I just have a few questions, if I may. But first of all, thank you, Gauthier, for your excellent service as the head of SPIE. You will be missed. I'm very sure of that. So first of all, on the organic sales growth in '26, can you tell us if you will be within the 3% to 4% range? I know you don't give precise guidance at this time of the year, but it would be helpful to understand if the biggest moving part is France, meaning that if France is just flat, you will be able to reach that 3% range. And if it's below, you could be a touch below and conversely above -- a touch above that 3% lower limit.

And then the second question is, when I look at the pro forma indicators in your financial report, I can see that you would have printed an EBITA margin of 7.8% already in '25 had all of the acquisitions been acquired from the 1st of January. Does this mean that this 7.8% margin is already in the bag for the year and you can actually do a bit better with some improvement in other -- in your core businesses and the economies of scale and so on?

Well, towards the 2026 organic growth, well, as you know, we don't give a precise guidance at this stage. And I think it's fair to say that the trend of -- long-term trends of our business remain unabated and unchanged compared to what we have experienced over the last years. There are a number of moving parts, including obviously the view on France, which remains in muted backdrop and with a number of uncertainties. We have other areas where we see a very positive trend.

So far, we will remain as we said, and I will not make any bet on exactly where we're going to be at the end of the year. Regarding your second question, I think it's -- our calculation is that the pro forma EBITA for '25 with the contribution of the acquisition is 7.7%. It's clear that we are aiming at further progressing the margin, and we are very confident regarding the guidance we have given 2028. And you will see we expect that 2026 we mark further progress towards that goal. So there is no hesitation whatsoever in this regard.

The next question comes from Remi Grenu from Morgan Stanley.

Really appreciated the discussions over the last few years and all the best for what's coming next. Just a few questions on my side. So the first one is on Germany. So clearly reaccelerated in Q4 after the slight weakness and phasing impact in Q3. Can you provide maybe more details on the current trading? And if we should extrapolate the level of organic growth you had in Q4 as a little bit more underlying potential and what's expected from this year? And if that acceleration has anything to do with potential government investment or what we've heard from infrastructure spending starting to really hit the market? So yes, first question on Germany.

The second one is on France. So on top of the organic growth, I think the margin declined a little bit in the second half of the year. So I just want to understand what's happening there and if we should expect the trend to continue if it was about pricing or just the impact of lower organic growth?

And the third one is on your acquisition, so ROFA. Can we have more details about that company, maybe the growth rate over the last few years, country exposure because I think that there are some exposure to China and the U.S. there. So what the company is doing in these countries? And would be great also to have any more information on what they actually do and who they compete with, so we have a good understanding of what they do.

Yes. So regarding current trading in Germany, we have been more impacted than usual by winter, clearly which is something that we're going to catch up. But winter was harsh this year, as you all know. But other than that, when we look at the current level of order intake and level of activities on the areas which are not impacted by weather, we're doing fine. So no worries about that. So it's not a direct extrapolation in Q4, clearly for Q1 for the reason I just mentioned. The underlying trends are strong, and we are continuously further building backlog in energy infrastructure.

So very, very confident for the whole year in Germany. The infrastructure spending, I think it would be fair to say that it's not hitting the market yet in terms of call for tenders or orders. It has definitely an impact on the confidence level and the mood of our customers in Germany, which is good also for what we do in Tech FM, et cetera, because the level of spend is steady. But not an impact yet. It's going to come. And clearly, the political consensus around this package is now very strong and well established. So again, very confident for the year in Germany.

Regarding France, we expect trends to be maybe not dissimilar to last year. As you know, we are mainly impacted by 2 things. One is the optic fiber, which probably accounts for 1% organic growth decrease in our top line. This will still be a bit -- we still have a bit of this headwind in '26, but -- and should then end up plateauing towards the end of the year. And then the other headwind was on commercial installation. We've been very selective and this is always an area where price competition is the most fierce and especially when the economy is a bit down.

So we've been selective, and we really concentrated on high-value contracts such as data centers, for example, and we had a few interesting success in this regard. So we have built up a very decent backlog, and we expect less headwind this year from this area. And as you pointed out, margins are very resilient, and we have an agile cost base. We are extremely disciplined on pricing. So we did show a very resilient margin in France this year. With regard to ROFA, we're talking a growth rate that is in the low to mid-single digit all together. It's very good margins.

So they are active in the industrial automation business and in intralogistics. So these are areas where there's a constant high level of spend, with factory technology evolving fast. When they work in China or the U.S. to accompany a German customers, so they build on their know-how and their relationship with these customers in Germany and accompany them in other geographies where basically the erection is done locally, but all the engineering and systems preparation is done in Germany. I think it's very much a German content and a bit of local erection.

The next question comes from Rory McKenzie from UBS.

Rory from UBS. Gauthier, I want to say congratulations on your career at SPIE. Although I can't believe that after all your efforts over the years, you're now going to negatively impact the staff turnover ratio. My first question was about the outlook for margins in France, which is now behind 3 other divisions. Which areas are you seeing pressure? Are you currently expensing many costs in terms of moving people around to reposition?

And I guess, ultimately, do you expect France to improve its margins by 2028 in these targets? And then secondly, I just want to ask more about ROFA. Can you just explain how it fits into the existing German business? It sounds like a newer area or certainly a lot bigger exposure here now. So how does it sit alongside Robur? How much overlap is there? And are there longer-term plans to expand these services across the rest of Europe?

Well, regarding margin, so France, I mentioned the two areas where we've seen the most of difficulties last year. I could have mentioned that other areas have been doing well. For instance, technical facilities, we did saw growth last year. And we also had a bit of growth in Industrial Services. And these areas are at good margins. So it does help as well. We are not worried about the level of margin in France. If at all if we see it moving, it will be upwards. I think we have reacted quickly to the situation. We have adapted the cost base, both the variable part and the fixed cost base.

So it's -- we think we are bottoming out in '25 in terms of margin for France.

And regarding ROFA, it is an area, they have the customer in the logistics, in some customer in the defense, some customer in the automotive sector. And we think that we'll be able to open up a broader area of other customers for them, thanks to the platform of Robur customers. So we do expect commercial synergies in this regard. And clearly, in an area which is evolving fast, which is exposed to a lot of technological upgrade and to also a need of the customer to adapt quickly. So we do expect commercial synergies to happen. The company is very well run. And so it's fairly lean as well. So we don't expect a lot of cost synergies. It's more really on the top line side.

The next question comes from Eric Lemarie from CIC CIB.

Yes. I've got 3 questions, if I may. So first one on the 2028 margin guidance of 8%. Could you tell us if you expect some convergence of the margin by segments between France, Germany and the other areas in Europe? So I'm not talking about GSI, but more about the segment. Second question on the governance. Could you tell us if Markus speak French? And could you tell us where he will be based, will he be based in Paris region or in Germany?

And I know you can't answer to that question, but I was surprised you didn't want to stay as Chairman. I don't know if you can tell us something about that. And the last question on GSI. It's still relatively small in terms of revenues and it's very profitable. And you just announced this acquisition in Australia. And I was wondering if you -- if SPIE plans to maybe accelerate on the M&A for this GSE segment in order to make it larger.

So regarding the margin guidance, well, we think every segment will continue to progress. We mentioned the strong catch-up last year of Central Europe. The year before, we had seen quite a good step-up of Belgium as well within the Northwestern segment. But we definitely see more and more potential in Germany, in the Netherlands, by far not the end of teaser, and the other segment will contribute as well. So it's really a global effort of the company. But clearly, when I look forward, I see Germany and Netherlands leading the pack. But again...

You mean you see Germany and Netherlands leading the pack in terms of million euro or in terms of margin? I mean, do you expect...

No, in terms of margin progress. In terms of margin, which, by the way, converts into million euro because Germany is the largest segment. So it will be the largest segment with the best margin. So you see it's a major contributor. It's the #1 contributor.

Of course, yes.

Regarding -- so talking of Markus, yes, it does speak French. It's probably -- we will further work on it, it's fair to say, but it does speak French and he will be based in Cergy at our headquarters. And regarding the -- Chairman, well, I think it's a very French thing to do to remain as a Chairman when you've been CEO. There are a number of countries where it is forbidden. I think it's for a good reason because you need the new CEO to take his full role.

And especially in my case because I've been there for so long, I think it would not be rendering him a service to be hovering around. So we worked very closely with Markus for 12 years. I think we know each other inside out. I think I know that he has all the qualities to fulfill the job, and it's better that I give him some breath. And the last thing, I've been very hands-on for all this years. So I'm not sure I would re-enjoy the nonexecutive stuff.

Regarding the GSE acquisition, it's -- I think it's a very good move. We are now reinforcing a presence in a good area for energy -- for energy transition. There's a lot to do in Austria in this regard. It's also skewed towards renewable energy, this acquisition. So it was a very good opportunity. We need to focus on integration, and will we see whether we see further opportunities going forward. But at the moment, one thing at a time, and it's far away, and we have a good setup down there since 2012, but this is a further step, and we really need to concentrate on the quality of acquisitions.

The next question comes from Laurent Gelebart from BNP.

Three questions on my side. The first one regards France. Do you expect organic growth in France to improve versus 2025? That's the first one. The second one is on ROFA, could you let us know when you are going to close the deal, i.e., for competition for the modeling? And can you explain a bit the business model, i.e., what is the share of recurring activity at ROFA? Is it bigger orders proportional sales compared to the other activity of SPIE or more or less similar? And what is the share of new builds versus basically maintenance stuff. And the last one regards AI. Do you believe that AI could cause pricing pressure or not at all for your activities?

So regarding organic growth in France, again, we don't give you an answer per segment, but I think I've mentioned the two headwinds we had last year. I think the fiber optic will remain a drag, but it will be different in the commercial business. So I don't see it worsening, that's for a start, and I don't expect that it will be improving compared to 2025. Regarding ROFA, the closing will be in...

Very likely towards the end of Q2. So you may fairly assume 6 months contribution for the year.

And regarding the activity, it is -- there is a share of upgrades and not too much maintenance, which is, by the way, a synergy we might really develop because their customers would like to take a part of the maintenance of the installation, but they do focus on installation of small or medium-sized projects and one of slightly larger. It's a very recurring customer base.

So there's a very solid customer base. And these customers tend to modify the installation on a regular basis with a rapid change in technology. So it is a very, very strong relationship with the customer in a series of discrete projects.

And on AI?

Regarding AI, well, it's hard to say. First of all, it does create opportunities, as we've mentioned in the past regarding the sheer amount of data, which is needed, which has to be stored, transported backup, et cetera. So we've seen increase of data centers and much more powerful data centers than in the past. And we're looking at data centers at 16,000 watts per square meter where 15 years ago, we're talking 2,000 to 3,000 watts per square meter. So it's a totally different kettle of fish.

Well, we use it also to create opportunities with our customers because we are now able to much better understand, describe the way the assets work. So we have a large number of initiatives in this regard. We have a few productivity issues as everybody, but it's not really something major with us, productivity gains. And whether it does create price pressure or not at all whatsoever, as we look at it now. It just creates business opportunities with helping our customers to better understand their assets.

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

Well, thank you very much for your attention. It's -- for me, it is the last of this financial results presentation. Obviously I'm -- I thank you for the interest you take in SPIE. And again, I can only repeat that it's a good time to be an electrical engineer. It has been, for me, a very good time to be an electrical engineer, and I'm sure that Markus will take the company to new heights.n I'm really confident about the future of SPIE. Thanks a lot.

Welcome to the SPIE 9 months conference call. [Operator Instructions].

Now I will hand the conference over to Gauthier Louette, Chairman and CEO; and Jérôme Vanhove, Group CFO. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for our Q3 Conference Call. So we did record a solid performance over the first 9 months. It does illustrate the strength and agility of our model, across a well-balanced vertical and geographical footprint. We do fully confirm our outlook for 2025. And our long-term trajectory is supported by deep rooted structural demand in energy solution and digital transformation.

To begin, I would like to share a few recent contract examples that reflect this positive momentum. So talking about mission-critical services. This example pertains to a museum in Berlin. After more than 2 decades of providing technical facility management services for the German historical museum in Berlin. SPIE has been commissioned by the Institute for Federal Estate BimA, to continue for another 5 years.

A key requirement to ensure optimal indoor climate conditions across more than 23,000 square meters of exhibition space to preserve the museum's sensitive collections. This is a good resection of speed know-how in delivering reliable, sustainable subtilty management solution for complex and culturally significant buildings.

In France, SPIE has been awarded a national contract to provide temporary cryogenic sealing services across all the packing systems as the nuclear power plants. By underwriting circuit through freezing, this advanced technique eliminates the need for full plant shutdowns, and it does allow maintenance operations to proceed without interruption. This contract showcases SPIE's position as a trusted partner delivering innovative, safe and efficient solutions for the nuclear industry.

In the Netherlands, the acquisition of Votes and Donkers is strengthening SPIE's expertise in industrial cooling installation, treatment systems, heat pumps, industrial automation and the engineering of process equipment. This business, generating EUR 30 million in annual revenue and employee EUR 69 million enhanced SPIE's footprint in key growth sectors such as the food pharmaceutical industries, where energy efficiency and process variability are critical.

In Austria, SPIE has been awarded a contract by the Austrian highway operator Spefinox to supervise its motorway network of more than 2,200 kilometers through a centralized monitoring and control system. This new platform will enable efficient management of internal system, emergency core networks, traffic signs, lighting controls and monitoring equipment.

It integrates over 33,000 connected traffic units and approximately 6 million interacting data points, allowing the system to issue immediate warnings in case of an accident, and to instantly propose a diversion route, if necessary. This further highlights SPIE's strong expertise in intelligent transport infrastructure and large-scale digital integration.

And last example SPIE has been sector to carry out the termination and testing of internal cables for our offshore wind project located approximately 20 kilometers of the course of Thailand. Execution of this began in August 2025 with completion scheduled in 2026. Once operational, this project is expected to generate 1,000 gigawatt hours of renewable electricity annually. This is enough to power approximately 200,017 households and to reduce CO2 emissions by over 400,000 metric tons each year.

Again, this is a concrete demonstration of SPIE's offshore wind expertise and our commitment to contributing to the energy transition. Now moving to our key takeaways. Over the first 9 months, revenue has increased by 4.4%, including a solid 2.2% organic growth, with 5% in Germany and 6.5% in North Western Europe.

This reflects our strong fundamentals and sustained market demand. Our active bolt-on M&A contributed 3.6% revenue growth, it represents an additional EUR 255 million of revenue from 2025 acquisition and the carryover from 2024. We are firmly on track to meet our 2025 targets, which we fully confirm today.

Moving to our financial highlights on Page 10. I already mentioned the solid 9 months revenue growth to reach EUR 7.5 billion. Q3 2025 revenue was up 4.7%, including 1.8% organic growth. In high-voltage activities, underlying trends remain highly positive, supported by strong order intake and excellent backlog.

Following exceptional growth in H1, projects in Germany and Netherlands progressed as planned at a more measured pace. France was very resilient in the muted domestic macroeconomic backup. Central Europe confirms the anticipated positive inflection driven by the progressive conversion of the substantial high-voltage backlog into revenue.

Our bolt-on M&A strategy remain active, supported by a healthy pipeline of opportunities. We signed 5 acquisitions to date. It represents EUR 133 million in annual revenue across attractive markets in Poland, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Austria.

On Page 11. At constant exchange rates, revenue grew by 5.5% over the first 9 months, driven by 2 segments, Germany, which continued to deliver a very high growth of 11.8%, well balanced between organic growth at 5% and the contribution from acquisitions at 6.8%. And North Western Europe, which also performed strongly with revenue up 7%, driven by a 6.5% organic growth.

Meanwhile, France continued to demonstrate strong resilience with revenue down by only 0.6%. Central Europe grew by 9.6%, with acquisitions contributing 9.4%, as anticipated, organic growth returned to positive territory with a sharp acceleration in Q3, about 10%.

Global Services Energy decline reflected the exceptionally high comparison basis as H1 2024 benefited from a one-off shutdown maintenance operation in West Africa. Overall, this performance underscores the strength and balance of our multi-local multi-technical model.

Looking at segments and starting with Germany. Germany is our #1 revenue contributor. It continues to show a strong momentum with 11.8% revenue growth over the first 9 months. Underlying trends remain highly positive across the board.

After delivering exceptional growth in H1, high-voltage activities progressed at a more measured pace in Q3, in line with project scheduling. City networks and grid performance was well supported by overall sustained demand from the DSOs, while weigh down in Q3 by the uneven pace of fiber deployment. Tech FM and Building Solutions maintained strong momentum, as illustrated by the example provided in the introduction.

In a more challenging environment, Industry Services held up well, supported by recurring maintenance activities and energy projects, particularly in LNG and hydrogen. Finally, acquisition delivered a strong 6.8% uplift driven by the full year impact of 2024 transactions.

Moving to France on Page 13. In France, revenue was broadly stable over the first 9 months, demonstrating strong resilience against the subdued domestic macroeconomic environment. Softness remained contained to building solutions and to city networks due to the gradual wind down of mature fiber optic rollout programs.

Tech FM capitalized on its stream of recurring revenues and long-standing client relationships. Industry and ICS both confirm the resilience, thanks to diversified sector exposure, extensive technical capabilities and the mission-critical nature of their operations.

Nuclear Services delivered a solid performance over the first 9 months, supported by healthy maintenance activities. North Western Europe on Page 14. North Western Europe recorded a 7% revenue growth, driven by a strong 6.5% organic growth, the 0.5% perimeter effect reflects a positive 1.8% contribution from acquisition, partially offset by the disposal of Belgium subscale IT support activities.

The Netherlands delivered a strong performance despite a demanding comparison base in high voltage services and phasing effects in Q3. The backlog continued to build up, fueled by strong social demand. Other activities continue to benefit from our leadership position in energy efficiency, solutions, data center services and our exposure to high-growth sectors such as food, pharmaceutical, energy storage and advanced technologies.

In Belgium, high-voltage services remained a key growth driver with a step-up in grid investment and booming demand for battery energy storage systems. Building Solutions and Technical facility management also contributed meaningfully to the performance. In Central Europe, revenue rose by 10.5% over the first 9 months of 2025, fueled by the 9.4% contribution from bolt-on acquisition and reflecting the sustained M&A activity in Poland since the start of the year. Currency tailwind reflects the appreciation of the Polish zloty and the Swiss franc against the euro.

In Q3 2025, revenues surged by 30.4%, making a turning out with organic growth close to 10%. In particular, Poland and Slovakia confirms the anticipated positive inflection with a sharp organic growth acceleration driven by High Voltage activities. The substantial backlog is beginning to convert into revenue. Austria maintained a high level of activity, building on strong momentum in transport infrastructure and transmission and distribution services.

Global Services Energy maintained a selective approach to contract acquisition to ensure healthy margin levels across geographies. Over the first 9 months, revenue declined by 7.8%, including minus 4.6% organic growth. The minus 3.2% currency impact is mainly due to the working of the U.S. dollar across the euro. The organic trend reflects a particularly high comparison base in H1 2024, linked to an exceptional shutdown maintenance operation and nearly flat Q3 contribution.

Oil and gas maintenance activities were resilient in the currently low barrel price environment. Offshore win activities continued to gain traction following the successful integration of Korean Group. And then a word to our employee holding program. So again, this year, we launched our Share For You program during the third quarter of the year. It was a nice addition and it proved once again to be a great success.

Indeed, it was a record success around 25,000 employees participated including 6,000 first-time investors, 70 countries were involved. Upon completion, the estimated share of employee shareholders will account for around 8% of SPIE's capital. As you know, involving our employees in the SPIE entrepreneurial adventure is very important to us and is a key factor to our success.

The final results of this plan will be announced in December, and the Group plans to renew its anti-dilutive share back program early 2026.

And now I will hand over to Jerome, our CFO.

Thank you, Gauthier, and good morning, everyone. I'll start with our revenue bridge, which provides for a breakdown of our 5.4% total revenue growth over the first 9 months. As already pointed out, revenue reached EUR 7.5 billion with a solid 2.2% organic growth, driven mainly by Germany and North Western Europe.

External growth contributed 3.6%, representing EUR 255 million additional revenue. This was mainly attributable to the full year impact of the 2024 acquisitions, notably ROBUR, [indiscernible] and Otto in Germany. The bulk of the 2025 acquisitions contribution came from Elektromontaz n Poland and SD Fiber in Switzerland.

The disposal of our Belgian IT support activities at the end of 2024 had a limited minus 0.2% impact. Finally, currency effects were broadly neutral at group level, with a slight positive contribution from the appreciation of the Polish zloty and the Swiss franc against Europe, offset by a negative impact from the weakening of the U.S. dollar over the same period.

Moving to acquisitions. Our bolt-on M&A activity remained dynamic over the period, fully aligned with our strategy to reinforce leadership in attractive markets. Since January, we have announced 5 new acquisitions, representing about EUR 133 million of annual revenue. These deals further strengthen our position in Poland, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Austria.

In Q3, particularly, we announced 2 acquisitions, Votes and Donkers in the Netherlands completed in August, adds around EUR 30 million in revenue and in the domain of specialized industrial services. ECOexperts Automation in Austria is adding EUR 7 million revenue and expands our expertise in tunnel traffic engineering. The closing is expected later in Q4.

Meanwhile, the integration of all 2024 acquisitions is progressing smoothly. As we look ahead, our disciplined approach and healthy pipeline of bolt-on acquisition give us confidence in sustaining external growth momentum across a highly fragmented market.

And with this, I hand over back to Gauthier.

Thank you, Jerome. Based on these solid results, we confirm our full year outlook. We expect strong total growth pushing revenue well above the EUR 10 billion mark, including further organic growth and active bolt-on M&A. We expect a continued expansion of our EBITDA margin to at least 7.6%.

And by the way, the quality of this margin will be, as usual, reflected in our strong cash generation. Finally, as every year, we intend to maintain a dividend payout of around 40% of adjusted net income. So thank you for your attention this morning. In case you would have forgotten, let me repeat. It's a good time to be an electrical engineer.

And now with Jerome, we are now ready to take your questions.

[Operator Instructions]

The next question comes from Simona Sarli from BofA.

In your prepared remarks, you mentioned that high-voltage projects in Germany and Netherlands, they are progressing at a more measured pace. And that was also, by the way, Germany impacted by an even pace of fiber deployment.

So first question is, is this a temporary trend? And do you expect to pick up again in activity in Q4 and 2026? Or how should we think about it? Also, if you consider that there is talent scarcity for qualified technicians and engineers, I assume that currently, you are pricing above inflation, which potentially would imply negative volume progression. So can you elaborate and give an update on the competitive landscape, specifically for Germany, and Northwestern Europe and distinguish between high-voltage distribution and technical facility management.

Yes. Well, as you know, our high voltage project and be it transmission lines or substations that are fairly chunky. And so that's created some lumps in the revenue. And we have a decent timing of starting this project and then the comparison with the same quarter last year due to this timing impact, might vary. So it does create volatility in the top line. I think it's not the first time it does happen. But what's really important to keep in mind that this is altogether a growing business. And our backlog keeps expanding very significantly in this area. Be it in the Netherlands or in Germany or in Belgium or in Poland.

And as you have seen in Poland, we had some phasing effects in the second -- in the first half of the year. And then we have a positive inflow in the second half of the year. So it's not that the market is slowing down. I think it is just the impact on the revenue top line, with this volatility impact, but it is a very strong, very good market with expanding backlog and not only is the backlog expanding in revenue. It is also expanding in pricing, as you just mentioned. So we should remain extremely positive on these markets.

Fiber is -- it's other moving part, it's really linked with the somewhat haphazard decisions of the customers. There's more stop and go. We've seen that in the past in the Netherlands. We're seeing that today in Germany. So projects start is much more difficult to produce, when projects are going to start and what is the amount of investment customers decide to launch. But again, Germany is much less advanced than other European country in terms of optic fiber deployment. So it is a good market to be. If you look at the big picture. And again, on the finance of the government, there is a focus on accelerating the deployment of optic fiber.

Can I please just ask for a follow-up. Specifically for transmission and distribution. Can you remind us how much do they contribute in terms of revenues in Germany and Northwestern Europe and the growth trends in Q3 versus H1.

And secondly, how much of your transmission and distribution exposure is recurring versus new build? And if you noticed a significant slowdown in your build activity.

It's -- Germany, it's roughly transmission and distribution, it accounts for roughly 30% of our revenue and in Central Europe, it's probably above -- around 40%. It's -- we have 2 different things. In transmission, it is mainly new build or total revamping of existing lines. You have lines where you have to hire the pylons and replace the cabling. So at least you don't have to negotiate a new write-off way. But it's basically new bid on existing write-off way.

And on the transmission, it's -- on distribution, sorry, we have a framework agreement. So usually in existing networks, which need to be very significantly reshuffled and sometimes you also have to create additional substations.

And there was the point on differentiating a little bit the growth trends between the 2 segments. And if you have seen also a slowdown.

Over last year, clearly the -- what has started with the energy transition and energy vendor in Germany and what happened in Netherlands as well. It's -- lot of new projects have been built -- have been launched, sorry, and need to be built for transmission. And so for the line, it is for the substation. And then it has a an impact on the distribution because you need to connect the distribution network to this new front line, let's say. So the main impact on distribution is yet to come.

The next question comes from Aleksander Peterc from Bernstein.

I'd just like to understand whether we should see more of this high-voltage phasing effects that affect Q3 in Germany and in Northwestern Europe, is there going to persist for longer particularly against a very high basis of comparison in the year ago quarter in Q4, where you had Northwest Europe, which was up 12% last year.

So against that drop, should we expect more of a bit of a subdued growth rate in this area. And in a similar vein, Central and Eastern Europe bouncing back very strongly as those Slovakia and Poland contracts come on stream, should we extrapolate relatively strong growth for this geography over the next couple of quarters? Or is it just a one quarter high growth.

Well, I think we have to differentiate between phasing and comparable basis. So clearly, the Netherlands, yes, it is a very high comparison basis for the last quarter of the year. And then we have the fading effect we mentioned, for instance, in Poland that we had anticipated. And so we think as the whole high voltage activity will remain on the high level -- on a high level. It's -- and again, we have also a very high backlog to work at in the years to come. But again, the quarterly growth of this activity, it's more difficult to forecast.

Okay. And for Central and Eastern Europe, is it going to continue over the next couple of quarters?

Well, I think this year -- again, we have a good backlog to work at in Central Europe for high voltage. We have also other activities in Central Europe in which -- and we'll see how they behave in the quarters to come. But again, we do think at country levels that will -- why the comparison basis is very strong in the Netherlands, as you mentioned, we're talking double-digit growth over the same time in Q4 last year. We expect a more positive development in Germany for Q4 altogether.

The next question comes from Remi Grenu from Morgan Stanley.

Two questions on my side. The first one is on France. I mean, I not after a quantified guidance, but just wanted to have your view on qualitative thinking on the outlook for 2026. I mean if we put together like potentially the tough political environment continuing in the country, the municipal election happening in March and wondering what could be the impact on you guys, but then the potential for growth in nuclear, which might be a little bit better. So if you integrate all of these elements, I just wanted to have your view and mindset on outlook for France for next year. That would be the first question.

And then the second one is anything that you can tell us on early discussions or thinking around labor cost inflation going into 2026, I guess, probably tempering a bit, but equally, you are in dense markets where it's difficult to find labor. So you're thinking as well on labor cost inflation going into next year?

Yes. Well, obviously, we are working on our budgets for France for next year. And as you know, at speed, it is a bottom-up exercise and with a lot of conversation from all our project managers and site managers with our customers trying and see what are the intentions for next year. So this is an ongoing process. We are -- no, we are fairly confident in the fact that we should not see too much movement compared to where we are this year, right? It's -- again, our markets are very -- our activity is very resilient.

We are involved in a lot of maintenance. We have very diverse activities. There are areas in France, which are doing well like data center, you mentioned nuclear, which is in a good position. So altogether, not too worried about 2026 and especially not worried about our ability to maintain the margins. And so it's again, France has proven in the past to be extremely resilient, and we've been to a number of fluctuations and be it economical or political in France. So not worried at all.

And again, absolutely confident to maintain our margin level. So with regard to inflation, it is abating, I would say that January, we are back into normal territory as the usual range of between 1% and 2% inflation -- sorry, inflation depending on the countries. And so it's not really a cause for concern. And I think we have amply demonstrated in the past our ability to pass inflation to customers.

The next question comes from Eric Lemarie from CIC.

I've got 2, if I may. The first one on M&A. Do you expect a bit more contribution from M&A in 2026 in you offshore pipeline compared to 2025 contribution? And could you tell us maybe some words about the deal multiples today? Is there any changes. So in terms of the multiples. And the last point on M&A. I understand you are currently particularly focused on integration. Does it mean that you are less focused on looking for new targets?

And my second question is on competition. What about your views on competition intensity? Do you see any new players trying to enter your key markets trying to grab some market shares?

So maybe I'll start with the competition. It's -- no, it is not different from what we've seen so far changes here. And I think it is worth mentioning that we have seen over the last year a good improvement in terms of pricing disciplines amongst the major players. So that's really something that we don't see no loose canons anymore.

And that's very good for the market generally. With regard to integration, yes, we have quite a bit of hope for integration to be done. This is done by the operational teams in their respective areas. So it doesn't prevent us from sourcing and more acquisition, which is done by the M&A teams in the various countries and also centrally with the support of the regional managers.

But we wanted to mention that quite a number of acquisitions to integrate with high volume and to stress the fact that this is going well. And I think our teams are now well versed to integration processes, and we are very successful look at what we are doing right now. And maybe Jérôme, if you want to complement on the pipeline.

Yes, it stays definitely pretty rich, and we have all as Gauthier mentioned our M&A team across the various countries where we are active, pretty active and working on several opportunities. So likely a few more to come before year-end. And with respect to 2026, it's a bit early to say what could be the magnitude. I would just remind you that as part of our 2028 guidance.

Our aim is to deliver on average across that period of time, EUR 400 million to EUR 500 million of annual turnover being acquired. And please bearing in mind that talking about M&A and especially because we stay heavily selective, it's not necessarily something linearized month over month. Do remember that the year 2024 was an excellent milesima with more than EUR 450 million of annual turnover acquired and more than EUR 800 million of total contribution from M&A. And to that effect, it could move a bit from one year to another. No reason to believe that '26 will be a bad year in that respect on the contrary.

[Operator Instructions]

The next question comes from Rory McKenzie from UBS.

Rory here with 2 questions, please. Firstly, I'm sorry to come back on the project phasing topic, and I'm sorry for my French. But there's a certain sense of deja vu from Q3 last year, where organic growth also slowed with lots of mentions of project phasing. At that time, I think you said you had visibility on some of that work landing in October, and so you were a bit more explicit about expecting a stronger Q4. Can you say the same thing this year? Or is it just too hard for you to forecast at this stage?

And then secondly, a few other comments around your industry businesses sounded just a little bit weaker perhaps. Can you remind us of your exposure to different kind of end industries within that? And just maybe talk through the strategic positioning and what you're trying to do within what, of course, is a somewhat pressured European industrial base?

Thank you, Rory. So yes, I understand your deja vu feeling. And for instance, in Central Europe, we did mention project phasing. And as you see at some stage, it goes the other way. And so projects saving is definitely on the negative. We also have positive project phasing. Again, I'd like to say that what we look at for Q4 is France stabilizing, and we look at a more positive outlook for the Q4 in Germany, definitely. Less so in the Netherlands because of the very high comparison basis. I think it is more than 10%, maybe 11% comparison basis for North Western Europe or even 12% for Q3 last year. And so you see this creates a very tough comparable. And again, Central Europe, we have more positive outlook for the end of the year. So that's broadly what we are looking at right now.

And again, project phasing is project phasing for the reasons I mentioned, and lumpier projects, sometimes hesitant days of starting for various administrative reasons, et cetera. But the backlog in High Voltage keeps piling up, both in volume and in margin. So it's really -- we are in a very strong position in this regard. And it has never been stronger, and it bodes well for the future in the countries I mentioned, including Belgium, basically.

And now for end industries, it's an interesting question because obviously, we see a lot happening in the industry sector at the moment. We have areas like petrochemical industries, which are in a tough spot, clearly, with both the effect of higher energy prices and the strong competition of Chinese products, which are not sold in the U.S. for the moment, and we tend to flood the European market.

This is for petrochemical industry. For more specialized industry like pharmaceutical or fruit is going decently. And also it's worth mentioning that for these sectors and generally for the industry, there is strong focus on energy, so moving from gas to electricity and implementing energy saving processes. So it does have to maintain a very decent level of order intake and activity in this area.

The next question comes from David Cerdan from Kepler.

Could you please clarify what you expect for Q4? So basically, do we expect Q4 to be better than the 1.8% reported in Q3?

And second question is regarding France. Do you think that you will come back to something close to 0, maybe in Q4 or 2026?

Well, we're not giving this kind of precise guidance for organic growth per segment, I'm sorry about that. We do not do it because it's difficult to forecast. And there are so many moving parts, which I've just described, I'm afraid I cannot be more accurate today. Again, as is -- we will have resilience in France, I'm not worried. And we anticipate better profile in Q4 in Germany, and I will not repeat what I said towards Northwestern Europe.

Okay. And just for the margins. So you have not changed your objective of at least 7.6%. Do you think that you could do a little bit better than at least 7.6%?

Thank you for asking question about the margin, by the way, because it remains the main focus of SPIE. It is margin over volume. And and we want the margin to be reflected in cash generation. So this is the model. And we have given the guidance for the year, it is a guidance for the year. So I won't say more more today, but we are very confident in meeting the guidance.

The next question comes from Eric Lemarie from CIC.

Yes. I've got a follow-up one on margin. In terms of margin, you should be finally very close to your 2028 guidance of at least 7.7%. And you mentioned again this target in 2025 of at least 7.6%, so how should we see this? Is there a ceiling in terms of profitability? Or on contrary, could you lift your 2028 guidance in advance because you will probably reach this guidance in advance.

Well, we'll focus first, obviously, on delivering on 2025. Then we'll have a look at what our budget of '26 looks like. And then because, yes, we are very close to the '28 guidance. I think at some stage, we have to revisit a bit our trajectory going forward. We're not saying there's a ceiling.

We've been looking every year very hard on moving the margin upwards and then the impact also from acquisitions, which can be dilutive or which can be relative from the mix effect, et cetera. So we do not consider that the 7.7% are intangible and we'll revisit this strategy thoroughly. And once...

May I ask a follow-up one. On data center, could you tell us your exposure today in data center? And in terms of growth, what you got?

Well, our data center exposure as a big installation or maintenance. It's about 3% of our activity. And we have -- it's a market which is moving well. First, we do concentrate on renewing our maintenance contracts for data centers and to know they are a very demanding customer because internal data centers is mission-critical. So it's very important to have to satisfy the customer and absolute confidence in our ability to maintain the data center. So we're very successful in that.

So we renew these maintenance contracts. And then we have quite a number of data center projects happening in overall geographies for various reasons, including artificial intelligence, but not only. And we are a significant player in that project which has normally a good profile in terms of margin and cash generation.

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

Well, thank you very much for your attention today. Thank you for the interest you take in SPIE. We are going to work very hard on delivering on our guidance for the year. And we are in a very good market with very interesting long-term trends. So more than ever, it's a good time to be an electrical engineer. Thanks a lot. Have a good day.