Alten S.A.

Hello, everybody. Thanks for being with us at this Alton conference relative to the H123 activities. I hope you all received the press release, which was sent out a few minutes ago and displayed a few minutes ago. You'll find the figures, which we are going to scrutinize this evening, as you may have noticed if you had time to read it. And if you had time and took time to read it, until we had a growth satisfactory growth in compliance with what we had anticipated the groups that turn over 2.48 billion euros a 12.2 percent increase versus last year 1.826 billion euros last year in france the business went up by 9.4 percent and outside of france the interpreted to not hear the figure on the like-for-like basis. And while the business went up by 11.4%, in other words, plus 9.4% in France and plus 12.5% outside of France. In the second quarter, growth went down. This was not so bright, 8.7%. And 6.7% in France and 9.7% outside of France on a lifer-like basis. Growth is actually identical because it's 8.6% at the group level, 6.7% in France, and 9.7% outside of France. H2 was penalized, and let me just draw your attention to this, because we had two working days versus last year, whereas the international, well, it was actually penalized by 4.4 days, and the second semester was penalized by 1.2 days versus 2022. the business rate of the second quarter was quite satisfactory it is actually quite normative once again as in the first quarter well it's actually 91.4 percent and it was 92.9 percent in 2022 if memory serves me right and in the h1 the business rate of the group is 91.8% versus 92.7% in 8.1 and 8.2. In other words, 0.9% decline. Let me just remind you that in 2022, we indicated that the business rates were abnormally high because we're still in the post-COVID period. And the business rate, which is 91.9%, and as you may know, this is a normative one because It actually ranges between 91.8 and 92.2%. This is done on a weekly basis, and this actually is in line with the rate which we believe is satisfactory for the group's business. Now, in the aftermath of the end of the 2022 C-Prime session, we had X number of collaborators out of December, 47.240 engineers, Now we're now 54, 57,400 people, 54,750 engineers, 11,500 in France and 39,000 outside of France. In the first semester, the engineer cap went up by 3,500. In all, 2,226 in an organic way, 450 in France, and 2,276 outside of France. The acquisitions represented the differences, in other words, 680 engineers.

Now, let's now have a look

at business per geographical zone. Now, this analysis is based on the fact that with the UK and Italy, the second semester figures display slower growth everywhere in the world. which is quite normal. What else is new? Because the growth rates cannot be indefinitely around a 15% client. Budgets are not bottomless or, I mean, are not limitless and the growth capacity is directly related to a client. budget extensions or the outsourcing extension process. And we already had anticipated that this deceleration of growth rates as early as at the end of last year. And we were somewhat surprised that this did not take place before. Now, in France, despite an unfavorable mass effect and two working days less than last year, the business went up by 6.7% in the second quarter. In other words, 9.9%. If you had to retweet the working days in the first semester in France, the business went up by 9.4%. In other words, I did not hear the figure correctly. Now, the business remained quite dynamic in the automotive segment, and in the defense and safety was 20%, and the civil aviation growth is still quite strong, about 30%. In Europe, outside of France, the business went up quite satisfactorily, although Scandinavia and Germany slowed down in the second quarter. Now, in Europe, in the Iberian Peninsula, the business went up by 17%. All the segments are growing, even the bank and finance segment. In Germany, the second quarter decline is amplified by the working day parameter. In other words, they perform a 9.2% growth versus 6.6% published in the second semester. In the third semester, the growth is 12.2%. working day parameter in Germany. German growth went down because of the progressive stabilization of the automotive sector. It's still going up by 9% versus 2022. Let me just remind you, that growth in the automotive segment was quite strong in Germany in the last few years, and it is therefore, it does make sense that the budgets actually end up leveling off. Now, it also went down because of the deceleration in the aviation segment, which was still growing by 20% of those two sectors represent, as you may well know, 70% of turnover in Germany. In the UK, growth is still stable, despite one workday less, mostly because of the civil aviation and the automotive segments. In Italy, growth is still at plus 25%. All the sectors are going up, including the tertiary finance, telecom, automotive, defense, and safety. In Benelux, the growth is 15%, now quite homogenous between the Netherlands and Belgium. And in the Netherlands, automotive electronics and semiconductors, industrial equipment to actually guarantee growth in the automotive and pharmaceutical industry, which also rebounded quite well and are going up quite significantly in Scandinavia. The same affects, just like in Germany, the progressive stabilization of segments in the automotive sector. Well, we actually observed a deceleration in Eastern Europe. Growth was 27% quite satisfactory. Although it went down in Q2, Poland, that represents 65% of the zone, went up by over 30%. Now, Romania, 35% of the zone, the business went up by plus 20% because of the tertiary finance segment. in north america the business on a like-for-like basis went up by seven percent in the u.s now you may know that this represents three quarters of the north american zone the air well growth actually went down and it confirmed it was confirmed in q2 it's not really that much of a concern it stems from the automotive sector where budgets are stabilizing and quite a number of projects terminating in the oil and gas sector in Canada. Growth also decelerated because of the very negative mass parameter in the aerospace and the bank sectors representing over half of the revenues. Finally, in the Pacific area, growth slowed down as of Q4 2022 6.2% this semester. Now, I'd like to draw your attention to one point, which I believe is something which I had not talked about before. The Asia-Pacific zone actually gathers quite a number of countries, including Singapore represented 12% of the APAC zone in 2022. The activity in Singapore went down this year with quite a number of projects terminating in oil and gas. because they had a platform which was addressed to the Middle East mostly. The Middle East and the bank finance segment also were contracted because a major project terminated. So, I believe, well, our activity in Singapore went down by two thirds this semester. which really had a negative impact on the growth in the area. So let's actually interpret the growth the following way. This is to get a good understanding of the dynamic in the APAC zone and outside of Singapore, it's 18% and not 6%. Singapore represented 12% of the zone, only represents 4% of the area now, and it's now representing a marginal activity. China, represents 35% of the APAC zone, 7% and penalized by the telecommunication segment, which represents a significant part of local revenues, whereas the automotive sector represented over 30% of revenues of China is still growing up by over 35%. India, 31% of revenues in the area for local markets is going up by 15% with the automotive and tertiary sectors. represents today 11% of the area, and it went up by 30% thanks to the electronic and tertiary sectors. And finally, in South Korea, 8% of the area, which is also going up quite rapidly, just as Japan, going up by over 35% thanks to automotive semiconductors and electronic activities. So growth is still satisfactory in most of the geographical zones in which we're present. now same thing here all of the business sectors are going up even though the pace is different from one place to the other the automotive sector as i said already Well, the growth rate is still decelerating, but quite sustained in some geographical zones, and the automotive segment went up by 20%. This half of the year, growth is actually generated among manufacturers, because we're talking about a 25% growth globally. The only manufacturers that are slowing down are General Motors. On the other hand, the deceleration of the growth rate is confirmed among OEMs,

OEMs growth is less than 10%.

Okay, I did not hear the word. Okay, one segment actually was quite stable in 2022, but now generated a 10% growth in aerospace. The civil aerospace is still quite buoyant, and the progression of that sector is 30%. In the civil aerospace, the business is driven by manufacturers, Airbus helicopters, and among OEMs, Cephal, growth spores, talus, and so on and so forth. They are still generating growth today. in the defense security naval sectors. Growth is still quite significant, about 25%, mostly thanks to the defense sector. The energy sector, I did not hear the word, is going down by 8%, actually contracting by 8% because the oil and gas activities representing 2.2% of revenues and going down, has been going down for quite a number of years. 2015, this represented about 9% of revenues. Now the oil and gas business is still contracting because, well, I mean, it's really going down from year to year. This was penalized by projects terminating in Africa, the U.S. and the Gulf area. And also because of Russia withdrawing in the H2 2022. On the other hand, all of the other sectors, nuclear sectors, energy equipment and chemical equipment are going up by 8%. Life sciences, thanks to the pharmaceutical segment, are going up by 5%. And the industrial equipment and electronics and semiconductors growth is stable, 15%. And this is quite homogenous. Telecommunication, with a slow growth of 2% growth. Telecommunication, which, well, they've been generating limited growth. This is generated with operators. Budgets now are stabilized and actually went down in the 5G equipment.

Finance, 9.3% of turnover slowed down Q2 in the bank making mainly because insurances are doing fairly well. The banking sector is growing by 5% when the insurance sector is at 15%. the activity growing in the banking sector a lot in Southern Europe and Canada, but which is down in France because of budget reductions. Retail and the public sector is growing by 7%, but has generally slowed down during the second semester. So you can see that all the sectors are growing strongly or growing, except for oil and gas. Some of them, of course, slowed down during the second semester, but the activity remains satisfactory. Regarding external growth and M&As, Alten took over a company during the first semester, but we mentioned this during the last meeting, turnover at 18 million euros and 185 consultants. Second semester, we acquired a company present in India, in the US, and slight presence in Germany. Some 500 consultants, 9 million euros in turnover. A company in Poland, which is in IT and telecom services, turnover at 19 million euros, 350 consultants. Half of them are external, which often happens in the IT sector. And very recently, a company which is present in Spain with an antennae in Germany, 7 million in turnover, 130 consultants, and they specialize in aeronautic consulting and they work within the Airbus ecosystem. Other companies are undergoing due diligence, so this is business as usual, and a certain number of complimentary acquisitions took place in September and October. And why not by the end of the year, some more should take place. So 2023, well, first semester was quite good. The slowdown that we had anticipated is quite normal and in line with our anticipations. For the second semester, we are expecting a growth level which should carry on slowing down, both because of the first reason and because of the macroeconomic impact a context. Nevertheless, we do expect a satisfactory organic growth by some 10% for 2023, maybe a little bit more when the analysts come together. But we remain quite positive regarding the second semester. Listen, I suggest we maybe start, open up the conference and start the Q&A session. Yes, absolutely. And we have a question. from Mr. Bouddha Aditya. You have the floor.

Hi, can you hear me? Yes. Thanks for taking my questions. So just a couple from my side. I think, firstly, on the 2Q organic growth, you said that the slowdown was expected. But could you maybe just give us some color on how we should think about the shape of growth in the second half of the year in terms of 3Q versus 4Q? Anything in particular in terms of the trends between those two quarters? Could you also just comment on the overall pipeline and the conversations with clients? Are they still looking to invest? Are you seeing any projects being stopped, for example? And then finally, could you also just comment, given the organic growth you put in 2Q, I know you haven't reported the margins, but how should we think about the margin outlook for the first half and then maybe also for the full year in this context?

So the growth for Q2 has been 8.6%, I mean, organic growth. We expect H2 to deliver, I would say, roughly a similar growth. Of course, I cannot tell you precisely what it will be, but we don't expect a stronger deceleration of the organic growth today. All this will depend upon what's going on in September, because September and October are key months for our business as our customers are launching projects around the end of Q3 and the beginning of Q4. So we will know better and that will have an impact on both the activity rate, of course, of the company and also of the hiring. Because as you know, we hire engineers whenever we have confidence in the number of new projects that will be launched. What was your other question, please?

The second question was just in terms of the pipeline you're seeing in terms of projects, the coordination with clients. Are you seeing clients maybe postponing or cutting any projects?

No, we don't see clients postponing projects. Or if they do so, we do not know. uh but we are not um facing customers let's say launching leads and then saying that uh well they they will delay uh you know uh the needs of the launching of the project when they launch a mid uh the cycle for decision remains quite stable you know uh it's not longer than it used to be and uh the project starts what is uh i mean sure is that uh we are We experienced during two years a very high level of organic growth because of the COVID crisis catch-up and also because customers, mainly in the industry, are obliged to invest for the transition. But their budgets have increased. We suspect that they also have increased the outsourcing rate, meaning that this is an additional market for us. Anyway, they will not, I mean, continue to increase by 10% or 15% their budget year on year. So progressively, that market will normalize and we will get back to, I would say, normal growth rate. So there is nothing to worry about. It's just that we're coming back progressively to a soft landing of our business.

My last question was on the margin outlook for the first half, given the growth you've seen. How do you think about the margins for you as well, given also the hiring and wage inflation, all those factors? Just trying to think about the moving parts there.

Well, this call is not dedicated to margin. Nevertheless, I can give you some flavor regarding the margin for each one. We last year have announced that the margin that we achieved, I mean, 11%, was absolutely not a normative margin for Alt-M. You know that. For us, the margin is roughly around 9%. Could be more, could be less. So if we compare last year with that year, we had in H1 a lower activity rate by one point, which means roughly 70 bps. This is a ratio that many people are familiar with. We also, globally, uh have or had the same number of days working days compared with last year but at the end if we enter into details we lost some days in countries where the revenue per head is very high like for example france or germany or uk and on the contrary it was a set number of days by countries where the revenue per head is lower so that will have an impact too We also have decided to invest in our technical divisions to reinforce the sales organization to accompany the growth in new IS tools, etc. So we will discuss that in September. But the margin in H1, of course, will be lower in 2023 compared with 2022.

We now have a question from... I don't know if the gentleman had finished with this question. I think so.

I'm done, thank you.

Okay. Yes, yes, I was finished. Okay, good. Thank you very much. A question from Mr. Gregory Ramirez. Yes, hello, Bruno. Can you hear me? Yes, loud and clear, Gregory. okay um regarding the next of hiring if i do the maths i mean and i look at the acquisitions we are at 1050 roughly for engineers no ah for t2 you mean net of hiring we no no no We are at 860, ah, 860. Okay, so we are coming back to more normal levels. Therefore, yes, sorry? No, no, no, yes. I wanted to say that the figure of 1,050 is correct, but there was a company that we consolidated in April, 90 people. Just to say that the figure was correct, but 190 come from an acquisition that joined us in April and 860 come from the net of hiring. Ah, okay. Good. Yes. Good. Correct. That's correct. So I had a rhythm. We were at some 800 per quarter. Do you believe that a net hiring rhythm, I mean, if the activity, if our growth remains stable, do you believe, well, we'll be coming back, I believe, to, yes, something similar around 800 per quarter, but it all depends on our turnover, on the activity, client activity. But yes, this is coherent, absolutely. Now, if you take what happened during Q2, I mean, this is quite unusual, enough to be mentioned. But in net, we had zero growth in headcount in France, which doesn't mean that the activity is not faring well. But all our activity came from net of hiring international. So why not in France? Well, because growth in certain sectors, which are automobile, aero, let's say the industry, generally speaking, that's where we hired a lot and industrial equipment as well. But all this was partially absorbed by a decrease in bank and finance, where very clearly the market trends is complicated in France. And also because there are a certain number of sectors with new projects, many new projects are starting offshore, especially in the automobile industry for reasons of productivity mainly. And so France, of course, this is why we have zero in France. but on a global scale, we carried on growing. Not in all geographies, but generally speaking, we carried on growing. Good. Otherwise, do you note for July an increase in the seasonal impact of the end of projects, or do you have more or less than usual? No more than usual, I'd say. No more than usual. And besides, for the second semester, the growth rate, I mentioned it, will carry on growing. Decreasing, I mean. There is this deceleration which is taking place, but this is something that we've anticipated. We had anticipated it and it's in our budget and it has been in our budget for quite a while. So there is no no surprise of course the macro figures then come and if you take the european or french coast levels i mean if you consider them the situation is absolutely normal good good a very last question pertaining to the three uh acquisitions you mentioned what are the margin levels generally speaking slightly below group levels but these are small companies so these are companies which do not have enough sales stuff and in terms of their internal organization in terms of finance and others they are also very clearly understaffed and so first comment when you take the figures and you analyze them, it gives us a margin slightly lower than group levels, but the normative margin is lower. OK, OK, thank you very much for this. Yes, and the M&A last year's M&A and this year's M&A. I don't know if I mentioned this or. There was this question on margin, but this is going to weigh on the margins of the first semester. It's difficult to find companies with high profitability levels in our business. You can find them, but the thing is that usually they are very expensive, prices are very high, and also often Unfortunately, when you take a close look at them, you know that this margin is not a sustainable margin. So it doesn't explain why we buy these companies between 5 and 10, but there are companies that we saw. One acquisition that we looked into, and I mentioned it during the first semester, which left at an amazing price. I mean, it was bought at a crazy price. So we don't do this type of deal because just to pay 10, 15 times the EBIT, this is not something we do. This is not part of the group's culture. And it would be, I mean, it wouldn't be prejudicial to our margin, but in terms of cash, it's disproportionate if you consider our valorization.

Merci.

Thank you very much. We now have a question from Monsieur Laurent Dor. Can you hear me? Yes, yes, we can hear you. OK, good good. Yes, in fact I had several questions. a very standard question. Maybe could you tell us more about the attrition, evolution of salaries, prices on the market? My second question would be pertaining to the growth expected for the second semester and this the phasing of this deceleration because we were at 14.6 for the first semester, first Q1 I mean. But for a Q2, we are at 10 for France in organic. For France, yes, but only for France. And at group level. At group level, we had one less workday. And so we didn't do the math at the group level. But of course, this weighed on our growth by some maybe 3.3 or 4%. But we had an extra day in Q1. So it was compensated. Yes, sorry, you were trying to say something? Yes, yes, because I'm looking at this, the slowing down a quarter of a quarter because what? OK. We have to be very, very careful at how we look at this if we want to normalize things, because we need to compare things that can be compared. But for the second semester, what are you expecting? 1.5% less? Is this what you're expecting, more or less? Yes, yes. For the second semester, compared with last year, on average, we will be losing 3.3 days. Over six months. Yes, over six months, yes. And so that means that generally, globally, we are expecting a growth which Obviously will be lower. And that's because the comparison basis being what it is. I mean this sequential growth. Being reduced, this all ends up in the growth rate which will carry on. Reducing and. Therefore, the organic growth in S1 would be above the one published for S2. But generally, I'd say we would be close to 10. I mean, unless September and October are really, really not good months. But this is not the sense we get from the field. OK, so between the second semester a quarter and age two, you do not expect a big change. OK, and this is information that comes from the field from all geographical areas. Yeah, well, I'm asking because there are some companies more in the IT who went for assumptions where there are S2. So second semester is much slower than Q2. Okay, but I'll let you answer the first question. I then have a couple of things. I'd like to look into price-salary attrition.

So far, the turnover rate is still high.

And we should be around 27%, 28%. Those are turnover figures we actually had generated last year. And so far as the ratio is concerned, it's kind of complicated to answer the question because you have different parameters. You've got geographical areas, offers, consultant seniority, work packages. I mean, all those are different parameters.

We're no longer talking about businesses

which was driven only by grid prices, which could be compared to wages because of more limited geographical areas. But what can be seen today, now the only thing we are able to gauge is the fact that wages are going up in Poland. 13 to 14% and price is going up by 16 to 17%. But this has to be homogenous among customers. And this is not necessarily the case. And when you increase wages, and when you actually transferring this into prices, I mean, you have some time lapsing. Now, the prices actually had gone up in April and the buyers Well, I mean, if they can actually scrape up three months, they will do so. And others are going to be taking other increases are going to be taking place in this H2. Now, in some countries. And among some customers, some customers will are negotiating three times a year. And they'll say, well, we'll talk about prices, when the new referencing is going to be defined. So you got a commercial grid. And today, we no longer are actually able to really summing things up on debate as before, but all this is quite fails by work patch, by package parameters. And same thing with wages. You get a turnover effect, and you can only have some visibility on the remuneration grid evolutions. which do not increase the same way from one geographical area to the other. And you also have the age pyramid and the consultant mix, which also has to be factored in. So at the end of the day, we're having a look at the evolution of the price-wage ratio and the margin generated on projects, regardless of which projects we're talking about and regardless of which geographical areas are concerned, and the margin, which is directly related to the price-wage ratios. So you got the price or cost of premises because we have a lot of projects, IT costs and the environment and so on and so forth. And we're now analyzing the situation because we're closing this. But the price-wage ratio in H1 did not go down, did not deteriorate. And this is rather good news if it had to be warranted because it was indicated we're anticipating a new deterioration of the price-wage ratio, which was 90 last year. So perhaps... It seems not to be the case, but I'll confirm this in September. OK, thank you. So I got two other points now. Just wanted to clarify the situation since you talked about the H1 margins. One can understand that in terms of margin seasonality, we're now witnessing a return to normalcy. In other words, an H2 margin way above H1 margin. Well, not way above because the workday differential is quite weak. We have only one discrepancy between the one between and will be penalized versus last year because we'll have one workday less than last year because last year we had an average of 124, 126, whereas this year, now it's 124, 125, but we'll have a seasonal effect with a high margin, which is a Above is going to be greater than the H1 margin. We're not going to have a difference of three points now. No, but the objective is to have a 10 plus margin. This is what you had actually given out at the beginning of the year at the beginning of the year. Yes, we said we were going to have our general. We're going to be in actually getting a 10 margin going back to 10 margin. Now this is not going to change. In other words. we're quite at ease with the fact that the normal margin is 10. Now, are we going to be reaching 10 throughout the year? We'll just have to have a look at it in the second, well, in H2. And last point, now with the exception of Singapore, which is the loophole here, Now for H2, what is the focal point which you're quite cautious about with a lesser visibility when stuck up against the rest of the group? Singapore is somewhat of an outlandish case. Actually, I talked about it because It blurs the APAC dynamic visibility. So it was quite important to put things back in perspective with the APAC figures, because the oil and gas business decline here, strong decline was driven, which was driven by Singapore, could help us reach bad conclusions. So let's actually set it aside. There is no special focal point no you gotta we got a topic on finance uh in france obviously we got a uh contraction in the uh bank and finance segment i'm not sure whether it's the case everywhere but obviously we're getting messages from the client from the clients announcing cost cuts in their IT budget. And this can be seen quite blatantly in the number of bits of tender and productivity levels and so on and so forth. And Germany, since slowdown is quite important, this is also quite an issue because Germany has a margin structure, which is quite challenging. last year we had generated good performance levels because the business rate was very high in germany and demand was extremely strong this year germany is getting back into more normative rationale and and since we're also getting bigger everywhere we are now working on investments today which which are technical department structurings and different geographical areas, and those are investments in tools, IT tools, and which are, this is related to the development of processes that are now being digitalized. And we want to change the CRM, and we also set up new business steering tools for managers and so on and so forth. So when you think about it, We are now bracing ourselves for the next phase. OK, thank you. But there is. Well, right now, there's no point of concern. There's no concern. Now, at the end of the day, it's just business as usual. We have customers who, despite the pressure on the wages, are still asking for productivity. But this is the way we are in our, you know, this is our bread and our butter, you know, our bread and butter. I mean, this is what we do. OK, thank you. Perfect. Thanks for everything. Good evening and have a nice holiday. Thank you. Have a nice evening. We now have a question from Mr. Eric Marcon. Yes, I have two short questions. If you allow me, the first one is oil and gas. I'm not sure I understand whether the situation in Q2 versus Q1 went down. Because when you read the Q1 notes, oil and gas was going down by 30% in Q1, still going down in Q2. So I'm really having a hard time to really clarify the situation. The energy, which was going down in Q1, is still going down a lot more in Q2. You have the impression that oil and gas doesn't really weigh more in the equation. So this is the first question I'll ask for the questions afterwards. I don't know how to answer, because true oil and gas... has been going down when i mean well the the decline is practically the same in q2 as it is in q1 and the growth in other sectors is probably lower than q2 than it was in q1 so so the impact of oil and gas deterioration now today we're still we still have projects uh that are terminated in the h2 which may weigh on the growth rate in H2 more so than H1. This is perhaps the only logical explanation I can give you. In other words, in the various components of the energy, the nuclear sector. Well, it did not go up as much as in the first quarter, most especially, and this is quite a surprise, most especially in the nuclear sector. And this is not need-related, but it's a resource-related factor. Is this too granular for you to answer the question on the growth rates? Well, to be honest with you. I don't have the growth rate in mind. I did not hear the word. The interpreter is not here. No, we went down quite a lot. We're now plus three in the nuclear sector. It went down quite very significantly. And in the energy equipment sector, Because I don't know whether you had noted down the growth rates. I can find them for you. But in F1, we were at 15% H1. So it went down because we were supposed to be above 20%. Actually, growth is going down in all of the other sectors, and oil and gas is still going down. Okay, thank you. My second question is about similar in Singapore. Now, just to understand the negative impact in Q2 than it is in Q1, because when you have a look at the APAC figures and the zones you mentioned outside of Singapore, The growth rate of APAC is really going down dramatically between Q1 and Q2. Can you perhaps quantify and really give us the actual change in revenues, the difference between the revenues generated in Q1 and the revenues generated in Q2? Can I do it? The answer is yes, is in the affirmative. Can I just answer like, off the bat, since I don't have all the data in my mind, I cannot answer. But if you wish, I can actually send you a note. But what are we talking about exactly? This is a small country, but still, we're talking about several millions of euros, not just 100,000 euros. No, no, no, this is not 100,000 euros. Singapore, let me tell you, what it represented in terms of revenues in Q2 Singapore, I believe, if memory serves me right, represents a four million something. It went actually from 12 to four. That's eight points difference. Yes. In Q2, for example, Singapore Q2, last year 9.8, this year 2 million. So from 12 to 4, what does that mean? We lost a lot of revenues in Q2. This is what it means. In other words, 4% in H1 end up with 2 million euros in Q2 2023. Is that correct? Q1 2022 Singapore, 8.9 and 4.4 in Q1. Now we got the figures of this year and Q2, 9.8 this year. So it went down a lot more significantly in Q2 than in Q1 in Singapore. So my question is, out of the number of enforced days, the figure you mentioned when you answered Laurent's question on the enforced day impact, 1.3 days, it seems to be quite important if you were to compare this to H1, you were saying that actually, this was actually a neutral zero in H1, We agreed that actually in H2, with the exception of Q3, with the minus one day effect in France, I imagine that in other countries we may have effects that I don't have in mind. But 1.3 days is a lot throughout the H, the half of the year, given the Q2 impact or... Well, figures are as follows. This is not that complicated. This is what we have at hand in France. We're losing one day in Q3, and we're not losing anything in Q4. International, we're losing one day, perhaps a little less than one day. In Q1. In Q3, I'm sorry. We're losing 0.5 days in Q4. So globally, this is actually, it adds up. So we're talking about an average weighted by the relative impact of each zone. This is 1.3 loss in H2. But then at the end of the day, this is actually related to what I said above. In other words, we got a general number of day based rationale, but these are not all equal to one another. And if you were really that a perfectionist, you would have to wait the number of days. Now, this is weighted by the number of people, because this is not an arithmetic average. But we'd have to weight this on the basis of the interpreter did not hear the word. And we do. I mean, this makes sense. We have 1.3 days less. This is because a global basis. I did not realize the situation or the number of days or invoice days was contracting that much when compared to H2 2022.

Welcome to compare and.

Okay, and my last question in France. Now, in the entire group, no organic growth deceleration versus the Q2 level, but at the same time, if you zoom in on France, we realize that we get zero in Q2. Perhaps... and perhaps uh you might have a step mentioned by the home perhaps you might carry on with organic growth contracting growth rate in q3 and q4 once again in q3 and q4 in france We readjusted the outlook compared to what we had in mind three to four months ago to really factor in the fact that we are messed up on some hundreds of engineers in France, but the Q3 and Q4 forecast established on the basis of what the operational C on the field, well, it makes it that growth is going back up in terms of headcount in Q3 and Q4 in France. So we are necessarily going to have an organic growth similar to H1 organic growth at best. Now, this makes a lot of sense, but the organic growth in France is not going to be twice lower than the H1 growth. Now, the analyst meeting is taking place in September, and we'll have a clearer vision of the situation then. But this is anyway not our hypothesis.

Now H2 in line with H1.

And Q3 is not going down below Q2 before it goes back up in Q4. This is what I tried to understand. I'm sorry, the interpreter cannot hear. The sound is getting bad here. No, we don't really see this. Q3, it's difficult to compare Q3 to Q2. You can compare. organic growth you're on your growth rate but i mean that's uh quarter after quarter but at q3 we got holiday periods and last year we also had three days more in addition to this but i mean if you retreat this we do not see q3 deteriorating versus q2 in france Now, we're not talking about five organic, I mean, point five points in France. No.

Okay.

I hope we're not overly optimistic. And the end of June, perhaps I did not hear the word the interpreter. Can I hear the sound is bad. Okay, we usually do this when the analyst meeting is taking place. This is not done in July, but the number of departures end of June versus what you had. No, no, no. But anyway, there won't be any severe cuts this year. OK.

Good evening. Good evening, Eric.

Good evening. So we don't have any other questions so far. We have received two questions in English. I'll read them out.

The competitive landscape in the US. And your potential growth mark in that market. So I'm going to answer that question. The US market is quite different from the European one because of the local labor laws, meaning that our main core business today, which is work package activities, meaning that we take in charge on behalf of customers the whole project achievement. does not exist that much in the U.S. U.S. industrial companies either outsource parts of a vehicle or a plane or whatever it is, or they hire resources, I would say, more in a staffing mode because they need additional resources for their projects. There is no big competitor in the US, I mean, of a size which could be similar to Alten or other European competitors. There are nevertheless small companies trying to do the same business. This is why in the US, When we complete acquisitions, we buy, I would say, smaller companies. The main competition in the U.S. is coming from what we call U.S. Indian or Indian U.S. companies, meaning that there is a local front office in the U.S., can be a commercial front office and also a technical front office. But the projects are carried out in India, where the cost of resources is much lower. This is why we try, of course, to enter the US market by either building local teams with local US engineers that we have. We have around 2,000 today, slightly more. And also, we bought recently a small company with that configuration with a front office in the US and a back office in India. And we tried to develop that offer, which is really big in the US. Now, the second question is, could you give us a bit more color of the M&A landscape in your core markets and the potential for M&A for M&A, sorry, from large international players in your core markets? Well, we compete regarding the M&A side with either competitors of Alten, but to be frank, there are less today on that market. uh we can compete sometimes uh with industrial companies but not that much and we more and more uh that's a shame for us to be frank uh compete with private equity uh companies uh which buy uh even small companies i mean 500 people uh with quite high multiples and this is very difficult to compete because we are not i mean in a situation to pay uh those multiples uh i was talking about uh during that conversation uh i was talking about the company uh with the presence in the u.s and the back office in india which has been sold 17 times the abda and that we have renounced because we are not in a position and we didn't wish to pay that high price. So the M&A landscape is not that easy and this is why we mainly complete smaller acquisitions. And There is no other questions in English.

Madame, I don't know if we have any other questions from the participants attending the call. No, we've reached the end of the questions. Thank you very much for taking part in this conference. um enjoy the summer holidays because i imagine that most of you will be taking summer holidays and see you soon in september i believe we have an analyst meeting on the 22nd of september in the morning it will be a remote meeting uh this will be a digital meeting as we called them and this will be a good opportunity for us to talk again so Have a nice day and see you soon. Bye-bye.