Arcadis Nv S/Adr

I am Gailie, your chorus call operator. Welcome and thank you for joining the Arcadius Conference call and live webcast to present and discuss the fourth quarter and full year 2024 results. All participants will be in listen-only mode and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star followed by one on their telephone anytime during the call. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, you may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on your telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Ms. Christine Dish, Investor Relations Director. Ms. Dish, you may now proceed.

Thank you, Kelly. Good afternoon and good morning, everyone on the call. Welcome to this meeting. My name is Christine Dish. I'm Investor Relations Director at Arcadis. We are here to discuss Arcadia's fourth quarter and full year 2024 results, which were released this morning together with our annual report. With us on the call are Alan Brooks, our CEO, and Virginie Duperra, our CFO. We will start, as usual, with a presentation by Alan and Virginie, which will be followed by a Q&A session. We would like to pull your attention to the fact that in today's session, management may reiterate forward-looking statements which were made in the press release. Please note the risks related to this statement, which are more fully described in the press release and on the company's website. Now, please, over to you, Alan.

Thank you, Christine, and hello, everybody, and welcome to our full year and fourth quarter results call. 2024 marked the first full year of our current strategic cycle, accelerating a planet-positive future, and we have achieved some significant milestones. I'll touch on these shortly. Last year, we delivered a strong fourth quarter and full year performance, achieving a record net revenue of 3.9 billion euros, reflecting 5% organic growth year on year. Our operating EBITDA rose to 11.5%. This was up from 10.4% in 2023. This was driven by our continued focus on sustainable project choices, growing our contributions from our global excellent centres and internal efficiencies from standardization and automation efforts. Net income rose 52% year on year to €243 million, resulting in a record earnings per share of €2.70. And finally, we delivered an order intake of €4.4 billion, providing long-term visibility and anchoring our position with our key clients. Key performance drivers include climate adaptation and mitigation, energy security and transition, and long-term water and highways projects. With a growing backlog of large contracts now preparing to ramp up through 2025, we have clear visibility for future performance. So let me take you through some of these areas in a little more detail. Firstly, let me spotlight climate adaptation and mitigation. It has been a year of devastating extreme weather events, from destructive hurricanes along the US East Coast to wildfires in Los Angeles and severe flooding we may all remember in Valencia. The escalating climate crisis is driving a critical shift in how we future-proof assets, infrastructure and operations. More than ever, companies and organisations are recognising climate events and disruptions as strategic risks. Factors such as rising insurance costs and asset resiliency are central to decision making. Our North American teams alone responded to over 100 emergencies and disasters in the year, supported by key framework agreements we have in place with organisations such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the US Army Corps of Engineers and the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services. Over 2024, our climate adaptation and mitigation solutions have been one of the key revenue and backlog drivers for resilience. We differentiated through our comprehensive approach, going beyond risk assessments to strategic planning, solution implementation, and long-term operational resilience and mitigation. An example of the innovation we use is our climate risk nexus platform, developed with our intelligence business area. This integrates climate and asset data to quantify the impact of climate hazards on the critical infrastructure of our clients, translating risks into financial terms to help prioritise investment decisions. We know that climate disasters carry a huge economic toll. The record costs in 24 and 25 to date show that. Looking ahead, climate change will continue to drive investment decisions. We are well placed to help our clients navigate this uncertainty. And this is reflected in the growing pipeline that we now see coming through. Next, I'd like to talk about energy transition. This is another key focus area for us, and we are at the forefront of helping clients achieve their decarbonisation and grid expansion goals. This is a key places and resilience combined offering. In Europe, we have a strong track record in grid expansion, partnering with Ampriam, Tenet, National Grid and EDF to strengthen energy infrastructure and meet rising power demands. Our net revenues from energy transition in Germany alone grew at around 25% through 2024. Our expertise goes beyond advisory services. We are a decarbonisation partner providing clients like Heineken with roadmaps, optimised operations and cost-effective solutions. In our work with Heineken, we are partnering with Honeywell to combine their building automation technology with our sustainability expertise to deliver an end-to-end integrated solution. As our work continues to ramp up over the coming years, we will be playing a critical role in driving Heineken's transition to net zero by 2030. helping them develop and implement a net zero roadmap and reduce energy demand and carbon footprints of their production facilities. Furthermore, we are focused on training and upskilling our people. A key example of this is our Energy Transition Academy, designed to provide Arcadians with the expertise needed to support clients in decarbonisation, grid modernisation, alternative energy infrastructure and energy security. Our ambition is to train or recruit more than 2,500 energy experts by 2027. We are on track to meet this goal with around 500 colleagues already participating in 2024. With energy demand soaring, particularly in the US, where there is a massive backlog to interconnect to the grid, we are well positioned for growth. By leveraging our expertise, we can drive the next generation of energy solutions, helping clients adapt, innovate and position for a net zero future. Let me now turn to water optimization, an area where Arcadis is leading the way in securing efficient, sustainable and resilient water systems. We have built strong client relationships, most notably in the UK and the US. During 2024, we were awarded eight AMP8 framework agreements in the UK, which will support our order intake and net revenues in the coming years, with the investments to accelerate over the current 2025 to 30 cycle and beyond. In the US, we serve 40 of some of the largest water clients, including major utilities and watershed management programmes. Arcadis stands out for its expertise in large-scale water asset programs where deep technical knowledge and digital innovation drives impact. As we have an extensive suite of digital water products, we continue to lead in innovative solutions that enhance water efficiency and sustainability. Water and health security will remain important priorities for the new U.S. administration. we are already seeing that investments in pipe replacements and leakage reduction are driving our key clients' budgets and our pipeline opportunities. With our technical excellence, digital innovation and long-term client relationships, we are helping clients secure sustainable, efficient and resilient water systems for the generations to come. Now moving to connected highways. Here we are successfully bringing together cross GBA collaboration from mobility, intelligence, places and resilience business areas. These extensive integrated capabilities have contributed to our strong track record in delivering large scale infrastructure projects globally. Mobility had an impressive 52% growth in backlog in 2024. driven by large multi-year projects such as the hudson tunnel project in new york fraser river tunnel in vancouver and zouda stock program in amsterdam setting us up firmly for success in 2025 and beyond our large international flexible workforce is critical to the delivery of these projects this differentiator ensures we can scale and deploy talent where needed whether that's during the ramp-up or the ramp-down phases of projects. Meanwhile, our GECs now contribute 25% of project execution, further enhancing efficiencies and innovation. Looking to the future, the US market is increasingly a driver for growth, with major infrastructure investments focused on safety, security, modernization and driving efficiency and innovation. With 66% of grants announced in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act now committed, we are confident in the strong pipeline of opportunities for our business. And finally, let me turn to our data center capabilities. With over 20 years of experience now in this market, we have built a strong reputation among the leading hyperscale and co-location data center clients. To date, we have delivered 2.9 million square meters of facilities with a total capacity of 7,500 megawatts. And in 2024, we successfully completed 600 projects. A key example is our work designing the first near net zero data center campus in the world for TerraVentures in California. Our team was tasked with finding an alternative way to power the campus. leveraging our expertise in sustainable design and renewable energy solutions. We developed a prototype design for a facility powered by natural gas fuel cells on a self-sufficient microgrid. This innovative design eliminates the need for backup generators, while reuses the waste heat to meet up to 50% of its cooling needs. What truly sets us apart in this market is our expertise in sustainable design and cost and project management. With a strong focus on our resilience GBA, our work includes everything from recommending low carbon construction materials and smart energy management solutions to developing innovative strategies for biodiversity net gain and water efficiency. all supported and enabled by leveraging dedicated expertise from across our global excellence centres. Looking ahead, technological advances in generative AI are driving remarkable growth across this sector, and we see this reflected in our pipeline of opportunities. In particular, I see this as a strong growth area, given our track record and our design innovation. Which brings me nicely to an exciting new announcement we have made today. Yesterday, we entered into an agreement to purchase the Frankfurt-based Cure Group, a leader in complex data center design in Germany. At a purchase price of 70 million euros on a cash and debt-free basis, the deal represents approximately eight times Cure's 2024 EBITDA and is expected to close within the next two months. KUA is a privately owned company excelling in architecture, design and engineering, and planning and permitting services. Since 2018, it has delivered over 35 complex data center projects across Germany, with 100% revenue growth between 2022 and 2024. This is testament to the accelerated growth of AI investments across Germany. The country is now the second largest data center market in Europe, behind the UK. The acquisition will bring significant benefits to both organizations, uniting our complementary services and expertise, and enhancing our ability to deliver end-to-end solutions. Arcadis will leverage its strength in site selection due diligence, program and cost management, and sustainability advisory, while collaborating closely with CURE to provide comprehensive architecture, design, engineering, and construction management services for our data center clients. With a combined team of more than 400 data center experts and building on CURE's strong client base, we will strengthen our presence in this market unlocking substantial synergies and growth opportunities. We will reinforce our position as a leading provider of design and engineering services for data centres across Europe. And with that, I will now hand over to Virginie, who will take you through our financial results for the fourth quarter and full year in more detail. Thank you.