Bouygues

Hello, and welcome to the Group Week 9 Month 2025 Results Call. For the first part of the conference call, you will be in listen-only mode. During the questions and answers session, you are able to ask questions by dialing pound key 5 on your telephone keypad. Now I will hand the conference over to Frederick DeLavo, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for the presentation of BRICS 9 Months 2025 Results. This presentation will be led by Pascal Granger, Deputy CEO of the BRICS Group, Stéphane Stoll, who, as you know, was appointed CFO of the BRICS Group beginning of August, and Christian Lecoq, CFO of BRIC Telecom. Following their presentation, they will be answering your questions. Pascal, I let you start this call.

Thank you, Frédérique, and good morning, everyone. Before listing our highlights, I would like to recall that, as we have already mentioned since the beginning of the year, the global microeconomic and geopolitical environment remains very uncertain, notably in France. That being said, I want to highlight that the Group expects for 2020 a slight increase in sales year-on-year, excluding exchange rate effects, and a slight increase in COPPA year-on-year. These expectations are reflected in the Group's 9-month results that are strong. Looking at the main indicators for the 9 months, we can see that, first, Group sales were up 0.9% year-on-year, notably driven by the construction businesses. Two-three group sales were stable year-on-year, given forex, which had an impact of around minus 50 million euros over the quarter. Second, COPPA increase year-on-year was notable in the first nine months 2025. The increase was driven by the construction businesses and equants. So, excluding the exceptional income tax of charge for large companies in France of 60 million euros, the net result attributable to the group was up year-on-year. I remind you that the effects on the net profit attributable to the group of the French Finance Law and the Social Security Financing Law, which was passed during the first quarter of 2025, including mainly the exceptional income tax surcharge for large companies in France, had been estimated at around 100 million euros for the full year 2025. This is still our evaluation to date. on 80 million euros already been recorded in the first nine months 2025. Fourth, the group benefits from a particularly robust financial structure. At end September 2025, our net debt increased versus end September 2024. And in September, Standard & Poor's revised our negative to stable the outlook associated with its A- credit rating. Let's now have a look at our key figures on slide 5. Group sales in the first 9 months stood at 41.9 billion euros, up 0.9% year on year. This increase was notably driven by BRIC construction, COLAS and BRIC Telecom, with the contribution of La Poste Telecom. In the first 9 years of 2025, the Group Copa increased by 95 million euros year-on-year and reached 1,814 million euros. This increase was led by the construction businesses of Equance, TF1 and Bouygues Telecom and Copa being down year-on-year. The net profit attributable to the group was 675 million euros. This amount is not comparable to that of the nine months 2024, as it includes the exceptional income tax surcharge for large companies in France, minus 60 million euros. Excluding this surcharge, on a comparable basis, the net profit attributable to the group would have been up 48 million euros year on year at 735 million euros. Last, net debt was 7.6 billion euros, an improvement of 856 million euros year on year. This is a very good performance, in particular if we consider the amount of net acquisitions made over the year, mainly including WIFI Telecom's acquisition of La Poste Telecom for almost 1 billion euros. This is a theoretical vision, of course, but without these acquisitions, our net debt would have been improved by 1.9 billion euros year on year. Let's now turn to the review of operations on slide 8. Let's begin the backlog in the construction businesses. You can see that at the end of September 2025, the backlog was at a very high level of 32.1 billion euros, providing good visibility on infrastructure activity. Looking into details on slide 9, let's start with COLA's backlog, which was up 1.4 billion euros year-on-year at 14.2 billion euros, with rail backlog up 31% year-on-year. In roads, the backlog was up 2% year-on-year, of which French and international backlogs were respectively down 3% and up 4% year-on-year. At constant exchange rates, the backlog was up 12% year-on-year. To be noted that the backlog to be executed in the current year and next year was up around 400 million euros year-on-year. At Brick Construction, the backlog stood at 17.2 billion euros, down 0.7 billion euros year-on-year, but stable compared to end June 2025. Civil Works was down 14% year-on-year and in building the French backlog was up 12% and the international backlog was up 1%. At constant exchange rates the backlog was down 3% year-on-year. It is important to notice that 17.2 billion euros is a very high level of backlog. At end September 2025, the backlog to be executed in the current year and next year was down around 200 million euros year on year. However, additional significant contracts are expected by mid-2026, notably internationally, which will support the level of the backlog. In that respect, You probably read this morning that Bouygues Construction will carry out the civil engineering works for two new EPRs at Sizewell C nuclear power station in the UK as part of a civil work alliance. The share of Bouygues Construction in this construction is estimated at around 3.3 billion euros. This is very good news. to be noticed that the scope of work will be carried out through the delivery of a series of work orders and so Bouygues Construction will book the related orders as they are instructed starting from the fourth quarter. Actually, at Bouygues d'Immobilier, the backlog was at €0.7 billion at end September 2025, down €0.3 billion year-on-year. The decrease of around €70 million in backlog since June 2025 is mainly due to the deconsolidation of activities in Poland in July 2025. Moving to slide 10, I will make a few comments on the strong commercial activity in the construction businesses. First, the order intake was at 10.8 billion euros. In road activities, this order intake was slightly up. with a slight decrease in Maine and France, as expected in the pre-local elections year, and it was up internationally, with significant growth in Q3 in Morocco, in the US and in Canada. In rail, the order intake was up strongly in the first nine months, with also notably a significant contract awarded in the UK in Q3. Then, on the construction level, the order intake in the first nine months reached 6.8 billion euros, driven largely by the contracts of less than 100 million euros. Several large contracts were awarded in nine months 2025, including three contracts for more than 100 million euros in Q3. Do not forget that your on-year change in order intake at Bouy Conception is not representative given fluctuations in the award of large contracts. As a reminder, 9 months 2024 order intake included several major contracts, notably the Torrance to Darlington Highway contract worth more than 2 billion euros creating a particularly strong basis of comparison. And, as I've already mentioned in previous calls, please also note that additional significant contracts are expected by mid-2026. At Brugge Immobilier, residential reservations stood at €0.9 billion at end September 2025. To be noted, an improvement year-on-year Residential unit reservations value unstable in volume in a still changing market environment and a decrease in blocked reservations. Two small positive signs are to be noted. Sell-off and cancellation rates improved year on year. Last, as we have already said many times, the commercial property market remains at a standstill. Now, let's have a look at sales on slide 11. Sales were up 2% year-on-year and 3% like-for-like at constant extreme rates. First, sales were up 1% year-on-year at 11.9 billion euros driven by rail, up 12%, this growth being supported notably by Egypt, France and Germany. Roads were stable, with France up 2%, EMEA up 2%, Asia-Pacific strongly up 19%, and North America down 5%. Collage sales were up 2% year-on-year at constant exchange rates. Second, wood construction sales were up 4% year-on-year, 7.9 billion driven by its three segments of activity, all up year-on-year. Bouygues construction sales were up 5% year-on-year at constant exchange rates. Last, at Bouygues immobilier, sales were down 6% year-on-year at 0.9 billion, with residential property down 4% year-on-year restated for the disposal of activities in Poland. Next slide. Current operating profit from activities of the construction businesses was 591 million euros, improving 150 million euros compared to nine months 2024, driven by the three business segments. COPPA at Colas was slightly up with a margin from activities including 0.1 points at 2.7%. Copa at good construction was strongly upped year-on-year, increasing by 45 million euros and with 0.4 points copa margin improvement at 3.3%. At Bouygues Immobilier level, COPPA was up 59 million euros year-on-year. It includes some one-off items representing a global amount of 27 million euros with the disposal of Poland activities in particular. Now, I'll hand over to who will comment Equan's results.

Thank you, Pascal. Good morning, everyone. Let's move to slide 14. Equan's backlog at end of September 2025 was stable year on year at 25.8 billion euros. Order in nine months of 2025 stood at 13.9 billion euros, a high level close to the one of September 2024. It is worth noticing that order intake in contracts of less than 5 million euros was up year on year representing more than two-thirds of order intake. On the other hand, order intake in projects of more than 5 million euros was down year on year, reflecting a high basis of comparison in 2024, and a wait-and-see stance in some areas of activity, notably in data centers in Europe and on the EV market. In parallel, we continue to observe a gradual improvement in the order intake margin. As for sales, they were down 2% year on year in the nine months 2025. This essentially reflects three main items. First, The continued careful selection of second, a proactive exit from non-strategic activities, notably the new business in the UK that we mentioned in the previous publications. And third, a temporary slowdown in relation to the wait and see stance in data centers and gigafactories I mentioned earlier. The first nine months, sales were also impacted by a negative exchange effect of minus 55%. This effect concentrated in Q3, sales being impacted by a negative minus 66 million euros over the quarter. As such, Q3 sales, down 4.2% year-on-year, were down 2.8% year-on-year at constant exchange rates. ICRON's contribution to the group's COPPA represented 565 million euros, a significant increase of 91 million euros year-on-year, with a 4.1% COPPA margin up 0.7 points year-on-year, confirming the continued successful execution of the PERFORM plan. Let me finally give you some updates on our recent M&A developments. Equon secured four Bolton acquisitions in this quarter. In Germany, Austria, Italy and North America, around 180 million euros of full-year sales. These acquisitions are in line with the strategy shared during the capital market day back in 2023. To end with Equance on slide 15, let me just add that in 2025, Equance will continue a strategic plan and is aiming at achieving a slight decrease in sales versus 2024 at a constant exchange rate, given one, the proactive exit from remaining non-strategic and non-performing activities, and second, the temporary slowdown in some areas of activity. and Equance is also aiming at achieving a margin from activities close to 4.3% up from the 4.2% mentioned end of July. Finally, Equance confirms it is targeting a cash conversion rate, which is compared to cash flow before working capital requirement of between 80 and 100%. And as a reminder, Equance aims to gradually catch up with the organic growth of sector peers and to achieve a margin from activities of 5% in 2025. Now, Christian is going to detail with Telecom's main figures.

Thank you, Stéphane, and good morning, everyone. Before turning to slide 17 and entering into the 9 months and the 3rd quarter performance of BookTelecom, I would like to say a few words about the integration of Lapos Telecom within BookTelecom. It has now been one year since we With the acquisition of LaPoS Telecom, we have already achieved several successful milestones, notably, first, the strengthening of our mobile business thanks to LaPoS Telecom's customer base and the vast distribution network of over 6,000 post offices of LaPoS Group, and second, the promising launch of the fifth commercial offer, South Mobile, in September 2025. Since October 2025, New Lapos Mobile's customers have access to Booktelecom's mobile network and can benefit from high-end services such as 5G or RCN. That being said, performance has remained this quarter, solid and fixed, as you can see on slide 17. ATTH continued to experience strong growth, with 371,000 new customers during the first 9 months, with a total of 4.6 million customers, ATTH customers represented 85% of our fixed customer base, up from 79% one year ago. This is the result of a wider ATTH community combined with the excellent quality of our network and services. as we have already achieved a very high level of migrations from DSL to FTTH, we will certainly observe a logical slowdown in these migrations in the coming quarters. Please also note that the target of 40 million FTTH promises enacted have been reached more than one year ahead of schedule, which is also a very good achievement. You can also see that we had a total of 5.3 million fixed customers at end September 2025. This represents an increase of 184,000 customers in the 9 months, of which 79,000 in the third quarter. This good momentum is driven by both. First, BIG and BMU Pure Fiber with customer satisfaction improving and share lowering. And second, as I have already mentioned, the promising launch of the fixed commercial offers of Lapos Telecom in September 2025. The momentum we made also good on value, with fixed APPU up 0.2 euros year-on-year at 33.4 euros per client and permits. As you can see on slide 18, the commercial performance was good in mobile in a mature and still competitive market. We observe ongoing positive effects of bid on customer satisfaction and share, and continued growth of converged households and spare households. at 8 September 2025, but Telecom had 18.5 million mobile plan customers, including M2M, thanks to 231,000 new customers in the first nine months, of which 125,000 in third quarter. Mobile BPU, including Laplace Telecom, was stable versus Q2 2025 at 70.3 euros per client and parents. It reflects continued low pricing for new customers in the low-end segment and the derivative effect of Lapos Telecom as expected. Let's have a look at the key figures on slide 19. As a reminder, Lapos Telecom has been consolidated in Book Telecom's financial statements since 1st November 2024. That being said, we achieved 5,000 goals cells built to customer year-on-year were boldly stable excluding lapos telecom. Total sales were up 4% year-on-year with 3% growth in other sales. EBITDA after leases was stable year-on-year at 1,505 million euros since stability is explained by An increase in sales built to customers on ongoing efforts to control costs, compensated by second higher energy costs due to the hell of very favorable aging conditions between 2020 and 2024. The current operating profit from activities was down 94 million euros at 509 million euros, reflecting the increase in DNA in line with our CAPEX trajectory and of Last, you can notice that gross capex was 1036 million euros in 9 months 2025. I remind you that the capex are non-linear over the year. Moving to slide 20, let me remind you Booktelecom's 2025 targets. First, sales built to customers, including La Poste Telecom, would be higher than in 2024. Second, sales built to customers, like to like, excluding La Poste Telecom, are expected to be close to the level of 2024. The figure would be either slightly higher or slightly slower, depending on the duration and intensity of the competitive pressure currently built. Third, EBD after leases will be boldly stable compared to 2024. In 2025, Boot Telecom will no longer benefit from the very favorable low HD energy prices arranged in 2020 and 2021. The contribution to EBD after leases will be limited in 2025, with the full effect expected from 2028. Gross capital expenditures, excluding frequencies, is expected at around 1.5 billion euros, including the expenditure related to the migration of La Poste Telecom mobile customers. Pascal, I now let you share a few words on TF1.

Thank you Christian. Turning to slide 22, let's talk briefly about TF1's results which were released on the searches. First, the TFN group reinforced its audience leadership. Among them, the total audience share among women under 50 who are purchasing decision makers was at 33.8%, up 0.8%, and the total audience share among individuals aged 25 to 49 was at 30.7%, up 0.7 points. Second, in the nine months 2020, total sales were stable year-on-year. Media sales decreased by 1% year-on-year, with advertising revenues down 2%, and the continued strong gross momentum for TF1+, up 41% year-on-year. Studio TF1 posted revenues up 11% year-on-year, including a €25 million contribution from JPG. Third, COPPA amounted to €191 million, slightly down €7 million, and COPPA margin was at 11.9% in 9 months, down 0.5 points year-on-year. It includes a cost of programme of €662 million. The slight decrease versus the 9 months 2024 was due notably to the base effects related to the Euro 2024 football tournament. Please also note that there was a capital gain of 17 million euros in relation with the disposal of My Little Paris on Clay 2 recorded in Q3 2025. As a reminder, in Q3 2024, TIR had a capital gain of 27 million euros in relation to the disposal of the Ushuaia Boran license. Turning to slide 23, I will end by saying that the TF1 group confirms the following targets. A strong double-digit revenue growth in digital on the dividend side, aiming for a growing dividend policy in the coming years. After observing that domestic instability adversely impacted at the market in October, first indications are also below. expectations in November visibility until year-end. As such, TF1 has adjusted its 2025 guidance for margin from activities to a level between 10.5% and 11.5%. Previously, TF1 group was targeting a broadly stable margin from activities compared to which was 12.6%. Stéphane is now going to comment on the group's key financial figures.

We start with the P&L on slide 25. We have already discussed 9-month sales and current operating profit from activities at the beginning of this call. I will just focus on the bottom part of the P&L this morning. First, PPA was minus 77 million euros, which includes mainly 35 million euros recorded at Buick SA level in relation to Equance, and 26 million euros recorded at Buick Telecom level. Second, other operating income and expenses which do not reflect operational activity were negative at minus 151 million euros end of September 2025. This amount is largely due to, on the one hand, non-current charges in relation to the Equance Management Incentive Plan, which represented 66 million euros, an amount split between Equance and Bouyassé, On the other hand, some provisions recorded at Bouygues Construction and Colas, respectively in relation to a change in regulation in the UK and to recent developments relating to an international project at Colas High dating back to 2011. Third, financial results which comprise the cost of net debt, interest expense on lease obligations and other financial income and expenses to that minus 305 million euros, an amount close but a bit higher than to that of the nine months of 2024. Fourth, a tax charge was recorded for 443 million euros, higher than last year. In relation to higher operational results, this amount excludes the 71 million euros of a fictional income tax charge for large companies in France. Fifth, The index of the tax charge on the net result attributable to the group was minus 60 million euros, leading this result to reach 675 million euros, down 12 million euros versus last year, excluding this tax charge, the net result attributable to the group, which has been up 48 million euros this year, as already mentioned by Pascal. Let's now turn to slide 26 to describe the net debt evolution between end of December 2024 and end of September 2025. As you can see, net debt increased by around 1.6 billion euros since the end of 2024. This negative change is quite usual and related to the seasonality of our activities. The good news is that the magnitude of the increase in the net debt is significantly lower than that of last year, which was around 2.2 billion euros. This increase includes first, Acquisitions, net of disposals totaling minus 118 million euros achieved at Colas, Equance, Boogie Mobile and TF1, as well as investment in joint ventures at Good Telecom and purchase of TF1 shares. Second, capital transactions and other for 155 million euros, including largely exercise of stock option. Third, dividends for a total of 864 million euros, including 755 million euros for Bouygues shareholders, the remaining part being almost entirely paid to Bouygues Telecom and TF1 minority shareholders. And last, minus 725 million euros from operations that I will comment on the next slide. Turning to the change in net debt for the first 9 months of 2025, on this slide 27, you can observe that it breaks down as follows. On the one hand, net cash flow including lease expense stood at 2.7 billion euros, an improvement of 162 million euros. compared to the first nine months of 2020. And on the other hand, net capex was 1.5 billion euros, a slightly lower amount compared to the first nine months of 2024. As such, our free cash flow before working capital requirements was 1.2 billion euros, an amount higher versus last year on the chart that the change in working capital requirements and other stood at minus 1.9. a usual negative change at this period of the year. I will now turn our attention to the group financial structure on slide 28. You can see the group maintained a very high level of liquidity. at 14.4 billion euros, which comprise 3.1 billion euros in cash and equivalents and 11.3 billion euros in on-drone medium and long-term credit facilities. Both shareholders' equity and net debt improved significantly versus end of September 2024. As a result, Net gearing reached 53% at end of September 2025, an improvement compared to 61% at end of September 2024. And you can see from the chart on the right hand side that the debt maturity schedule is well spread over time. I remind you that our next bond redemption is in October 2026. Last, I want to highlight that the group benefits from strong credit ratings. At Standard & Poor's, our rating is A-, and the outlook associated to this rating has been revised in September from negative to stable. At Moody's, our rating is A3, with a stable outlook. Pascal, I'm giving you back the floor for the conclusion.

Indeed, I will end this presentation on slide 30 by saying that, in a very uncertain global environment, the Group 6 business segments continue to prove their ability to keep pace with developments in their respective markets. They also pursue their efforts to improve profitability. At the group level, we are packaging a slight increase in current operating profit from activities versus 2024. Second, we specify that group 2025 sales are expected to be slightly up versus 2024 at constant exchange rates. and that given fluctuations in currencies, notably those related to the US dollar, group sales as published are now expected to be close to the level of 2024. I remind you that previously the BRIC group was targeting for 2025 a slight increase in sales and in current operating profit from activities versus 2024. Last, the effects on the net profit attributable to the group of the French finance law on the Social Security Financing Law, first quarter of 2025, remain estimated to date at around 100 million euros for 2025. We have finished our presentation and we thank you for your attention. We are now with Stéphane and Christian. Ready to answer your questions. Operator, please open the floor for questions.

If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key 5 on your telephone keypad. If you wish to withdraw your question, please dial pound key 6. The next question comes from Carlos Cabarassi from Kepler Shoebrew. Please go ahead.

Hi, everyone. Thanks for the presentation. I want to give my question. Just a quick one from my side. You're again upgrading Equan's 2025 margin target, but your 2027 view remains unchanged. So I was wondering if there's anything here that we're missing or if it's likely that by 2027 the margin will be above 5%. And if you allow me, hypothetically, what do you see Equan's margin by 2030? There's 6%, 7% in a reasonable assumption. Thank you.

Well, nothing changed since our last publication. We are indeed very pleased that ECOT is moving now to 4.3% this year. We confirm that our target for now, for 2027, margin remains... at 5% as per our guidance dating back from Capital Marketer in 2023. We are confident that we will be able to achieve this 5% margin. For now, we don't want to communicate anything else. And as to your question to the 2030 margin in Attequance, Let me simply state, as we already stated in the last publication, that we see no reason why ECONSP would not be capable of achieving margins which are close or similar to the one that's our aim, mid-long term. So that's what I can answer to your two questions.

Okay, very clear. Thank you.

The next question comes from Matthew Robliard from Barclays. Please go ahead.

Yes, good morning. Thank you for the presentation. I had a few questions. First, if I may ask, you made an offer along with other players for Altice assets. Yes, the offer was refused. You didn't change your bid. I just wanted to check if you could confirm you're still in discussion with Altice at the moment. The second one was on taxes. You flagged the impact of... the change in the corporate tax in 2025. There's now discussions in the French parliament that 2026 would be about the same. So obviously this has not been finalized and a lot of things can still change. But in principle, if the current proposal was to be passed, does it mean that the corporate tax that you pay in 2026 would be similar to the impact you saw in Sound 25, about 100 million. And lastly, on telecoms, I had a question about the ARPU. So, Christian, you mentioned that the ARPU including La Poste is flat quarter on quarter. I was wondering if we look at ARPU excluding La Poste, what was the trend in Q3 compared to Q2? Is it getting a bit worse? Is it stabilizing? Obviously, it's a very competitive environment, but any color in terms of the more recent trends would be great. Thank you.

First, I will answer to the question related to taxes. In fact, if the The current law was to be passed this year. We will have an additional impact this year related to the, you know, that the surtax, this additional tax is based on the level of tax this year. So we will have to renew a new charge of around approximately 40 to 50 million euros this year. And next we have the remaining part. Overall it will be a bit lower because the rate is a bit lower overall. And the second part of this additional tax will be paid in 2026.

Okay, on the Altice situation, as you rightly mentioned, and as you know, we submitted the joint offer on October 14th, and as you... As you know, this offer was promptly rejected by Altice on the next day. So, for now, to be honest, we are not in discussion. We are hopeful that we are capable of entering into a deal with Altice in the coming weeks, since we believe that this 17 billion euro offer that we submitted to be quite attractive for at least two major reasons. It offers a valuation of significantly more than 21 billion for Altice, adding into account the valuation of the assets which are not part of our proposals, such as XP Fiber. it represents a significant premium compared to the value estimated by brokers, as you know, some 17 billion pre-Synergies. It leads to an attractive equity value for AT shareholders. We also believe it's an attractive offer because it provides a global solution for most of Altice France assets. So we believe it represents a credible alternative to a piecemeal sale that could be very lengthy and highly uncertain. So we are not in discussion for now, but we are still hopeful that we will be capable of entering such discussion into a near future.

Regarding mobile APU, mobile APU for Telecom, excluding that of Telecom 3, was at 18.4, so plus 0.1 Euro compared to Q2 2025. You can find all the figures at the end of the presentation, it is in the annex on the website. I just remind you that usually in Q3, APU is better or higher because of rooming impact. we have positive women in fact in CUSCO.

The next question comes from Rohit Modi from Citi. Please go ahead.

Hi, I hope I'm audible and thank you for taking my questions. I've got two basically. Firstly, on your guidance, fuller guidance, I understand the revenue guidance, you know, flat revenue guidance would imply a decline, kind of decline in revenue in 4Q, but your COPPA guidance slight increase still leaves some room for a decline or upside. I mean, if you can directionally guide us, you know, how we should see COPPA, whether it's declining flat or you know, continue to increase in 4Q, that would be great. Second question is again, sorry, on consolidation. Just trying to understand what happens in a no deal scenario. How do you see, are there any assets that can still go ahead and buy from FFR without having, you know, the consortium going for a joint bid? And how do you see the market if there is no deal? Is that getting worse from here? Or you see, you know, same kind of conditions? Thank you.

On your first question regarding the full year guidance, what we can simply say for the Q4 2025 COPPA, of course, this quarter is not... As you know, it's diamond, so it's difficult to answer, but I remind you that Q4 2024 COPPA was 816 million, and Q4 2025 COPPA would probably be in the same order of magnitude than this Q4 2024.

Please, I remind you that, in fact, there is no, you know, we have some exchange rate effects, but these exchange rate effects do not affect our profitability, in fact, because, in fact, we are very local. So our expenses are in the same currency of our revenues. So there is no significant impact, I mean.

On the consolidation and the no-deal scenario, this is still a possibility. So what will change? Well, the market will remain as it is today with four competitors. And we believe that with Telecom, we'll be capable of delivering and continue to whether it's on its current strategy and delivering results in line with this strategy. So nothing more specific to comment, I believe, on this specific topic.

Thank you. And will there be any other effect that in case there is no group deal, you can still buy from SFR, that SFR will be willing to sell it?

For now our consortium stands. Our offer was confirmed. We are hopeful that we will be still capable of entering into construction discussion with Altis in the coming weeks. We believe this deal to be of interest for all stakeholders and so we are hopeful that we will be able at some point in time to convince Altis to change its mind.

As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Molly Whitcomb from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. Just a couple of questions from me, please. Firstly, I'm just wondering how you're thinking about group capital allocation and shareholder remuneration in the context of the French offer. How long do you wait before looking to pursue potential other options in other businesses? Are you still looking at potential M&A options in other businesses, even as this is kind of ticking along in the background? And then my second question is just on equines, top-line trends. You have talked about the connection to the slowdown in data centers, et cetera. I'm just wondering, do you feel that this is more industry-wide? Is there a kind of reason why equines in particular is seeing this trend and how you're thinking about it going into next year? Should we expect this to continue into kind of H1 and beyond, or how should we think about this in the midterm? Thank you.

I will answer your first question. In fact, you have seen that our financial structure is very strong, and the idea of maintaining a very strong financial structure is to be able to develop all our business lines. And so we have obviously this important project of consolidation of the telecom market in France. But in the meantime, we are studying and we are working on some M&A for the other business lines. There is no relationship of these different... The development of all business life is independent of what we do on SFR. So, we have some projects either in construction, in equines, in collas, so no issue in that respect.

As you know, we communicated on the significant acquisition that we are pursuing in the U.S. for Colas. And as I mentioned, we have secured Q3 quarter at Equance. for Bolton acquisitions in Germany, Austria, Italy and the US, so confirming the strategy of Bolton acquisition that we presented back in 2023. On trends, we certainly believe that the temporary slowdown that I mentioned on the data centers in Europe and the EV battery gigafactory is definitely industry-wide specific to Equance. Having said that, we still believe that fundamentally the markets on which Equance operates are strong and will provide interesting development opportunities. So we we do not expect any further significant slowdown for now and so we believe that Equence is on a continued The past we mentioned and we confirmed that we expect Equance to get close to its peers in terms also of organic growth. and we are not worried at all for next year. Equals markets are resilient. We are at the heart of three long-lasting transition, energy transition, industry transition, digital transition, and that will not change.

Thank you.

The next question comes from Eric Reveri from CIC. Please go ahead.

Yes, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. Two from my side. First one is on brick construction and the very strong copper figure in Q3. Could you give us any comment on this performance? Is it linked to one specific project? And second question is on eCRONs. Could you give us the share of data centers and gigafactories in the order intake in 2024 to assess the decrease overall of the order intake in 2025? Thank you.

First, I will answer on reconstruction. In fact, our aim for, you know, there is a reconstruction cycle in projects, which are huge projects, and the profitability could vary from one year to the other. But there is no very specific item this year explaining the to have a brick construction raising profitability to three to 3.5. So we are in that range and this is due to that strategic plan, but no very specific reason. It's a good performance for brick construction. For Equance,

on the gigafactories as you know just to answer your I don't have precise numbers available but just gigafactories in Europe You know, with the failure of Northvolt last year, the market is at a halt, so we don't have any significant order intake this year on this specific market, which explains the slowdown that we mentioned. And on the data center business, what we can say in general numbers is that the order of magnitude of our revenues in this business will be this year around 800 million euros. And it's down more or less 150 million year to year. Having said that, we see a very positive trend this time in terms of order intake. in data centers in the U.S. While the market is slow in Europe, this might change in the coming months, but it is quite strong in the U.S., and we were able to secure our first project in U.S. and in Canada, and this will spell strong revenues next year in this business in Canada. in the U.S. and Canada. Overall, we are not concerned by the trends, mid-term trends, especially in data centers, whether in Europe or in the U.S. Of course, gigafactories, this remains probably, will remain a slow market next year.

Okay, thank you.

The next question comes from Stéphane Bayagin from AutoBHF. Please go ahead.

Yes, good morning. Thank you. I was wondering if you have set yourself a deadline for getting to an agreement on the Altice bid, or basically talks could resume whenever. It could be one month, in three months, or in six months. A second question, I was also wondering how important infrastructure assets of SSR are in your offer. According to the press, Altice is considering to sell some of its infrastructure assets, and I was wondering if such a sale would make a deal easier or more difficult in the future. Thank you.

Regarding your second question, we share with SFR two kinds of networks. The first one is the mobile network in medium-dense area. I understood what I read in the press that the mobile network is not concerned by the willingness of SFR to sell some part of its network. The second... This kind of network is a fiber network, half of the very dense fiber on the horizontal part of the network.

It's quite a small network and it's not a problem for us if this network belongs to someone else. So, no problem for me.

And on the timeline, for now, we don't have any specific timeline in mind, and it's whenever it will happen, indeed.

That's very clear. Thank you.

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

Thank you for joining us today. We'll be announcing full year 2025 results on 26th of February, 2026. Should you have any question, please contact our investor relations team. Contact them for the press release on our website. Thank you.