Bureau Veritas Sa

Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening to everyone. Thank you for joining us for our full year 2025 results. I'm joined by François Chabat, our Group CFO. In keeping with our solid plan execution, 2025 delivered sector-leading organic growth and strong margin progression. In the second year of our Leap 28 strategy, we delivered results fully aligned with our ambition to accelerate growth and enhance returns. During the year, we implemented our new organization, which is now accelerating strategy execution across our geographic platforms and product lines. Our results reflect a strengthened portfolio, the tangible impact of our performance programs, and efficient capital allocation. I'm proud of our leaders and their teams' contributions across the world and of the consistency in delivery in a fast-changing market. Let me start with our financial highlights for the year. 2025 was the second year of our LEAP28 strategy, and we continue to gain traction across all pillars. We delivered 6.5% organic revenue growth, including 6.3% in the last quarter of the year. Adjusted operating margin of 16.3%, up 32 basis points year-on-year and 51 basis points at constant currency. Adjusted earning per share is up 2.8% on a reported basis and 9.2% at constant currency. Free cash flow of $824 million with a very strong 107% cash conversion. At Constant Currency, we deliver double-digit shareholder returns. For 2025, we will propose a cash dividend of $0.92 per share, up 2% versus last year. It is fully in line with our 65% payout ratio. Finally, as we have done in the last two years, we will be issuing a new 200 million share buyback program to increase shareholder returns. Moving now to our revenue performance by business and geography. Across the portfolio, our organic growth was supported by strong momentum in energy, the continued buildup of digital infrastructure, and rising demand for corporate and enterprise risk assessment solutions. This sector-leading growth reflects the attractive mix of our strengthened portfolio. Industry, certification and marine and offshore delivered the strongest performance, growing from high single-digit to double-digit organically. The rest of the portfolio grew in the mid-single-digit range, with some activities benefiting from very powerful structural drivers. In BNI and infrastructure, data centers were up 30% organically year on year. In industry, energy-related activities were up 13.9%. In commodities, metals and minerals were up 9.2%. From a geographical perspective, strong organic growth across all regions. The Americas grew by 4%, supported by sustained energy spend and expanding data centers. Our momentum in Europe continues with 4.1% organic growth, largely above GDP growth. Asia-Pacific reported 8.2% organic growth with broad-based expansion across Asia and Australasia. And our fastest growing region was the Middle East and Africa, up 16.6%, benefiting from major infrastructure programs and sustained energy investments. I would like to report now on the progress of our CSR programs. In health and safety, continuous prevention programs further reduced our accident rate versus last year. On decarbonization, we further reduced our scope one and two emissions by 7% year on year. This is fully in line with our science-based target initiative expectations. For gender diversity, steady progress with our ongoing program. In 2025, we improved or maintained all our major non-financial ratings, confirming Bureau Veritas' leadership. We raised our EcoVadis score to 80 out of 100 and obtained the top 5% distinction in the S&P Global Sustainability Yearbook 2026. Let's now move to the business highlights. I will start with Marine and Offshore. The division delivered a very strong performance in 25, with 14.3% organic growth. This marks the third year in a row of double-digit organic revenue growth. These results were driven by the ongoing renewal and modernization of the global fleet and the expansion of specialized vessels. Looking at it by segment, new construction delivered high double-digit growth from accelerated shipyard deliveries and capacity expansion, particularly in China and Korea. In 2025, we secured 14.4 million gross tons of new orders, bringing the backlog to 33.5 gross tons, up 23% year-on-year. Core-in-service achieved mid-to-high single-digit growth, largely driven by increased volumes and some pricing. At year-end, we serviced more than 12,300 chips. Marina North Shore continues to invest in new solutions to support our clients' energy transition. In Qatar, we opened a global gas center of excellence, supporting LNG projects worldwide through our global technical network. Looking at our agri-food and commodities, this business delivered 3.7% organic growth this year. In oil and petrochemicals, performance remained resilient in challenging market conditions. Non-trade activities grew strongly, supported by increased demand for biofuels, marine fuels and sustainable aviation fuel, and also from new lab capabilities. Metals and minerals delivered high single-digit organic growth driven by increasing projects in copper and gold, and by the expansion of our lab network specifically in Chile. In agri-food, we are completing the pivot of our portfolio with the sale of our food testing business in 2025. This divestment will be accretive to the divisional margin on a 12-month basis. In industry, the division delivered 8.9% organic growth in 2025. We are a key player in the industry segment, a 1.4 billion division predominantly exposed to energy and energy adjacent sectors. This performance reflects robust market dynamics supported by strong energy sector investments as countries continue to secure energy supply, decarbonize and transform their energy mix. The evolution of the portfolio is ongoing, with acquisitions supporting the new strongholds of renewable and low-carbon energy services. By segment, oil and gas deliver double-digit organic growth, driven by new projects particularly in gas and in major resource-holding regions. Geographically, the Middle East, Africa and Asia have sustained investments in new oil and gas fields. Power and utilities maintain double-digit growth. This was supported by investments in renewables and nuclear as electricity demand accelerates on the back of data center expansions and national electrification programs. Geographically, strong momentum across North America, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East. In terms of transition services and green objects revenue streams, in the Middle East, we entered into a memorandum of understanding with Masdar, an Abu Dhabi clean energy company, to help shape renewables and green energy standards in the region. We were also awarded a contract to support a client's first renewable energy project combining solar generation and battery energy storage in the United States. Moving on to buildings and infrastructure, we delivered 5.2% organic growth in 2025, including a strong 8% in the fourth quarter. Today, BNI represents 2 billion euros in revenue, a clear leader in the sector. 2025 was a strong year for our portfolio expansion, with successful integrations, particularly the APP Group in Australia, and further portfolio streamlining, including the divestment of non-core construction technical supervision business in China. Growth for BNI at constant currency was at a high 11.6%. Our CAPEX activities delivered high single-digit growth, fueled by data center commissioning projects across the U.S., Europe, and Asia, and supported by recent acquisitions that are already accelerating organic growth. OPEX activities remained resilient, underpinned by the structural need for environmental measurements and energy efficiency audits. Infrastructure delivers steady growth. It now represents 20% of the divisional revenue. This was supported by government-led spending in Europe and major rail and terminal programs in North America. Major infrastructure investments are also ongoing in Asia Pacific and the Middle East. We are expanding our services for green objects in BNI. We secured a multi-year contract for a new battery gigafactory in Spain. In transition services for this division, we delivered a large-scale decarbonisation programme for a European fitness chain. Moving to certification. In this division, we delivered a strong performance in 2025 with 7.9% organic growth for the year, with an acceleration at 8.4% in the fourth quarter. The certification business benefits from increased needs for assurance, decarbonization, supply chain resilience, and cybersecurity solutions. This business represents many opportunities to innovate and create new schemes for customers as they pursue their own business plans. A number of acquisitions were completed in the last 18 months are expanding this portfolio in sustainability and cyber. Growth at constant currency in certification was up double digit. Looking by segment, QHSC, quality health, safety in the environment and specialized schemes grew at a high single digit rate, supported by robust activity in most regions and very strong demand for food safety certifications. Sustainability and digital certification recorded double-digit organic growth. This was fueled by rising demands for carbon and greenhouse gas verification, supply chain ESG audits, and upcoming regulatory requirements such as the carbon border adjustment mechanism. During the year, we secured several important transition services contracts, ranging from large-scale ESG audits for a global aerospace manufacturer to a decarbonisation roadmap for a major Middle Eastern energy company. We also secured a contract to support the cybersecurity workstream for autonomous military land vehicles for the European Commission. Lastly, looking at consumer product services, the division delivered 3.7% organic growth in 2025, including 2.6% in the fourth quarter against very tough comparable. Performance was supported by accelerated sourcing shifts away from China, with South and Southeast Asia leading growth, while Latin and Central America began to benefit from recent investments. This division is navigating a diversification strategy for the last two years, culminating in the acquisition of nine companies. These additions contributed to the expansion of our services in new geographies, in new sectors, and with new services, helping essentially pivot this portfolio circa 10% towards higher growth elements. In January, we completed the acquisition of Spin360 in Italy, strengthening our sustainability, testing and certification capabilities for luxury brands. By segment, soft lines, hard lines and toys delivered low to mid single digit organic growth with a front loaded first half of the year and a normalized half to a sourcing shifts gradually took place. Supply chain and sustainability services achieved double digit organic growth driven by strong demand for supply chain resilience services and social audits amid sourcing changes in Asia. For the technology segment, it delivered stable organic growth supported by diversification with contribution from acquired companies of setting softer wireless and automotive activities. On the electrical consumer goods and appliances front, sourcing shifts enabled growth in our central and South American business, contributing to a robust performance. Finally, transition services continue to expand as we supported client sustainability programs, including full decarbonization support for a leading sportswear brand and a large-scale social audit program for a global technology company, therefore reinforcing transparent and responsible supply chains. I will now hand over to François for the financial review.

Thank you, Inda. Thank you very much. Good afternoon to everyone. So let me now turn to our financial performance and to the sustained momentum we delivered in growth and in returns. So as it has been already briefly presented to you, 2025 was once again a solid year for the group. marked by robust and broad-based organic revenue growth, 6.5% across the year. This growth translated into strong profitability with a reported adjusted operating margin of 16.3%, up 32 basis points in a reported manner. At constant currency, we expanded our adjusted operating margin by 51 basis points. We take the advantage of higher operating leverage programs and continued progress on functional scalability initiatives. Bottom line, the adjusted EPS reached 1.42 euro, up 9.2% at constant currency. The company will propose as a consequence a further increase in its dividend at 92 cents. It is payable in full in cash as usual. Turning to cash generation, free cash flow amounted to 824 million euros. It includes a couple of one-off effects linked to the disposal of our fault testing business, notably the tax cash out on the capital gain. Excluding this transaction, free cash flow increased even by close to 4% year-on-year. On the next page, we sum up a little bit the last few years when it comes to since the start of our plan. So as you've seen, we continue to deliver consistently on the long-term objective. For several years in a row, we have delivered consistently at or above high single-digit revenue growth at constant currency each and every year. This is a mix of organic growth and a positive net scope effect from acquisition and divestment together. It reflects our commitment to active portfolio management. Since the start of the plan, we have rotated almost 10% of our portfolio, taking into account both acquisition and divestment combined. In terms of profitability, the ongoing execution of our program produced measurable improvements in operating leverage and functional scalability. This led to meeting expectations for both reported adjusted operating margins as well as constant currency margins. On the cash front, right below, cash conversion exceeded expectations, reaching 107% this year, mainly driven by a further reduction of working capital as a percentage of revenue by another 100 basis points compared to 2024. And as you see, we've delivered 3.7% at the end of 2025. Returns now, expressed at constant currency, including dividends, adjusted earnings per shares, and the benefit coming from the €200 million share buyback program, have met or exceeded projections each and every year. Including negative foreign exchange impacts, returns were maintained at high single-digit levels. Let me now deep dive into the revenue for 25. We delivered almost 6.5 billion in 25, corresponding to a 3.6% growth on a reported basis. Organic stood at 6.5, supported by strong business fundamentals and increased demands in energy, digital infrastructure, and risk assessment solutions. Bolton acquisition close in past quarters contributed 2.9%, almost 3% to the growth. This was partially offset by the divestment of the food testing business as part of our active portfolio management. Factoring in those M&A components together, the net scope effect was 0.8% on a full year basis. Currency fluctuations negatively impacted revenue by 3.7%, mainly due to the euro strength against most currencies, especially US dollar, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar, and the renminbi. Now, if we take a closer look at our business and how they perform in 25, you see here both the organic growth and the scope component of the growth. All divisions grew well, with several delivering very strong performance, including scope effects for businesses posted double-digit growth, reflecting both solid organic traction and the impact of our discipline M&A bolt-on executions. Let me briefly walk you through those segments. M&O, Marine Offshore, delivered double-digit organic revenue growth. Industry grew by a single digit, powered by strong global demand for energy solutions. Oil and gas, renewable, nuclear, all delivered double-digit growth in 2025. Building infrastructure and certification also reached double-digit growth at constant currency, boosted by last year and this year acquisitions in sustainability, cybersecurity, and infrastructure. which contributed respectively 6% and 3% to the growth of each segment. Consumer products, we just touched upon, delivered mid-single digit growth at constant currency, with a solid organic performance at 3.7% and a scope contribution at 1.7%. Finally, agri-food and commodities posted low to mid-single digit organic growth, mainly driven by metals and minerals, partially offset by the divestment of our food testing activity, which is now fully completed, So overall, this broadband performance highlights the strengths and the active pivoting of our portfolio. It's part and parcel of our Leap 28 strategy and commitment to the investors. If we now turn to the margin bridge. Before going to the basis points and the percentage, let me share with you that for the first time in Bueta's history, we crossed the 1 billion adjusted operating profit mark, which we are all very proud collectively. On a reported basis, we delivered a strong 32 basis point margin improvement, closing the year at 16.3. It is another year of disciplined execution and operational leverage. Organically, we delivered a strong 74 basis point improvement driven by operating leverage, the benefit of our 2024 restructuring, and tight cost discipline. Scope at a negative impact of 23 basis points, reflecting the investment made to scale our newly acquired businesses. At constant currency, our 51 margin uplift is very solid. Aligned with our LEAP commitments, we aim at delivering consistent margin progression year on year. If we look now at our divisional margin performance for the year 2025, starting with marine offshore, we held a strong margin at 23.4%, essentially stable year-on-year, with organic improvement bringing 67 basis points of improvement and offset by currency headwinds. Agri-food and commodities delivered a notable uplift to 15.1% of margin, up more than 100 basis points, driven essentially by very strong organic improvement, plus 122 basis points, and the continued dynamic of our metal and mineral segment. Scope-wise, we expect the full benefit of the food testing divestment to positively impact 2026, as this divestment took place throughout the year 2025. in different momentum. Building infrastructure posted a strong increase to 13.6% at up 81 basis points, Robust organic leverage, plus 138, and the first sign of our performance programs are starting here to materialize. On the same note, consumer products continue to strengthen, reaching 22.4% of margin, here again supported by 55 basis points of improvement on an organic manner. On the other side, certification ended at 18.2%, down 138 basis points, reflecting investment to scale our sustainability and cybersecurity acquisitions. Organically, however, margins remain broadly stable. And finally, industry closed at 13.9%, down 52 basis points, with organic decline limited to 21 basis points. So it is mainly driven by a change of mix due to project delays at your hand. Looking now at other financial metrics. On the bottom line, our adjusted earnings per share continued to grow regularly. It was up 9% at constant currency. This evolution has been driven by the incremental operating profits, up 11.2% at constant currency as well. Net financial expenses increased year on year, reaching $116 million in 2025, compared to roughly $70 million in the prior year. This evolution is mainly driven by lower income on cash and cash equivalent, reflecting the change in cash levels and decrease in interest rates versus 2024. On the tax front, our adjusted effective tax rate continues to normalize downwards. We closed the year now at 30%, 50 basis points below last year, despite, for the specialists, the exceptional French corporate tax contribution that we've supported in 2025. Turning to cash generation, another year of reduction of our working capital needs, of our revenue, as you can see on the chart on the right-hand side. Buentas is now well set below the 5% threshold. Let's remember that not so long ago, the working cap of our revenue used to be at 9% and above, so it reflects our constant attention to free cash generation and to cash discipline in general. Overall, free cash flow amounted to 824 million, slightly below the record level achieved last year. It takes into account some one-off effects linked to the disposal of the food testing business, notably the tax cash out and the capital gain. As I mentioned in the introduction, excluding this transaction, free cash increased by close to 4% year-on-year. Now, I would like to summarize for you what we have done in terms of capital allocation in 2025. First, on M&A, we've invested 162 million euros in nine acquisitions and completed two divestments in line with the strategy to optimize the Buetas portfolio. Year-to-date, 2026 this time, we have already added three more acquisitions. On CapEx, we stayed very disciplined with a ratio of 2% of our revenue. In 2026, we expect to remain within the leap 2028 range and get somewhat closer to the 2.5% to 3%. that we had announced during the capital market day. Our leverage is at 1.1 times. At the low end of our guidance, as you can see, we have significant headroom to accelerate our M&A agenda while returning cash to shareholders at the same time. Speaking of returns, after completing our €200 million share buyback in 2025, we are now launching a new €200 million programme. This reflects both our confidence in the prospects of the company and the resilience of the business model of Bureau of Etas. So overall, Bureau of Etas delivered another year of strong financial results, and I want to thank all our team for their continued commitment and performance quarter after quarter. With that, I hand it over back to Inda for an update on our Lib 28 strategy.

Thank you, Francois. I'll start with a few highlights on the major secular trends shaping our markets. From early on in this decade, megatrends included urbanization. We talked about connectivity and digitalization, energy transition, increased ESG compliance expectations, and the gradual evolution at the time of supply chains following the COVID shock. You fast forward to last year, 2025, the picture has evolved. The technology race we are witnessing in this age of intelligence will have a profound impact on re-industrialization and urbanization. In addition, the rapid development of AI and the associated needs in computing capacity and data storage are feeding a massive build-up phase for data centers and all related ships and equipments, to take a few examples. This is also creating an unprecedented demand for electrical power. Therefore, energy supply worries are mounting, driving developments of all energy sources from fossil fuels to new forms of energy. Finally, we are seeing a shift for organizations, both private and public, from a compliance-driven approach to sustainability to a risk-based approach that aims to protect their reputation, their brand, and their competitive advantage. I believe that these developing trends support a consistently growing and accessible market for our services and solutions. Now, from a LEAP28 strategy execution angle, looking at the portfolio, if you recall, our portfolio strategy is about refocusing on key leadership markets, both existing ones and future ones. It is about an active portfolio management approach. Here we are gaining traction. Since the start of the plan in 24, we have acquired businesses totaling €279 million in annualized revenue and divested €202 million of non-core activities. These transactions are progressively reshaping our revenue stream. Overall, and François mentioned it, after two years, we have pivoted circa 10% of our original portfolio mix. From a mixed perspective, New Strongholds is leading the growth with 19.8% revenue growth at constant currency, supported by both organic momentum and targeted M&A, where scaling capabilities in renewables and cybersecurity. Second, our expanded leadership stream covering our activities and certification in BNI delivered 9.4% growth at constant currency since we onboarded significant acquisitions in BNI and some in certification as well. Finally, as expected, the optimized value and impact businesses are growing at an aggregate rate of 3.1% at constant currency, reflecting the divestment of our non-core food testing activities. These businesses constitute half of our portfolio today and are essential to our cash generation and baseline growth. Turning now to the performance and on the performance-led execution side, our performance programs are progressing well, both in terms of creating operating leverage and getting some functional scalability. In line with Leap 28 roadmap, our margins have continuously improved over the last two years, both at constant currency and as reported. In 24, we improved our adjusted operating margin by 38 basis points. And in 25, we improved again with an additional 51 basis points, both at constant currency. This steady year-on-year improvement is also enabling investments in new production systems and digitalization programs. So in summary, we're pleased with the progress of our performance programs, and we intend to continue on this structural margin improvement path. A third update I would like to share is about our new operating model implementation that is essentially taking took place early this year from January 2026. This organization intends to simplify our operating model through the rationalization of our geographical platforms. It will also integrate and connect product lines into the regions. The intention is very clear. It is to better leverage our client proximity to maximize our sales as we consistently scale our product line services and solution. This new structure will allow us to take advantage of our company scale, both from a geographical and expertise perspective. We'll also speed up decision making, capturing additional opportunities and accelerating innovations. We intend to make a step change in growth and performance through increased cross-selling and global coordination of opportunities. To ensure the success of this organization, we have also introduced a new short-term incentive package for managers that formalizes common objectives between different parts of the new operating model. I would like now to spend some time exploring our approach to AI. The role of a third-party independent and impartial organisation like Bureau Veritas remains critical to secure trust in any commercial or trade transaction. Bureau Veritas builds on its equity of almost 200 years of trust brokerage. The value proposition of our company resides in its ability to assess physical assets, to test actual products in accredited labs, and to certify projects and systems with no interference. This is achieved through qualified and accredited experts within a regulatory or quality infrastructure framework. Now we believe AI represents multiple opportunities for the company. We look at them in two ways. On the one hand, there are opportunities in existing services. On the other hand, others exist through our new ways of working and new services. First, let me start with the existing services and markets. The buildup of the infrastructure ecosystem to feed AI needs is spurring unprecedented investments in data centers and specialized manufacturing. Bureau Veritas is uniquely positioned to benefit from these investments. We have established a leadership position in data center commissioning and quality assurance and control, working with leading hyperscalers and other growing data center players around the world. The insatiable need for electrical power from data centers is triggering increased investments in all types of energy sources and energy infrastructure. We will benefit from this trend as we build on our unmatched global footprint and capabilities in oil and gas and other forms and expand it into renewables and low carbon energy. This AI dynamic is also contributing to the development of new supply chains that need to be deployed fast and that must be assessed to manage and mitigate risks. Bureau Veritas has robust expertise in supporting customers as they shift their sourcing and redesign their supply chain. Let me now to the second part and where we see the opportunities. And those are in our ways of working and in creating new services. First, the rapidly developing capabilities of LLM models and agentic AI are opening new possibilities to transform our ways of working, creating substantial gains in efficiency and productivity. Additionally, these technologies will impact customer service quality, profoundly changing their experience and increasing the stickiness of our services. At Bureau Veritas, we are accelerating the implementation of such technologies. We have been rolling out a new production system and certification since mid-2025. This will be the first product line to be transformed. Second, the integration of AI into customer workflows and organizations requires them to verify and validate that these AI models are fully aligned with their values and policies, compliant with their legal frameworks, and respond to their customers' and other stakeholders' expectations. Bureau Veritas today is building capabilities for AI assurance to address these needs. especially as the regulatory landscape around AI assurance evolves every day. Finally, Bureau Veritas conducts over 10,000 inspections or assessment of assets, products, projects, or systems every single day, generating hundreds of terabytes of data per year. In addition, our experts have a full understanding of our customers' equipments, workflows, and assets lifecycle. Through this knowledge, we believe there is an opportunity to help them impact their performance. As an example, for our industrial customers, maximizing the uptime of their operating facilities is a major challenge. They manage equipment from different manufacturers and juggle with maintenance priorities. They must optimize the fully integrated system. In combining our deep knowledge of their facilities with the data collected, we can integrate AI technologies to pinpoint vulnerabilities that can then optimize their uptime and their facility performance. This is an exciting journey for us. One, we are starting with a sense of positive urgency and we will be reporting on our progress regularly. Moving now to the outlook. And looking ahead to 2026, we enter the third year of FLIP28 with confidence. Our markets are strong, supported by increased energy investments, rapidly urbanizing countries, and a massive digital infrastructure buildup. The ongoing technology and defense race and increasing risk management and mitigation needs are acceleration factors. Continuing our sector-leading trajectory of growth we expect to deliver in 2026, mid-to-high single-digit organic revenue growth, continued adjusted margin improvement at constant currency. As usual, we remain committed to a strong cash flow generation while we deploy our capital allocation program. We will be expanding our capabilities through acquisitions. We will accelerate the integration of AI in our workflows, and we will deploy CapEx in growth markets. Moving to summarize, 2025, our second year of leap 28, shows the impact of our strategy and the consistent execution of our plans. We delivered sector-leading growth and strong margin expansion, underpinned by structural performance programs and the ongoing transformation of our portfolio. The secular trends I have discussed earlier are structurally supporting our served markets growth. The energy sector massive transformation, the ongoing and rapidly moving urbanization, the AI-driven buildup of the intelligence infrastructure, and the evolving supply chains are feeding sustained demand for our services in this period of rapid change. Our portfolio rotation is also accelerating. Since the start of the plan, we have already rotated around 10% of the portfolio, and in line with our Leap 28 strategy, we intend to double that in the next 12 months. This is a shift toward businesses with higher growth, higher margin, and stronger strategic relevance, while exiting non-core activities with limited potential. At the same time, we continue to invest in innovation and in capabilities that enhance differentiation and enable long-term growth. Finally, we remain committed to superior shareholder returns. With the dividend increase and the launch of our third share buyback since the start of the plan, we are demonstrating both confidence in our strategy and an efficient capital allocation. Before opening for the Q&A session, I wanted to share that we will be looking forward to welcoming you to our Capital Market Days on September 22nd in Paris. We will update you on the next phase of our LEAP 28 strategy. Thank you. And now Francois and I are happy to take your questions.