Spie Sa Ord

Hello and welcome to the SPEEQ1 2025 revenue call hosted by Gautier Louet, Chairman and CEO, and Jérôme Vanhoef, Group CFO. Please note this conference is being recorded for the duration of the call. Your lines will be on listen only. However, you'll have the opportunity to ask questions after the presentation and this can be done by pressing star 1 on your telephone keypad to register your questions. If you require assistance at any point, please reach out to an operator. I will now hand you over to Mr. Gauthier Huet to begin today's conference. Thank you.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for our Q1 results conference call. So SPI has made a serious start to the year with encouraging momentum across several of our key markets. And in the current volatile macro environment, the underlying trends driving our business remain very much intact. We are nearly 100% European service business with no direct exposure to the tariffs currently discussed. To begin, I would like to show a few recent contract examples that reflect this positive momentum. So in Germany, we're awarded three new contracts in Baden-Württemberg as part of Netze BV, grid extension program. These projects include one greenfield and two brownfield substations, including line connections, with completion expected by 2028. They are key to integrating renewable and ensuring a more stable electricity supply in the region. Once again, this illustrates our strong positioning in high-voltage infrastructure in Germany. In France, SPEICF has designed a new generation virtual campus for the ICAM Engineering School. It enables 4,500 students to connect to a digital workplace from any device with improved performance and accessibility. This platform combines Citrix, Nutanix, and NVIDIA technologies and reduces the carbon impact by 75% compared to the previous solution. It is a very good example of how digital solutions can actively support sustainability goals. And on slide 5, also in France, we operate on the Saint-Dizier Air Base 113 through a one-speed contract that integrates electrical and automation works as well as cybersecurity. This contract showcases our strong offering to the defense sector which is likely to benefit from increased budgets, particularly so in Germany. SPIE Global Services Energy has been selected by Van Oort for the Ecovende offshore wind project. This is offshore Netherlands. Our teams are handling cable termination and testing for a wind farm, which will supply 660 megawatts of green electricity covering around 3% of the Dutch green energy consumption. This contract illustrates our successful diversification into offshore wind services. And now turning to our numbers on slide 8, speed delivered the third start to the year, with revenue up 8.5% in the first quarter, organic growth reached plus 2.1%, on top of a demanding 6.2% basis of comparison from Q1 last year. In the current macroeconomic context, our fundamentals remain unaltered. We do continue to benefit from good long-term trends in the energy transition and devitalization. In terms of Bolton M&A, we closed two acquisitions and recently signed a new one, integration of all 2024 acquisitions are progressing as planned. Looking into organic growth by region on slide 9, Germany continued to deliver very strong growth in Q1, both organically and from recent acquisitions. Northwestern Europe also delivered a solid performance fueled by grid expansion and energy efficiency projects. France did show resilience against a high comparison basis, revenue was broadly stable in a more mixed environment. Central Europe was broadly stable too, with a continued sequential improvement. Global Services Energy reflected normalization following an exceptional Q1 2024, which benefited from a one-off shutdown contract. Overall, this performance underscores the strength and balance of our multi-local, multi-technical model. On slide 10, looking at Germany, Germany is showing elevated momentum as it delivered another outstanding performance in QA with total growth of over 27%. Organic growth remained high at 7.2%, while 2024 acquisition provided a significant contribution of nearly 20%. High-voltage activities continue to benefit from strong structural demand, and their backlog remains at an all-time high. Growth in building solutions is firmly driven by data centers, defense, and transport infrastructure. In industry, rubber and auto integrations are well-advanced, strengthening our position in attractive sectors like wind and pharmaceutical. With continued strong momentum across all divisions, Germany clearly remains our most powerful growth engine. On slide 11 with France, the revenue in France was broadly stable with organic growth at minus 2.1% against the highest quarterly comparison basis of 2024. The overall resilience of our French business reflects its high degree of diversification, the strength of its position, and the strong selectivity. There have been more cautious client behaviors in specific markets. In building solutions, we remain very selective, prioritizing margins and focusing on higher value-added segments, such as data centers and healthcare. Technical facility management performed well, with no contracts kicking in, and shown work holding well. In our city network activities, fiber deployment is gradually winding down in areas where rollout has been already completed. Finally, nuclear services continue to grow, supported by the Grand Carriage Program in both maintenance and project activities. Slide 12, Northwestern Europe, with a strong start to the year with an 8.3% growth. including 7.5% organic, driven by robust activity across all our business lines. High-voltage activities are currently very strong in the Netherlands, driven by sustained energy transition investment and grid congestion relief projects. Both building solutions and ICS perform well, benefiting from strong demand for energy-efficient retrofits and data centers. Belgium also delivered solid growth, particularly in health care, commercial real estate, and technical facility management. Revenue in Central Europe increased slightly, with organic growth still negative, but showing a continued sequential improvement quarter after quarter. Poland is well positioned in high voltage and building solutions markets, with production expected to ramp up in H2. Austria delivered further growth against a particularly high comparison basis from last year's transport infrastructure activity. Overall, the region continues to recover steadily, supported by strong water intake. And lastly, in global services energy, revenue declined by minus 10.7% this quarter due to an exceptionally high comparison basis in Q1 2024, which had benefited from a one-off shutdown maintenance operation. Underlying activities remained solid, supported by strong demand in West Africa and continued expansion in wind. SPI continued to expand its renewable energy offering on the back of the successful integration of the Coral Group. The segment's fundamentals are robust, with long-term contracts ensuring stability.

I will now hand over to Jérôme. Thank you, Gautier, and good morning, everyone. Let's start with the revenue breach. SPIE's revenue was up plus 8.5% in Q1 2025. Organic growth was plus 2.1% against a particularly strong comparison basis in Q1 last year. External growth contributed plus 6.7%, or the equivalent of 146 million euros. With the full year effect on one hand of the acquisitions closed in 2024, contributing for €137 million, and on the other hand, the two ones which have been closed in Q1 2025, contributing for €9 million in such quarter. The minus 0.3% disposal impact reflects the divestiture of a small, subscale and low value-added IT support activity in Belgium. This business generated circa 20 million euro revenue last year. Currency effects were neglectable this quarter. Overall, these figures reflect the strength and balance of our growth model. On the next slide, you can see the quarterly evolution of our organic growth. Our Q1 performance should be bred in light of the very high comparison basis from Q1 2024, which had recorded the strongest quarterly organic growth of the year at 6.2%. This base effect is visible in France, and particularly at GSE, which had recorded a very high level of activity last year with a plus 43.7% organic growth on that segment. As we progress into the year, comparison basis will become easier. Moving to M&A, in Q1, we continued to deliver on our external growth strategy. We closed two Bolton acquisitions in the first quarter, Electromontage in Poland, a specialist in electrical installation services with nearly €70 million revenue, and Corporate Software in Switzerland, an IT consulting and service provider with nearly €4 million revenue. We recently signed and announced the acquisition of Eltech in Poland. Eltech is an integrator of building automation and management system, adding around 19 million euros in annual revenue. These acquisitions strengthen our capabilities in building solutions and ICS in Central Europe. Meanwhile, the integrations of the 2024 acquisitions are progressing well. and according to our plan. Looking ahead, we currently have 15 live M&A situations, confirming a very dynamic pipeline. These include a balanced mix of opportunities across our core geographies with a continued focus on technical capabilities, healthy development perspectives, and cultural fit, of course. This illustrates the strength and consistency of our M&A strategy, which remains a key contributor to our long-term value creation model. This concludes my part. I'll hand it over back to Gautier. Thank you, Jérôme.