Spie Sa Ord

Welcome to the SPEE 2025 Full Year Results Conference Call. For the first part of the conference call, the participants will be in listen-only mode. During the questions and answers session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing pound key five. Chairman and CEO and Jerome Van Hove, Group CFO, please go ahead.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for our full year results. I'm with Jérôme Branot, our Group CFO, and Alexandre Bonazel, our Head of Investor Relations. In 2025, we recorded a high-quality performance with outstanding cash generation. It does illustrate once again the strength and agility of our model, the relevance of our strategy, and the quality of our execution. We are well ahead on our EBITDA margin trajectory, and we are upgrading our 2028 margin ambition accordingly. To begin, I would like to share a few recent contract examples that reflect our strong positioning. In Germany, we have been awarded three new substation contracts in Baden-Württemberg, supporting Netzebewe's grid expansion plan. It is based on a long and trusted partnership with more than 70 projects delivered together since 2006. At General Contractors, SPIE will oversee the full project scope from planning to commissioning. These projects will enhance grid reliability and support the integration of renewable energy fully in line with Germany's energy transition priorities. This award represents SPIE's ability to deliver end-to-end grid infrastructure projects and its contribution to modernizing Europe's power networks. In France, SPIE is strengthening its long-standing partnership with Bouygues Telecom for the operation and maintenance of its national data center network. This new contract builds on 15 years of collaboration and covers mission-critical services across Bouygues Telecom's historic data center sites in the Paris region. from high and low-voltage power systems to generators, inverters, ventilation, and air conditioning. SPI is also expanding its support to a wider footprint, with the assignment now extended to additional sites reflecting big-tech constructs in SPI facilities' operational capabilities. And this contract underscores SPI's ability to run critical digital infrastructure at scale, while supporting both performance and decarbonization objectives. On page 6, SPI has signed a European Framework Agreement with Tesla for the development of battery energy storage systems, building on existing collaborations in Belgium, the Netherlands, and France. This renewable three-year agreement applies to SPI subsidiaries across Europe with BS installation expertise and will support further expansion in Europe, notably in Poland and Germany. SPIE will deliver high-value-added services for Tesla and Megapack projects, including engineering, balance of plant works, grid connection, and commissioning. This agreement highlights SPIE's ability to deliver standardized multi-country execution in fast-growing energy infrastructure segments. And now to global services energy. SPIE is reaching a new milestone in offshore wind with a major contract on Dogger Bank. set to become the world's largest offshore wind farm. Through its subsidiary SP WindConnect, the group will carry out the full termination and testing of the inter-air cables on the final stage of the project on behalf of DEME. Once operational, Dogger Bank will be capable of supplying renewable electricity to around 6 million UK homes. This project showcases SP's ability to deliver highly complex offshore energy infrastructure and reinforces its role in accelerating the energy transition. Now moving on to the key takeaway. The total revenue grew by a solid 4.8%. Our EBITDA margin reached a record 7.6%, a new step-up of 40 basis points driven by pricing power, selectivity, operational excellence, and accretive acquisitions. Free cash flow was outstanding at 424 million euros underpinned by best-in-class working capital management and 108 cash conversions well above our 100% target. Bolton M&A activity remained active with 9 acquisitions in 2025. And we also have done a very dynamic start to 2026 with the signing of an agreement to acquire Rofa Industrial AG a strategic step-up in industrial services in Germany. Finally, we reaffirmed our sustainability leadership with 50% of revenue aligned with EU taxonomy, which is the number one position within the SBF 120. So, on page 9, let's take a closer look at our main financial KPIs. I'm pleased to report that revenue was well above the €10 billion mark as announced in our 2025 guidance. The 5% constant FX growth was well-balanced between a 3.2% contribution from acquisition and a 2% organic growth. EBITDA was close to €800 million, up 11.4%, with a further 40 basis points step-up in margin after the 50 basis points increase in 2024. The outstanding free cash flow reached 524 million euros, bringing leverage down to 1.3. Bolton M&A was sustained with the nine acquisitions we have concluded, representing 347 million euros in annual revenue. And finally, our adjusted net income grew by 9%, and we will recommend a dividend of 1 euro and 8 cents per share, up 8%. Looking at the top-line growth on page 10, at constant exchange rates, revenue grew by 5%, driven by two segments. Germany, which continued to deliver a very high growth of 10.3%, well-balanced between organic growth at 5.3% and the contribution from acquisitions at 5%. Northwestern Europe, which also performed strongly, with revenue up 5.1%, driven by a 4.3% organic growth. Meanwhile, France maintained a steady level of resilience against a muted economic backdrop, with a slight 0.8% revenue contraction. Central Europe increased sharply by 13.6%, mainly driven by a 12.1% contribution from acquisition, while organic was at a robust 1.5%. Global Services Energy was down 4.4%. This reflected a more selective approach as well as the levelling off following an exceptional H1-2024 which benefited from a one-off shutdown maintenance contract. Overall, its performance underscores the strength and balance of our multi-local, multi-technical model. Looking at acquisitions, the nine acquisition competencies here were well-balanced across our European footprint. Together, they had 343 million of annual revenue. Just to mention the most recent ones, PIC AG and SECURO in Germany, adding 62 million euros in annual revenue in the integration and maintenance of complex audiovisual systems, as well as cybersecurity, cloud, and data. Artemis in France, adding €82 million in annual revenue in digital transformation and strengthening our offer in the strategic areas of cloud, big data and cybersecurity. WorldAid Power Services, €70 million in annual revenue in technical maintenance for power generation assets. Building on its presence in Australia since 2012, STIG Global Services Energy is now positioned to play a key role in the country's energy transition from coal and gas to renewable sources. Meanwhile, the integration of all 2024 acquisitions has progressed well and according to plan. Looking ahead, we maintain a robust pipeline of Bolton acquisition opportunities within a highly fragmented market, and we have had a very good start to this year with the signing of an agreement to occur ROFA industrial AG which I will describe in more detail on the next slide. On page 12, Robo4 Industrial Automation is a leading player in highly attractive markets such as industrial automation, conveyor systems, and intralogistics. Building on the Robo acquisition completed in 2024, it will enable Speed to move further up the value chain while bringing a diversified client portfolio and new cross-selling opportunities. ROFA will add around 430 million in annual revenue and 200 highly qualified employees. It also offers a sustained high single-digit EBITDA margin profile and will be mid-single-digit EPS accretive from the first year. ROFA is a very welcome addition that will reinforce our leadership position in the German industrial services market, the largest and most dynamic in Europe. Looking now at our EBITDA margin, we delivered a new step-up of 40 basis points to a record 7.6%. Germany improved by 40 basis points reaching 7.9% and remains our best performing geography. It is also our largest contributor in terms of EBITDA in absolute value. Northwestern Europe delivered a remarkable 110 basis points increase reaching 7.4% margin, now only slightly below Germany. Central Europe continued to catch up, posting an 80 basis point improvement. France held firm at 7.1%. Global Services Energy remains our top performer, with an EBITDA margin of 10.2%. Once again, this margin expansion reflects our unwavering focus on rigorous contracts pricing discipline and high quality of delivery. Moving now to the segment and starting with the largest one, Germany. Germany delivered a 10.3% revenue growth and is now firmly established as the group's primary growth engine. High voltage activities were particularly dynamic as illustrated by the example I mentioned earlier. We also benefited from sustained demand for energy efficiency and from our strong positions in data centers, tunnel solution systems, and battery energy storage systems. In industrial services, performance was supported by our maintenance activities and our targeted presence in fast-growing segments such as automation, logistics, food, and pharmaceutical. EBITDA margin increased by 40 basis points to 7.9%. This reflects a favorable mix from high-voltage growth the equity impact of recent bought-in acquisitions, and our continued focus on operational excellence and contract selectivity. On page 15, revenue in France was broadly stable, demonstrating strong resilience amidst a muted economic backdrop. Revenue decline was concentrated in two divisions, city networks reflecting the ongoing rundown of mature fiber optic rollout programs, and building solutions where we continue to apply a high level of selectivity to preserve margin quality, and we did secure a safe backlog of high-value projects. The other four divisions delivered sound performance supported by the diversified sector exposure, including aeronautics, defense, BEAS systems, and the mission-critical nature of their services, particularly in data centers or nuclear facilities. Our healthy EBITDA margin held up firm at 7.1%, thanks to our lean and flexible cost structure and our sustained operational discipline. Northwestern Europe delivered strong performance, both in terms of revenue growth and EBITDA margin improvement, Revenue growth was driven by a strong organic performance of 4.3%, despite a very high comparison base in Q4. As a reminder, we had a growth of 11.9% in Q4-24. EBITDA margin improved by 110 basis points, the highest gain across all our segments, to reach 7.4%. The Netherlands has now become the group's second largest growth contributor. This reflects the strong positioning in key markets such as high-voltage services, building energy efficiency, data center services, and critical infrastructure. It also underscores our exposure to high-growth sectors like food and pharmaceutical, energy storage, and advanced technologies. In Belgium, rising investment in energy efficiency remains a key growth driver, with a step-up in grid investment and booming demand for battery energy storage systems. Building solutions and technical facility management also contributed meaningfully to the performance. In Central Europe, found on page 17, revenue rose by 14.7%, fueled by the 12.1% contribution from Bolton acquisition, reflecting sustained M&A activity in Poland and Switzerland since the start of the year. Poland and Slovakia confirmed their return to organic growth in the second half. Driven by renewed momentum in high-voltage activities after delays in the first half, the substantial backlog continued to grow. Austria maintained a high level of activity, underpinned by strong dynamics in transport infrastructure and transmission in distribution services. Overall, EBITDA margins increased by 80 basis points supported by operational excellence initiatives and a particularly robust contribution from Australia and Switzerland. Lastly, in global services energy, revenue declined 4.4% organically due to an exceptionally high comparison basis in H1 2024 as well as a highly selective approach in oil and gas maintenance activities. We preserve strong margin levels in the context of low oil prices, with a 10 basis point EBITDA margin increase to 10.2%, marking the highest level among oil segments. Currency had a negative 4.2% impact, driven by depreciation of the US dollar. Offshore wind activities continued to gain momentum, supported by Stenson Market Positioning and Hansen Technical Capabilities, following the successful integration of Coral Group. And a word on the shareholding structure on page 19. As a service company, our employees are our greatest asset. SPIE's 2025 employee shareholding plan was once again a success, with around 2,025 people across 70 countries participating, a 16% increase compared to 2024. Employees now own 10% of the company, and as a result, spin-out ranks among the few companies in the SBF 120 where employees are the largest shareholder. After the Share4You 2025 plan, more than one employee in two is the group shareholder. By involving our employees in our entrepreneurial journey, we enable them to participate in our long-term value creation. In H1 2026, we will launch a share buyback program to partially offset dilution. And now we'll hand over to Jérôme, who will take you through our financial performance.

Thank you, Gautier, and good morning, everyone. I'm starting with a brief overview of our 2025 income statement. We delivered a solid revenue growth at 10.4 billion euros, up 4.8% year-on-year, or 5% at constant foreign exchange. This reflects a healthy 2% organic growth, mainly driven by Germany and Northwestern Europe. EBITDA margin improved by 40 basis points year-on-year, another step up to 7.6%. As a result of both top line growth and margin expansion, EBITDA reached 793 million euros, up 11.4%. And finally, I would highlight our adjusted net income at 458 million euros, up 9% year-on-year. Moving on to our revenue bridge, which provides a breakdown of our 4.8% total revenue growth. In addition to the already mentioned organic growth standing at 2%, our Bolton M&A activity continues to support our total growth. The acquisitions contributed materially to the overall increase with 3.2% impact, representing nearly €318 million of additional revenues, of which €198 million a full-year contribution effect from transactions which were closed already in 2024, and 120 million on ProRata Temporis basis from the 2025 acquisitions, as most of them were closed rather late in the last quarter and will contribute fully from 2026 onwards. The disposal of our small Belgium IT support business in late 2024 had just a limited impact of minus 0.2%. Finally, the currency effects at group level were close to neutral over the period at minus 0.1%. Let me now turn to our adjusted net income for the year. At 458 million, adjusted net income was up 9% year-on-year, and this reflecting on strong EBITDA growth. Net interest mainly includes a rather steady cost of net financial debt and growing IFRS 16 interest costs, this in line with the business expansion. The other financial charges increased mainly as a consequence of negative net foreign exchange impact this year, especially at global service energy, and this due to a weaker US dollar against euro. Our normative tax rate increased slightly to 30.2%, to 30.2%, and reflecting the gradual change in geographical mix at group level, notably the growing profit contribution from Germany. So, a strong adjusted net income evolution overall, despite some FX-related headwinds and a slight increase in our normative tax rate. Turning now to our usual bridge from adjusted net income to reported net income, which includes the main non-cash IFRS items, starting with the IFRS accounting treatment of the Ornan convertible bond. As a reminder, the derivative component of the Ornan is revalued at fair value at each closing period, and this based on SPI's share price. Given the sharp increase in our share price over the period, plus 64% from January 1st to December 31st, we recorded a non-cash IFRS charge of €176 million, supporting the fair value adjustment of the online, thus mitigated by a €43 million deferred tax asset. Let me remind you that under US GAAP, the accounting treatment of this convertible bond Ornan would have just no P&L impact. You will find in the appendix of this presentation the updated version of the slide we presented already at mid-year on that topic. As a direct consequence, reported net income, group share, decreased in 2025 compared to 2024. Turning to our working capital, which remains a structural strength of SPIS business model. As a reminder, we operate with structurally negative working cap and this throughout the year. At December end, it remained practically stable at around negative 1 billion euro. Expressed in days of revenue, our working cap stood at minus 34 days. a slight two days deviation mainly in comparison to the previous year and this mainly due to the reduction of an historical factoring program in Germany and a decrease of net tax liabilities at the end of December. Overall, our continued focus on early invoicing, disciplined cash collection contributed to this excellent performance. Once again, I'm turning now to free cash flow. Once again, our cash conversion based on our operating cash flow was above 100% target at 108%, supporting obviously a very strong free cash flow at 524 million euros. This remarkable cash conversion reflects the quality of our earnings, but as well as the close monitoring of the working cap. This high level of free cash flow puts us well on track to deliver on our 2028 midterm target, which I remind is a cumulative 2 billion euro of free cash flow over the period 2025 to 2028 included. Moving to page 26, as mentioned, this outstanding increase 524 million free cash flow, allowed us to self-finance first 234 million euros of acquisitions, pay out 182 million euros of dividends to our shareholders, and carry out €39 million of anti-dilutive share buyback to partially offset the dilutive impact of our employee shareholding plan, so-called Share4You program. All this was achieved while slightly reducing net debt from €1,262,000,000 down to €1,145,000,000, evidencing once again our cash generative models. Moving to our leverage ratio, we further deliverage throughout the year, and our leverage ratio decreased to 1.3 times at the end of 2025. This is excluding IFRS 16 impact. Historically, we have consistently demonstrated the deleveraging capacity of our business model, and we have only delivered twice, each time following the self-financing of rather more significant value-creative acquisitions. Finally, our financial structure. Our financial and balance sheet structure remains strong, supported by a well-diversified, long-maturity debt and attractive financing condition. In May 2025, we successfully issued a €600 million sustainability-linked bond, which was largely oversubscribed. It carries out an attractive fixed coupon of 3.75% and matures in 2030. Now, SP's entire debt profile is linked, sustainability linked, in line with our long-term ESG framework. 81% of our gross debt is at fixed rate with a very stable weighted rate cost of debt at 3.4%. Liquidity at the end of 2025 stood at €1.8 billion, including nearly €800 million of available cash and €1 billion of undrawn revolving credit facility, which allows us obviously to finance upcoming M&A starting with ROFA. Lastly, Our credit rating is unchanged at double B+, with a stable outlook from Standard & Poor's and a positive one from Fitch. Turning to our dividend, recommended dividend. In light of that strong financial performance, the Board of Directors will recommend to the AGM a dividend of €1.08 per share, up 8% year-on-year. This represents a 40% payout ratio. fully in line with our long-standing commitments to a sustainable and growing dividend distribution. This dividend to be paid fully in cash includes an interim dividend of 30 cents per share, which was already paid in September 2025, thus with remaining 78 cents per share to be paid in May 2026 after the approval of such a dividend by the AGM. As usual, An interim dividend will also be paid in September 2026, representing 30% of the approved 2025 dividend. Thank you for your attention, and I hand back to Boutier.

Thank you, Jérôme. As you know, SEMCITY is at the core of our business. In 2025, we met all our environmental targets. underscoring the commitment and effectiveness of our approach to sustainability. To highlight some metrics in particular, 50% of our revenue is now aligned with the EU taxonomy. Our Scope 1 and 2 emissions have decreased by 30% since 2019. We also made significant progress on Scope 3, with 68% of our procurement-related emissions now made with suppliers that have set ambitious reduction targets. Safety remains an absolute priority. The absolute number of severe accidents was only 6% lower in 2025 than in 2019. However, the severe accident frequency rate improved by 22% over the same period, demonstrating our relentless improvement efforts in this area. Regarding our people, our efforts toward gender diversity did pay off. And building on the strong progress achieved by the end of 2025, we are now launching a new 2030 sustainability roadmap with increased ambition across both environmental and social dimensions. And valuing our people, again, at SPIE, our employees are our greatest asset with 55,000 talented and highly committed professionals, including 2,700 apprentices. In 2025, Our recruitment strategy led to approximately 7,400 new hires. The resignation rate continued to decrease, standing at 5.9% in 2025, compared with 6.6% in 2024 and 7.3% in 2023. To the taxonomy, after six years of measuring our progress, the share of our revenues aligned with the EU taxonomy reached 50% in 2025, which makes us a top performer within the SBF 120. SPIE is part of the solution and a key enabler for energy transition. Looking at our carbon footprint, today SPIE's direct carbon footprint is 30% below its 2019 level, beating our 2025 target of a 25% reduction. This performance is mainly driven by the widespread adoption of electric vehicles across our fleet, a critical lever for us, since vehicles account for around 90% of our scope 1 and 2 emissions. And on scope 3, when we say that 68% of our suppliers are now engaged in reducing the carbon footprint, It's important to understand that it means more than 3,300 suppliers. Moving now to our outlook for 2026. We anticipate another year of strong financial performance. We are targeting strong total growth, driven by further organic growth and active Bolton M&A. We aim at continued expansion of our EBITDA margin, obviously translated into 100% cash conversion. The proposed dividend payout ratio will remain at 30% of adjusted net income attributable to the Group. And now to the governance evolution. I have informed the Board of Directors of my decision not to seek the renewal of my mandate as Chairman of the Board and CEO. I am very pleased that the choice of the Board has fallen upon Markus Oskar as the new CEO. Markus did build up Germany to become the largest segment and top contributor of the group. We have worked closely together for more than 13 years and I am absolutely confident that he will be very successful in his new role. And looking at our 2028 guidance, in light of the remarkable progress achieved along our EBITDA margin trajectory, we are upgrading our 2028 margin ambition. We now expect EBITDA margin to expand further to reach 8% by 2028, reducing EBITDA surpassing 1 billion euros by the end of the period. Our other financial targets remain unchanged. Thank you very much for your attention and before we move to Q&A, just in case you would have forgotten, let me repeat once again, it's a good time to be a European electrical engineer.

Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key 5 on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. The next question comes from Alexander Peter C. from Bernstein. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much. I just have a few questions, if I may. But first of all, thank you very much for your excellent service. You will be missed. I'm very much sure of that. So first of all, on the organic sales growth in 26. Can you tell us if you will be within the 3% to 4% range? I know you don't give precise guidance at this time of the year, but it would be helpful to understand if the biggest moving part is France, meaning that if France is just flat, you will be able to reach that 3% range, and if it's below, you could be a touch below and conversely above that 3% lower limit. And then the second question is, when I look at the performer indicators in your financial reports, I can see that you would have printed an EBITDA margin of 7.8% already in 25 at all of the acquisitions been acquired from the 1st of January. Does this mean that this 7.8% margin is already in the bag for the year and you can actually do a bit better with some improvement in your core businesses and the economies of scale and so on? Thank you so much.

Thank you. Well, towards the 2026 organic growth, as you know, we don't give precise guidance at this stage, and I think it's fair to say that the long-term trends of our business remain uninhibited and unchanged compared to what we have experienced over the last years. There are a number of moving parts, including, you see, the view on France, which remains in a muted backdrop and with a number of uncertainties. We have other areas where we see a very positive trend. So, so far, we remain, as we said, and we're not... make any bets on exactly where we're going to be at the end of the year. Regarding your second question, I think it's... Our calculation is that the pro forma EBITDA for 2025 with the contribution of the acquisition is 7.7%. clear that we are aiming at further progressing the margin and we are very confident regarding the guidance we have given in 2000-2028 and you will see we expect that 2026 will mark further progress towards that goal so there is no hesitation whatsoever in this regard.

Great, thank you very much. Very clear, thank you.

The next question comes from Remy Grenou from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Morning, Gautier. Morning, Jerome. First, yes, thank you, Gautier. I really appreciated the discussions over the last few years and all the best for what's coming next. Just a few questions on my side. So the first one is on Germany. So clearly we accelerated into four after the slight weakness and phasing impact into threes. Can you provide maybe more details on the current trading and if we should extrapolate the level of organic growth you had in Q4 as a little bit more the underlying potential and what's expected from this year? And if that acceleration has anything to do with potential government investment or what we've heard from infrastructure spending starting to really hit the market. So yeah, first question on Germany. The second one is on France. So on top of the organic growth, I think the margin declined a little bit in the second half of the year. So just want to understand what's happening there and if we should expect the trend to continue, if it was about pricing or just the impact of lower organic growth. And the third one is on your acquisition, so ROFA. Can we have more details about that company, maybe the growth rate over the last few years? country exposure because I think that there's some exposure to China in the US there so what the company is doing in these countries and would be great also to have any more information on what they actually do and who they compete with so we have a good understanding of what they do.

Yeah so regarding current trading in Germany we have been more impacted than usual by winter clearly so it's something that's We're going to catch up, but winter was harsh this year, as you all know. But other than that, when we look at the current level of order intake and the activities on the areas which are not impacted by weather, we're doing fine, so no worries about that. So it's not a direct cooperation in Q4, clearly for Q1 for the reason I just mentioned. The underlying trends are strong and we are continuously further building backlog in energy infrastructure. So very, very confident for the whole year in Germany. The infrastructure spending, I think it would be fair to say that it's not hitting the market yet in terms of call for tenders or orders. It has definitely an impact on the confidence level and the needs of our customers in Germany, which is good also for what we do in Tech FM, etc., because the level of spend is steady, but not an impact yet is going to come and clearly the political consensus around this package is now very strong and well established. So again, very confident for the year in Germany. Regarding France, we expect France to be maybe not dissimilar to last year. As you know, we are mainly impacted by two things. One is the optic fiber, which probably accounts for 1% organic growth decrease in our top line. This will still be a bit there. We still have a bit of this headwind in 26, and should then end up plateauing towards the end of the year. And then the other headwind was on commercial installation. We've been very selective. This is always an area where price competition is the most fierce, and especially when the economy is a bit down. So we've been selective, and we've really concentrated on high-value contracts, such as data centers, for example. And we had a few interesting successes in this regard. So we have built up a very decent backlog and we expect less headwinds this year from this area. And as you pointed out, margins are very resilient and we have an agile cost base. We are extremely disciplined on pricing. So we did show a very resilient margin in France this year. With regard to ROFA, we're talking a growth rate that is in the low to mid single digit altogether. It's a very good margin. So they are active in the industrial automation business and in logistics. So these are areas where there is a constant high level of spend with factory technology evolving fast. When they work in China or the US to accompany German customers, so they build on their know-how and their relationship with these customers in Germany and accompany them in other geographies where basically the erection is done locally, but all the engineering and the systems preparation is done in Germany. I think it's very much a German content and a bit of local erection.

Thank you very much.

The next question comes from Rory McKenzie from UBS. Please go ahead.

I am Rory from UBS. Again, congratulations on your career at SPIE. although I can't believe that after all your efforts over the years, you're now going to negatively impact the staff turnover ratio. My first question was about the outlook for margins in France, which is now behind three other divisions. Which areas are you seeing pressure? Are you currently expensing many costs in terms of moving people around to reposition? And I guess ultimately, do you expect France to improve its margins by 2028 in these targets? And then secondly, just to ask more about ROFA, can you explain how it fits into the existing German business? It sounds like a newer area or certainly a lot bigger exposure here now. So how does it sit alongside ROBA? How much overlap is there? And are there longer term plans to expand these services across the rest of Europe?

Regarding margin, I mentioned the two areas where we've seen the most difficulties last year. I could have mentioned that other areas have been doing well. For instance, technical facilities, we did saw growth last year, and we also had a bit of growth in industrial services. at a good margin, so it does help as well. We are not worried about the level of margin in France. If we see it moving, it will be upwards. I think we have reacted quickly to the situation. We have adjusted the cost base, both the variable part and the fixed cost base. We think we are bottoming out in 2025 in terms of margin for France. And regarding OFRA, it is an area that the customer in the logistics, some customer in the defense, some customer in the automotive sector. we think that we'll be able to open up a broader area of other customers for them, thanks to the platform of Robur customers. So we do expect commercial synergies in this regard, and clearly in an area which is evolving fast, which is exposed to a lot of technological upgrades. and also a need of the customer to adapt quickly. So we do expect commercial synergies to happen. The company is very well run, and so it's fairly lean as well, so we don't expect a lot of cost synergies. It's more really on the top-line side.

Great. Thank you.

The next question comes from Eric Lamari from CICCIB. Please go ahead.

Yes. Good morning. I've got three questions, if I may. The first one on the 2028 margin guidance of 8%. Could you tell us if you expect some convergence of the margin by segments between, you know, France, Germany, and the other areas in Europe, so? I'm not talking about GSI, but more about the ECG segment. A second question on the governance. Could you tell us if Marcus speaks French, and could you tell us where you will be based? Will you be based in Paris region or in Germany? And I know you can't answer to that question, but I was surprised you didn't want to stay a chairman. I don't know if you can tell us something about that. And the last question on the GSI, it's still relatively small in terms of revenues, and it's very profitable, and you just announced this acquisition in Australia, and I was wondering if you plan to accelerate on the M&A for this GSI segment in order to make it larger. Thank you.

So, regarding the margin guidance, we think every segment will continue to progress. We mentioned the strong catch-up last year of Central Europe. The year before, we had seen quite a good step-up of Belgium as well within the Northwestern segment. But we definitely see more potential in Germany. In the Netherlands, by far not at the end of the teaser. And the other segment will contribute as well. So it's really a global effort of the company. But clearly, when I look forward, I see Germany and Netherlands leading the pack.

You mean you see Germany leading the pack in terms of million euro or in terms of margin?

In terms of margin. No, in terms of margin progress. In terms of margin. Which, by the way, converts into million euro because Germany is the largest segment. So it will be the largest segment with the best margin. So you see it's a major contributor. It's a number one contributor. Of course, yes. Regarding talking of Marcus, yes, he does speak French. We will further work on it, it's sad to say, but he does speak French. He will be based in Sergi at our headquarters. And regarding your chairman, I think it's a very French thing to do, to remain as a chairman when you've been CEO. There are a number of countries where it is forbidden. I think it's for a good reason, because you need the new CEO to take his full role. And especially in my case, because I've been there for so long, I think it would not be rendering him a service to be hovering around. So we work very closely with Marcus for 12 years. I think we know each other inside out. I know that he has all the qualities to fulfill the job, and it's better that I give him some breath. And the last thing, I've been very hands-on for all these years, so I'm not sure I would re-enjoy the non-executive stuff. Regarding the GSC acquisition, it's... I think it's a very good move. We are now reinforcing a presence in a good area for energy, for energy transition. There's a lot to do in Australia in this regard. It's also skewed towards renewable energy, this acquisition. So it was a very good opportunity. We need to focus on integration. And we see whether we see further opportunities going forward. But at the moment, one thing at a time, and it's far away. We have a good setup down there since 2012. But this is a further step, and we really need to concentrate on the quality of acquisitions.

Very clean. Thanks very much for your answers. I appreciate it.

The next question comes from Laurent Gelibart from BNP. Please go ahead.

Bonjour, Gautier. Bonjour, Jérôme. Three questions on my side. The first one regards France. Do you expect organic growth in France to improve versus 2025? That's the first one. The second one is on ROFA. Could you let us know when you are going to close the deal for computation and for the modeling? And could you explain a bit of the business model? What is the share of recurring activity at ROFA? Is it bigger orders in proportion of sales compared to the other activity of SPI or it is And the last one regards AI. Do you believe that AI could cause pressing pressure or not at all for your activities?

So, regarding organic growth in France, again, we don't give you an answer per segment, I think I mentioned the two headwinds we had last year. I think the fiber optic will remain a drag, but it will be different in commercial business. I don't see it worsening, but for a start, and I don't exclude that it will be improving compared to 2025.

Regarding ROFA, the closing will be in... Very likely toward the end of Q2, so you may fairly assume six months contribution for the year.

And regarding the activity, there is a share of upgrades and not too much maintenance, which is, by the way, a synergy we might redevelop because their customers would like to continue to take a part of the maintenance of the installation, but they do focus on installation of small or medium sized project and one of slightly larger. It's a very recurring customer base. So they have a very solid customer base and these customers tend to modify the installation on a regular basis with a rapid change in technology. So it is a very, very strong relationship with the customer in a series of discrete projects.

Thank you. And on AI?

Regarding AI, it's hard to say. First of all, it does create opportunities, as we've mentioned in the past, regarding AI. the sheer amount of data which is needed, which has to be stored, transported, back up, etc. So we see an increase of data centers and much more powerful data centers than in the past. And we're looking now at data centers at 16 thousand watts per square meter or 15 years ago we're talking two to three thousand watts per square meter so it's a totally different kettle of fish and we use it also to create opportunities with our customers because we are now able to much better understand describe the way the assets work and so we have a large number of initiatives in this regard we have a few productivity as everybody, but it's not really something major with us, productivity gains, and whether it does create price pressure, not whatsoever as we look at it now. It does create business opportunities with helping our customers to better understand their assets.

Thank you very much, Gauthier.

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

Well, thank you very much for your attention. For me, it is the last of this financial results presentation, so obviously I thank you for the interest you take in SPI, and again, I can only repeat that it's a good time to be an electrical engineer. It has been for me a very good time to be an electrical engineer, and I'm sure that Mark is take the company to new heights. So I'm really confident about the future of speed. Thanks a lot.