Veolia Environnement Adr

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining this conference call to present Veolia's 2025 results. I'm accompanied by Emmanuel Meunier, our CFO, and by Danielle Tuguès, head of Spain. I'm on slide four. 2025 was the second year of our four-year green uptime, and I consider it as a truly pivotal year in our trajectory, and I will tell you how. 2025 was another year of outperformance, and historical high. We exceeded our guidance with an organic EBITDA growth of plus 6.3 percent, above the target range of 5 to 6 percent, despite a complex environment and with a particularly robust fourth quarter. In the two years since the start of green-up, we have significantly improved our profitability with an increase of 150 BP in our EBITDA margin and plus 11.8% average annual growth of current net income. The first half of GreenUp is a real success, and we are fully in line with our trajectory, even ahead when it comes to our ROCE at 9.4% after tax at the end of 2025. This is two years in advance of our targets. But in 2025, above all, we resolutely resumed external growth, with two major multi-billion dollars acquisitions in water technologies and U.S. hazardous waste, two of our growth boosters, accelerating, therefore, the group's transformation towards more international and technology-driven businesses and enhancing the group's growth profile for the years to come. We have also enhanced our shareholder return in 2025, as we complemented our dividend policy with a multi-year share buyback program related to our employee shareholder plan. The excellent 2025 result, as well as our strong fundamentals, allow us to be very confident for 26, with an ambitious guidance and full confirmation of our green-up trajectory, building a stronger group going forward. I'm now on page 5, where you see that 2025 results are at a historic high and largely exceed our initial objectives. Revenue reached 44.4 billion euros, up 2.8% excluding energy price, which are essentially pass-through for us, as you know. EBITDA increased by a substantial 6.3% on a like-for-like basis, above our 5% to 6% guidance range. and shows a margin improvement of 70 basis points, plus 80 basis points in 24. We are now at the historical high of 15.9% EBITDA margin rate in Veolia. This is thanks to our continued performance improvement and recurring efficiency gains, with an enhanced performance outside Europe, where EBITDA jumped by plus 9.3%. complemented by the last synergies coming from the Suez acquisition four years ago. Current net income was up plus 9.1%, in line with our guidance and demonstrating our strong operating leverage. Net financial debt remains well under control at 19.7 billion euros, even after 2.3 billion euros of net financial acquisition close in 2025. Our leverage ratio is at 2.79 times at the end of 2025, well below three times. Testimony to our strong financial discipline and our capacity to have room for manoeuvre in the future. Finally, we reached our Rosé targets two years in advance and achieved a remarkable 9.4% after-tax Rosé in 2025. Page 6 illustrates our enhanced growth in international markets, notably outside Europe, where our businesses are not only faster growing but also more profitable. with an EBITDA margin already at 17.8%, which is better than the 15.9%, nevertheless, historical high for the group as a whole. Our revenue grew by 4.1% organically outside Europe, with excellent performances in Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East, notably. Emmanuel will detail each zone performance in a minute, but I would like here to highlight a few key commercial successes. In the Middle East, After years in the making and technical design, we were awarded, and we've just signed a few days ago, a $500 million project in Saudi Arabia for the Saudi Aramco Total Energy Consortium set up. We will design, build, and operate a massive new plant to treat the super complex effluents of this petrochemical site. In the U.S., in addition to strategic education of cleaners, which we expect to close mid-26th, Our biggest and most transformative acquisitions is the merger with Suez, as you know. We've complemented the strong Argenic growth with free tuck-in in Haas de Suez, which are high value creative. In Chile, we signed the first hybrid municipal industrial dissemination plant in Valparaiso. In India, we secured two strategic contracts for two of Moonbind's larger water treatment plants. Both facilities will use Velia cutting edge technologies.

Finally, in Europe, we also enjoyed a very encouraging commercial momentum. Page 7 shows our performance played by activities.

On the one hand, our booster activities, which is water technologies and bioenergies, have continued to grow at a steady pace in 2025, plus 4.3% organic and plus 8% in cleaning cookings, almost two times faster than strongholds. Strongholds, on the other hand, confirmed their resilience and infrastructure-like profile with a 2.2% growth. As you know, strongholds and boosters go hand in hand, with 30% of our revenue coming from a combination of activities. Those numbers are a confirmation of the sustained demand for our proprietary solutions to tackle critical needs, from securing water supply to treating pollutants and protecting health. This top line performance translates well into value creation with EBITDA up 4.8% for stronghold and jumping by 12.1% for boosters. Emmanuel will give you all the details in a few moments. 2025 was also the year of the successful launch of new technology and offers. I would like to give you two examples on slide 8. First, in PFAS treatment, which as you know is a fast-growing and very promising business opportunity for Veolia. We achieved €259 million of revenue in PFAS in 2025, which is up 25% versus zero in 2022. And as you know, we aim to reach €1 billion by 2030. In 2025, we developed, beyond PFAS, our end-to-end management solution from detection to disposal, combining water technologies and hazardous waste, and including our drop-fast proprietary technology to optimize HDI disposal. We already provide PFAS treatment in the U.S., in France, and in Australia, and we've already deployed 30 PFAS removal units in our U.S. water operations and plan an extra 50. In the area of new urban energy, we presented our new ecothermal grid offer in Poznan last November. It's a truly green heating and cooling solution for existing and greenfield networks using untapped local sources of energy, which is really unique at Veolia. We target 350 million extra revenue in 2030. We actually already have a pipeline of 1 billion pounds sterling of projects in the UK as part of the deployment of our new eco-thermal grid offering. And I'm very pleased we were recently awarded a first in this UK pipeline with flagship scientific welcome genome campus in Cambridge. I'm now on slide nine. In two years, The delivery of the greener plan, combining resilience and growth, was above our own expectations, both in terms of growth performance and strategic transformation, and this in spite of a complex economic and political context, which impacted foreign exchange rates, fiscal stability and production costs, notably energy costs. These first two years were indeed marked by a strong improvement in our profitability and value creation, with an average annual 11.8% growth in current net income group share between 2023 and 2025, combined with a spectacular improvement of gross state post-tax to a record high of 9.4% in 2025. Our performance during these first two years was also augmented by the completion of the Suez Energy Plan, which evidenced our capacity to boost the performance of the business we integrate. On slide 10, given our very strong 25 results, the board will propose to the AGM a dividend of 1.5 euro per share, up 7% versus 24, and 20% since 23, and in line with our EPS growth. Since the start of GreenUp, as I mentioned in the beginning, we have also enhanced our shareholder return as we complemented our dividend policy with a multi-year share buyback program in order to offset the impact of our employee shareholding program. And this represented €402 million in 2025.

2025 was a pivotal year in many ways.

I'm on slide 11. First, 2025 was the last year of Suez integration. We successfully completed our integration plan with €534 million of synergies delivered in four years, above our initial target of €500 million. This clearly demonstrates our track record in securing delivery of value creation when it comes to external growth. And we'll, of course, supply those skills to the cleaners acquisition. Moreover, 2025 has also been the year where we've crystallized strategic moves consistent with our green-up strategy, investing in priority in highly innovative and technology-driven activities, our boosters, and outside Europe. Two major acquisitions were signed or closed in 2025, creating value and enhancing the group's growth profile going forward. This began in the spring with 1.5 billion euros invested in water technologies to buy out the minority interest and to fully merge our entities and be in a position to extract 90 million euros of additional synergies and enhance our growth capabilities on a worldwide dynamic market. We then accelerated external growth in hazardous wastes first with several tuck-ins for a total amount of almost 370 million euros in the US, in Japan and in Brazil, and finally with a strategic acquisition of cleaners in the US. This 3 billion dollar acquisition, the largest in Suez, will allow us to double our size and has the Suez in the US positioning us as number 2. Veolia will strengthen its presence in the US altogether with more than 6 billion dollar turnover and a very strong position to deliver unique solutions and technologies to remove pollutants, to secure water supply, and support reshoring of strategic industries. The complementary of cleaners and value assets in the U.S. will enable us to extract significant synergies of $120 million and will be accretive from 2027, excluding PPA, assuming a closing mid-year 26. On slide 12, we've illustrated the accelerated portfolio transformation underway with €8 billion of asset rotation in four years towards a group that is stronger, more international and more technology rich. This transformation enhances our sustained growth profile and will create additional value for many years to come. We started green up with a divestment program of around a billion euros, including the disposal of our start French construction activity and the non-duplicable sulfuric acid regeneration activity Regen. In 2025, we will have crystallized major acquisition in our boosters, specifically in water tech and with cleaners, to close in 2026. We will divest an additional 2 billion euros in the two years post-closing of cleaners. The typical candidates for disposal are assets that are mature or non-strategic or undercritical in size. I would like to highlight the fact that these differences are not for financing purposes, as we'll finance cleaners on our balance sheet and recover three times leverage as soon as 27, but rather in order to keep flexibility for investment in faster-growing activities or geographies. Acquisitions net of disposal represent a community net financial investment of €2.5 billion, compared to the €2 billion initially envisaged for Greenup. Before we move to our guidance for 26, I would like, on slide 13, to emphasis the group's sustainable growth engine, which explained how we could be confident about our future performance. The demand for services has never been stronger, and it is here to say, whilst crises multiply, because the proprietary solutions Verde provides are answers to critical needs for industries and cities alike. Indeed, our customers, businesses and communities are facing growing challenges in terms of water scarcity, water quality, pollution control, supply chain interruption and a growing determination to achieve strategic independence and accelerate industrial restoring. In short, For cities to deliver essential services, for industries to produce, for economies to grow, one thing is non-negotiable. This is environmental security. Securing water, securing energy, securing supply chains, protecting health. We secure water supply to cities by leveraging our unique panel of technologies, our efficient network distribution using AI, by raising wastewater and running energy-efficient dissemination plants. We seclude supply chain for industries by mining waste or waste heat to secure local sources of energy or critical minerals, thus avoiding dependence on long-distance imports. We protect health with hazardous waste management and depollution, ensuring that drinking water is at the highest standard and securing the license to operate for strategic industries such as micro-E or pharma. Whatever the turbulence in the world, Veolia's mission and unique offer is therefore to keep vital resources available, reliable, and affordable to enhance strategic autonomy and to take advantage of sustained demand for our services and technology. On slide 14, I would like now to share how Veolia is uniquely positioned to benefit from this sustained demand as we've built a unique powerhouse for environmental security. Our worldwide leadership and presence in 44 countries, always in the top three, gives us the size to innovate and develop unique technologies through our 14 R&D centers. As you may remember, we hold more than 4,400 patents in water treatments, for instance. Our proprietary solutions are then locally delivered and tele-made to fit each community or industrial complex specific needs. We are really multi-local in our delivery, which explains why we are not affected by tariffs, and why forex does not impact our margin rate, and central governments are not central to us. In addition, our customer base is really varied. 50% from municipalities or public authorities, 50% from private customers, and while ranging from Retail and hospitals to microelectronics, pharma, or oil and gas. This variety is combined with the long duration of our contracts, 11 years on average, a high net promoter score, which ensures a renewal rate of over 90%, and with no one single contract representing more than a small percentage of the group revenue. This offers massive resilience in our performance. Finally, we provide a unique combination of waste, water, and energy solutions. That's our edge. It's already delivering. One-third of the groups revenue comes from these combinations. Veolia has really transformed into a unique global powerhouse for environmental security, organized to grow and innovate, while ensuring resilience and long-term performance in an uncertain world. This sustained demand and unique positioning gives me high confidence for the years to come, as the group has never been stronger. I'm on slide 15. The green up trajectory is fully confirmed. I would like to highlight why our organic EBITDA and net result growth are sustainable for the years to come. Because they are fueled by top line growth, supported by sustained demand for critical services, boosted performance in certain activities, notably hazardous waste and water technologies, superior and continued effort on efficiency and cost control, as well as an ability to react quickly and strongly when needed with specific action plans, as we will see in a minute with Spain, and a good track record in successful integrating companies when we complement organic with external growth. For 2026, we have very ambitious targets on an organic basis, which will be complemented by the Clean Earth acquisition when we close the deal. On a standalone basis, we expect a continued solid organic revenue growth at the energy price, an organic EBITDA growth of 5% to 6%, and I would like to highlight this is without Swiss Synergy, since they are now behind us, A current net income growth of at least plus 8% at constant Forex. The dividend will continue to grow in line with current APS. And our leverage ratio will be below or equal three times before cleaners. And after cleaners, equal or slightly above three times. As you know, we would consolidate cleaners for only part of the year. And we'll be back to three times or below three times in 2027. As you know, we have to go through various regulatory approvals before we close the cleaners acquisition, which we said will be accretive from your true and current EPS. Assuming the closing happens mid-26, which is the best assumption we can do now, this would mean synergies will start in 27, and the transaction will be accretive to current net income from 2027 before PPA. the two billion dollar, sorry, euro disposal program should be delivered in the two years post-cleaning of cleaners acquisition. Before I detail our 25 results, I will hand over to Daniel Tuguès, head of Spain. He will give you some color about how we can drive performance improvement and sustain margin increase as well as stop-line growth in what is a historical activity and typical stronghold for us, thanks to our agility. Daniel, the floor is yours.

Thank you, Stel. Good morning, everyone. I'm Daniel Tugues, Country Head for Spain. I'm very happy to be here today to present Veolia's 2025 results and illustrate our green-up execution with a focus on our activities in Spain over the past two years. As Stel just mentioned, Veolia is unique because we are an environmental security powerhouse. And this is highly relevant in Spain, where climate change and the scarcity of resources, notably water, are central to our citizens' concerns. Indeed, 70% of Spanish people believe that they are vulnerable to the effects of climate change, which are already happening in Spain. Citizens feel vulnerable, and I'm afraid they are right. 75% of our land is threatened by desertification. We just went through the worst drought on record, which ended last spring. and it is going to get worse, with 20% less precipitation expected by 2050. As it is recognized, these impacts could prove far more costly than the capital expenditure required for adaptation. This is precisely what Veolia is doing in Spain, driving ecological transformation by providing efficient water networks and reuse solutions, by securing supply chains for industries, providing them with local energy, and by protecting health with waste management and depollution. Given this geography, it is no accident that we developed innovative solutions early on, such as wastewater reuse, which already accounts for 15% of our water supply and growing, and other non-conventional resources such as desalination. To illustrate the point, during the past drought, the water coming out of the tap in Barcelona was sourced one-third from traditional sources, rivers and wells, one-third from desalination, and one-third from water reuse. We have shared this experience with our Veolia colleagues, first with our French colleagues across the Pyrenees, and also with our American teams who are very much looking forward to deploying those solutions in their countries. Veolia is strongly positioned to tackle Spain's critical needs. Spain is the fourth largest country of operations for Veolia, with €2.8 billion in revenues, or €3 billion if we include the activities of our specialized business units for water technologies and hazardous waste. Our presence has grown significantly since 2022 with the integration of Suez and notably Agua de Barcelona. The defining feature of our presence in Spain is our strong local footprint, deeply embedded across territories and communities. starting with water, which represents 70% of our revenue. In a nutshell, Veolia is the number one water provider in the country, locally anchored and positioned across the complete water cycle management, from production and distribution of drinking water to the collection and treatment of wastewater. We run long-term concessions, such as Aguas de Barcelona, Aguas de Murcia, Aguas de Alicante, and many others. And we are also active in water technologies and operate several industrial wastewater treatment plants and desalination facilities, such as those in Tenerife and Almeria. In energy, Veolia is the number one in building energy services and also leader in energy efficiency. Examples include Tecoenergias, the Barcelona district heating and cooling network using residual energies, and energy efficiency projects for sites like Hospital Reina Sofia in Cordoba and many other similar sites around the country. In waste, we provide circular economy solutions for municipalities and industrial clients, notably in plastic recycling, waste-to-energy, and hazardous waste, the latter including a high-temperature incinerator near Tarragona. Our strategy going forward is not only to continue developing those businesses and enhance profitability, but also to constantly innovate as One Veolia, especially given the strong demand for creating new pollutants, for more circular solutions, and for new sources of local energy from waste or wastewater. On a personal level, having spent many years focused on water, I can say that the One Veolia approach feels like a tremendous opportunity to me. As for the whole of Veolia, 2025 has been a pivotal year for Spain, and I would like to show you how we have been able to recover while improving our profitability over the past two years since the launch of VNAP. Given the underwhelming performance we faced in 2022 and 2023, notably in water concessions, we decided to launch a specific action plan in 2023 called Hunter, associated with specific objectives and incentives for managers. not only at the national level, but also at the regional one. And I must say that Hunter benefited a lot by leveraging the earliest performance culture and tools in our Spanish operations, including internal benchmarking on operational costs and KPIs, as well as a proven methodology. To boost the top line, we launched a tariff campaign to catch up with costs in water concessions with a tailor-made approach for each of our more than 1,000 contracts. In parallel, we deployed a commercial excellence program to enhance our offers. And we also complemented our organic growth with 13 tuck-ins, mainly in energy efficiency, which were highly value-creative as they are actually plug-and-play. Over two years, this represented 87 million in enterprise value, but at an average multiple of 7.4 times EBITDA. In terms of operational performance, we largely improved our efficiency, not least with AI. For instance, we put in place an AI customer service tool across Spain that currently deals with more than 1,000 daily transactions, improving availability of our customer service, of an Italian 24-7, no waiting, while at the same time saving nearly 1 million euros. Those efficiency measures were complemented by the synergies delivered from the Swiss integration. All in all, Spain delivered 109 million in efficiencies plus synergies from 2023 to 2025. All that resulted in a very significant improvement of our growth and performance. In two years, revenue has grown by 12% and EBITDA by no less than 40%. We are very proud of these results as we are even ahead of our plan to enhance space performance. But this is not the end of the journey, as I am focused on continuing to deliver sustainable and profitable growth for DINAP. Demand for all our services in the country is strong, and the power of One Veolia offers many possibilities for combining our diverse expertise to secure essential services. Thank you for your attention, and I will now hand over to Emmanuel.

Thank you, Estelle, thank you, Danielle, and good morning, everyone. Beulah's 2025 results are very strong, perfectly aligned with our green-up trajectory and above our initial guidance, and that on many grounds. For growth, we continue to deliver solid growth thanks to strong underlying business trends ensured by boosters, which progress by 4.3% and even 8% if we consider techies. Second, performance. In the first two years of green-up, we considerably improved our profitability driven by strong intrinsic growth and synergies, leading in 2025 to an EBITDA organic growth of 6.3% and to a very strong improvement of 70 BP of our EBITDA margin in 16%, which reflects the success of our strategic choices. We maintain a robust operational leverage, enabling us to grow current net income at a faster pace. And third, capital allocation. While we resume external growth in 2025, we maintain a very strong balance sheet with a leverage ratio below three times at your end, thanks to our strong free cash flow. And finally, value creation. The successful green-up execution led to an outstanding ROCE, which is the best measurement of our value creation at 9.4%, which was our objective for 2027, so delivered two years in advance. With €34.4 billion in revenue, we experienced a solid growth of 2.8%. The operating leverage and the delivery of efficiencies and synergies were excellent and resulted in solid organic EBITDA growth of 6.3% above guidance, current EBIT growth of 8.9%, Current net income growth of 9.1% with underlying higher growth, even higher if we restate for last year that capital gain. Net financial debt reached 19.7 billion euros. The leverage ratio reached 2.79 times, below three times as expected. Forex impact was significant as announced due to lower US dollar and Latin currency. This reflects the improved performance of our international activities, which is increasing value creation. But as you know, as a multi-local group with very limited international trade, Forex has very limited impact on margin rate and on net income level. Moving to slide 23, you can see the revenue and EBITDA evolution by geography. The main features in 2025 was the enhancements of our growth outside Europe and the superior growth of EBITDA in both outside Europe and water tech segments. In Q4, EBITDA growth accelerated as announced at the end of Q3, thanks to the benefit of our action plan, notably in France, and the good performance of WaterTech. I will start with WaterTechnology, for which 70% of our activities are recurring, corresponding to products, mobile units, and chemicals, while 30% is more volatile by nature, what we call projects. In 2025, and especially in the first nine months, Project revenue was impacted by the timing of milestone delivery and the strong comparison basis versus last year. And as we announced in Q3, water tech revenue rebounded in Q4 and grew by 3.6% for the full year, excluding project by 4.6%. Operational performance was excellent, with EBITDA growth of 14%. America, Africa, Middle East, and APAC performed well in 2025 with revenue growth of 4.1% and EBITDA growth of 9.3%. Europe grew by 3.3%. And finally, front and hazardous waste Europe revenue was flat, but EBITDA increased by a significant 6.3% thanks to good hazardous waste performance, efficiency action in solid waste, and resilient water activity. Now let's take a look at our performance by businesses. Very solid revenue growth in our stronghold, which proved themselves very resilient, with very high margin, and capacity to continue increasing EBITDA growth. Let's start with municipal growth. Revenue increased by 3.5%, with a remarkable EBITDA progression of plus 6.1%. We continue to benefit from good indexation, have achieved successful tariff renegotiation in Spain and in the U.S., which protect our future earnings. Volumes were on a very good trend, up close to 3% in Europe. So we went revenue through by plus 0.5% with a very strong EBITDA progression of plus 6.8%, which illustrates our capacity to implement efficiency plan supporting EBITDA improvement. Revenue from district heating networks increased by plus 1.7%, excluding energy prices, thanks to a sustained heat tariff. Let's move on to our boosters performance on slide 25, which have done very well, with revenue up by 4.3% and by 8%, including tokens. Overall, EBITDA performance is excellent, up by 12%, with an increase of the average EBITDA margin by 100 BP, which confirms green-up choices. Skipping water tech that I have just commented and starting with hazardous waste. Revenue increased by 5.3%, including tokens, and 3.8% organically, with EBITDA up by 12.8%, which is outstanding. I would like to highlight especially the strong growth in the U.S., up plus 9.3%, including tokens, fueled by incineration volumes and mix. In bioenergy, revenue was up plus 5.8%, including energy prices, and EBITDA increased by 5.1%, with strong sell momentum in Belgium, southern Europe, and in the Middle East. The revenue bridge on slide 26 explained the drivers of our growth in 2025. Negative Forex impact decreased in Q4. Scope was slightly negative, as the impact of 2020 for district teachers, SAD, LIDEC, and RGS was compensated for a large part by the favorable impact of 2025 external growth. The impact will turn positive in 2026. The expected consolidation of cleaners in the second semester of 2026 will further contribute. The impact of energy prices was, as expected, divided by two compared to last year. Recycling prices were neutral. Weather effects, after a colder winter at the beginning of the year in Europe, Q4 was marginally helpful. The contribution of commerce and volume was comparable to last year. And finally, price effects were as expected lower than in 2024 due to lower inflation and contribute plus 1.4% to top-line growth. On page 27, you have the EBITDA bridge detailing our organic growth of 6.3% above the annual guidance, between 5 and 6%. Negative 4x impact increasing Q4, as mentioned earlier. This impact was very much often down the line for EBITDA and current net income. Scope was slightly negative, but as expected, was positive in Q4. The impact of energy was minus 40 million euros, less than last year as expected. while recycled prices were slightly up, plus 10 million euros. Intrinsic rules contribute by a significant plus 4.8% to EBITDA growth. Thanks to the combination of commerce volume works for 2% and pricing productivity efficiency for 2.8%, it accelerates in Q4, thanks to the benefit of our action plan in France and the rebound in water tech, including new synergies. And I'll come back later to Swiss synergies. Now let's dive into our second level of value creation after growth, which is performance and efficiency. I am now on slide 28, which shows our 2025 performance. In terms of our yearly efficiency plan, which is €399 million in gain in line with our annual target of €350 million, which we will for sure renew in 2026. Efficiency are indeed a permanent lever of value creation embedded in our operation and therefore one we can count on for years to come, not to say forever. It is worth noting that digital and AI gain already account for 23% of our recurring operational efficiency. So synergies are fully completed, as Estelle mentioned. We have achieved another €100 million of gain in 2025 for a cumulative total of €534 million since day one, well above our initial objective of €500 million, which, as you know, was raised a year ago to €530 million. This overall achievement is a testimony to our capacity to successfully integrate our acquisition and the clear marker of the success of the Suez merger. Going forward, we will benefit from the synergies coming from the merger of our two water technology entities, following the buyout of the 30% minority stake of CDPQ in June 2025. We target €90 million by 2027, and €20 have already been achieved. On top of that, after we close the acquisition of cleaners, mid-2026, we will start the integration process and target a total amount of $120 million of synergies between 2027 and 2030. Let's now analyze our performance below EBITDA, and I am on slide 30. Going down to current EBIT, this slide illustrates perfectly the operational leverage of our business model. 2.8 revenue growth, 6.3% EBITDA growth, and 8.9% EBIT increase. Current EBIT grew to €3.7 billion at a faster pace than EBITDA. I am particularly pleased with our financial results, which, excluding financial capital gains, show a slight decrease of €21 million of our financial charges. This was due to a combination of a well-controlled cost of debt and lower other financial charges coming notably from French ex-entry loans. We did not benefit in 2025 from net financial capital gain, contrary to 2024 with the sub-disposal. Tax charges were only slightly higher by 11 million euros, and our current tax rate decreased from 27.1% to 25.4%, thanks to the benefit of water technologies fiscal synergies. Finally, current net income increased by 9.1% as constant products in line with our gains. Moving to net income group share, I am on slide 31. Non-current charges were stable at minus €433 million. They include additional integration costs coming from water tech merger, one of restructuring charges, and an exceptional litigation provision in 2025. Net income group share reached €1.2 billion, showing an excellent growth of 10.9%. Now free cash flow generation, which is key. I am on slide 32. I am satisfied with the progression of the net free cash flow of 39 million euros at constant forex, which we achieved despite the working capital evolution due to less project down payment in Q4 and one off litigation payment in 2025, including Flint, for around 70 million euros. The underlying evolution of our working capital was, in fact, quite good, with another reduction in the DSO of five days to 74 days. Thanks to our dedicated plan, which will continue, quicker invoices, we have a clear plan to reduce time to invoice, cash collection, new ERP with use of AI. CapEx was once again under tight control and was stable in 2025. CapEx will remain under control. but continue to include significant growth capex, which will generate EBITDA. As you can see on slide 33, net financial debt is well under control, reaching 19.6 billion euros at the end of 2025 versus 17.8 billion at the end of 2024. This increase of 1.8 billion euros is due to the exemption of external growth with 2.3 billion euros of financial investment, which includes the purchase of the water tech minority stake for 1.5 billion euros. This was not at the detriment of our leverage, which remained well below three times at 2.79 times. This bridge also reminds you of our share buyback program, which has been launched to offset the deletion of the employee shareholding program for 400 million euros in 2025. We have again, in 2025, successfully issued new bonds, which attracted market interest and was done with very good market conditions. I will also mention that 85% of our net financial debt is at fixed rates. Our balance sheet, therefore, remains very strong. Both rating agencies confirmed strong investment-grade rating in 2025. Before concluding, this slide reminds you of our 2026 guidance, which Estelle has commented Continued solid organic revenue growth, excluding energy prices. EBITDA organic growth between 5% and 6%. Current net income of minimum 8% at constant forex, excluding cleaners, which we will close with 26, and which will be accretive as soon as 27, excluding PPA. Leverage ratio equal or below three times, including cleaners, and equal or slightly above three times with cleaners acquisition. And as usual, our dividend will go in line with our current EPS. And we fully confirm our green-up objective. Finally, let me remind you that we have started our €2 billion non-strategic asset divestiture program, which I cannot, of course, give you details, but which will also contribute to the continued soundness of our balance sheet while providing us with balance sheet headroom. Thank you for your attention. Thank you, Emmanuel. Thank you, Danielle.

And we are ready, three of us, to take your questions.

Thank you. And ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, please press the star 1 on your telephone keypad. And if you wish to withdraw your question, you may do so by pressing star 2 to cancel. Once again, that would be star 1 to ask a question. Your first question comes from the line of Arthur Sittman with Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Hello. Thank you for taking my question and thanks for the presentation. I was wondering basically about your 2026 current net income target, which is at constant effects and basically without the clean earth impact. I was wondering if you could provide some more thoughts on At the current FX levels, what do you see as the mark-to-market impact from FX on your 2026 numbers, as well as potential comments to understand a bit the magnitude of the cleanup impacts for 2026? And you confirmed the green-up targets. So you talk about 8% growth in net income in 2026, but there is more growth. It's a 10% pace annual by 2027 for the green up target. So I was wondering basically if we should understand that net income growth will considerably accelerate in 2027. And my second last question is, is just on your broader medium-term objectives. I was wondering if at some point you would consider rolling over your targets and maybe guiding to 2028 and 2029, or if we should wait for early 2028 for your new business plan. Thank you very much.

Thank you for your questions. Many different ones. Just a few things, you know, we're very happy about the 2025 results, you know, which was a very value-creative and a historic high. And well on our trajectory of green up and even exceeded some of the targets in EBITDA and in ROSE, just to mention the two of them. In terms of the guidance for 26, you have noted that the guidance, the left-hand side of the slide, if you want, is without cleaners and after stress managers. So, in a way, it's kind of standalone, but of course, you know, the acquisition of cleaners will be accretive, you know, for years to come. So, the way to have a look at it, and that's why, you know, it's an ambitious one, we are saying that, you know, without any stress synergies and before the accretion and the synergies of cleaners, we are able to deliver in 26, 5 to 6% organic growth of EBITDA and at least 8%, so it can be more than 8, but it's at least 8% of net results. That's what the guidance says. So I just wanted to highlight that it was after Suez and before Clean Earth, which means that it's really a confident and ambitious guidance, which I'm very confident we will deliver. In terms of the global Forex element, and it's not only on, you know, like net results, it's on everything, I just want to highlight again that Forex for us is a translational transaction. In other terms, as I tried to explain, we are a multilocal delivery company, which means that, you know, the cost and revenue are in the same currency, and therefore, Forex up or down doesn't impact our margin. And we've proven it in 25, we've proven it in 24, within two years, plus 150 BP of margin increase. So proof is in the pudding, as they say in English, that it doesn't impact our margin. And as you know, a Forex translation at 100 at the top of our P&L goes down to 20, basically, so 20%. or divided by five when it comes to net results. That's the global figures that we've already mentioned. But again, Forex is not a real thing. As you know, it doesn't impact our margin. It's more a sign of our being international and goes up and down, but it's not a question of anything but the translation of us being very international. In terms of the targets mid-term, So, what the green up trajectory, which I could fully confirm today, and I have fully confirmed it today, is 10% on average over four years, assuming, of course, more than 8% this year, and there is no reason why it should slow down going forward. We've achieved already 12% in the first two years of the plan, so we are really on the at least 10%, which we've said we would deliver in the green up trajectory. So I guess that's a confirmation again. So another way to see the guidance for 26 on net result is in 25 we said and we have delivered around 9% of net result increase. And this was with sweat synergies in. And in 26, we said we'll do more than 8% without sweat synergies. And again, before any positive effects of the cleaners synergies. So in terms of rolling over targets, that's always a good question. We have a few moving parts here. And the big one is the timing of the closing of cleaners. which everything is running exactly as we expected so far. But I will wait until we have the virus authorization before we can have a clear timing. But that's a good point. At one point, we'll be able to show visibility over years beyond 2027 green up. But what I can say from now on is we've already crystallized with the acquisition of cleaners, value creation beyond 2027 with the synergies, as well as enhanced revenue growth. So the more the company is international innovation-driven, which we are transforming quite rapidly the portfolio into, the more in the years to come and beyond 2027, you will have a company which is enhanced growth and enhanced value creation in particular since the synergies of cleaners.

If you want to complement something, Mala? So maybe one element. Good morning, Arthur. So very quickly, as mentioned by Estelle, the figure that you see and the 2026 guidance is fully aligned with green-up. We have demonstrated in the past a very good result for the first part of greenhouse. I'm not going to mention again the root seed, which is absolutely amazing, two years in advance. And as mentioned by Estelle, you have seen the trajectory in terms of EBITDA with a target between 5% and 6%, which is very strong, which is long-term, and which also shows our capacity to grow on high potential growth and high margin businesses without the Suez merger synergies, we are continuing on the same trend. In terms of forex impact, you will have at net result level, it's our estimation based on the forex rate at the end of December, an amount which is similar to what you had in 2025. So 26 equal to 2025.

You were mentioning... It's difficult to say because forex goes up, forex goes down, you know, like it's super uncertain.

Yes, it's with the estimation that we have for the end of 2025. And where you're right is that of course in 2027 we will benefit from synergies from cleaners and the full synergies also of technologies. And the element which is for us very important is that you know at Veolia that the train arriving on time, you have seen what we were able to do with Rossi, with EBITDA, and we don't have any intention to stop and to not have the same path.

I can confirm that. Thank you very much.

Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Bartek Kubicki with Bernstein. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much and good morning and thank you for the presentation. I would like to discuss two aspects as well, please. Firstly, if we think about tariffs overall in waste and water in 2026, where do you see them moving? And more specifically in France, as 2025 was relatively subdued in terms of revenues increase in both waste and water. And secondly, if we think about your M&As, which has just happened and which are about to happen this year, just two sub-questions. A, what will be the contribution of Clean Earth into your net income once it is being acquired? And secondly, what will happen to your integration costs with now two companies, or in 2026, two companies being integrated into your growth? Shall we expect an increase going forward, or shall we stay flat at around, whatever, 30, 40 million per annum as in the past?

Thank you very much. Thanks for your two questions.

So in terms of waste and water price, also the tariff, probably, I don't know. and specifically in France, a few things. Altogether, in terms of price for our activities, as you know, 70% of Veolia revenue is indexed and 30% is prices in pricing. And as we said, you know, like inflation is relatively neutral or slightly positive for us, which means that when the cost base goes up, the price goes automatically up or by pricing and vice versa. So everything, you know, is a way to protect our margin. So I think the priority for us is to protect our margin. In terms of anticipation for 26 in France, it will depend on inflation and a few indexation formulas which have an adversary date. I don't expect a big plus in 26 in terms of this indexation given the inflation is relatively low. But that was anticipated, and again, cost base and revenue base are in the same type of range. What I could say in addition is, in a way, the proof is in the delivery of our performance in Francine 25. because we had a revenue which was relatively flat, roughly, but a big plus in EBITDA, which you see on the slide. I can't remember where it is, but anyway, we'll see that in our pack. And this is thanks to our action plan. And in a way, that's exactly the same example which Daniel just highlighted in Spain. we increased our EBITDA by a lot more than our revenue thanks to a lot of efficiency plans and it was specifically the case in Spain and France because we anticipated it. We knew that there won't be a big push from the the revenue from tariff or from specifically or indexation or from the economy. And we launched specific action plans. So it was Hunter in Spain, it was called Ariane in France, and it delivers results. It delivers results in EBITDA levels. So what we expect in 26 is exactly the same as we've seen in 25. You know, top line probably modest. But EBITDA will grow again in 2026 in France and in Spain. Plus, Daniel has ambition on the top line as well, as you've heard him explaining earlier on. In terms of M&A and Cleaners Net Income, so basically, the question is the timing of the closing. We said it would be accretive in current EPS from year two. So assuming the closing is mid-26, it will mean year two is mid-28. So mid-28, you know, is not a point where you look at the net result because it's end of the year. So assuming, again, mid-26 we close, it will mean that in 2027 it will be accretive before PPA and in 2028 accretive even after PPA, if you want. So more accretive before PPA and accretive altogether, including the PPA. And it's a very modest dilution in 2026. Again, assuming the timing I just highlighted, modest as in really, really less than 0.5%. of potential dilution, again, assuming the timing I just highlighted. And integration costs, we've highlighted we will have integration costs in the four years of the delivery of the synergies.

So synergies, $120 million in four years and integration costs we said... We communicated when we did the signing at the end of November, so it's less than the $120 million. It would be around $90 million.

We said $90 million over four years. You have years with a bit more, years with a bit less. But, you know, roughly if you divide on average the 90 million by four years, you have a good estimate.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of with Scotiabank. Please go ahead.

Thank you very much. Two questions for me as well, please. The first one is staying on the topic of M&A. you're looking to divest $2 billion of investments, or assets rather, within two years of closing the Clean Earth deal. Could we expect you to get on the front foot of that and do that, you know, potentially some divestments by the end of this year? And do you have any colour at all now on what type of assets you might be looking to, or geographies you might be looking to divest in? And the second question is on hazardous waste in the US, but again, connected to Clean Earth. In the U.S., you've got finite incinerators, potentially more insuring coming to the country. That seems like quite a good combination for having pricing power going forward. Compared to when you made the Clean Earth acquisition, do you think actually the environment for hazardous waste in the U.S. has improved? We've seen some hazardous waste peer share prices in the U.S. do particularly well year-to-date. Thank you very much.

Two quick questions.

Euro disposal in the two years following the closing of FINRS, a few things. The timing, I mean, you know, we have, as you can imagine, a list with Emmanuel and with the various options, and I won't detail, I will not detail them today. Nevertheless, I can give you a little bit of colors on this list. So we have not anticipated a big sell in 26. we will go on with the traditional small and medium portfolio rotation, which we do every year anyway, but nothing as a big object is in our plan so far. So what are the typical candidates in this list, which is another way of answering your question. I guess threefold. One is mature, the other one is strategic and the third one is not in the top three. Let me explain them one by one. What I mean by mature it means a business which we don't think we can grow much more the profit in the years to come. I'm talking about the profit here as you can imagine you know in some of our stronghold activities we still have a way to increase our profitability and therefore we would keep them. So it's really if we are the max of profitability and we don't anticipate any way to go better. The second criteria is what I call non-strategic. Non-strategic typically is what we've done when we've divested the SAD, which is a construction business. We said years ago we don't want to be in construction, we want to be in technology. And that was a good example of that. The third one is what I call non-top three. As you've seen in our geographical strategy, there is an amount of, when we are in a country, we want to be in the top three of this activity in this country. It's a key element to have pricing power, for instance, which is what we said earlier on. We have a few smaller objects which are not yet in the top three. So either we have a way to put them in the list in the years to come, or if not, we will divest them. So that's the three criteria list, which met the list which we have with Emmanuel, and we have various options, and we'll deliver it in the two years following the cleaners closing. In terms of Hazardous Waste, you're right, we're super happy about our Hazardous Waste business in the US. And there is nothing in the last few months which is anything but confirming it's a very good acquisition, the Cleaners one, synergies-wise, platform-wise, including to be able to develop other services of Beolia beyond the Hazardous Waste. So you're right, you know, the trend is good. You know, we've seen a very good Q4 in Hazardous Waste in the US for us. If I remember well, it's a 7% organic growth for Q4, which is a very good, positive way to end the year and to begin the next one. So all the lights are really on green lights. We are very, very confident it will create a lot of value for years to come.

Thanks very much.

Next question comes from the line of Juan Rodriguez with Kepler. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking our questions. I have two on my side if I may. It's more follow-ups. The first one is on guidance at the net income level in 2026. I want to be clear. You said that you expect no synergies between from Suez, but it does include water tech synergies on 2026. Is that right? And can you please quantify the fiscal positive effect that the water tech synergies had on your 2025 results? Because it supported a lower tax rate. And are they part of the 90 million synergies that you're targeting? So this is the first one. And the second one is on France. You said that performance was slightly better in 2025 despite weaker revenues. Can you please quantify the level of the performance that you had in here and what is expected for 2026? You signal some improvement in the region, but can we decide in the low to mid-high single digits or some coloring that would be helpful? Thank you.

So I've tried to not download a question, hopefully I won't miss anything.

So you're right, the net income guidance, before PNRS acquisition in 26, does not include any Suez synergies because it's over. That includes, of course, the recurring gains, which will again, you know, efficiency gain more than 350 billion again in 26, and that includes some of the CDPQ water tech synergies. But they are not of the same magnitude of the Suez acquisition. That's why I won't compare apples and pears, but you're right, they do include some synergies of the water tech. I want to say that, you know, it started well in H2. We already had 20 million, if I remember well, of synergies from the water tech acquisition, which were delivered in H2. We've closed on the 1st of July. So 90 million over three years, 20 million already... delivered in H2, there will be another lot in 26 and another lot in 27. And that's when I mentioned the synergies as in 90 million over three years, this is the EBITDA synergies, if you want, because we said clearly that they were on top of that, fiscal and in a way net income synergies, which already were delivered a lot in 25, so 20 million of EBITDA, if you want, synergies already, plus already some fiscal synergies in 2025. Do you want to comment on the fiscal tax rate? With pleasure.

Thank you for your question. As you know, in the green-up plan we targeted a tax rate of 27%. Our current tax rate in 2025 decreased significantly from 27.1% at the end of 24 to 25.4%, thanks partially to the benefit of our water technology synergies. As an example, in the UK, we have been able to offset past and future tax losses, which were not recognized before. In France, also, we were able to merge the two tax groups of water technology, and also in 2025, we benefited from a positive impact led by the anticipation reduction of the CIT rate in Germany. So all of that is contributing to the good tax rate, and we have also a positive ambition for 2026, which participates to the net result has the fact that we have the cost of debt fully under control.

And on your question about France EBITDA, hopefully you have the answer on slide 23, where you see the business unit France and Hazardous Waste Europe with a revenue which was basically flat compared to all, slightly negative compared to 24, which we said about indexation formulas and so on and so forth, but a plus 6.3% EBITDA growth. So I think, you know, that's the type of result we see from the specific action plan we've launched two years ago. In Veolia, we just don't wait. We anticipate and act quickly and strongly. So this was called Ariane in France, and you see the results. And this was called Hunter in Spain, and you've seen in Spain, and it was presented by, because it's kind of the same, plus 14% EBITDA growth in 25 compared to 24 in Spain. And, you know, we won't stop here. So you can go on with this type of improvement in 26 for France and for Spain.

Quite helpful. Thank you very much.

Thank you. And your next question comes from the line of Davide Candelo with Intesa. Cassandra, please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my question and for the presentation. I have two, if I may. The first one is if you can share with us about sensitivity on energy prices, mostly with regards to Europe. I know that in most cases the energy component is a pass-through for you, but at least if you can provide a bit of sensitivity that would likely mostly refer to your WTE plans throughout Europe and so on. That will be the first one. The second one is with regards to your approach to demand. You said that the demand for your services is strongly increasing. I was wondering if you can share how you approach that in the sense that you are being selective in weighting and so taking the most valuable contracts or opportunities, or on the other hand, you are taking a more aggressive approach in trying to put more pressure on power, on your prices, and just being proactive in trying to take demand from your clients directly. And with regards to that also on volumes, which is the capability you have to attract more and more, and if there is a risk of saturation in that respect, and yeah, that will be the second one. Thank you.

Thank you. So energy price sensitivity.

So you're right. Energy prices for us are globally pass through. Globally pass through. This is why we publish and we've been publishing for years now, excluding energy prices. Why is that so? Because we mainly sell heat. And when you know the price of the entrance, as in what we have to buy to produce the heat for the district heating, it goes up. The tariff goes up, and that's why it protects our margin again. The little effect, which is not what I said, is on the cogeneration of electricity, if you want, and the on-salary services associated with it, where it's a little bit more into our margin. So it's not the main product for us. producer of power, well not at all, but we use all the equipment and infrastructure we have specifically in districating and things like that to try to deliver auxiliary services in addition and on top. So this top-top is what can go up and down and is a bit more variable for us. If you have a view over three, four, five years in a way, you can see that in our figures because, as you can imagine, the price of energy in Europe has gone through the roof in 22 and then down very massively in 23 and 24. And you can have a look at the sequence of EBITDA in our energy business over four years. There was a big plus, a small minus for the reason I just mentioned in terms of the cogeneration of electricity, but altogether the curve is on the up over these few years. So in a way we've demonstrated what I said in the figures from 22 to 25. In terms of the demand for our service, what I was trying to highlight is, you know, I was asked a lot of questions about, okay, you know, Is Veolia about ecology, the environment? Yes, we are, but we are more about critical needs. I think this is important. So whatever the election results are in a country, we're not about politics here. We're about critical needs for industries and population. That's what makes us super resilient. You know, when it comes to supply of water, when it comes to supply of critical materials and critical minerals, when it comes to supply of energy, we produce local resources. Therefore, they don't depend from, you know, like far away imports, disruption of supply chain, and so on and so forth, which is very key for all our customers. So that's why the demand is, in a way, you know, the more the crisis, the more the demand is paramount because we are really critical for our customers. In terms of your question about are we selective, are we shooting everywhere, it's the format of the latter. We still are very selective. We don't want revenue for the sake of it. We want revenue which can create value not only for one year, but for years to come. The two keywords are resilience and growth here. You know, the business model of Veolia is really sustainable growth and for years. which means that, you know, we've intentionally decided not to bid for specific tenders. So, for instance, in waste municipal collection, because it was not value-creative for us, to focus on, you know, what is very, very creative, typically are growth boosters. So we are very selective, and the choices are clear, the growth boosters. So water technologies have this waste and bioenergy. In terms of where we go for saturation at one point in terms of volume, we do have a limit in a way in our plants and installed bays. This is not exactly the way it works. In water, the needs go with the growth of the population or the growth of the industries and the plants do follow if you want and that's what we've seen. In terms of has this waste, it could have been a limiting factor, and that's exactly why we have invested in five new facilities across the globe, which are just ramping up from last year till 2028, exactly to be ensuring we unlock the future growth. So we're not only at Veolia talking about the guidance for 2026. And when I say we have an enhanced profile of growth for years to come, I can talk to you about 28, 29, 20, 30, even with a cleaner acquisition synergies and investment movement.

Thank you.

And your next question comes from the line of Philip R. Pishen with OdoBHF. Please go ahead.

Yes, good morning. I have three questions in fact. One is a slight clarification concerning the efficiencies. The slide 27 is showing 326 million growth and performances on which you have some price effects and volume effects. I would like to know exactly what was the amount of the efficiencies you were mentioning, in fact, previously in your slide as separated from works, volumes, and commerce. That's the first question. And in this question, there is also another one concerning the next slide, which is 28, where you are mentioning 399 millions. It's over the target of 350 of efficiencies. Could you spread it a little bit more by activities or geographies? You mentioned France and Spain as a specific plan, but to have more color about where these 399 were generated. Second question is hazardous waste. Could you just remind us or elaborate a little more about the new facilities? Because in hazardous waste, Germany has started, if I'm not wrong, And there is some other geography where you are working, US, UK, Saudi Arabia and Asia. Could you just remind us, in order to take into account those volumes and maybe value creation effects. And last, you just issued a press release concerning India. Your famous French competitor also issued a lot of press releases concerning this area. It seems to me that India was not an easy country. We have seen Suez losing a lot of money years ago in this contract. What has changed in this market concerning water? And what are the level of risk or capital employed you are injecting in this kind of country? Even if I do think that it's mainly through OEM contract. Many thanks.

It looks like you have not only the question but the answers, and you're right. But I will elaborate in a minute. So efficiencies, in a way, the answer is on page 28. So efficiency, 399 million, which we've retained 47%, right, Emmanuelle? Absolutely.

Bonjour, Philippe. So, Rafi, you're absolutely right. From the 399 million euros, which have been fueled by all the specific action plans also, which were in France and in Spain, and the rest is, as you know, fully embedded in our business for 70%, we have been able to retain 47%. When you look at this number, if you want a precise number, we have volumes commerce which is around 10% growth and pricing net efficiency which is around 2.8% growth. So roughly 140 and 190 million euros.

So 47% of 399 equals 189, plus volume and commerce, roughly, equals what you see on the slide. And where is it mainly? So the beauty of the OES model is everywhere. That's why we're so confident we can keep it forever. because it's a series of plants everywhere on the globe which have initiatives which combine, you know, give you the number. The specifics where you have more than the average are France, Spain and China. You know, France, Spain and China launched specific plants which were more than the average given the fact that we're disappointed by the result in 23, basically, for those geographies. So we've launched specific action plans with specific names, you know, the Hunter, the Arian, and there was an equivalent one in China. And that's why, you know, on those geographies, you know, we have a particularly big disconnect between revenue and EBITDA growth because, you know, this was thanks to the very, very well-executed delivery of the funds, which, again, won't stop. Do you want to add something?

You know us perfectly well, Philippe. Regarding the efficiency, one point that I wanted to add, as you know, 70% is fully embedded in our business model. It's what we sell, selling price increase, purchasing and procurement improvement. And on top of the three specific plans that Estelle has mentioned and which are taking a lot of energy, to the French team but also to Daniel in Spain. So with very, very specific action plan where you have strong SG&A efficiency on top of procurement and on top of operational improvement. We have a launch this year and you see it in our results. what we call, it was a project which was called Mobi, so we are dealing with a lot of energy of what we consider as assets which are not as performance as we wanted them to be, meaning that for us it's a clear approach of up or out, and all the team is working very, very strongly to it, and it's in all our geographies, and it is contributing to our leverage, operational leverage that you see, and the increase of EBIT of 8.9%.

In terms of hazardous waste, you're right, we have five new plants which are under construction or under commissioning. In terms of the sequence, we've showed it during our deep dive on waste a few months ago, so we're exactly on the trajectory we showed you at that time, which means that just to refresh your memory, you have a phase of construction, but then you have what we call cold commissioning, and then hot commissioning, and then ramping up of operational performance with commercializing the plants. So depending on the difference, you know, what we call by ramping up, again, you know, cold commissioning, hot commissioning, and then commercializing progressively the total capacity of the plants. It takes quite a while. It's not you press a button and it's on and off and 100% instantly. It takes usually between the cold, hot commissioning and the full capacity two to three years, just to give you an idea. This is classical in this business. but then you're here forever, which you know has its merits. And in terms of the various orders of being in this situation, the first to come online has been the Saudi one, which has already gone through the, and I hope I won't, you know, miss one, but you know the cold and hot commissioning and we are in the ramping up of the commercial activity. Then the next on the line is BlueJ, which is our facility in the UK in Solvent, which is in the ramping up mode as well. I think we've finished the hot commissioning and we are in the ramping up of the commercial activity. Then the next on the nil will be will be the German one you mentioned but which is not there yet. We are more at the end of the construction phase if you want, not yet in the commissioning one. The next one will be in Asia and the next one will be in the US. All that means that combined, if I remember well, we've put again the figures in our presentation, but if I remember well, 85,000 tons of capacity which will be active at the end of green up, but out of 130,000 tons of capacity when they are fully, fully ramped up 100%, so one or two years after the end of green up. And India, you're exactly right. We're not doing crazy things in India, that's why I was super proud about this contract, a new office client, you've answered yourself the question, you know, like there is not funds employed at all of Veolia. You know, we've delivered, you know, technologies and then we'll have a 15 years of O&M contract. So it's not about funds employed here, it's about selling technology. and know-how in terms of maintaining plants. Those are massive ones. We are talking about plants which will be able to sustain the water supply for 60% of the entire Mumbai global population, which if I remember well is a 12 million population. So those are massive and I'm very happy that it was without risk associated, exactly as you said. So we're not chasing revenue for the sake of it. So we said we will exit construction. So in India, so it's a 250 million euro backlog, by the way. We are not chasing our revenue for the sake of it. So that's why a lot of the contracts which were announced by competitors, we didn't even bid, to be honest. because we don't want to be in construction and pouring concrete. This is not what we do. We do cell technology. Plus, we do want to be in the O&M. All the rest, we just don't go for it at all. So we are super selective in India as elsewhere.

But this opportunity was a very, very good one. Thanks.

Once again, if you would like to ask a question, simply press restore one on your telephone keypad. Your next question comes from the line of Charles Swaby with HSBC. Please go ahead.

Hi, good morning. Just one question for me on efficiency gains. And the 23 that came from digital AI in 25, can you give us an idea how this compares to your assumptions when you put together the green out plan? Would you say that they have exceeded expectations, and how should we think about this going forward?

Thanks. Thanks for your question.

We had no idea there would be AI at this level when we launched GreenUp, which was at the end of 23. We'd conceived the whole thing and launched it beginning of 24. So we had no specific expectation. We knew or we were already very much into digital or AI but not gen AI if you want. And this is really ramping up and a big potential for future efficiencies in the years to come. I think 23% is already a big figure. So we're not the style of talking about things we're trying to deliver instead, instead of talking too much. And I think that was a proof of it. You know, we've picked our battles as well, because some of it is more a myth than delivering real results. We've picked the tools which actually are delivering real efficiencies. Real efficiencies for us means consume less water, produce more green energy. This is a criteria which, you know, we've picked a few proof of concepts, and there were many of them. We've picked a few just to be on the scaling up front.

And what is also absolutely amazing is the increase of the percentage of digital. It was in the past 5% and 10% of our efficiency gain and now it's 20% and it will continue to increase.

You're right. Very helpful. Thank you. Thank you very much.

I would say thank you very much. It looks like we have no further questions. And just wanted to say how happy we are about 2025, which not only was on target or even beyond target in a few different KPIs, but as well was really a pivotal year for Veolia. We've crystallized major transformation in our portfolio, which will generate really enhance growth and value creation for years to come and years with a lot of S's, as in 26, 27, 28, 29. I'm very confident about Veolia's trajectory and there is more to come. Thank you very much and let me, before I finish, invite you not to miss what we've put on the slide, which are a few dates. If you want to have more information about our ESG agenda and multifaceted performance, that's a webinar on the 23rd of March. And we'll have a deep dive on innovation, tech and AI in London on the 14th of April. Thank you very much.