Good evening. I apologize for this small delay. We had a couple of technical issues, which I hope are sorted. I hope you can hear me well. If it isn't the case, please let us know. Thank you very much for joining this conference regarding the first quarter of 2024. The revenue for ALTEN is EUR 1.067 billion, which is an increase from last year. We have seen a 6% growth in France and 1.6 outside of France. For the same data, the business has growth to almost 1%, plus 6 in France, and it is decreasing outside of France.
This quarter has seen 0.9 less working days, which impacted the growth by 1.2%, which means that our organic economic growth would have been 2% for the same number of working days. The activity rate for the first quarter is at 91.5%. It was at 91.7% for the first quarter last year, so slightly inferior than last year because of a tension in some countries where the activity has come to a halt. As you can see, the decrease in business that we saw at the end of 2024 has continued and has accelerated in some places. We will talk about it in more detail later. The trend that seems to...
That we are seeing, we have growth in March after an initial, higher volume in, 2022. We had 57,000 employees at the end of 2023, 50,000 engineers. End of March, we are 58,400, which are all engineers, of which, we saw a 1,400 increase for engineers. So 150 in France, 370 outside of France. Out of the 51,400 engineers, 11,950 are in France and the rest are outside. So we have a slide on the revenue per country. France, if we look at the activity, if we split it geographically, France has seen good performance, performance despite one less working day.
So 1.3% impact on growth, which would have been 7.3% at, for the same number of days. We have a good, good results in automobile, rail, defense and security. Retail and bank, finance, and insurance have seen a decrease. In Iberica, Spain, 9.4, Portugal, 16, we've seen a 5.5% increase. All the sectors are growing except for banking and finance, which is also seeing a decrease. In Italy, after many years of growth to up to 25%, the growth has slowed down to 14% for this quarter.
All the sectors have seen a slowing down, but still showing strong growth because we're over 10%, except for bank finance, which went well last year, but also saw a halt for this quarter in Italy. Same for telecoms; it is a sector that has stabilized. In Germany, as you can see, we've seen a decrease starting from Q1 2023. The trend has continued for Q1 2024. It is true that we were 1.3 less working days than last year, so for the same number of days, it would have been an only 6.2% decrease instead of the 8%. Several sectors in Germany are decreasing. Automobile, the automotive industry, there's very contrasted situation except the manufacturers, except for one, are all seeing growth.
And it is the decrease of 45% for the equipment. We've seen in Germany also a slowing down in aerospace. The activity is stable, but lower than last year. In the U.K., which is also seeing one less working day, the decrease has continued in aerospace and in the public sector, where Methods operates, which we acquired two years ago. On the contrary, automotive, 15% of the revenue is seeing growth, because we are working with the manufacturers and not the outfitters. That's good growth in Belgium. We've seen a decrease in the Netherlands, so we're now moving on to Benelux. We've seen less projects, which was unexpected, in semiconductors.
In Scandinavia, less working days as it was for Germany, we've seen a continued decline, especially in automotive. Tooling in Finland also has seen a strong decrease for the first half of the year. Eastern Europe, same, one working day less. The activity is stable. We have a small growth in Poland. Romania have seen a 10% decrease because of the automotive bank and finance sectors. In North America, as you can see on this slide, we've seen a continued slowdown, a continued decrease. Canada has seen a decrease for bank and finance. Mexico is only 4% of North America, is seeing growth, especially on product, which is quite paradoxical on automotive bank and finance.
Asia-Pacific, satisfactory growth, 4%. China, which represents a third of the region, has seen a growth of 11%, which is carrying the rest up. India, representing 30% of the region, has also accelerated the growth. We're at 17% if we look at tertiary industry. Japan, which is 20% of the region, has slowed down, and for Korea, 10%, the slowdown has been felt because the growth is of 5% where when it was much higher in twenty... in the previous year. So in total, at the group level, we are at 0.8% growth on average with a couple of country, especially U.K., Germany, and Scandinavia, which are seeing degrowth rates, which we hadn't seen since 2020. If we look at it, sector by sector...
So if we move on to the pie chart, which is just here, automotive, 18% and has seen 5% growth, mostly thanks to manufacturers 'cause they have seen except for Ford in the U.S. and Volvo Trucks in Sweden, we've seen a good growth, but the decrease has been seen at the automotive suppliers, especially the German ones. Rail had started to increase last year, has continued in that direction 'cause we are now at a 7% increase compared to last year. Aerospace, 15% of ALTEN, is still very dynamic. 18% growth despite the slowing down in Germany and U.K. Defense, security, and naval, same thing, strong progress of more than 20%, which brings it up to 7.3% of the revenue.
Energy is stable, 7.4% of our revenue. Oil and gas are only 2% of the revenue have seen a decrease of 10%. Other sectors, nuclear, for instance, has seen an increase of 6%. Life sciences, 8% of our revenue, is seeing a decrease because of mostly the industrial class, where the medical equipment is seeing growth. Industrial equipment. So mostly yeah, the heavy, heavier industries, industrial equipment and electronics, is stable. We've seen an increase of 4% for other industries, and semiconductors especially is seeing a significant decrease on almost all regions because we are close to a 10% decrease. Telecoms, a 4% decrease, whether it's operators or suppliers.
And for finance, 8.5%, we've seen a global decrease of 10% at the group level. The French banks, some Canadian institutions, and a couple of Southern European banks, in to a lesser degree, that are feeling the hit of the contraction of investments. Regarding retail services and media, we've seen a 6% decrease. So as you can see here, we have a mixed result for the Q1. Some of the results were expected. The macroeconomic situation in Europe was harder than we imagined. To be honest, there are no signs of improvements for Q2, except for the U.S.A, where we have seen positive forecasts. Some projects were abandoned because of pricing or new deals that were not satisfactory.
We have still acquired a company, a group of companies, to be more precise. We have a presence in Vietnam, which plays a DC role, a sales presence in Japan. It's a company that is specialized in BI, data science, and software development. Company that realized EUR 20 million revenue in 2023, 950 consultants, and EBIT of 10%. So for 2024, the first semester, which is well underway, will probably continue following the trend of the first quarter. The rebound expected for Q2 is not manifesting clearly. We're not seeing an increase in the corporate centers. However, we should have a growth coming to us in a...
But it is difficult to anticipate, which is why we're forecasting a 3% organic growth, which will be reviewed at the next publication, depending on how the year goes. So you-- I'll hand it over to you now. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask away. And I'm obviously here and happy to answer any questions you have.
So we have a first question from Mr. Marcon.
Bonjour, Bruno. Derric. Bravo for passing to Teams. First of all, congratulations for moving to Teams. I'm a big fan. Two questions. The first one, is the 3% year-on-year, is it the same theoretical exercise that you do at the beginning of the year? So an embarked growth without taking into account positive net staffing on the quarters to come, or is it really what you think is doable in the current situations with the predictions of net staffing for the next quarters? That's my first question. The second one is on the automotive industry. What, what is your visi-- the-- what is your visibility on the, on this market for the coming quarters?
So the first question, we give the embarked growth because that's-- we have no visibility on the growth dynamics, and it's difficult to project to give even an estimation. It's what we do, but communicating on it would be a bit premature. What we did here was looking at the current situation in the most objective way possible to date. And so we asked each department to evaluate what they believe to be reasonable to expect growth-wise for the end of Q1 and Q2, taking into account the trends observed on the first quarter, first half, rather. Taking into account the perspectives that we had last year or the beginning of this year, because we're realizing that there's quite a lot of clients that are postponing projects. They're not, they're not canceled, but they're postponed.
And then we have other clients, especially in bank finance, that have reduced their investment budget, which means that even in aerospace and automotive, there are consultations that are done on project that should have started now but will start in September, which leads to our current situation. So 3% is not embarked. It's what, it's what is looks logical to us, expected. We'll see in July, which is the next meeting, if we confirm this, if we improve it, or not, depending on what happens in the interval. To be honest, it's quite unfortunate. We weren't expecting this slowdown to last this long. I think that we won't see a rebound in 2024. In the U.S., we have more positive forecasts, especially in the automotive industry.
For now, it's not really translating into more consultations, but the restart after this slow period that is 2024, it might start with the U.S. But we have a visibility like other sectors, where... Well, we have consultations on two-three months, manufacturers, where things are going well are continuing to follow that trend. An important part of the growth in France actually came from nearshore in the automotive. We've seen an increase for nearshore in Germany because they are in a difficult situation, but we're not seeing the light at the end of the tunnel for the suppliers. When we listen to our German managers, they are quite depressed, and there's no positive messages coming from this side.
Going back on the first thing you said, could you, can you do the link between the 2.5 embarked growth?
... and the +3 that you see today as the most plausible results. With the recruitments from Q1, because in the +2.5, there is the net staffing. I mean, we recruited in the we have degrowth rates in the high-cost countries that is more important. So we'd seen degrowth on the first quarter, which we didn't fully compensate end of March. We're not far from it. So that's what I meant earlier, because we've embarked a degrowth for the year, if I can say it that way. And so it's now we see that now it's going back up. So this explains the 3% organic growth, which de facto includes a growth on the second half, which we've presented in a very measured way. But we're not really seeing...
We're at the end of April now. We're not seeing, 'cause usually this is the period where we're starting to get some consultation for the second half of the year, which is not happening. Except for Asia, where things are going relatively well. It's identical as to the situation of the first half. Very well, thank you. There's also a swing effect. There's one less working day for the first half. There will be two more on the second half, so it will balance out.
Very well, thank you very much. We have a question from, Mr. or Mrs. Aditya.
Hi, Bruno. This is Aditya from Bank of America. Thanks for taking my question. Just going back to the comments you made in the release. So you talk about a potential recovery from September or October. Can you talk about what is driving that? Is it comments you're seeing from the customers or anything specific in terms of the end markets which will drive that improvement? And then could you also just talk about, in general, what you're seeing in terms of pricing this year? And then finally, how should we think about the margin expansion in 2024? I know you're not going to talk about or disclose those numbers until July, but how should we think about that, given the weaker-than-expected top-line development?
So regarding the outlook for H2, we are relying on the information that the people on the ground got from the customers. But what we see is that we don't have an increasing number of bids that we receive. And we also know that some customers said that they will launch more new projects in H2 than in H1, knowing that they have postponed a lot of project in H1 to H2. So everyone is expecting an increasing number of cons, consultations and bids, and therefore projects in H2. But that said, we were expecting more volume in H2 than today, because the same customers say that they don't have the same budget and the budget they were expecting. This is the reason why we have reduced our expectations on H2.
We think that there will be a balance between H1 and H2, and that we will get, in any case, an incremental activity in H2, but which will not be that high compared to H1. Especially, if we consider what we were expecting at the time when we released our 2023 numbers. Now, regarding the price effect, we had some price increase again in 2024. Not that high, if we compare with what we got in 2022 and 2023, obviously. We have, through the work package activities, many customers today who are asking us to help them to achieve productivity gains, especially within the auto sector, but also aero sector.
So we are trying to package more and more projects, and that is in relation with what I was explaining during the conference. We are increasing the number of projects which are delivered, at least partly delivered, through our ODC in Morocco, Romania, and India... in order to get to be on the market with a lower average price for our customers. So the situation regarding margins, even if this is not a conference for what we don't release our margins quarter per quarter, we always give some guidance when we know to the market.
In February, we said that we were expecting the operating margin still to be below 10%, and I was talking about, I don't know, 9.6%-9.7%. But due to the decline in our sales expectations, our assumption today is that the EBIT margin will be probably quite similar to what it has been in 2023. We will see, because the revenue curve will be key regarding the margin for 2024.
Also, and this is important to notice, there will be again, in 2024, an effect between H1 and H2, because, there is a seasonality effect, which disappeared in over the past 2 years, but we will have one this year, meaning that we will probably be slightly above 8 in H1 and slightly above 10, in H2, but I don't know, to which extent today.
All right. Thanks a lot, Bruno. That's very helpful.
[Foreign language] Feel free to raise your hands. [Foreign language] . Monsieur Laurent Daure has a question.
[Foreign language] Hello, can you hear me?
[Foreign language]. Yes, I do hear you.
Okay, great. [Foreign language] . I had several points I'd like to mention.
[Foreign language] . Sorry, we can hear the translation. We can hear the translation here.
[Foreign language]
Of course, is there a risk in the [Foreign language] On the country, for the countries, I mean, it's no surprise, but Germany, Scandinavia, U.K., we've seen a degrowth in staff. [Foreign language] We are on inter-contracts level that are quite high for banking, but we're not. We're on a level that is close to the norms at the group level. For Q2, you've given guidelines for the teams? Yes, of course. [Foreign language] . We're expecting a lighter Q2 regarding headcount additions. The recruitments, We've seen a lot at the beginning of the year.
[Foreign language] What we call bench, so with no, not linked to any projects to compensate for the departures. And we're also expecting, [Foreign language] . The business picking up in March as it usually does, but it wasn't the case, which explains the 91.5 average rate at the group level. But it's more important today. We, [Foreign language]
... now we're almost to 90% in Germany, U.K. So the recruitment is blocked. Secondly, I'm gonna go back to September. Some clients, and especially in Germany, that had postponed contracts, saying, "Go, come back to September 2024." Have they... Did they come back saying, like, "Well, it's going to be postponed again because we won't have the budget?" It's the case in Germany for suppliers and elsewhere. It's the case to a lesser degree in Sweden. We don't have any other indicators of projects that have been... We only have indicators for postponements, but Sweden and Germany is in a tricky situation. So you took the hypothesis that we were in trends that were going to stay similar to what we saw at the beginning.
Yes, projecting to some places because it's next time we did bottom up. Which will be reviewed in June. There are a lot of projects. If we're looking at 50 people projects, including 50, 100 people, depending on the success rates, we'll see if it's going to unlock or not. So regarding the forecast for Q2 and H2, the only regions where we haven't seen growth is the U.S. Well, we expected the minus. We even thought it would be less. And Asia follows its development. Last question. There's a number of projects that were... But when have we seen anything else? There's been a small contractions as stuff, something that we didn't do in the U.S. for pricing reasons in Germany.
Another one, the company was not far from EUR 200 million in revenue, which is a lot for Germany. There's another couple that we didn't do in Europe because quality of the assets of the new deals. So we have worked a lot, but we have results, that's... So in Vietnam. So there's a new project will be announced at the end of Q2, which should be ready for Poland, and then we have two other... We're almost there. We're signing the letter of intent for the new deal. So I think that for the Polish situation aside, which, if all goes well, will be signed during May, there will not be any other acquisitions for Q2.
Okay, perfect.
There aren't any other questions for the time being, so we'll just wait. Perhaps a couple of minutes. But... Oh, I got another question from Mr. Marcon.
... of the offshore nearshore, true. And, for example, in Morocco, 250 people more. This quarter, we got the same effect on projects that are going to be managed in India. [Foreign language] , right now. Bidding on. In the U.K. [Foreign language] . Your products are being ramped up. [Foreign language] Contrary to many other companies. [Foreign language] . Or they're not going to be immobilized. [Foreign language]
Linearize, so cost comes throughout the project. [Foreign language] . The final associated margin or pluri-annual projects that could actually be huge. So large that they have a product on the massification potential.
[Foreign language]
[Foreign language] .
[Foreign language].
[Foreign language] must have something. Well, I was actually thinking-
[Foreign language]
[Foreign language] . Well, I mean, we should be recruiting. [Foreign language] . Now, what is happening exactly? Well, most likely[Foreign language] - We'll see what the end result is going to be. [Foreign language] But it's not going to be flamboyant because- Au Q1. Because there's going to be a decrease in Q1. We'll have to process the Q1 decrease in Q2. [Foreign language] . Also, will be taking place in Q3 and Q4, and that the revenue increase hypothesis, despite the vacation period or holiday period, is going to be associated with an increased number of projects to be considered in more measured and conservative way. More, much more conservative, conservative way.
OK, thanks. Thank you very much.
[Foreign language] . No other questions? [Foreign language] . Now, someone is raising his... [Foreign language] . Don't know the name of that person. [Foreign language] . Thanks for introducing yourself, please.[Foreign language] . Activate your microphone. Turn on your microphone. ... [Foreign language] . I believe that the person is not able to turn on the microphone. [Foreign language] . Okay, we can hear you now. Hello, yes.
[Foreign language] Do you hear me?
[Foreign language]. Yes.
[Foreign language] Nicolas David, chez ODDO. [Foreign language] You have to offset this one because actually, we-
[Foreign language] . Well, we have a lot more departures than usual at the end of the year. [Foreign language] . Most of the recruitments took place to offset. [Foreign language]
[Foreign language] The U.K. and Germany decline. [Foreign language] .
[Foreign language]
[Foreign language] .
OK, [Foreign language]
[Foreign language] Actually being generated. [Foreign language] . There's a mixed effect here, and that's a very important impact.
[Foreign language] When I was talking about the international, from an international point. From an international. Including France, right? Including France.
As I said. 200 [Foreign language] . In Germany. 480, [Foreign language]
[Foreign language]
... OK, [Foreign language] I understand. So 150 organic there and 90% are low cost. I mean [Foreign language] I get it.
[Foreign language] pays low cost. It's better. It should not be considered low-cost [Foreign language]
[Foreign language] . OK, now, this makes things clear. Thank you very much.
[Foreign language] . I believe that there aren't going to be any other questions. [Foreign language] . Nobody is raising their hands for the time being.
[Foreign language] . I'd like to thank you for taking part in this conference that's going to be taking place on the 25th of July. Before the opening of the video, before the first semester dans son ensemble. [Foreign language] . Have a nice evening and see you soon!