Hello, everyone, and welcome to the first digital Bureau Veritas Investor Day. My name is Annette Burgdorf. I'm a Franco-German journalist, and I'm very happy and honored to be the moderator of this event. It's late for some and early for others. Thank you very much for joining us from everywhere in the world. Today, we welcome the BV management team to share their ideas on the strategic direction for 2025. How is this meeting going? Let me explain it briefly. In the first part, we will review the transformation and achievement of the 2020 strategy, and then dive deep into the 2025 strategic direction with business cases from operations. We'll then discover the enablers, which are the key levers to execute and achieve these ambitions set by BV. Ambitions from a financial standpoint will be presented in the second part.
Then Didier Michaud-Daniel, CEO of Bureau Veritas, will conclude this day with a longer-term vision. Of course, you will have the opportunity to ask questions at any time through the chat, and the chat is located on the right-hand side of your screen. We, of course, will aim to answer as many as possible of them during the two Q&A sessions. The first one will be held after the strategic direction session, and the second one is after the finance session. Here we go, and it's my pleasure to welcome on set Didier Michaud-Daniel, CEO of Bureau Veritas. Good morning, Didier.
Good morning, Annette, and welcome to all of you. I'm very pleased to be with you today, even if I would have preferred to see you face to face, of course. Today, we are here to talk about the 2025 strategy, which aims to take the group's value creation to the next level. Before, I would like to say a few words on the cybersecurity attack. We have faced a presumed ransomware attempt in part of our network. Our cybersecurity system was able to detect it in due time, and we took immediately preventive actions to shut down our systems. It ensured the vast majority of BV's network was untouched. As of today, more than 80% of our operations are running at normal level.
By the way, I would like to thank our clients and the authorities for their trust and cooperation and our teams for their efforts and dedication. Now, let's focus on the topic of the day, the mid to long-term strategy.
Thank you, Didier, for this transparency on the cyberattack. I think it is important. Perhaps let us start with a brief presentation of BV because some of the audience, some of the people listening to us, might not know, really know the group.
We are a business to business to society service company, Annette. We support our clients in managing quality, safety, health, and sustainability risks. With our experts in 140 countries, we accompany more than 400,000 clients of every size from small to large multinational companies. We operate in almost all end markets through our six activities: Buildings & Infrastructure, Certification, Industry, Agri-Food & Commodities, Consumer Products, and Marine & Offshore. These activities are driven by a staff of nearly 80,000 who aim to contribute positively to transforming the world we live in by shaping a world of trust. Our technical expertise relies on more than 3,500 accreditations, which represent obviously strong barriers to entry. In financial terms, we generate revenues of close to EUR 5 billion.
Our solid profitability and cash flow allow us to provide attractive returns to our shareholders.
Great. Short presentation. Thank you very much, Didier. Now let's start our journey with a look back, okay? If you're okay on the 2015-2020 strategy. Perhaps how would you describe BV today compared to what it was back in 2015?
The group, Annette, is much more diversified. By this, I mean we have a worldwide footprint in both the geographical sense and in our business operations. Thanks to the resiliency of the transformed business model, we managed our way through the crisis with a robust performance. We are much more digital in our tools and the way we operate the services. Sustainability, which has always been core to our business, is more visible today. One of our missions is to build trust between society and business, in other words, between our clients and their customers. We are a technical and technological company. Expertise and complexity is our DNA. We brought new blood to modernize the company with a more centric, client-centric approach. Our teams share this approach, the values, and are moving towards the same strategic direction. BV is definitely way stronger today than it was.
That's great to hear. Thank you, Didier. With all what's happened around the COVID-19 crisis, you didn't have really the opportunity to present, to come back to your achievements of the 2020 strategy. Obviously, BV is nearly 200 years old, with many different activities and services, and the group is exposed to numerous end markets, but it is. This was also already the case in 2015, I think. Could you perhaps expand on the diversification that you just referred to?
Absolutely.
Good.
You're right. 2015-2020 was a period of profound transformation for the group. We have rebalanced our activities in order to reinforce our resilience. We have repositioned our operations to reduce our exposure to one region or one business category. We wanted to ensure we benefit from strong secular growth trends, to be sure we are in the right place at the right time. By doing this, we have built new foundations to profile the platform for solid and efficient growth. The 4.3% organic growth delivered in 2019, and the 4% year-to-date against 2019, while not being back to normal yet, illustrate this well. We will continue to accelerate.
Okay, are there some activities, for example, where the change was more pronounced?
Yes, Annette, yes. Some of our businesses needed more repositioning than others. We wanted to expand the prominence of OpEx services and reduce reliance on capital investment projects, develop new platforms in Buildings & Infrastructure, create a meaningful agri-food position, and capture what we can call technology opportunities for Consumer Products.
Okay. Very interesting, I think, but how do you measure? Because this is important, to measure the evolution since then. How should we look at the portfolio today?
In fact, we have made some very significant improvements to our exposure regarding CapEx, OpEx, and systems and products. In short, we have rebalanced our portfolio. The services we provided in some of our businesses were too reliant on our clients' CapEx investment projects. As you know, investment projects are sensitive to macro trends. What matters for us is to be in places where the momentum is likely to be maintained and, at the same time, be able to provide OpEx services which are recurring by nature. We have improved the mix materially in a number of businesses. We wanted to benefit from the opportunities provided by the long-term urbanization trends in China. Our new building and infrastructure platform in the Chinese infrastructure and energy end market is delivering very promising results.
We saw too much risk in our oil and gas CapEx exposure, which represented more than 10% of revenue. It is now below 2%. We anticipated the need for the shipping industry to reduce carbon emissions. Our innovative new classification schemes have repositioned the marine offshore portfolio with particular focus on LNG propulsion, ammonia, electric vessels, or hydrogen.
Okay, as you mentioned, the OpEx and the systems, so how did you transform them?
We increased our B&I OpEx platform in North America, notably through the acquisition of EMG. We reposition our B&I portfolio in Europe towards OpEx services with an unrivaled network density. It now represents 75% of what we do in France, and above 80% for the whole of Europe. In our industry activity now, we rebalanced our portfolio in the energy segment to 60% OpEx and 40% CapEx. This was the other way around in 2015. We have enhanced our certification activity with the development of new services, particularly in sustainability and supply chain. You will see this morning examples demonstrating this dynamic.
Exactly, yeah. When you launched the 2020 strategy, one of the ideas was to expand the consumer end markets in order to reduce your cyclicality, difficult to pronounce, sorry for that, and diversify from more industrial end markets. Did you manage to succeed on that?
Annette, it was indeed one of the objectives, and we have been very successful. We leverage our exposure to products, which is more volume and innovation driven. This is one of the many areas where we have great potential looking forward. Of course, we are totally in the field of trust here, trust between consumers and manufacturers. We can leverage on the portfolio of farm-to-fork services in Agri-Food. Inspection, audit, certification, and testing are excellent market opportunities today and tomorrow. In Asia Pacific and Latin America, we have acquired new food inspection and testing facilities to give us leading positions. Consumer Products. In Consumer Products, we have moved into new products categories, such as electrical and electronics, and also in connectivity, where we now have a clear leading position. We expanded our footprint to new geographies, especially across Asia.
We have also developed solutions to support online retailers and middle market players. This will be key, Annette, in our 2025 strategy.
That's very convincing. I think that really sharing concrete examples, factual achievements, will give the audience really an idea of the transformation the group has undergone. Great. Didier, we have talked about types of end markets or client segments, but you mentioned earlier that the geographical and the business footprint has changed. Could you give us some more details about that?
Well, when you look at our portfolio from activity or geographical standpoint, we have made meaningful changes. In Buildings & Infrastructure, we benefit from two brand-new platforms of around EUR 200 million each in the U.S. and in China. B&I represented 21% of group revenue in 2015. It's now close to 30%. We are the world leader with strong positions in every local market, each having its own dynamics. Within Industry, our CapEx exposure to oil and gas, notably in North America and Latin America, has diminished in favor of the oil and gas OpEx services with tremendous success. Within Agri-Food & Commodities now, the notable changes are the reduced weighting of oil and petrochemicals. We have developed our metal and minerals activity with on-site labs in key markets such as Australia and Africa.
Agri-Food is now well-balanced worldwide, accounting for more than EUR 300 million of revenue. We have almost doubled in size since 2015. In technology, we were already a leading player in connectivity, and we have continued to expand our footprint, especially in Asia, to affirm our position. We will talk more about this promising opportunity later and our developments.
Great. If you don't mind, I would like to come back to the beginning of our discussion, because you mentioned that you have changed the way you work. What do you mean by this concretely?
It's a good point, Annette. An efficient organization lies in having the right people, the right tools, and the right processes. It is not enough just to be in the right place at the right time. As BV had grown a lot through acquisition, the company culture needed to be given a new impetus, and we had to put in place new leaders and managers from different cultures and backgrounds.
Okay. Didier, do you mean in terms of leadership and management?
As an illustration, at the executive committee level, we have a diverse team with complementary profiles and skills. We needed more balance in terms of gender, nationality, and by consequence, more diverse inputs. Our current executive committee is more international, representing the global presence of the group, and is more inclusive. It is also leaner, enabled to have faster decision-making process. I also strongly reinforced the commercial backbone of the company and instilled a more client-centric and market-oriented approach. To manage the transformation, the objective was to bring around the table the expertise of key market leaders from both within and outside the group. The purpose was to enable BV to think out of the box while keeping the DNA of a technical and technological company. We have developed a more commercial culture and mindset. This is key to bolster our organic growth and better meet our clients' needs.
Today, we have an extremely solid team aligned on the same vision for our group for the years to come and committed to delivering our 2025 strategy.
Great. You have great people. Behind people comes processes. What did you do in this matter?
We did a lot. We deployed a robust, agile, and efficient management system covering performance monitoring, talent identification, development, and succession plans, agile decision-making at the executive committee, discipline processes for M&A, and CapEx investment opportunities. The organization allows us to adapt to the business reality of our global and local operations. It promotes innovations as well as the scalability and the use of tools and expertise.
Yeah, I think you did a lot in all areas. That's really great to hear. You also mentioned that BV became more focused on sustainability and more digital company. Concretely, what measures did you take?
Annette, we have accelerated our digitalization in the past few years. We have become more digital through a strategy focused on three priorities. The first one, boost our efficiency using platforms such as Building Information Modeling in B&I and using drones to perform inspection works in Agri-Food industry or Marine & Offshore. Second, develop new digital services vital these days. Third, develop digital platform externally for our clients to engage with us and book our services, and also internally as a backbone for all of our people to operate in an integrated and collaborative environment. This goes from HR to our financial system, the CRM, and the day-to-day tools. We are more agile, proactive, and responsive.
Didier, what can you tell us about the commitment to society which is really becoming very important?
Bureau Veritas' commitment to society lies at the heart of our DNA. We are talking about BV's role in shaping trust between society and business.
Okay, how do you play this role?
Annette, when you use your phone, there is no disruption in connectivity with other devices at home. Why? Because we made a test in our labs. When you enter an elevator in a building, it's safe because we made sure the maintenance has been done. When you buy organic food products, you have the assurance this is true because we checked the supply chain traceability. Being a business to business to society means ensuring on behalf of our clients and society in general the quality, compliance, and all types of assets, processes, and products. This includes everything that we inspect, test, audit, and verify on a daily basis.
Internally, what exactly do you do as a company?
The overriding goal for BV is to be the sustainability leader in the TIC industry. It means helping to shape trust between stakeholders in a fairer, more equal, more respectful, and more inclusive society. We use natural resources in our labs and offices, employing approximately 80,000 people in the world. We must ensure complete excellence within Bureau Veritas for being notably best in class in terms of safety for our people. Our CSR strategy aims at Shaping a Better World. It is fully embedded in our mission to shape a world of trust. Helen Bradley, head of Group Human Resources, will come back on this in more detail later today. We are ranked number one in the latest DJSI rankings.
Okay. Didier, what I understand from past communications is that your strategy around sustainability is twofold, internal and external. What exactly do you propose to your clients?
Annette, we have a great momentum with BV Green Line, our suite of services and solutions dedicated to sustainable development across all businesses. For more than a year now, we've been seeing fast-growing demand from our clients to support them in their goals to become more transparent and gain trust in their sustainability commitments. With our expertise, we serve our clients to meet their challenges all along the chain for all sectors of the economy, from resources and production to consumption, during the construction and refurbishment phase of buildings and infrastructure, or in the field of transport. Of course, their CSR implementation with regards to employees and other stakeholders. We play a key role in proving the impact of our clients' ESG actions by making them traceable, visible, and reliable.
These services are being reinforced and expanded to become a fundamental part of BV's client offering across all our businesses. As we speak, the BV Green Line represents more than 50% of our sales pipeline. This is a huge opportunity in the medium to long term.
Okay, great. Listening to you, an idea comes up to my mind. You're kind of protector against greenwashing, and that's really reassuring. That's great. Now what exactly, what do you retain from the execution of the 2020 plan for the 2025 strategy?
Very good question, Annette. Of course, Annette, we assessed objectively what required more focus moving forward. We are continuing to align the organization and incentives against strategic objectives. We will include more ESG components in the compensation schemes of our people. We also continue our cultural shift towards increased client centricity. In terms of strategic priorities, we believe that the focus has to be on organic growth, and we will not compromise on margin. As regards our second growth engine, which is M&A, we will continue with our disciplined bolt-on approach and portfolio rationalization. Finally, on digital, we continue our efforts to reach a more mature innovation model to develop further our businesses and replicate solutions.
Okay, very clear. Now, looking forward, where do you plan to take BV between now and 2025?
We will continue to build on our strengths, which are very important strengths today. These are the cornerstones of our future success. Together with our ability to be extremely reactive with efficient execution, we want to continue our value-creating journey, ensuring both short- and long-term growth for the group. First, a few words on the market trends and why this is such an exciting ambition for BV. We estimate the TIC market to be around EUR 250 billion today, with approximately 45% being outsourced. This is accessible to us. To capture this opportunity, we have three value drivers: scale, expand, and lead. Scale. Scale is to capture the full value of our existing businesses. Expand is making the right choices among growth opportunities. Lead is taking advantage of innovation and technological shifts to be well-positioned for tomorrow's business.
These value drivers apply to our whole business and every one of our strategic market verticals. To make this possible, we have defined enablers which are key foundations to allow the deployment and execution of our strategy. People, transformation of company culture, organization and governance, innovation, and digital. Our objective is to maximize value towards sustainable growth from existing and businesses adjacent to our core activity. We want to lead the way forward for the TIC industry. The strategy, which will be presented in more details by Eduardo Camargo, EVP Group Transformation and Business Development, and Ségolène de Rose, SVP Group Strategy and M&A.
Good. I think this is really crystal clear at that stage. Before we talk and we go in more details with Eduardo and Ségolène, I want to come back on one point, because you mentioned strategic market verticals. Do you have areas of special focus on which you will put an effort, in particular?
Yes, Annette. Yes. We have a very clear and disciplined approach when it comes to our strategic direction. There are five headline themes identified from a business perspective which we want to focus on, and these are asset life cycle solutions, sustainability assurance, energy transition conformity assessment, technology and online retail, cyber security components. These are key areas on which we already have expertise and competitive advantage, and we will continue to invest. We believe that these are supported by extremely powerful megatrends and will be short, medium, and long-term drivers for the future of Bureau Veritas.
Great. Thank you. Thank you very much, Didier, for this very instructive talk, I think, for our viewers today. We will see you back in a few minutes for the Q&A session, and this next one will focus on strategy. Thank you.
Thanks, Annette.
Thank you, Didier. Now I remind you that there will be a second Q&A session dedicated to the enablers just mentioned by Didier and the financial ambitions and assumptions. You can post your questions at any time, so you know, on the chat on the right-hand side of your screen. As mentioned earlier by Didier, we'll now dive deeper into the strategic direction Bureau Veritas wants to take. With first a focus on the framework and then on concrete business cases, let's welcome Eduardo Camargo, Executive Vice-President, Group Transformation and Business Development, and Ségolène de Rose, Senior Vice President, Group Strategy and M&A. Hello. Hello to both of you, and welcome on the set.
Hello, Annette.
Hello.
Eduardo, you will present us the 2025 strategic framework and how you have structured your strategic direction and the group's high-level priorities for the next four years. Ségolène, you will give us some concrete examples of how you are already accelerating the strategic priorities execution. I would like to start with you, Eduardo, with some basics of the key fundamentals of your market.
Good morning, Annette. Hello, everyone. There are indeed three fundamentals in our testing inspection and certification market that you know as well as you do, and they have not changed significantly during the last six years. The first one is that TIC is a sizable market. As you all know, there are no reliable sources giving us the size of the TIC's addressable market. Based on the same methodology we used to build up our 2020 strategy, we assess it to be worth around EUR 25 billion today, as mentioned by Didier. We estimate that about 45% of that is outsourced, or in other words, accessible to us. The second fundamental is that the TIC market is still very fragmented.
If you consider the top five players in this market today, we share less than 20% of the outsourced part of the market, or nearly EUR 110 billion. The third fundamental for us to highlight is that the TIC market still offers solid growth prospects. We would have indeed to make too many assumptions to estimate how much the addressable TIC market will grow. Growth of underlying markets, change in TIC intensity, change in outsourcing trends, among many others. We can, however, share why we are convinced that our market will grow. For example, expanding regulations, increased outsourcing of services, and moreover, societies' increasing demands for quality, sustainability, traceability, transparency, and ultimately, for more trust. With the fragmentation of the market, and as one of the biggest players in it, we know we can do better than 3% underlying market growth.
Let us tell you how. In order to accelerate our transformation and growth, BV will capitalize on underlying market trends that are picking up speed around the world, starting with those that will have the greatest impacts on the TIC industry and particularly on BV's business portfolio. First, a rising global population and increasing urbanization requiring better infrastructure. Second, disruptions in international trade with reconfigured supply chains. Third, new technologies, notably more and more digitalization. Fourth, a greater emphasis on sustainability and ESG. And finally, a closer look at the importance of health and hygiene. The COVID-19 crisis not only confirmed that these were trends, but accelerated many of them. These trends indicate markets with further growth potential, and we have used them to define our priorities for the 2025 strategic direction. BV is on a value creation journey.
Our 2025 objective is to capture maximum value from existing and adjacent business, and at the same time, to lead the TIC evolution towards sustainable growth. Our greatest emphasis is definitely on organic growth, and we want to maximize the investments we have already made. We plan to use our strengths as a TIC leader to seize greater market share. We want to create value for our shareholders while also contributing to a better planet at the same time. At the heart of our 2025 strategy, we have three value drivers to ensure both short and long-term growth for BV. We call them, as Didier introduced earlier, scale, expand, and lead. These value drivers are the best way to intensify our dual transformation.
Repositioning today's business to be more resilient with our first two value drivers, scale and spans, while creating tomorrow's business with the third value driver, lead. In short, greater resilience today and more business tomorrow. Now, we will provide you with an overview of how we are executing our strategy around each value driver. Let's start by the first one, scale. Scale is all about boosting organic growth, which our strategy targets first and foremost. There are plenty of reasons for BV to scale. The first reason is that our sector is buoyant. We know that TIC services will keep experiencing solid growth. Today, more than ever, the world needs a way to build up trust and transparency. For one thing, public policy is increasingly focused on improving quality, health and safety, environmental, and social standards.
On the other hand, consumers are less and less willing to accept a lack of transparency. BV's services respond to these needs, improving confidence in companies, products, assets, and systems. Our services bring great value to society, creating trust among consumers, citizens, and organizations. Second good reason is that BV has an impressive international footprint and strong local dynamism, offering opportunities for replication everywhere. We are one of the few truly global players in the TIC industry, and certainly one of the most diverse. We can just boost organic growth by making the best use of our existing assets, capabilities, and regions all over the world. Third reason is we have created a big reservoir of potential growth with investments made during our strategic plan 2020, establishing promising business platforms in new markets and in key geographies.
Besides, although we have been very selective in our bolt-on M&A approach in the recent years, we have managed to build up solid and comprehensive platforms. Now it's really time to leverage our investments. For all these reasons, BV has today a growth engine to capture the full value of core businesses. Now, how are you executing our scale value driver? We are doing that along three main streams. The first one is replication. We are accelerating the standardization and replication of our existing service offer in major markets and in our main geographies. The second way of doing that is with our sales excellence. We will continue our transformation journey towards an even more market-oriented organization. Finally, the third way for us to scale is through our operational performance.
We are capitalizing from significant investments made during the last six years, both internally with the deployment of global digital platforms unifying the whole company, and externally with the launch of cutting-edge integrated digital solutions responding to our client needs. Let's move now to our second value driver, expand. We are growing our business and the share of wallet with our key accounts by expanding our service offer and providing full solutions. The expand value driver is primarily about making the right choices among growth opportunities. We can mention some, for example, focusing on Chinese domestic markets and increasing our presence in North American most relevant segments. For example, fostering integrated solutions beyond conformity assessment or, for example, supporting clients in their sustainable development. By doing this, we are, at the same time, accelerating our diversification and improving our portfolio resilience.
We are here focused on three main areas of expansion. The first area of expansion is sustainability. Sustainability is a great opportunity for growth. We are a tech leader in ESG service offerings. This is not a new subject for us. BV has been delivering sustainability services for years through existing services across all of our divisions. Today, society's expectations have changed. Governments, investors, board members, consumers, and employees are raising the bar and expecting companies to be more proactive in improving their ESG performance and accountabilities. This requires new services to help companies protect their brands and demonstrate transparency. Second, the energy transition. We expect here a great deal of growth from the years to come. We are accompanying our traditional energy clients, as well as supporting the new emerging players in this field throughout a twofold approach.
Expanding the scope of services we provide in the wind and solar power generation markets and, at the same time, investing on innovative solutions dedicated to green sources of energy, notably hydrogen. Finally, we would like to mention the cross-cutting growth opportunities that are transversal to most of our business. This refers to global opportunities that impact several of our markets and divisions, such as, for example, 5G, Belt and Road Initiative, new mobility, healthcare infrastructure, digital infrastructure, and smart cities. Here again, we can tell you that we are already very active in all these high-potential tech spaces. This bring us to our third and final value driver, lead. Lead is about planting seeds, investing into new business that have the potential to become part of the tech core business in the future.
This value driver is not primarily intended to produce short-term revenue, but to lay the ground for our growth, for our long-term growth, and keep leading the tech market in a future that will certainly look very different from today. When we talk about planting seeds, we believe strongly in the growth of three target areas: cybersecurity, connectivity, and traceability. Let's talk about first, cybersecurity. In an era of digitalization and cyber threats, this has become a major concern for the entire global economy. It's critical even for big international companies, such as BV, that are prepared to face such issues. Our recent experience speaks by itself. Why is it an important new market for BV? It's simple.
There is a clear and growing demand for third-party cybersecurity testing, inspection, and certification services, including, for example, information technology systems certification, Internet of Things products testing, and Industrial Internet of Things assets vulnerability assessment. The next important topic is connectivity. It is estimated that by 2025, there will be 75 billion connected devices on the planet or nearly 10 per person. Wireless technology and connectivity impacts every market that we are in, from vehicles to healthcare, to manufacturing, to shipping, mining, among others. These all come with their own regulatory performance and interoperability requirements. BV is today one of the tech leaders on connectivity testing and certification, and we want to intensify investments in this area. The last topic, traceability.
As we mentioned before, trust, transparency, and traceability have become critical themes, as we have seen with recent supply chain disruptions during the COVID pandemic. Most companies are now working to make their supply chains more resilient. We are very well positioned to provide them with traceability solutions and perform comprehensive assessments of their supply chains to reduce their risks and protect their brands. Like for example, the Supplier Digital Solution recently launched by BV. In a nutshell, that covers our scale, expand, and lead value drivers. They are the backbone of our strategy. It's also important to highlight that the execution of our 2025 strategy is supported by three enablers. You will hear more about our enablers later today with Helen Bradley, but let me quickly explain what they are.
The first one is people, and a transformation of our company culture, especially in regards to attracting and retaining the best talents. The second is organization and governance as levers to implement our strategy with a focus on enhancing our own ESG stewardship. The third enabler is innovation, notably digital innovation. These enablers are the foundations of our strategy, allowing us to accelerate its execution in the field.
Great. Thank you very much, Eduardo, for this very clear presentation of the 2025 strategy and all the different layers of the framework, which are the basis of your strategies. Thank you. Ségolène, I hand over to you now. Could you first perhaps summarize this framework and explain to us then through concrete business cases how you have already implemented your strategy. You're on.
Thank you. Well, good morning, everyone. On this chart right now, you have the consolidated view of our strategy framework. In summary, to achieve our 2025 objective, we are using our three value drivers: scale for existing core business, expand for adjacent businesses, and lead to unlock the growth potential of tomorrow. We are applying them to our whole business in each of our six market verticals. We are investing in our three enablers to support our strategy's execution. As we noted earlier, the greatest emphasis of our 2025 strategy is on organic growth. Having said that, M&A remains a strategic driver as long as it is disciplined and aligned with our strategic priorities. We defined our M&A priorities with three key objectives. First objective is gaining market access in high potential local markets where we still lack licenses to operate.
This is the case in B&I infrastructure in North America, in Consumer Products, or in Certification. Second objective is acquiring missing capabilities to be able to provide end-to-end solutions to our clients, such as renewables in North America, in Asia, and in Europe. Third objective is entering new markets that we believe will be relevant in the future. For example, in the field of traceability or connectivity. Concretely, the framework of our strategy has helped us define our priorities for the years to come, per market vertical and per geography. However, at group level, we have consolidated all our strategy priorities along five overarching themes transversal to our businesses. They represent the areas where we will concentrate our efforts and investments for the years to come. First theme is asset lifecycle solutions, which means boosting our management activities throughout the whole life cycle of an asset.
Second theme is sustainability assurance, or giving credibility to our clients' sustainability strategies. Third theme is energy transition conformity assessment, or accompanying our clients in their energy transition strategies. Fourth is technology and online retail, or helping our clients in their conformance, their performance, or their security requirements. Fifth is cybersecurity compliance, which will be a relevant part of our portfolio in the future. All these areas of investment were built upon BV's capabilities and long-time expertise, and they are fully aligned with the mega trends we are seeing around the globe. Now we'd like to take you through each one of them, providing you with concrete examples of how we have already started executing our strategy. First, asset lifecycle solutions.
This is a theme that you are already familiar with, as it has been one of the pillars of Bureau Veritas transformation over the past few years. It is precisely through this approach that we have significantly improved the group's resilience, our ability to support our clients after the construction period, the CapEx phase, throughout the whole life of an asset in the OpEx phase. This allows us to develop client intimacy over the long term, and to demonstrate the full range of our unrivaled business expertise. We do this for our energy business, our building and infrastructure business, as well as for our marine and offshore business. Now, let's have a look on the following video, on which we will demonstrate concretely how we are executing the strategic priority on the ground.
Hello, I am Renato Catrib, Senior Vice President for I&F Global Service Lines. Today, I would like to share two examples of BV's recent achievements in providing full solutions to assets' life cycle management. The first is about transportation infrastructure in Europe. The second takes us to China for the healthcare infrastructure. Let me begin with Autostrade per l'Italia, or ASPI, part of the Atlantia Group. ASPI is one of Europe's biggest companies building and managing toll highways. It manages around 3,000 km of roads in Italy. As in many developing countries, the Italian government has come to realize that thousands of aging infrastructure assets need immediate attention and investments. Bureau Veritas performs quarterly and yearly technical inspections of viaducts, tunnels, and bridges that Autostrade manages. Using a digital platform, we collect, consolidate, analyze, and monitor a range of KPIs on more than 7,000 assets.
By regularly conducting these independent inspections, we are helping Autostrade to design a more efficient maintenance program, validated annually by Italy's National Highway Authority. More importantly, we are contributing to a sense of security for commuters on the road. My second example is in China. As you know, governments around the world are pouring massive investments into infrastructure as their populations grow. Shenzhen is China's fourth most populous city, with 17.4 million inhabitants. Its Bureau of Public Works selected BV to perform quality assurance and quality control services during design and construction of the Shenzhen Yixia Hospital. This general hospital, run by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, will be the region's largest, with 3,000 beds. Bureau Veritas is overseeing material selection, prevention of common quality problems during construction, routine trainings, and critical milestones.
With our support, the Bureau of Public Works can identify any potential issues in advance, and ensure the successful development of this very important project. Hopefully, these two examples will help you to understand how BV is using its expertise in asset life cycle management, both for the infrastructure upgrade in emerging countries, as well as for the infrastructure renovation in developed countries. Thank you very much for your attention.
What was just a few years ago a nice-to-have has today become a must-have. I'm talking about sustainability, now considered as essential for an organization's long-term future beyond its financial performance. Companies are now implementing CSR strategies and defining a consistent and long-term sustainability strategy is key. Having reliable information on their actions, communicating with transparency, and building trust with their stakeholders is crucial. BV is the trusted third-party expert that will help companies communicate transparently on their commitments. Based on our existing expertise and on the new skills we have acquired, we have built BV Green Line. With it, we support companies across all business sectors in their effort to improve their performance and demonstrate the credibility of their actions. In particular, through our sustainability assurance services, we enable our clients to better protect their brand, their reputation, and further improve their value.
Sustainability is a strong growth driver for Bureau Veritas. It serves both our convictions and our ambitions.
Thanks, Ségolène, and let's have a look at the second video illustrating how BV is becoming a leader in the TIC sustainability market. Let's have a look at this.
Hello, my name is Jacques Pommeraud. I am the Executive Vice-President for France and Africa Operating Group. All our clients need to prove that they are acting in a responsible and transparent manner. Self-declarations are not sufficient anymore. At Bureau Veritas, we provide them with the concrete evidence that their sustainability commitments are grounded in real actions. This is precisely what our experts in sustainability assurance bring to the table for our clients. I'm excited to give you a sneak preview of an offer we are officially launching on December 9. It's called Clarity, and it's our latest solution for bringing trust and transparency to our clients' sustainability commitments. We already see some great traction on this offer. Let me take you to two concrete examples. First, Auchan. This French multinational is an enormous retailer with over 4,000 locations and 350,000 employees worldwide.
Auchan currently works with around 80 suppliers across hundreds of production sites to manufacture the wood furniture sold in their supermarkets. Building responsible and sustainable wood value chains is critical to ensure their contribution and commitment with society and our planet. It is a way for them to reduce their CO2 emissions, a key component of their ESG objectives. Auchan decided to move forward with Clarity to improve the production practices of their supply chain with better visibility and transparency. They will know where the highest risks are located and be able to take corrective actions accordingly. In the future, Auchan will be able to use the Clarity program to monitor their entire sustainability roadmap in one single place. The second example is Accor.
Accor is the biggest hospitality company in Europe and one of the largest in the world with 5,000 hotels and residences in 110 countries. They were looking for a trusted partner to conduct social, health, and safety assessments. BV perfectly fits the bill. Our specialized experts know how to deliver social, health, and safety and sustainability audits all over the world. With our Clarity offer, we display all results of the assessments and verifications in a best-in-class digital tool, which is becoming critical for top management. These are just a few examples of how BV is a key partner in the sustainability journey of companies around the world for whom ESG is now a primary focus. Thank you.
Our third overarching theme is the energy transition. A few weeks after COP26, we see that the climate crisis is even more pressing, and that the energy transition is necessary and must be drastically accelerated. This enormous change will drive tremendous investments in the years to come, and we have an important role to play as it affects all of our clients. Here again, we see an exciting opportunity to support this societal shift in two ways. First, by expanding the scope of the services we sell to our traditional clients in Marine and Offshore and Consumer Products in oil and gas. Second, by expanding into the booming renewable market. By capitalizing on our existing expertise and enriching it with new expertise, we have already developed a strong presence in these markets, notably through our conformity assessment services.
Let's take a look at what we are doing with the following video showing two important business cases.
Hello, my name is Shawn Till, and I'm the EVP for the North American Operating Group. I'd like to give you a couple of examples of what Bureau Veritas is doing in terms of conformity assessment for new energy sources. One concerns wind and solar energy in Texas, the other green hydrogen in Dubai. First, Texas, with one of our fastest growing clients, Ørsted. Ørsted is Denmark's biggest energy company and a world leader in offshore wind power, accounting for nearly a third of the global installed capacity. It is seen as the world's most sustainable energy company and produces nearly 90% of its energy from renewable sources. Ørsted is building its biggest onshore project to date, the Helena Energy Center in Bee County in the south of Texas.
It will generate 518 MW of wind and solar power, or enough for 140,000 homes per year. For this iconic project, Bureau Veritas is acting as Ørsted's representative in the field. Ørsted is counting on our expertise to assure quality of construction and efficient, safe, and compliant execution. This important contract demonstrates Ørsted's confidence in BV and shows that we are consolidating our position as a trusted actor in this segment. The second example I have for you takes place in the hydrogen space. DEWA is Dubai's public utility authority, serving more than 1 million customers. Recently, together with Expo 2020 Dubai and Siemens Energy, they launched the first industrial-scale green hydrogen project in the Middle East. It is located in a big solar park close to Dubai, from where it will get solar power to produce green hydrogen.
While hydrogen is quickly gaining steam as a new energy source, regulations are still developing. BV, an expert in safety management, is gaining renown as a pioneering tech player in the field. Companies like DEWA are turning to us to accelerate their developments. DEWA asked for support in executing this groundbreaking construction project from start to end. We are utilizing specialized digital platforms to conduct extensive risk and safety studies. I hope these two business cases have shown you that by focusing our expertise on the energy transition, we are taking the lead in a market that will have a huge impact on the planet and enormous growth potential for BV. Thank you.
What we have created in terms of skills, reputation, and trust over the past 200 years in the physical world, we are now developing it in the digital world. Our goal is to be the undisputed leader in safety, quality, and sustainable development in the digital world. One main area of focus is technology and online retail for our Consumer Products division. As retail becomes increasingly digital, brands need to work closely with tech players to manage their supply chain and protect their brand reputation. Great. Now let's see in video how BV is accelerating its services into the connectivity market as well as on the online retail marketplace.
Hello, everyone. I'm Catherine Chen, EVP for BV Consumer Products Services division. I'm excited to give you an idea of what BV is doing in the area of technology and online retail. One example is high-end market, and the other one is mass market. First, an iconic car manufacturer and an aspirational brand, the Maserati. For more than a century, Maserati has been making fast, luxurious convertible cars. One of their more practical features is making automatic calls in the case of an accident, giving the vehicle's location to the nearest emergency center. For cars in Russia and the Eurasian Economic Union, these calls are received by ERA-GLONASS, an automatic emergency response system combining mobile communications and satellite positionings to provide rapid assistance to motorists in the event of a collision. Maserati asked the Bureau Veritas to perform ERA-GLONASS test and homologation services for three of their hybrid models.
Speed was of the essence. After all, this is Maserati. Bureau Veritas found a way to meet the strict timeline by first carrying out R&D tests in Germany, followed by formal validation tests in labs in China. By using the expertise of our international network, we made the project a success and keep this iconic Italian brand moving. My second example is a much more accessible brand, ASOS, a major online retailer of clothing and accessories, selling everything from leggings to lipsticks. They sell more than 850 brands and ship products to countries around the globe from their different fulfillment centers. As you can imagine, managing market access requirements and their supply chain is very complex. ASOS turned to us to help them minimize risks and ensure compliance.
BV was an obvious partner thanks to our international network of specialists, our extensive knowledge of local regulations, and our detailed understanding of global best practices. Bureau Veritas now provides ASOS with a complete set of solutions. We're testing products in over 10 countries, assessing factories in more than 15 countries, and auditing key suppliers' chemical use. Our digital tools are key to monitoring and reporting everything from supply chain quality management to environmental management. These two examples show that as retail becomes more tech-driven, companies in vastly different markets are turning to Bureau Veritas for the safety and quality assurance we bring to the digital experience.
That takes us to the fifth and final overarching theme, cybersecurity compliance. You might be wondering, what does it have to do with TIC services? Well, as Eduardo said, there is a clear and growing demand for a third party to conduct cybersecurity conformity assessments. In other words, we evaluate the security level of clients' products, assets, and systems according to certain new referentials, as we believe that cybersecurity independent testing and certification will become part of the TIC company's core business in the future. That is why we are investing in these capabilities. Now, let's have a look at this last video giving an example of what we are doing in the TIC cybersecurity space.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Anna Prudnikova, Senior Certification Specialist at Secura, a tech cybersecurity leading company recently acquired by BV. Cybersecurity is fairly new, and cybersecurity conformity assessment is still a fuzzy concept for many people. I'd like to share an example of a contract that illustrates the work that BV does in this sector and why a tech actor plays a critical role in cybersecurity. This important new contract is with Hitachi Energy, formerly known as Hitachi ABB Power Grids, a tech leader in power generation operating in over 140 countries. The company needed an independent expert to evaluate the cybersecurity level of its products and systems, its maintenance and integration teams, and its development processes. Very important, it needed certifications. Since cybersecurity is a budding sector, its regulatory structure is still taking shape.
At the same time, companies already need certification to reassure their clients and as a key differentiator in their marketing approach. Hitachi Energy selected Bureau Veritas to deliver ISO 27001 certifications for its energy sites, as well as IEC 62443 certifications for its products, systems, teams, and processes. This global project represents more than 200 certificates in over 250 sites and 60+ countries. We stood out for our ability to issue both types of certificates, our IEC qualification in the 4 certifiable parts of IEC 62443, and our ability to perform remote audits and handle multiple international projects. BV services for Hitachi Energy as well as for other companies adds value by improving security and reducing the risks.
A great thank you to all the speakers we have just seen in the video. Ségolène, thank you very much to you for this world tour of the business cases. I think they really illustrate well the expertise and the, at the same time, the way you are already implementing the strategy. Now we have a good overview of your strategic framework for the next four years. Thank you. Thank you, Ségolène. Back to Eduardo. What should we remember from this discussion?
Well, I hope you now have a good overview of our strategic framework for the four years to come. As takeaways, we would like you to remember some few points. First, we are on a journey to build up a value-creating strategy for BV going forward. Overall, we are confident in the enormous potential we have to scale and capture all the latent growth from the core platforms we have built over the past years. We also plan to continue investing in our medium and long-term relevance with expansion in adjacent services and new markets, including through new forms of innovation and partnerships. Finally, the very good news I want to share with you today is that our 2025 strategy execution is in full motion, already contributing to accelerate our growth.
Our operational teams are fully aligned, sharing the same values, the same ambitions to achieve the objectives.
Great. Thank you. Thank you very much, Eduardo, and thank you again to Ségolène. I imagine that all these topics raise a lot of questions. That's great because we will have a Q&A session now focusing on all your questions about our strategy. I will call back Didier to answer your questions that we have grouped them by topics. Welcome back, Didier. So, let's have a look at the questions you have posted on the chat. So, here's the first one. Are you ready to go?
Yes, I am.
Good. In your view, what went well and what went wrong in the strategic plan execution? Didier.
In fact, Annette, when you look at what we achieved in the past four or five years, it was essential for me to build a stronger BV, more resilient. Clearly, with the obsession to be more market-centric, more digital, and at the same time, a little bit more than one year ago, we decided to launch the BV Green Line, a suite of services and solutions which is clearly answering the market needs. This market, as it is, I could talk about building an infrastructure. Maybe I'm gonna say just one or two words on the particular activities that we developed. The first one on building an infrastructure, the idea here was to become, and we are, the leader in building an infrastructure by rebalancing our geographical position.
Now we are in China, we are in the U.S., we are in Brazil, we are in Mexico, we are in Australia, we are in Singapore. We are everywhere in the world. By doing it, we are local. The second good news is the fact that we decided also on B&I to accelerate the OpEx solutions, meaning that we get more density. More density means productivity improvement, means margin improvement. A second example for me is the oil and gas market. In the past, we were very exposed, 10% of our revenue. It's down to 2%. I'm talking about the CapEx oil and gas. Again, the idea here was to move from the CapEx to the OpEx solutions. Higher margin, which is good news, in particular in OpEx, but also in power and utilities.
Again, here, the density should favor the opportunity of growing the business, but also improving the margin. Maybe a third good example is technology. We decided to accelerate our presence in technology testing in CPS. Three examples of what we did in the past few years to continue to make the company stronger and again, more resilient.
I'm sure that you could mention much more questions.
Yes. For sure, yeah.
Time is running out. Let's move on. Here's the next one. Which are, in your opinion, the key barriers or challenges for the 2025 strategy execution? What is not yet done in terms of transformation? I think, again, it's a question for you, Didier.
The good news, Annette, everything is in place. The platform is strong and ready to go. There is no doubt about it. Now, if I think about what we will face as a challenge probably in the future is hiring people, finding the right expertise and training the people. The good news here is, as we are business to business to society company, we became, along the years, very attractive to the young generation, as you can understand, Annette.
Okay.
May I answer?
Yeah.
Yeah, sure, yeah. Eduardo.
I think that two important lessons learned to be mentioned that we learned with our last strategic plan, the 2020 plan that we put in place now to build up our 2025 strategic plan. One was to combine our inside-out view of the market with an outside-in view of the market. To make it simple, we have, instead of limiting ourselves looking at our service offers, we started looking at our client needs. Again, here, the Green Line of services is probably the best example. We try to understand, spend time, listen to clients and understand their needs. By doing that, we unleash a big growth potential for us because we are not limiting anymore our growth potential by our own service offer.
We are expanding our service offer and launching a lot of new solutions. The second important lesson that we are doing a little bit different from the last plan was the mobilization of our teams. We have, in fact, we took advantage of a year of a pandemic in 2020. This strategy was built up almost a year ago, and we have launched the execution before really communicating the strategy externally. As we said before, the strategy is in full execution now, full speed, with much more acceleration.
Great. Thank you. Let's take the third question. So your margin target is at 9% 2019 level. Isn't it too conservative? Can't you be more ambitious in your margin target? Didier? Challenging questions.
It's a good question.
That's great.
Well, let's be transparent on that question, Annette. We are prudent, probably too prudent, because when you think about the fact that we will grow more than 5% in the future, in terms of organic growth, and we are looking at making acquisitions which are gonna be totally aligned on our strategy, but also with good financials. On top of it, you can take into consideration the fact that the restructuring is done. We are not going to restructure this company anymore. There will be some adjustment here and there, but the restructuring is done. As I said, because of the density, when you own OpEx business, in fact, you improve your productivity. Last but not least, the fixed costs.
I mean, I'm not going to add a new managing director per country or a new CFO or an HR. The structure is in place, so meaning that we should clearly cover our fixed costs. Yes, I've been a little bit too prudent, Annette. I've been a little bit too prudent. Again, we have a lot of opportunities. The volume will help us to improve the margin. The idea by saying 16% minimum was just to set a floor at the end of the day.
Thank you. Could you touch on the competition and if you have seen any changes since 2015, in particular with domestic competitors in Asia in consumer products?
I cannot say we have seen a big disruption linked to the competition. If you think about Bureau Veritas, what we achieved in the past four or five years was clearly to move from having laboratories mostly in China to Southeast Asia. The balance today is very good because as we know, in fact, the demand now is moving progressively from China to some other parts in Asia. Now we are going even further because of the relocation of supply chain by opening labs in other countries or why not making acquisitions.
Good. Here's the next one. Could you please comment on the 3% market growth? How much of that is volume versus price? What is your inflation assumption? Does the 3% include any outsourcing benefit over time? How much could outsourcing add? Many questions in one question. Go on.
This is a very good question, of course, because we can see inflation accelerating. There are some theories saying it's gonna be for a while, and after we come back to a normal, I would say, inflation rate. We don't know. What I can tell you is clearly in terms of price, I was very proactive by pushing countries like the U.S. to increase prices. Since February, we already made this decision. If you think about, of course, the communication we put through, this one was linked to what we knew or what we know today. What's gonna be the future regarding inflation, we will see. Of course, you can imagine that if inflation rises, in fact it will have an impact on our organic growth, because we will have to push our price above.
Today, when you think about the 5%, I'm thinking about purely volume, meaning the impact of what we have decided to do in terms of diversifying our businesses, making them more resilient. Here, when we think about mid-single-digit, we are talking about volume.
Great. Thank you. Next one. Can you elaborate on how you see the divisions performing within this new framework? Which ones outperform the targets, which one underperform?
Maybe Eduardo will take this one.
Yeah. We have, as we mentioned before, I think one of the greatest improvement we made in our portfolio since 2015 was the reducing our dependence on activities related to CapEx. Which means lower contribution in our portfolio from the traditional business like oil and gas, even B&I CapEx, but with a superior growth from the new platforms we build up, and we have invested since 2015 to name some of them. All the services we provide today for the Buildings & Infrastructure OpEx, notably in the U.S. and in China. Our agri-food platform, which has been very resilient during, including the pandemic period, presenting superior growth.
The technology piece in our Consumer Products division really presenting a high growth and where we are investing a lot. It's linked to connectivity, of course, and wireless devices. Finally, our Certification division, because as we mentioned this morning, we are not just leveraging our position, but enhancing our offer beyond conformity assessment, helping their clients execute their sustainability strategy and demonstrate their sustainability commitments and KPIs. It's already producing superior growth in this division, and we expect a lot more in the years to come.
Thank you. Next one. How has the competitive landscape changed in the last five years? Is there a greater threat from new entrants, or has the competitive position and pricing power of larger companies been enhanced?
I will give the opportunity to Eduardo to complete my answer. We are leading the pack in terms of sustainability, and I'm very proud about it because we were the first one to start. More than that, when you look at the Green Line, we can cover all activities around the world, from construction to certification. This has made a huge difference, and we know already that the market is just booming. We are at the beginning, you know. This market is gonna ramp up clearly in the years to come. This is clearly a big opportunity for us. After that, if you think about the footprint of Bureau Veritas, 80,000 people and more OpEx-oriented means, again, better productivity, means probably better leverage in terms of pricing purely, and in terms of productivity improvement, as I said.
You wanted to complete my answer, Eduardo?
Yeah. Just to add that, in fact, when we look back, when we started working our 2020 strategic plan back in 2015, and if you compare with the scenario of the TIC market today, honestly speaking, we don't see major changes. We have new entrants, especially tech companies trying to offer solutions based on digital platforms. But the reality is, the entry barriers are very, very high in our markets. The large international TIC players, they have assets that are very, very difficult to build up or even to replicate. First is the international footprint. Second is our technical expertise with, as we like to call, boots on the ground, people really able to do testing, inspections, and field audits.
Finally, the big asset for us is the set of accreditation we have today. This is really very difficult to replicate, and a tech company cannot do it. All in all, I think after six years and even after the COVID crisis, I think the strengths and ultimately the pricing power of the big TIC international players have indeed increased because the clients are more than ever looking for companies able to serve them globally and able to provide them full solutions. In this case, new entrants or, for example, companies that are pure testers are not able to do that.
On the one hand, it's about Bureau Veritas today and not about competition because of course, I'm focused on Bureau Veritas first. When I look at Bureau Veritas today, clearly we decided to build on our own strengths. That was the right decision. The platform has never been as strong as it is, and we can continue to build on it, scale, as we said, expand and lead.
Okay, let's see if you have sent any other questions. Could I please ask the technical staff to send me some more questions? Okay, perhaps that's all. Or are there any other questions? Oh.
Probably yes. Annette, if I may.
Yes.
I could take the opportunity of this interruption because I think-
Yes
... waiting for some question to say something about what we imagine regarding the Green Line. 'Cause it's very important for our investors to understand that Green Line is not fashion. It's not just for tomorrow. It's gonna be for the years to come. We know there is climate deterioration, so we know that in the construction side, there will be green building, there will be rehabilitation of buildings, and we will have to be there to inspect. We know that if we think about the Bureau food, there will be traceability, inspection, audits. We know that ESG commitments are today given to the board and to the consumers. In fact, consumers want trust-
Yeah. Of course
an independent third party to audit. This is what Bureau Veritas is gonna do.
We have some more questions.
I can see.
Yes, exactly. Can you maybe update us a bit more on sustainability revenue exposure taxonomy? Last year you highlighted that after reviewing 65% of the group, two-thirds of revenues were having a link to sustainability. Have you updated that number?
It's a very good transition.
Yes.
We were just discussing about the BV Green Line. In fact, today, we estimate that between 40%-50% of our revenue are under the BV Green Line. I have a better news for our investors. It is that today, at the end of October, more than 50% of our sales pipeline is Green Line.
Okay. Great. Next question. Post-COVID, do you feel the need to change the revenue mix in certain divisions, such as consumer, have less reliance on fast fashion, for example? Any thoughts on what surprised you most during this period?
You want to take it or-
It's a very important question, and I see that there is another one linked to that about how the mega trends could impact negatively some of our clients and some of our markets. We have a very clear view on this, is that from time to time, we have questions from external stakeholders asking if we should stop providing services to oil and gas exploration production or mining. The answer is no. It's no, because for a very good reasons.
Those clients I'm talking about, oil and gas companies or mining companies or car manufacturers, they have been clients of companies like BV for many, many years now, and they are facing, as many other industries, textile is another example, challenges to make their own energy transition. We believe it's our duty.
To help them being successful in this transition. It's definitely not time for us to let them down, but to help them be successful in their energy transition. Good examples are the oil majors. We are working today with all oil majors in energy transitions. They are investing in, as you know, in wind and solar power generation, in hydrogen, and we are accompanying them. I really don't see a slowdown for us in those areas, no.
Okay. I think my connection does not work anymore. For the questions,
There was a question I didn't answer.
Yes. Okay, about mega trends.
Because I saw just before we lost the connection.
Exactly, in the textile industry.
There was probably an important question which was on CPS, our Consumer Products division, and textile. Which was, okay, you are used to test textile. The fact that textile now is moving to what I would call a biotextile or sustainable textile, what's gonna happen? It's an opportunity. Why is it an opportunity? because it. On top of testing, we are going to inspect because our final customers want traceability, and they want to be sure that when you buy textile and say, "Oh, this textile is sustainable," it is true. It's not just about testing the product by itself, but we will have to clearly inspect and audit the supply chain from the beginning to the end. Last but not least, most of the textile is manufactured in Asia.
Our clients now are asking us to do social audits to be sure that there is no child, for instance, in these manufacturer sites to produce textiles. In fact, it's an opportunity because, again, we are going to cover the whole demand, and some of these needs and demand from the clients are new.
Okay. Perhaps let's have another interesting questions. Can you comment on how this European Green Deal, EU taxonomy or US infrastructure bill can impact the demand for services medium term and benefit you in particular? What exposure do you have to these areas? What aspects need more investments?
It's obviously a great opportunity for Bureau Veritas, huh? If you think about what is called the European Green Deal, we are probably the only TIC company which can provide the services in Europe and globally. Because here we are talking about green buildings, renovation of buildings which have to be greener, green infrastructure. It is to be for the whole Europe. Same, exactly the same reasoning for the U.S. Because we have a large footprint now that we can deliver the service, and we are probably again today as a global leader in construction and infrastructure, the one to deliver the service. In terms now of EU taxonomy, clearly there will be more regulations, there is no doubt about it, to avoid one thing, greenwashing.
To avoid greenwashing, you need second party audits which are independent to be sure that what is committed to the clients, to the consumers, to the board today is true and reliable and transparent, Annette. Clearly, for Bureau Veritas, this US infrastructure deal, European Green Deal, EU taxonomy is great opportunity.
Okay. Let's have a last question for this Q&A session. Do we need to see regulatory changes as needed for your business to benefit from sustainability changes, or do you see increasing initiative from companies themselves?
In fact, you have a lot of companies. I am a board member of a company. The CEO is incentivized on ESG commitment. He said, "Oh, 75% of my products are recyclable." Okay. Self-declaration. The board say, "Could you prove it? Let's go to Bureau Veritas." Bureau Veritas is gonna test the product, is gonna look at the supply chain to be sure that the product is 75% recyclable. This trend is accelerating. Again, we are at the beginning of it. This trend is gonna accelerate even further in the future.
Thank you very much. I know that we have received many more questions. We don't have time to answer them right now, but I will promise we try to answer as many as possible of them during the second session. It's time to have a break, a very short break of five minutes just to have a coffee or send an email. Please come back on time in five minutes for the following program. See you then. Welcome back. Thank you for joining us for this second part of the live event. We have one more hour together in which we will give you information on the enablers, the key levers to execute and achieve the ambitions with the focus on the group's CSR commitment. In a second step, we'll focus on finance with strategic directions and targets before taking your questions.
I think it's a good program. First of all, I would like to ask all of you a question. The question will be displayed on the right-hand side on your screen. As Didier already mentioned, you can of course imagine, we would have preferred to see you in person. Digital events, they have a great advantage in terms of reduction of carbon footprint. I think an action carried out by each of you corresponds to what? To what reduction in greenhouse gas emissions? This is often a very vague notion. Calculation, I think, is very difficult. The question I want to ask is, how much CO₂ did BV save by organizing this event digitally? First option, 23%, or the second one, 55%, or 95%.
I'll let you think of, and Helen Bradley will give the answer later. Let's focus now on what you call the enablers, being the foundations of your 2025 strategy. Let's see how people, organization, governance, and innovation serve the strategy and your goal to become the industry leader in CSR. I'm very pleased to welcome on set Helen Bradley, Executive Vice President, Human Resources.
Thank you, Annette, and hello, everybody. As Eduardo mentioned earlier today, our strategy relies on three key enablers. The first one is our people and our culture that binds us together at Bureau Veritas as we're a service company employing around 80,000 people around the world, and potentially 10,000 more by 2025. You can say we're a people-intensive business. Of course, our success, our ability to serve our clients and to differentiate ourselves, our capability and innovation, and to grow sustainably is highly dependent on our human capital. As Didier said, how we attract the best talents, how we retain our experts, and how we really develop our next generation, and ultimately, how we build our culture across the organization is critical to our 2025 strategic direction. Over the past six years, we've made significant progress in this area.
You will see in the next four years, we want to capitalize on our work and further accelerate in this direction. Let me jump directly to our third enabler and say a few words about innovation and digital. We are taking advantage of new technologies to improve the performance of our TIC services. We're also expanding our TIC portfolio to address our clients' digital assets to meet their needs in the way we traditionally have done for their physical assets. By using the digital technologies, we're really able to better serve and anticipate our clients' needs, whether it's in terms of efficiency, safety, and trust in their assets, their systems, and their products. Now, let's focus on organization and governance. Just as this enabler is shown in the middle of the slide, it's also central to the deployment of our strategy.
It's really about ensuring that everybody is focused and aligned, performing according to the same rules, our values, and rowing in the same direction. Here again, over the past six years, a lot has really been done. Our battle now, and for the coming decades at least, is to keep improving our own ESG stewardship. The changes that have taken place in the world in recent years are striking. Even more striking is the speed at which they've taken place. In fact, the challenges linked to the climate crisis, increased awareness of gender inequality, the growth of social inequality around the world, and the trend towards responsible business practices, all of these subjects grouped under the term ESG, have really taken on a huge importance in all areas of the economy and society. Companies like Bureau Veritas, we have a decisive role to play within the society.
Your investment criteria, it no longer focuses solely on a company's leader's capacity to generate the margins and the cash flow. Now, of course, a company that no longer generates the value has a serious problem. You will also decide soon that a company that fails to consider ESG issues as a determining factor in its performance is, in fact, mortgaging its future in the same way. This is true of every company in the world. Imagine what it means for us at Bureau Veritas. For 200 years, we've been helping our clients to improve their practices related to health, safety, quality, social, and environmental protection. We have no choice but to be exemplary. In fact, it's our conviction and it's our commitment at Bureau Veritas for our clients, for our shareholders, for society, and of course, for ourselves.
In fact, our goal for 2025 is nothing less than leading the industry in ESG. If we go by the latest DJSI and our presence in the CAC 40 ESG Index, we could say they're already there. However, first, we want to make sure we stay on the top step of the podium, which in itself is already a challenge. Secondly, we prefer to look ahead rather than to look back in the rearview mirror. In fact, we have now set our benchmark well beyond our own sector. We want to be ranked among the most sustainable companies in the world, and this is our yardstick for comparison moving forward. Due to the very nature of our business, sustainability plays out on two fronts for BV, externally and internally.
Externally by supporting our 400,000 clients in their efforts to make their CSR commitments credible and transparent, and to improve their impact on people and planet. This is reflected throughout our BV Green Line, which represents a huge source of growth for the group, as you've heard earlier. Internally, by setting ambitious objectives. Even if BV's activities do not have a significant impact on the environment, we recognize we employ 80,000 people worldwide. We use natural resources, particularly in our laboratories, and we have a duty to do everything possible to reduce our footprint, whether this relates to the environment, whether it relates to our people, and the governance systems that we use to manage the company. Let me share with you how we're moving forward to ensure we achieve this ambition.
In fact, our vision of BV's internal CSR commitment is called Shaping a Better World. This perfectly reflects the fact that we've decided to fully embrace our ambition in this field by taking a holistic approach. We're addressing with equal attention the three pillars: the environment, social, and governance. Shaping a Better Workplace, the social part of ESG. As a service company, our workforce is our most valuable asset. We treat the health, the safety, the well-being, and of course, the development of our people as priorities. We're talking about the safety, we talk about well-being, we talk about gender equality, learning, development, and good working conditions. It also means contributing back and giving back to the local communities that we're present in and we serve. We have Shaping a Better Environment, the E part of ESG.
Every day, we help our clients reduce their risks related to environment, environmental protection of the soil, the water, air, and oceans. In parallel, we must be exemplary ourselves in reducing our impact, reducing our carbon footprint, managing our waste properly, saving water, and of course, managing our use of natural resources. Third, shaping better business practices, the G part of ESG. For nearly 200 years, ethics has been fundamental to our way of doing business. It drives impartiality in our services, and it's the value and the power of our seal. In fact, it's an essential pillar for promoting responsible progress and creating an environment of trust for ourselves and our business partners. Each one of these 3 pillars is underpinned by at least one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
We're proud to say that in recent years, we've made great progress in setting up a structure to embed CSR really in our management systems. Let me share with you how we've done it. In fact, we've created a CSR community. We have an internal CSR executive committee, several internal subject matter experts. Then within each of our operating groups, we have ambassadors who really ensure the deployment through the company and an external stakeholder committee who give us valuable insights and feedback of how we're progressing on our journey. In addition, we've set up and externally communicated 24 CSR-related policies, whether it's around operational excellence, environment, and social and people topics. Since sustainability strategy is defined with such a precise direction and clear targets, our main focus now is to really make sure it's implemented efficiently across our operations.
To steer this implementation of our roadmap, we're using our latest solution, Clarity. Thanks to Clarity, all our country managers, our regional leaders, as well as the teams at the group level, have access to reliable data. Clarity is a critical tool for all of our leaders as a way of monitoring the efforts with precision and in real time. It also gives us an accurate view of the areas or the topics where we still need to make progress and really ramp up our efforts. Many of you are already familiar with BV and its leaders. You know our culture, which we like to say is a fine balance of humility and ambition. In fact, we're a company driven by performance and the relentless and determined pursuit of our goals.
We're therefore proud to display the scores you see today as recognition of our unwavering commitment to CSR. Our inclusion a few months ago in the CAC 40 ESG Index, and more recently, our number one position in the category of the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices. This is a source of confidence for our clients. It's a source of great pride for our employees, and we really hope it's also a source of confidence for our investors who believe, as we do, in our uniqueness and our powerful potential. Let me take a moment just to remind you quickly of our five public commitments that are included in our 2025 strategic direction. Total accident rate at 0.26. Female in leadership with at least 35% of our leaders to be women by 2025. CO₂ emissions to cut to 2 tons per employee per year.
Learning hours to be at 35 hours per employee per year. Code of ethics: 99% of our employees trained in our code of ethics. The first three KPIs are also those to which we've committed in our syndicated credit facility. To further confirm our commitment, we've decided to include these objectives in our remuneration schemes, both the short and the long-term incentives for the group's leaders. Now, before ending, I'd like to come back to Annette's quiz question. Of course, I know you're waiting for the answer. On the question, by hosting this event by digital means rather than in person, what percentage of CO₂ emissions have we avoided? The right answer is 95% less CO₂ emissions in total.
Which is enormous.
It's a great achievement.
It is. Whoa.
In fact, let's make it a bit more concrete. We've used around 8 tons or emitted around 8 tons of greenhouse gas emissions by having this event digitally. If we'd done it in person, it would have been around 150. It's a significant difference and reduction. Despite holding it digitally, BV, we're committed to reducing our footprint, and as a consequence, we've decided to compensate for the 150 tons that would've potentially been emitted if we'd been fortunate enough to have you in person. It means this conference is more than completely carbon neutral. Good news, hey?
Yeah, exactly.
Let me wrap up this session. Sustainability is our DNA. It's our expertise, and it's our raison d'être. Our CSR commitment to Shaping a Better World is a natural extension of our corporate mission to Shaping a World of Trust. Because ultimately, there's no better world without trust. There's no promise without a proof of commitment. We have a model of sustainable development that consists of promoting financial performance on one hand, and protecting the social, human, and natural capital on the other. Our goals are certainly ambitious, and we are committed to achieving them.
Great. Thank you so much for your presentation. I think it's very impressive to see the constant efforts of the group regarding sustainability, and what is very impressive as well is that these commitments are always recognized by leading ESG rating agencies. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you very much, Helen.
My pleasure. Thank you.
Yeah. Jingle. So far, we have seen your operational direction for the coming years. Now let's find out the financial ambition and assumptions of the group when it comes to capital allocation, including M&A and resources deployed for the enablers. It's my pleasure to welcome on set François Chabas, the CFO of the Bureau Veritas Group. Bureau Veritas Group, sorry. Hello, François. Bonjour.
Good morning, Annette. Hello, everybody. It's a pleasure for me to share some colors, some numbers, on how we wish to drive Bureau Veritas forward. As Didier and Hervé both said, Bureau Veritas is on a journey to capture maximum value. It's a journey towards faster growth, towards business opportunities, and towards increased value creation for clients, our employees, our shareholders, of course, our business partner, and society at large. Let me guide you through these topics from a financial angle, a financial perspective. As we all know, in a journey, the best way to reach a destination is knowing our starting point, so-called point A, knowing where we need to go, point B, and finding the easiest way between those two points. Let's start with point A. 2016. It's been an underwhelming year for Bureau Veritas.
The only one with negative organic growth, -0.6%. In the five years since then, Bureau Veritas has climbed back and began to generate organic growth again. 2.2% in 2017, 4% in 2018, 4.3% in 2019, and after COVID in 2020, a strong rebound in 2021. Pre- and post-COVID, the company sets its growth engine to reach 4%. At the same time, margin-wise, putting 2020 aside for obvious reasons, we have delivered a constant margin of around 16%. In a nutshell, we're restarting a growth engine and maintain our margin at a solid level. This is only half of the story. For those of you who have been following the company during this period, you know that it's been a period of great transformation. On the one end, three cycles played against us.
On the other end, we undertook 4 initiatives to reposition our service portfolio in fast-growing markets. First, the 3 cycles. A low level in the commodity trade market after the boom brought by the preceding super cycle. A sharp decrease in the price of oil, putting on hold major oil and gas CapEx projects, which are by nature very TIC intensive. Overcapacity in the worldwide fleet, which led to a reduction in the construction of new ships and economic difficulties for the shipyards. These 3 down cycles impacted our Marine & Offshore business, our Industry business, and our Agri-Food & Commodities business. Exposed as we were at that time to these markets, we have taken rapid action to put the company on a much safer path. First, we undertook a program of rapid restructuring in order to adapt our capabilities and resources to these new conditions.
Downsizing when need be, while maintaining a minimum level of capabilities in an operational network to several clients on these markets. This is one of the reasons we could keep the margin at 16% through this difficult and unprecedented time for the group. Secondly, we launched four initiatives, two in markets affected by the crisis, Agri-Food and OpEx industry, as Didier mentioned. This initiative allowed us to compensate for the down cycle in oil and gas industry, and to overcompensate even for the Agri-Food and commodities non-product activity around technology and connectivity. Finally, one in the building and infrastructure segment, building two platforms from scratch in the U.S. and in China, while reinforcing our position in the B&I OpEx in Europe. Finally, we started to benefit from sustainability-driven servicing certification.
You know, overall, it was a period of transformation, but there is one change we haven't yet talked about, Annette. It's a transformation which is key. I have no doubt that you heard me say on many occasion that this is a major priority for us. It gives clear and indisputable evidence that Bureau Veritas is a well-managed company. If you guess what I'm talking about, I guess.
No, go on.
Cash.
Cash, of course.
Cash. The increase in free cash flow generated by the company is the ultimate measure of our management capacity to get new clients, develop strong relations with existing ones, thanks to excellent service, get paid for the value we create, recruit the right skills at the right time, and remain cautious and disciplined with our costs. Free cash flow generation is, of course, key as well to share the value we create with our shareholders. BV is a down-to-earth, well-managed company. We have first improved our cash flows, as you see, and second, reduced our debt. Our debt ratio has gone from 2.4 times to 1.3 in the period. We reduced our debt by EUR 1 billion.
It means that the financial structure of Bureau Veritas is very healthy, even stronger than it was prior to 2020 and the pandemic. In a company like Bureau Veritas, with a good margin, strong cash flow, limited CapEx, debt is first and foremost the result of M&A. When it comes to acquisition, we have taken a very disciplined bolt-on approach in recent years with strict and clear financial criteria. First, we divested the activities that were not in the portfolio of services we wanted to have. I can name a few. Non-destructive testing in mature market, commoditized services to the oil and gas industry. We have exited countries where we could not operate as a reasonable size. Altogether, this represents 22 projects with approximately EUR 120 million of activities that have exited from the Bureau Veritas portfolio. Second, we invested in bolt-on acquisitions.
This means several small to medium-size acquisitions with a very selective approach in terms of sector and geography. You know, as you know, a bolt-on strategy always takes time to materialize into something sizable. Brick after brick, over 5 years of M&A, we have built three solid platforms. Two in the field of Buildings & Infrastructure in the U.S. and in China, and one in the field of Agri-Food & Commodities, centered around Latin America and Asia Pacific. As you can see, each one of these platforms are accretive, both for the organic growth and for the margin of the group. We believe that our achievements since 2015 are explained by the strict and rigorous criteria applied to M&A strategy. We look for resilient businesses with potential for superior organic growth and margin.
We have a thorough due diligence process with negotiation at arm's length in order to challenge the business plans, know what we are buying, and most importantly, ensure a good match between the target management team and Bureau Veritas. It may take, of course, more time than a rapidly expedited buying process involving more competition, but we believe it offers a better return for the company and our shareholders. As a consequence, we look for quick return, at least 15% IRR, and we pay reasonable multiples, 9x EBIT paid on average. To ensure sustainable value creation, we integrate fast, thanks to our group backbone of system that Didier mentioned, a CRM, ERP, and HR system.
Now to come back to the metaphor and the engineering, looking at where Bureau Veritas started back in 2015, or point A, and where we are now, the company is back to 4% growth, good margin, strong free cash, very healthy financial structure. All this despite the 2020 COVID crisis. Where we are today is still not our point B. It's time to shape our future in terms of financial perspective. Bureau Veritas is on a journey, as I mentioned, to capture maximum value. What does that mean? One mission translate into three financial KPIs and one CSR commitment, which are our point B. First, resilient, enhanced organic growth. Each word counts here. Resilient, meaning not cyclical. Enhanced, above what we have recently achieved.
Organic growth, we count first and foremost on our own capabilities and our unique positioning to find more possibilities and better address client needs. It translates into mid-single-digit organic growth. No compromise on margin. To put it another way, the margin superior to 16%. It's kind of a floor. We favor Bureau Veritas' growth while ensuring a very solid margin. Strong cash generation with a cash conversion of at least 90% on average. As I mentioned earlier, this is the ultimate proof that we are paying attention to our clients, our employees, and our shareholders, of course. Over the past five years, our cash conversion on record has achieved roughly 96%. Finally, the fourth, ESG. Sustainability is embedded in the financial performance and fully integrated to our value creation model. You have seen that with Hélène.
We made five commitments with quantitative ambitions for 2025: safety, CO2 emission, training, ethics, and a very important one to Bureau Veritas, women in leadership position. On a more fundamental note, sustainability at large is part of our DNA at Bureau Veritas and is essential for investors. Company with a good ESG track record are safer companies in which to invest with superior long-term performance. In a nutshell, the direction Bureau Veritas wants to take is the following: fast-growing company, strong margin and cash flow, and a leading corporate social responsibility approach. To achieve our ambition, we've worked on the roadmap and capital allocation framework I would like to share with you today. We want to continue to deliver strong free cash flow. It will enable us to invest in our operation through CapEx spend.
We plan 2.5%-3% CapEx on group revenue ratio per year through 2025. We will focus mainly on our laboratories in the Consumer Products, food, and metals and minerals sectors. 1, serve maintenance. 2, serve growth. Cash generation will enable us to invest into our people from a technical and expertise standpoint, and also from a sales development perspective. Recruitment of engineers, inspectors, auditors to serve our clients is the main lever to execute our ambition. Cash flow generation will also support our M&A strategy, on which I will come back in a minute. All in all, this investment will support value creation and reward to our shareholders through an annual dividend payment. We confirm our dividend policy to pay out around 50% of the adjusted net result.
Now that we have reviewed our starting point A, and end point of our goal, point B, you probably ask yourself a decent question, "How do we get there? What is the easiest way to reach point B?" As explained earlier, we want to scale, expand, and lead. The greatest part of our effort will be scaling and expanding, which will account for more than 50% of our growth. The lead part is essential, too, as it will help shape Bureau Veritas' next future. Scale and expand are what will deliver growth now and over the next four years. It is where we need and where we will invest, focus, and develop. This means taking advantage of Bureau Veritas' existing position, growing into adjacent services, and being more agile.
As you can see on the right, M&A is meant to be one of the levers, not the game changer. We will continue a disciplined and selective bolt-on strategy, as I commented. We aim to reinforce through the acquisition of expertise, of accreditation, to access new markets or new segments when necessary. As Ségolène explained, focus segment will be D&I, renewable, Certification, Consumer Products, and technology. However, if opportunities are coming along the way, and, Annette, you know, that when it comes to M&A, deals are by essence hardly predictable. The good news is our healthy financial structure enable us to consider these opportunities, even large ones, and act with determination and speed. As we get profitability, we aim at maintaining a margin above 16%. On the one hand, our margin will benefit from scalability of our platforms.
I think Didier said a few words about it. The more we grow, the better we show operational leverage. On the other hand, there will be a bit cushioned by the portfolio mix and the ramp-up investment in people necessary to deliver our growth. Investment needed will be in different areas. The aim is to reinforce our sales organization with incremental investment in our sales talent in order to accelerate the building up of a solid pipeline of opportunity, increasing the training of our employees to acquire new license to operate, and strengthen our technical center across the group, roughly 500 people in 15 countries, to ensure that services are replicated and that the 5 overarching themes are well-covered. Finally, we'll continue to innovate and develop new digital solution to better serve our clients.
To recap, the 2025 strategy will be a value-enhancing journey for Bureau Veritas. We expect fast growth, strong margin, strong cash flow. Beyond financial performance, the group remains committed to its extra-financial performance. In terms of capital allocation, the use of free cash generation from the operation will be balanced between CapEx, M&A, and shareholder returns through dividends. With this, you have now a good understanding of the financial perspective of our journey to capture maximum value. Thank you all for listening. Annette, I give you the floor for the most expected Q&A session.
Exactly. You know, I would like to give you a warm round of applause, but this is a digital event. Thank you. Thank you very much, François. Thank you for the transition because really, this Q&A session is now focusing on all the topics we tackled in this second part, such as enablers, financial ambitions, and assumptions. I call back Eduardo and Didier.
I don't think there is no.
Welcome back. I think all the presentations have been very clear, but I hope there will be a lot of questions, very interesting questions. We're looking at this right now. Ready to go. Here's the first one. How should we view the path to 2025 mid-single-digit growth each year? Will margins step down before a step up?
Okay, Annette, thank you for the question. I'm gonna take maybe the first part, and you will maybe give more details about the margin, François, if you agree. On the mid-single digit growth each year, in fact, it's gonna be an acceleration along the years. Because when you think about the business, we have, let's say, the traditional part, what we call scale, where we have a lot of opportunities. Let's take, for example, the Buildings & Infrastructure platform. With the Buildings & Infrastructure platform, in fact, we are delivering services in China which are not the same in the U.S., not the same in Europe. Now it's about harmonizing the services and of course, it's gonna provide a certain level of growth. So on top of it, we will benefit of the Green Line. So you...
Meaning that we know the demand is gonna accelerate. We are at the beginning of the story. We know that even if we will achieve the mid-single digit. I hope really already next year, in 2022. There is no reason why we should not have an acceleration in the future. Regarding the margin, maybe, François, you would like to take this.
Yes. All right, good question. Let's be very, very simple here. I think, point A, as I tried to describe beforehand, most of the restructuring and investments are behind us. I think Didier has been as well very vocal about the transformation that has happened. There is no further need of transforming Bureau Veritas. Point A. Point two, no compromise on margin means we will. The margin will not go down, that's point one. Two, we want to ensure that 16% is the minimum. We have room to grow on the top line. We have scalability effects. We have some investment, as I mentioned, which are more investment to further grow in terms of capability resources. I think, Eduardo mentioned rightfully that one of the main challenge is attracting talents, growing the resources, so that come with investment.
These are what I would call operational business today, investment. Clearly, no drop in margin. 16% is the floor, and we aim at taking full advantage of our platforms.
Okay. Here's the next one. Mid-single digit growth in line with your historical growth. Will sustainable development not have an acceleration effect on organic growth in the future?
Annette, clearly, yes.
Yes. Of course.
Clearly, yes. It's a huge market which is gonna be very big. Each time I'm meeting a client today, the client is asking me, "Didier, could you help me on the CSR?" By the way, it's not just about inspection, or audit, or testing of their products or services, it's also about even defining with them the KPIs that they need to implement. We are at the beginning. Again, our brands, consumers are gonna ask for reliable, not self-declared data, and this trend is accelerating. The answer is yes, Annette, I have no doubt about it. Again, we are at the beginning of it. This is something which is accelerating after the COVID-19 situation. The world has understood, I would say maybe even the humanity has understood, that we are at risk.
The green or the sustainability development is gonna accelerate. It's accelerating already. We are independent company, third party. Of course, we have a big role to play in this area, and we will.
Can you break down your portfolio into growth buckets? What's growing? Low single digit and high single digit? Down to double digit, for example? Anything going backwards?
François, maybe you could take this one.
Well, to give a bit more detail, you know our portfolio of services, and we don't expect businesses to go backward, clearly. We have various momentums on those various businesses. I would say the strong push for growth, the strong growth engine we have at the moment are building infrastructure. We talked about the platform. You've heard and read about the various infrastructure programs in the U.S., in China, in Europe. We expect building infrastructure to be a very strong contributor. The second very strong contributor we expect to be is certification, driven by sustainability at large and all the schemes that are surrounding the efforts made by corporate and society to ensure that there is no greenwashing in particular. These are really the two very strong growth engine.
On the other hand, you have by nature a division we like very much as Bureau Veritas, which is Marine and Offshore, where we are somehow limited by the capacity of the worldwide fleet to grow. We expect this division, for example, to deliver less growth than the average of the group, but of course not to go backward. In between, Industry, where we would benefit from the push to renewables and the request by our clients to help them to renew their fleet of assets, in a sense. Finally, Consumer Products division, which more and more we are pushing to be more and more domestic in more and more markets. We used to be, back in the days, very Chinese. We have now a very strong foothold in Southeast Asia.
We continue this diversification towards Latin America, to other geographies.
Good. Here's the next one. In terms of the energy transition, do you believe you can generate the same amount of TIC revenues per euro of renewables CapEx as you do in fossil fuel CapEx?
This one is for you, Eduardo, I think.
Yeah. One of my...
Favorite.
My favorite topics today. Yeah. Yeah. Hot topic, really. The answer is yes. Definitely, yes, and I'll try to explain to you in short why. It's because if you compare the technical infrastructure that the oil companies, mainly the oil major companies have for their traditional exploration and production of fossil fuel activities, it was with the structure, the engineering divisions they have for their renewables market, the transition, the energy transition market. Mainly if you compare that with the new big players in this field, they have much less internal resources to do that. Although one can say that the level of risk embedded on a solar power plant or in a wind farm is relatively lower than an offshore production platform or oil refinery. Yes.
Those clients, including the oil majors, they need. The trend is to have much more outsourced activities to companies like Bureau Veritas. For example, if you talk about hydrogen, we are today working with oil majors, we are working with mining companies. We have established partnership with new renewables giants to help them develop standards, develop their protocols, carry out their risk assessments, because those are very new technologies. We have in the hydrogen space, we have in one side carbon reforming technology, but we have in the other side, new electrolysis technology. It's very new for everybody. We are helping the clients today to assess their risk, to develop their products. BV is very active on it.
We are a member of the Hydrogen Council. We are a member of the ISO Hydrogen Working Group, and we are helping to establish the standards and do the risk assessment. Another good example is wind power generation offshore. Here, I'm not just talking about fixed units for offshore wind farms. I'm talking about floating units for wind farm. It's a very complex technology, and just very few companies in the world like BV have the capacity to support the clients in doing it in a controlled and safe way.
Big potential for us, and I believe that in terms of TIC intensity, if you may call like this, should be even greater than what we had in the traditional oil and gas exploration production sector.
Thank you. Is the mid-single-digit growth all volume-driven? Is pricing not meaningful in a normal year? Do you pass inflation to clients? What about wage inflation?
I'm gonna be quick on this one. First, the mid-single digit growth is about volume, so it's volume driven. This is absolutely clear. Now, if you think about the pricing, we have 400,000 clients. When I say 400,000, it's an average. 400,000 clients. Of course, we can pass pricing increase to our clients, maybe except for the big contract, but for the rest, clearly, we can do it. Again, on this new market, which is sustainability, in fact, the market is in the course of being created. Today, we are working on assessing what the pricing elasticity is. We know that is gonna help us clearly to optimize our margin in the future.
Thank you. Very clear, your answer. Here's a question on the cyberattack. Could you update us on the cyberattack? Is your IT system back on track? What actions have you taken? How the business is resuming? How do you reassure your clients? Can you quantify the impact and extra costs?
On top of his strategic hat and business development, in fact, Eduardo has the responsibility of IT. Eduardo, you're well-placed to answer this question, no?
It's, I think it's important to give an update at this point. Yes, as you know, almost two weeks ago, we have an attempt of kind of apparently what seems to be a kind of ransomware in parts of our network. Our cybersecurity system has detected quite quickly in due time. It's important to let you know that companies, international companies like BV, we have daily incidents of attempts of cyberattacks, but this time, we thought it could take us to a superior level of risk. We took a decision to shut down temporarily part of our global network.
We may think that we have been maybe a little bit too conservative, but we have no regrets on that because we think it was really the right thing to do. It was a preventive measure because we have two priorities. First and foremost, to protect our assets and protect our clients, and to carry out a comprehensive incident investigation on that. Besides, in parallel, we have launched the contingency plan we have in our cybersecurity system to grant business continuity. Again, I must say that we have been very impressed about the efficiency of this contingency plan because we have been able to keep up and running 100% of our business.
Some slowdowns in operations here and there, but no interruption of activity anywhere. We are now in a phase of concluding the incident investigation, and at the same time, ramping up the operation to reach, in the coming days, normal level of operation, but again, in a fully controlled and safe way, again, to protect our assets and protect our clients. I can tell you that we have made massive investments in our cybersecurity systems during the last 3 or 4 years, and that's paid off. We were prepared for an event like that, and our cybersecurity system has proven to be very efficient, and we are almost back to normal.
most important, again, as I said, we protect our assets because our main global systems, our main global platforms are since a long time now cloud-based, so they are intact. They had zero compromise from the cyberattack and we are able to ramp up to a normal level of operations almost everywhere.
Excellent.
Exactly. Let's move on. Why is the 2025 organic growth target mid-single-digit and not mid- to high-single-digit?
That's a good question. It's interesting because Eduardo said that we were conservative by shutting down the system. It was the right decision, by the way. Very well done, Eduardo. I wanted to take the opportunity to congratulate you and your team for the reaction and the good job you did, and you are still doing today, which is good for the company and for our investors. We are probably conservative when we say mid-single digit. We are conservative probably when we say 16% of margin, which is a floor, again. Why are we? Because in the past three years I learned my lesson. I prefer over-delivering. This is clearly an option we have decided to take with François.
Under-promising, over-delivering is probably today our philosophy at Bureau Veritas during this time. Imagine we had a crisis, and the COVID-19 crisis. Who would have anticipated it? Maybe prudent, maybe conservative. Of course, when you think about the development of the market, when you think about the platform of Bureau Veritas, I'm absolutely convinced again that mid-single digit, 16% are floor. I would prefer delivering the results and show to the financial community that we deliver than trying to be, let's say, too optimistic.
Okay. 16% is relatively similar to what you have delivered in the past. What stops you from targeting margins above prior levels?
I know this is a question that is every day in the mind of François. François.
Yes. I think just to rephrase the question and be very precise, what we say, we've said above 16%. We haven't said 16%. It's above. As Didier mentioned, it's more like a floor than anything else. I think when you look at Bureau Veritas as an object, you have to be mindful of the fact that we have done the investment. Platform is there, ready to grow. We have different dynamics. We have businesses, Certification, Marine & Offshore, Consumer Products, which are above the group average in terms of margin. We have businesses, Buildings & Infrastructure, Industry, Agri-Food & Commodities, which are below. Take Buildings & Infrastructure. This is the number one business of Bureau Veritas today. The overall margin. The average margin is slightly below the group average. Should we stop growing in this sector?
The answer is, of course, no. This is one of the strongest pillar of Bureau Veritas resilience, growth, domestic strategy. Because we are now very large in B&I, the days that I have described 3, 4 years ago cannot happen again. If you're asking me, do you prefer to invest into a very high margin or business or in B&I would say I would double down on B&I, because this is where we have the growth, this is where we have the domestic market, this is where we have very solid teams. Having said that, you have a portfolio of businesses. I think we are all around this table very happy that we have the portfolio we have today. 5 years ago, we didn't have that portfolio, and we saw the result.
Now we have a portfolio which is rock solid with different dynamics in terms of margin. Some would like us to jump to 17%, 18%. I can promise 20% if you wish. Does that make sense? No, doesn't make sense. What makes sense is that we grow the operating profit in euros, and we make the most of our very solid platform. Having taken that into account, and the fact that I think all of us around this call, we've gone through COVID 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. We've gone through recently a bit of IT disruption. For those who have good memories, I think now for a few years at Bureau Veritas, we value credibility when we talk to the financial markets. We value credibility.
You know, Annette, all credibility takes years to get, takes a second to lose.
To lose. Yes.
Around this table, we want to remain credible in what we say.
Good. How much in incremental margins are you reinvesting for future growth? What is the duration of such investments in terms of break even and return accretion?
François.
Well, I think there is no. I would break that into two. CapEx, I think we've been very, very cautious and disciplined over the last two years. Most probably as well, the COVID crisis has, you know, brought us to even postpone things. We are kind of. We were together with Eduardo and Didier, you know, looking at each CapEx project we had internally, each demand for money, asking our own teams, can you ensure that you have the business ahead of you to sustain this CapEx et cetera? We may have been a bit protective there.
What I said is in our capital allocation, we will grow the investment of CapEx from slightly below 2%- 2.5% and 3%, which, you know, seems small numbers, but at the end of the day, what we are saying is we double the amount of CapEx spend. Mainly in our Consumer Products Services and agri-food business. It's an investment? Yes, it is an investment. Will that pay off rapidly? I would say on average, the payback on this type of CapEx is 18-20 months. Then we have the investment, and for me, which is a critical one, it's not a question of money, it's a question of finding the right resources. We have to invest in training people, recruiting them, getting our technical center staffed, because one should not forget one thing.
What Veritas does is we deliver an opinion that provide comfort to an asset owner. We need to ensure that the people on the ground who are delivering this opinion are trained, qualified, and can give not only good service, but an excellent service. Because we are the last line to prevent a danger, to prevent a safety accident, so we could not bargain on the quality of our people. What is the payback? I mean, the payback is 12 months. I mean, we are not talking in very large horizon, but we need, as we keep on growing and running, we need to staff accordingly with the right level of skills. We know the war on talent is there and we are sure we will be equipped to win it.
Thank you. In what region and segments will M&A be focused in particular? Could you give examples? What is at the top of the list? Do you think you will pay more than nine times EBIT for acquisitions going forward?
Annette, on top of strategy, IT, and business development, Eduardo is in charge of M&A. Eduardo, please.
Okay. Let me remind what Ségolène just summarized moments ago, and give you some examples. Yes, the answer is yes, we have a very precise shopping list, but we really don't want to open it now because for two reasons, we don't want to give too much information to our dear competitors, and we don't want to inflate price for the other side. I can give you some examples. If you remember what Ségolène presented, she said we are working on three fronts in terms of M&A targets. One is gaining access to markets with barriers to entry, especially local markets. Buying what we used to call license to operate.
Here I can give you two clear examples. One is the infrastructure market in the U.S. Don't need to tell you know certainly much better than we do. There will be a booming level of investments and for refurbishing and upgrading the U.S. infrastructure the same way that happened in China, especially transportation infrastructure. I'm talking about highways, railways, ports, airports, and connectivity. We really want to increase our footprint and our presence and acquiring some license to operate there. The other example is China domestic market.
We have a successful track record of doing partnerships, joint ventures in this country, building up a very solid business platforms there, and we want to intensify that, being much more present and accelerating our footprint in the Chinese domestic market. The second leg for us in, as Ségolène presented in terms of M&A, is acquiring a missing or, I would say, complementary capabilities that we want to have in order to be able to provide full solutions to our clients. Here, I can give you, again, couple of examples.
One is in the energy transition on renewables markets, wind and solar markets. We are very active working in many projects on the CapEx phase, but we have increasing demands from our key accounts in that space to help them better manage their assets along the life cycle. Here we are looking for complementary capabilities to be acquired to be present in this market. The other example of capabilities we need to acquire is on the technology space, especially for our Consumer Products division, to complement the offers we have. One example is medical devices in the healthcare space, which is a very attractive and growing market.
The third leg, as Ségolène presented, is to make acquisitions to enter in new markets that we believe have good potential for future growth. I can mention one is product traceability. We are developing solutions for clients for product traceability. I can give you one example. In the cotton sector, we are providing clients with a full end-to-end traceability since the agri production sites until the final textile production to the retail client. We're certainly looking for acquiring additional capabilities on the traceability space.
Maybe I gave up too much example there.
A very detailed answer. Very interesting. Thank you.
At least, Annette, we know what we want to do, actually.
Exactly, exactly.
Yes.
There's a real strategy. Are you factoring in disposals or meaningful restructuring?
I'm gonna be very quick on that one just because restructuring is behind us. We did it's done. We may have adjustment here and there, but that's it, and most of the disposal as well. Again, we have minor adjustment, but this is behind us.
Good. Next one. What is your best target in terms of financial leverage given your M&A strategy?
I can see François' face.
That's my favorite question. You know.
Short answer or-
Very short answer.
No.
I had a restriction two years ago saying how far you want to go. Clearly we're at 1.3, latest public data in terms of financial leverage. We are very solid, no doubt about it. When it comes to the M&A strategy, it goes two ways. With the bolt-on strategy as we described, we know we can afford, while keeping the same kind of leverage, you know, between 1 and 1.3, we can afford to buy easily EUR 200 million of M&A every year. We're at a stable leverage. If we buy a bit less on a given year, leverage will go further down. If we buy a bit more, it will go a bit up. Most importantly to me, that means two things.
One, the company as a financial object is set to be able to run organic growth and structured and strategical bolt-on M&A strategy without damaging the financial structure. Two, this financial structure enable us to have, you know, firepower, dry powder, whatever the English term you would like. If a larger deal is coming along the way.
Good.
I think I can't be more brief than this.
Perfect. Thank you. On the internal ESG beyond 2025, are you targeting a carbon neutral stance, all scopes for the future? At the same time, is new strategy committed with 2050 net zero emissions under SBTi program?
We are a service company, meaning net low emissions by nature, huh? If you think now about SBTi, we are not yet under SBTi, but we are working on the trajectory. More important than anything, we want to make sure we reduce GHG emissions by 30% through 2025. Quick answer.
Wow, always quicker, always shorter. Here's the next one. How much of your revenue is digital today? Where can it go to? How much digital can help your margin?
Eduardo.
Yeah, let me answer this two ways. First of all, I think it's important for us to make very clear that being digital for us is not an objective by itself. We are becoming very fast a full digital company because it's helping us improve our business in two ways. First is really definitely helping us to improve margins and sometimes offset price pressure, and this we're accelerating in the years to come. I have no doubt about it. Secondly, it's helping us to increase the stickiness with our clients, especially key accounts, the loyalty of these clients. Why I'm saying that is because we are offering our clients full solutions, including digital platforms, fully connected with their core processes.
We are becoming part of their process, including not just their production sites, but their supply chains. Having said that, I've spent with the team quite an amount of time benchmarking the tech industry to look at what is going on in terms of digitalization for our peers and new entrants. Without whatsoever trying to be arrogant here, but I can say with no doubt today that BV is leading the pack in the tech industry from what I saw. It has been recognized by some external stakeholders. For example, you probably saw BCG has issued this year another assessment of the tech digital space. BV is now ranked in the highest level in their Digital Acceleration Index.
We have invested a lot, as Didier mentioned in his introduction, during the last six years in digitalization internally and also externally, launching cutting-edge digital solutions to clients, I would say in two pillars. First, vertical digital platforms to serve our end markets. I could mention three of them. OneSource for our Consumer Products division, OneTrade for our commodities division, and OneSea for our marine offshore division. We have been able to be much more agile in launching new solutions adapted to our client needs. Didier mentioned this morning Restart Your Business, that a solution we launched to help clients resume their activities after the COVID pandemic.
Okay.
I mentioned this morning, Supply-R for assessing the resilience of supply chain of our clients. We are launching now, as you saw, our Clarity solution for sustainability assessment. Another one that we launched this year was ChargeScan for helping clients manage their assets in for electric vehicle charging stations. We are really accelerating on that. Our goal-
In terms of percentage of revenues enabled by digital solutions for 2025 is to reach something close to 50% of our revenues.
Good. Here's the last question. How much of your compensation and long-term incentive plan is related to ESG criteria? Are you planning to increase that ratio over time?
It's an interesting question because, in fact, I'm gonna propose to the nomination committee, which is before the end of this month, to have an ESG target. Which is, in fact, the target we have for 2025, and we already committed on it. In the LTIP, and it's gonna count as much as 20%. On top of it, we have already our people in the company incentivized, if I can say that, on ESG. We started already last year, and we accelerate this year. All the what I would call the band one, band two, band three people, which means, let's say 300 people of the company, are already having a bonus, which is something like 20% on ESG criteria.
Good. As I said, this has been the last question. Thank you so much. I think the questions were really great, the discussions very inspiring, and I think we all felt the convictions of the speakers. Thank you very much. Of course, if you have additional questions, because time is running out, we couldn't answer today, yeah, because of lack of time, so you can contact the investor relations team. They will come back to you as soon as possible. Yeah. Now, Didier, it's time to conclude. You wanted to share a longer-term vision, I think. This means the future of your customers, of BV, of course, and of society in general. Your turn.
Thank you, Annette. I must say it has been a pleasure working with you this morning. A real pleasure. As you will have understood, the 2025 strategy lies in the acceleration of our efforts, capitalizing on the group's transformation. We have set a framework based on the strong foundations built over the past six years. We have the footprint to scale up and accelerate our organic growth. We have the positions from which to expand our services and solutions offered by our clients. We have the know-how to increase our industry leadership moving forward. This is exactly what we are doing with our focus on sustainability. By the way, I like when you said earlier today that Bureau Veritas is a protector against greenwashing. At BV, we support responsible progress. We contribute to a fairer and more sustainable economic system.
We support our clients as their business evolve. Client centricity is embedded in our culture. We are always at the service of our clients, and we work alongside them to ensure that they meet their commitments. For example, when a large cosmetics group such as L'Oréal ask us to certify the carbon footprint of their packaging, our expertise and know-how is key for them. We are there to listen to our clients, understand their challenges and needs, and anticipate their requirements. Another example, when we were selected by Accor to deploy our Clarity solution, this was exactly what they were looking for in terms of support. This is how Bureau Veritas will evolve. A two-step approach, so to speak. First, by gaining leadership positions in activities and sectors at the core of our expertise. Then, by using our agility and expertise to develop innovative and proactive tools and solutions.
We are able to anticipate our client needs and accompany them as they move forward in their own journey. An excellent illustration of BV's agility and proactiveness has been Restart Your Business with Bureau Veritas. Specifically designed to help our clients restart their operations after lockdowns and rolled out rapidly. A record time to market, three weeks. Three weeks to launch a worldwide offer and generating more than EUR 30 million in revenue in a few months. Leveraging of our expertise is key for Bureau Veritas as a business-to-business-to-society company. What does it mean, Annette? What does it mean? We will be a world leader in our sector for the city of tomorrow. This means contributing to new, more efficient assets that consume less energy and being the undisputed third-party support for the refurbishment of existing assets, reducing their carbon footprint, increasing their usability, and analyzing data collected.
We have the ambition to become the undisputed world leader in the support of energy transition. We accompany traditional energy players in a reasonable and more environmentally friendly use of natural resources that will continue to be used in the years to come. At the same time, we enable them to benefit from our expertise to facilitate and accelerate their shift towards new sources of energy, wind, solar, hydrogen, and perhaps other. We aim to be the unrivaled leader at the crossroads of these two megatrends, when the sustainable city meets the energy transition. Here, I'm talking about new forms of mobility. We have already developed expertise and offers in the maritime, electric and hydrogen sectors. I foresee Bureau Veritas as the world leading expert in sustainable mobility. We are ambitious on all crucial subjects linked to the traceability of supply chains throughout the world.
This is a major opportunity today. How we consume in 2030 will be different to 2021. Annette, I am convinced that Bureau Veritas has a central role to play in the transparency and credibility of the supply chain. I am also convinced that Bureau Veritas has a central role to play in the world to the benefit of society. We contribute to a better planet. At the same time, we want to create value for our shareholders. The 2025 strategy will be a value-enhancing journey, ensuring both short and long-term growth for Bureau Veritas. We will achieve this objective by capturing the maximum value from existing and businesses adjacent to our core activity, and leading the TIC evolution towards sustainable goals. We will focus on five key areas that are supported by extremely powerful megatrends.
As part of our strategy, our midterm financial ambition is clear: achieving resilient, enhanced organic growth, achieving enhanced margin and strong cash conversion. Beyond financial performance, we are also very committed to achieving our ESG targets. We will drive forward with determination the ambitions that were presented today to take Bureau Veritas value creation to the next level. Annette, I would like to take the opportunity to thank the BV teams that have worked to build this event. Special thanks to the executive committee members and BV operational leaders. There is one thing I am proud of. It is the fact that I have this exceptional, solid, ambitious, humble, close-knit and human team around me. Thank you very much, Annette.
Thank you so much, Didier, for this great conclusion, and thank you to all of you for your participation. I hope you enjoyed this first digital Bureau Veritas Investor Day. I've been told that more than 340 people were online, so I think that's great news.
That's a great news, Annette.
That's perfect. Just note that the replay will be available on the BV website as well as a slide pack to download if you want to get more information, of course. Just have a nice day. Take care. See you soon. Bye-bye. Ciao [Foreign language]. Bye. Bye-bye.