Good mornin g, everybody. Thanks for being with Virginie, the Edenred CFO, and mys elf for the Edenred 2025 results. We are together for the next 90 minutes. First part is the presentation of our results. The second part, we'll be pleased to answer any question you may have. In the executive summary, there are 5 message I want to share with you. First of all, yes, 2025 was a year of strong commercial and operating performance. Second message, we exceeded the guidance 2025 in terms of like-for-like EBITDA growth and free cash flow generation and free cash flow conversion. Third, yes, thanks to those results, we are able to post some strong shareholders' return. My fourth message is, you know the Edenred growth equation. It's a very simple equation. We are looking for more users and more value per users.
2026 will be a rebasing year before renewed, sustainable and profitable growth in 20 to 2027 and 2028, with a growth of between 8% and 12% of our EBITDA, like-for-like, for 2027 and 2028. With those four messages, let's go into the details. I propose that we move directly to slide 6. Edenred delivered a strong operating and financial performance in 2025. Our operating revenue has been growing at 6.2% like-for-like versus 2024. Our EBITDA has been growing at 11.2% like-for-like versus 2024, which is above our guidance, guidance set at more than 10% growth like-for-like.
Our EBITDA to free cash flow conversion has reached 82%, which is an increase of 12 points as compared to 2024, and which is vastly above our guidance of more than 70%. Finally, our adjusted EPS is reaching EUR 2.59, and it means an increase of 10% versus 2024. Now let's look at the breakdown of this growth in terms of operating revenue. As you see on the left part of the chart, we have been growing at 6.2% like-for-like, and in fact, if you exclude the impact of the Italian regulation, the 6.2 would have been 9.1%. Where does the growth come from?
First of all, in Mobility, representing about 26% of our operating revenue, we have been growing at double-digit, 11.7%. In Benefits & Engagement, which represents 64% of our operating revenue, we have been growing at 5.9%. Finally, in complementary solutions, with all the work we have been doing on the portfolio, we have a negative growth of 4.6% in 2025 versus 2024. If we look at the breakdown of the operating revenue per geography, Europe, representing 60% of our operating revenue, has been growing at 1%. If you exclude the Italian regulation impact, the growth would have been 4.5%. Mobility, sorry, LATAM, has been growing double-digit at 13.2%.
Finally, the rest of the world has been also growing at double-digit at 16.8%, the rest of the world representing about 30% of our operating revenue. In fact, this strong commercial and performance is translating into solid revenue and EBITDA growth. The total revenue has been growing at 5.7% because of the other revenue that has been growing at 1%. Finally, in terms of EBITDA, the growth of EBITDA in 2025 is 11.2% like-for-like. Without the impact of the Italian regulation, this growth would have been around 16%. What does it mean in terms of profitability?
What you see on the 2 charts, on the left, first of all, we have been increasing our operating EBITDA margin significantly by 280 basis points, moving from 39.1% to 41.4%. As to the EBITDA margin, once again, the same story, i.e., a strong increase of our EBITDA margin by 230 basis points, reaching 45.9% in 2025. Another point to notice, we have an acceleration of our intrinsic operating revenue growth in H2. When you look at the graph in red, what you see is the first half of the year, a growth of 7.1%.
The second part of the year, acceleration in Q3 at 8.2, due to the Italian regulation, a growth at 2.7%, leading to a full year at 6.2%. There is another way to read it, to understand the intrinsic growth of Edenred. Without the Italian regulation, the growth in Q3 would have been 9%, and the growth in Q4 would have been 9.7%. We are saying that we see an acceleration of the intrinsic revenue growth of Edenred, which is in fact a very good sign for 2026, but also for the years after. If we move to the EBITDA growth, you see also an intrinsic acceleration of the EBITDA growth.
When you read it, 14.4% in H1, 8.3% in H2, leading to 11.2% for the full year. If you exclude, in fact, the Italian regulation, the growth would have been 16.5%. For the entire year, 15.6%. Now let's move to how did we reach this level of EBITDA and this level of EBITDA margin? In fact, part of the answer is into our Fit for Growth program. You remember, we shared that with you. It's a program that is in two phases. The phase one was between the end of 2024 and 2025. In fact, we launched and we set up the Fit for Growth program, and we got some quick wins in 2025. We have more workforce efficiency.
We have been renegotiating the suppliers and distributors contract, and we did some IT internalization, which creates, in fact, more efficiencies. That's why you see our level of OpEx, like-for-like growth at +1.3% in 2025. The question is: What does it mean for 2026 and beyond? In fact, based on the acceleration of our growth, we are totally convinced that Edenred is set for the future. That's why we will accelerate our strategic investments, especially in sales and marketing and data and AI, because AI for Edenred is a plus and only a plus. The second thing is to generate some efficiencies in 2027 and 2028. We will accelerate our platform convergence. That is gonna give us scale, but also best-in-class customer journeys.
The second thing we will do in 2026 is the standardization and the streamlining of our support function. After a growth of 1.3% in terms of OpEx like for like, we're going to accelerate our OpEx level in 2026 to prepare for the next three years in terms of EBITDA generation. The other thing we shared with you as to what we wanted to put in place in 2025 is, in fact, what we call a performance and product improvement plan. This plan is made of six key actions, four, to improve the top line growth and two, which are about the portfolio review.
If I start by the first 4 to improve the top line growth, first of all, we said we want to revamp our offer in terms of gifting, especially with the Edenred Plus new platform. In fact, we did it, and it works, because when we look at the results of the European gift business volume, we have a growth of circa 10% in Q4 2025 versus Q4 2024. Why Q4? Because it's the peak season of the gifting for Edenred. The second thing we shared with you is Edenred Finance. You remember that we lost a big client in Romania, but we have a unique position, so we revamp our offer.
We accelerated our investment from a sales and marketing point of view. It works because first of all, we are very pleased to share with you again the signature of our partnership with Shell in Q3 2025. When you look at the growth in Q4, the growth has been more than 20%. The third action in terms of improving the top line is to work on CSI. CSI, which is our corporate payment solutions in the U.S. We decided to refocus on key verticals and business excellence. We start seeing the benefits of these focuses in the last month of December, with a growth that was between 5% and 10%. Finally, in terms of incentive, it was time for us to revamp our digital offer.
We did it. In fact, in Europe, we see a growth now on this product line of more than 10%. The second part of the plan is our portfolio review. 2025 was a unique occasion to question ourselves on where do we want to accelerate and where do we want to, in fact, to stop or work differently? As to the PSP, so the public social program, we review our entire European portfolio. It's completed. We are now focused on the most profitable programs. As to the BaaS B2C, BaaS meaning Banking-as-a-Service, we decided to leave that segment, the B2C one, to be focused on the B2B one. For us, it's a de-risking for this progressive exit. It's done. We are on target.
We still have a few things to do for the first half of 2026, we can consider that the effort is behind us, and it's gonna have a positive impact on the profitability and the de-risking profile of the group. Based on all those elements, a solid growth on the top, a very good control of our OpEx. A good generation of EBITDA, the impact on the free cash flow is an increase of 34% in 2025. It's based on a record FFO generation, funds from operation, so that it comes directly from the EBITDA. Also our activity and benefits is working well, we have a float increase, and thanks to Virginie and her team, we increased our discipline in cash collection.
That's why you see the EBITDA to free cash flow conversion rate moving from 70% to 82%. Based on this strong generation of free cash flow, plus a strong return to shareholders through dividends and share buyback, for a total in 2025 of EUR 463 million, we are able, in fact, to decrease significantly our net debt. The net debt has decreased by 31%. That's why our leverage ratio has moved from 1.4 times to 0.9 times. At Edenred, not only we are working on the economic performance, but also the extra economic performance, and we are very pleased now to post excellent results on that, on our three pillars: people, planet, and progress.
Just to take one of them, our greenhouse gas emission reduction on Scope 1 and 2 versus the point of departure, 2019, has been now reduced by 31%. In fact, all those efforts have been recognized by leading ESG ratings. To name a few, we received a gold medal for the first time with a five-point increase by EcoVadis, or if you think about the S&P Global, we increased our score by six points, and we are now member of the Sustainability Yearbook. When I say now, in fact, for the fifth year in a row. After having gone through the results of 2025, economic and extra economic, I propose that I share with you a quick update on our new strategic plan called Amplify. Where do we stand on that?
You remember, Edenred has a strong and unique value proposition. We are serving 1 million corporate companies. We have 60 million users, and we are driving business traffic for merchants via 2 million merchants. What does it mean, 1 million companies? It means that on Benefits & Engagement, we propose solution for HR directors to answer the equation: attract, engage, and retain. Also solutions for fleet manager to manage their fleet and optimize their TCO, but also to organize the transition to electrical vehicles and reduce the CO2 emissions. As to the 60 million users, we propose mobile-first solutions for those users to increase their purchasing power and to have in Mobility, hassle-free drive. As to the merchant, 2 million of them, we increase traffic and loyalty, and we propose to them a very efficient cost of client acquisition.
That's our strong and unique value proposition, to be able to do that and to amplify that, we have, in fact, a very unique and unrivaled asset to pursue the growth. First of all, remember that we are the leaders of our industry, and our relative market share is very high. Second thing, we have the deeper portfolio on Earth as to Benefits & Engagement, but also Mobility. Further, we are the only player who is able to process internally the business volume with more than 90%, this mission-critical infrastructure is very distinctive versus the competition. We are the best orchestrator you can find on our verticals. We are also the biggest player as the leader, our investment capacity are very strong.
In tech, OpEx and CapEx, we're able to invest more than EUR 500 million per year to prepare and to amplify the growth. We are very efficient in terms of go-to-market, and also we have a very resilient and recurring revenue model. Only one number, our net retention rate in Benefits & Engagement in 2025 is at 104%. With those assets, we also have a very diversified portfolio of solution. As you can see, Benefits & Engagement, 64%, Mobility, 26%, complementary solution, 10% of our total operating revenue.
In this diversified portfolio of solution, as you can see, what is in fact beyond the core, which is the core fuel and the core meal and food, it represent now 42% of our total revenue, i.e., the diversification of Edenred is well in place and is amplifying. If we go even deeper, you realize that the largest client we have represent less than 1% of our business volume. The largest merchant represent less than 2% of the redemption volume, and the largest program we have, i.e., a country and a solution, the combination of both represent about 10% of our operating revenue. It's a super diversified portfolio of solution.
If we focus 1 second on meal and food, as you can see, Brazil, Italy, and France represent 27% of the total group operating revenue, and the rest of the meal and food represent, in fact, 15% of our total revenue, but spread out of 24 countries. As I said, the diversification of Edenred is amplifying. Another way to look at it is beyond the core meal and food and the core fuel, what is the percentage of the total operating revenue it represents? In fact, Beyond Food has moved to 34%, increasing by 1 point, and Beyond Fuel has increased by 2 points, moving from 31% to 33%. If I take in fact, 1 second on the situation in Brazil, as to the presidential decree.
Here you have a chart, explaining, in fact, the legal track, to help you reading this chart and to make it very clear. First of all, a presidential decree was in fact signed on the eleventh of November. As we said, Edenred went for a legal action, and Edenred won the first legal action, and so the presidential decree is suspended. As expected, the government went for an appeal in front of the Federal Tribunal, and we are waiting for the answer of the Federal Tribunal. Here, there are two options. If Edenred wins, the government has many opportunities to go for an appeal, an appeal that could be suspensive or not of the presidential decree.
If Edenred is losing in front of the Federal Tribunal, then the appeals of Edenred will not be suspensive, and we will wait for the second legal track, which is the judgment on the merits, and the judgment on the merits will not happen before the end of 2026. What does it mean? It means that, in fact, we will know better by the end of the year, at best, and in between, many things can happen, in terms of implementation or not of the presidential decree. That's why our guidance 2026 is based on a worst-case legal scenario.
Another way to say it, the -8 to -12 for 2026 is based on the fact that the president, the president of the Federal Tribunal is asking for the implementation of the presidential decree, and to stop the implementation, we will know it only by the end of the year. As I said, many things can happen. Today, the decree is suspended. It could be reinitiated or not, and whatever the or not, the final decision will be by the end of 2026 at best. Let's go back to our growth equation. Our growth equation is very simple: more users and more value per user. More user, it means attract more clients and users on the Edenred platform, 50%-60% of our growth for the coming years.
More value per users, two levels, enrich and activate, enrich between 30% and 40%. Behind enrich, two levels, upselling and cross-selling. To activate, that will represent between 10% and 20% of Edenred growth. Activation is really the monetization of our very qualified user base, but also new services for the merchants. That's the very simple and magic growth equation for Edenred. Now, if we go into the details of those three levels, and we start with attract, which is about 50% of the future growth of Edenred. Yes, we have been able to accelerate our client acquisition in 2025. How did we do it? First of all, we reinforce our digital acquisition, so we have more and more digital lead generation and AI automation for sales processes. What does it mean?
Our level of SME users in 2025 has increased by more than 700,000. The engine is in place, and the engine is amplifying week after week. The second example I would like to share with you is the ability to extend our customer reach. What does it mean? Edenred is selling directly its solution via the very unique platform, is also now using more and more distribution partner. I take the example in Mobility. Now, our solutions are distributed by Daimler, by Man, by Shell, for the financial services, or by Arval, a leasing company, for the maintenance services. What is true in Mobility is also true, in fact, in benefits.
Here we take the example of Brazil, where our solutions for toll payment, in fact, are now, in fact, distributed by Nubank, the first, e-bank in the world, but also some other banks, in fact, in Brazil, like, Inter, Sicredi or Sicoob. To make a long story short, our network of indirect distribution partners has increased by 30 in 2025 versus 2024. We amplify our extension of the customer reach, and there will be more to come in the next years. The second lever of Amplify is enrich. Enrich with two levers. The first one is cross-selling, the second one is upselling. Here, you have the example of what we did in Brazil. You remember we made the acquisition of RB. RB is a ticket transport, provider.
The offer of RB is now integrated on the Edenred platform. This integration has allowed for more cross-selling on our customer base. The RB total revenue growth in 2025 has been circa 60%. It's an example of what we can do in cross-selling. The other lever we have is upselling. Upselling, what does it mean? It's to translate the maximum legal face value increase into users' benefits. What has happened in 2025? If we look at portfolio in of Ticket Restaurant around the world, we had more than 40% of the business volume that has been positively concerned by a face value increase. In fact, this momentum is going to accelerate in 2026, because as of today, the ratio is not more than 40%, but the ratio is more than 50%.
To give a few examples, in Italy, the Italian government decided to increase the face value by 25%. It has not happened for the last 6 years. In Belgium, the government has decided to increase the legal face value by 25%. Nothing has happened on the legal face value in Belgium for the last 10 years. In Romania, the government decided to increase the legal face value by 12.5%. As you can see, the upselling engine of Edenred, based on face value increase, notably, is going to work well for the years to come because it takes about 2 years to benefit from 85% of the legal face value increase. We know that this growth engine will amplify in the coming years. Finally, the last lever is activate.
The idea is provide more services to our merchants and better monetization of our very qualified user base. You have an example of a retail media campaign that has been done by Reward Gateway, the engagement solution of Edenred, and we see the first very encouraging results. Our retail media revenue has been growing by more than 30% in 2025. To conclude, we can count on an enrich revenue model because, in fact, our model is based on solution-based fees, but also non-transactional fees and some new revenue streams that are coming from our platform for our user activation and our merchant services.
The combination of this enrich revenue model with, in fact, the three levers I shared with you before, is putting Edenred on its way to increase the average revenue per user, which is at EUR 45 in 2025, up to EUR 70 in 2030. As a reminder, what are the growth drivers of this average revenue per user? It's going to be upsell, it's going to be cross-sell, it's going to be our mix of solution, our portfolio diversification, but also some M&A that we can do. A good example was the RB acquisition in ticket transport, another benefit for the Brazilian worker. Finally, a quick point on data and AI.
Data and AI is only a plus for Edenred. Because it's only a plus for Edenred, we're going to increase our investment in data and AI by multiplying by 6 our annual data and AI investments during the course of the Amplify plan. Here you have two examples of a concrete application of the AI at Edenred. Concrete application within the services we propose to our clients and our users. On the left part, now we are able to propose an AI-augmented customer journey. It's called Eden Help. It's powered by, in fact, the leaders of AI in the world, like Agentforce and Zion, and it allows us and the user to benefit from hyper-personalization and an unrivaled customer service. By the way, we won, in fact, an award on self-care and chatbot services in 2025.
Another example is our engagement solution in Latin America in five countries, it's called GOintegro. If you are a user of GOintegro, you will not be alone. You will have your everyday companion. It's a virtual HR agent, but you will also have an AI agent to help you in the content moderation. The AI revolution is on its way at Edenred, and as I said, it's only a plus for our clients and users. That's why we increase our level of investments. Thank you for your attention. It's now time to go into the detail of our 2025 financial performance under the leadership of Virginie.
Thank you so much, Bertrand, and good morning, everyone. Let's dive into our Edenred 25 detailed financial performance. First, starting here, you can see that we delivered EUR 2.961 billion of total revenue in 2025, growing 7.6% like-for-like, if we exclude Italian change of regulation impact. All in all, with a negative foreign exchange impact of -4.6% weighing on our total revenue growth, reported growth is at +3.7%. Operating revenue amounted to EUR 2.7 billion and reflects 8% like-for-like growth when we exclude the Italian new regulation.
Foreign exchange impact on our 2025 operating revenue was a -4.3%, offsetting a positive scope effect of +2.9%, which reflects the contributions of the recently acquired activities, mainly transport voucher in Brazil, VIP fuel card energy activity in Italy. All in all, this resulted in an as-published growth of +4.7% for the year of 25. Regarding other revenue, we recorded EUR 229 million in 25, showing a -7.1% in reported figures, this is a 1% growth in like-for-like. Foreign exchange, in fact, exchange effect was a -8.1%, it reflects mainly the evolution of Latin American currencies on our other revenue.
In Europe, overall, on this page, you can see that operating revenue in Europe amounts at EUR 1.6 billion, and it represents 60% of the group operating revenue. In 2025, operating revenue in Europe grew 3.4% as reported, and 1% like-for-like, benefiting from a positive scope effect due to the contribution of the acquired IP energy cards business in Italy. Zooming on Q4, Europe operating revenue was at EUR 433 million and decreased -3.4% on a like-for-like basis. That reflects mainly the impact of the Italian meal voucher regulatory changes. Excluding this impact, European performance would have been an 8% like-for-like growth, confirming the improvement observed since the second quarter of 2025.
Zooming in France, we delivered EUR 363 million of operating revenue in 2025, up 0.5% like-for-like on a full year basis. In the fourth quarter, operating revenue was stable, down -0.2% like-for-like. Mobility confirmed its strong sales momentum with double-digit growth over the quarter, led by rising demand for electric vehicle charging solutions. Meal and food delivered steady growth with good commercial development in challenging macroeconomic conditions, and the year-end gift campaign was boosted by the new digital offering. This performance was offset by the tail end of the cyclical downturns in software solutions. In rest of Europe, Edenred delivered an 8% growth in 4Q 2025, excluding the new regulation in Italy on the back of a good performance in southern countries and in Germany with the Ticket City solution.
Mobility also benefited from a good commercial traction in Italy with IP and with Beyond Food solutions, with Edenred Finance, for example. Our recent partnership between Spirii and Daimler on electric vehicle demonstrates the relevance of our solutions. Finally, as regards complementary solutions, we had lower revenues on Romanian public social programs, and the ongoing exit of Banking-as-a-Service B2C activity that Bertrand mentioned earlier is still in our like-for-like computations and continue to weigh negatively on the growth. In Latin America now, if we dig into our performance, we see operating revenue up to EUR 826 million in 2025, representing 30% of the group operating revenue. This Edenred region has been robust and resilient all year long, delivering double-digit growth both in 4Q and in full year.
Brazil delivered good level of growth in meal and food, but it's worth to mention that our Beyond Food activities also propelled this good performance with our employee ticket transport solutions, for instance, RB, that delivered 60% total revenue growth in 2025. On Mobility, both Fuel and Beyond Fuel solutions delivered solid level of growth in Brazil and emphasized the relevance of Edenred diversification in the country. Hispanic Latin America delivered a lower growth with 2.3% like-for-like in Q4, on the back of a high comparison basis in benefits and engagement due to strong Mexican performance last year. In the regions, the performance remains strong, supported by favorable dynamics in Mobility, growing double digit as demand remains robust for Beyond Fuel solutions, notably in Argentina and in Mexico. Other revenue. Other revenue was better than anticipated.
We can see that we started the quarter with a boosted higher volume in float, interest rates remaining higher for longer, and we faced a less detrimental effect of currency translation. Overall, we delivered EUR 229 million of other revenue, which is slightly above our latest expectation of around EUR 220 million. Indeed, with higher business volume in Latin America and interest rates, notably in Brazil, all this led to a 7.2% like-for-like growth in 4Q versus last year. Overall, despite a less favorable interest rate environment, especially in Europe, where most of the float is located, other revenue are up 1% like-for-like. This performance reflects the group float increase generated by higher issue volume. What does it mean for 2026?
For 2026, we expect other revenue to have lower dynamic because of interest rate decrease, notably in Europe. We remain, though, confident with the EUR 210 million flow that we gave you at the Capital Market Day, knowing that the Brazilian decree needs to be taken into account as an additional computation to that number. A little bit of view on our P&L. That illustrates the increase in profitability that Edenred achieved in 2025. Operating expenses growth remain really contained at 1.3%. Scale effect of our per platform and the first milestones of our Fit for Growth program, that Bertrand talked about previously, have been instrumental to enhance the group profitability.
The group delivered an operating EBITDA of EUR 1,131 million, corresponding to an operating EBITDA margin of 41.4%, increasing 2.8 points like-for-like in 2025. EBITDA was EUR 361 million, EBITDA margin was at 45.9%, increases by 2 + 3 points versus last year. On this page, you have a detailed view of our P&L that led us to the solid increase of the adjusted DPS by 10% in 2025. If I comment quickly on each line to give you a little bit more color. First, on D&A, you can see an increase, which is in line with our CapEx regular increase. Moving forward, you'll see D&A continue to increase in line with CapEx growth.
PPA-related D&A increase in 2025 is due to the finalization of the purchase price allocation exercises relating to Spirii, RB, and IP acquisitions that we acquired in 2024. As the group has not made any additional big acquisition in 2025, this amount should remain relatively stable year-on-year. In terms of other income and expenses, we were at EUR 46 million this year. That merely reflects a restructuring cost that we incurred, notably on the back of our portfolio optimization actions. On the tax rate, tax rate was up in 2025, as our normative tax rate reflects our geography mix with a higher share of Brazil, offsetting a lower Italian contribution. We do not expect Brazilian contribution to significantly lower next year, as a lower contribution will be partly offset by the expected tax rate increase in that country.
Number of shares continue to decrease in line with the execution of our share buyback. We bought back EUR 125 million over the year. Minorities interest are going in line with the increase of profitability of the group, and our EPS is EUR 2.18 for 2025, growing 5.7%, while our adjusted DPS stands at EUR 2.59, growing 10% year-on-year. We called cash flow generation. Our cash flow, you know, was EUR 1,111 million, up 35% versus last year. If we look to how our cash flow is built, you'll observe once again that the EBITDA to free fund from operation conversion rates remains the main and constant constituent to the free cash flow generation of Edenred.
Looking to balance sheet movements, the material improvement on working capital variation is coming from the increase in float, reflecting higher business volume in Q4, especially in Latin America. Our other working capital benefited from cash collection discipline in mobility, a good momentum in VAT reimbursements coming from the European tax administrations, as well as the positive effects coming from the portfolio optimization actions we undertook last year, and notably some public social programs not weighing anymore on our balance sheet. CapEx are at EUR 198 million for the year 2025, down EUR 20 million year-on-year, thanks to our technology cost renegotiation efforts. Overall, CapEx represented 6.7% of our total revenue, well within our 6%-8% range. As a result, free cash flow to EBITDA conversion rate was a strong 82% for 2025, up 12 points versus last year.
Let's have a look now on our net debt position. We started 2025 with a EUR 1.8 billion net debt. The leverage ratio, which has been now lowered from 1.4x end of 2024 to 0.9x end of 2025. These leverage improvements result from the strong cash generation, slightly offset by the shareholders' return, which amounts to EUR 463 million in 2025. We close the year with a net debt position of EUR 1.2 billion. This gives us full flexibility on our capital allocation and illustrates our faster leveraging profile. Moving to our robust financial position.
We do have a strong liquidity position, with EUR 5.2 billion as current financial assets, a debt well spread over the years, and the access to an unknown credit facility of EUR 750 million. Moreover, our A-minus rating with stable outlook has been confirmed by S&P at the end of November 2025 again. As you may have seen, we successfully issued a EUR 500 billion bond earlier this year with a 7-year maturity, a coupon of 3.75%, and an order book more than 3 times subscribed, showing the confidence of bond investors into Edenred credit's quality. This refinancing increases our average bond maturity to 4.1 years. Overall, we decreased the cost of debt down to 3.3%. If we move now to capital allocation, which is focused on both growth and shareholder returns.
Growth remains our top priority. We plan to invest and pursue organic growth initiatives to deliver the Amplify plan, with annual CapEx between 6%-8% of our total revenue. We want to take advantage of our solid balance sheet to seize value accretive M&A deals and be opportunistic while maintaining strong focus on strategic and financial discipline. We focus on key deal considerations, such as further consolidation, opportunities to accelerate our Beyond strategy and further diversify, strong potential for revenue synergies, as well as sustainable business models. In terms of shareholders' return, we will propose to the shareholders a dividend on EUR 1.33 per share for 2025, which is a 10% increase compared to 2024.
This material increase is in line with our progressive dividend policy and reflects Edenred's confidence to continue to deliver sustainable and profitable growth in the long run. We continue to execute our current share buyback extension program of EUR 300 million, out of which EUR 125 million has been already executed during the year 2025. Finally, we remain committed to maintain a strong investment grade rating with our A- S&P rating reaffirmed in April and November last year. Last page for me. I want to show you the Edenred 2025 performance, presented under the new reporting structure by business line that we announced during our capital market day, and which we will fully use starting 1Q 2026. This enhanced reporting structure will provide operating revenue, operating EBITDA margins for each business line.
As a consequence, business lines become our prime segment reporting, geographies moving to the secondary dimension. This change also includes limited scope adjustments between business lines that you can track in the appendix of the presentation. As shown on the page, Benefits & Engagement and Mobility have similar operating EBITDA margins at 43% and 40% respectively, and these are both in progression compared to 2024. As for Payment Solutions & New Markets, operating EBITDA margin is at 29%, up 9 points versus last year, on the back of all management actions that have been undertaken in 2025. I'd like to thank you for your attention, and I now hand you back to Bertrand for the 2026 outlook.
Thank you, Virginie. A few words of conclusion as to the outlook for 2026 and beyond. First of all, yes, 2026 is a rebasing year for Edenred. Intrinsically, the EBITDA growth will be between 8% and 12% like-for-like, and it's gonna be powered by 2 engines. The first one is the total revenue growth, but also the structural operating leverage we are able to generate thanks to the platform. However, in 2026, we have to rebase, based on 1 thing, which is the impact of the regulation change in Italy and Brazil. It's gonna impact negatively in 2026 our EBITDA growth. We are going to accelerate our investments to achieve, in fact, the management actions and the portfolio optimization we talked about.
Finally, as explained by Virginie, our over revenue will decrease slightly outside the regulatory change in Brazil, and it's gonna be probably the last year, because our float is increasing, and we are moving towards a stabilization of the interest rates. The combination of all those element, an interesting growth of 8%-12%, plus the regulatory change, will lead to a guidance for 2026 between -8% and -12% like-for-like. Once again, as to the Brazilian impact, we took the worst legal case, i.e., an implementation of the presidential decree. Based on that, what does it mean for beyond, i.e., 2027 and 2028? Back to the growth of Edenred between 8% and 12%, starting in 2027 for the EBITDA like-for-like growth and the free cash flow to EBITDA conversion rate.
After the regulation impact in 2026, we are back to the 65% and more in 2027. To make a long story short, what are the key takeaways of the 2025 results, our Amplify25-28 plan? Four messages. First of all, 2025 was a year where we are able to post a new set of record results from the top line to the EPS. Yes, we are able to generate sustained revenue growth with an acceleration in the second part of the year, which is a very good sign for 2026. We are also benefiting from our structural operating leverage. We are a platform business. It's the scale business. The more we grow, the more we are able to generate increased margin.
The second thing is, yes, we see in 2025 the first effects of our performance and product improvement plan, and all the efficiency measures we took, the constraints creates the talent. Finally, we are a highly cash-generative business, and that's why we have been able to post strong cash generation in 2025. What does it mean? It means that based on all those elements, 2026 is a rebasing year before we resume sustainable and profitable growth chart trajectory starting in 2027. We will mitigate the impact of the regulatory stake back, thanks to our very diversified portfolio. We will continue and amplify our management actions to deliver further efficiencies. Finally, we know that we can count on our product and tech leadership in large to continue to grow on vastly underpenetrated markets.
Based on our results in 2025, we have been able to reinforce our fast deleveraging profile. We have a very strong balance sheet that leaves Edenred ample room for organic growth investments, especially in data and AI, but not only. Also, focused M&A opportunities while continuing our high level of shareholder returns in terms of dividends, but also share buyback. Based on that, we also have a long-term vision. This long-term vision is called Amplify25-28, with a magic growth equation that is simple, i.e., to increase the number of users and to increase the average revenue per user. All those elements allow us to reiterate our ambition to reach EUR 5 billion of total revenue in 2030. Thanks a lot for having listened to us. Virginie and myself, we are all yours to answer any question you may have.
If you wish to ask a question, please dial #5 on your telephone keypad. Please limit yourself to two questions. The next question comes from Estelle Weingrad from JP Morgan. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning, thanks for taking my questions. To start with, can I just ask on Brazil? Thanks for the slide regarding the legal process and going. I just wanted to clarify a couple of things. Do we know how long it will take to hear back from the government's appeal? In the meantime, the decree is suspended, so you are not implementing the decree, which should, on paper, start now. Is that correct? That's the first question. The second question. Sorry, this is 2 in 1. The second question on CSI, you mentioned a good growth of 5%-10% in December. What are you expecting in 2026? Should we expect complementary solutions to remain in positive growth territory, or we would still see some impact from the actions you took last year? Thank you.
Okay, Estelle, thank you for your questions. I will take all of them. First of all, the decision, or let's say, the decision of the federal body or legal body, can happen anytime now. It can be tomorrow, it can be, you know, in a few weeks. We are waiting the answer. The answer can be as early as tomorrow. In between, there is a suspension of the decree for Edenred, and I think for nine other issuers in Brazil. We did not implement the decree. We are ready to implement it if the decision of the federal jury goes against the suspension. Your second question is as to CSI.
Yes, we start seeing, you know, a good dynamic. We start seeing it as well for all the complementary solutions, because 2025 was also a year of, let's say, cleaning our portfolio, especially in the BaaS B2C, to de-risk from this activity. You can expect complementary solution to grow, in fact, in 2026. I remind that in 2025, we are at -4.6% in terms of operating revenue. You will see some good growth in complementary solution in 2026.
Thank you.
Thank you, Estelle.
The next question comes from Sabrina Blanc from Bernstein. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, Bertrand. Good morning, Virginie. I have two questions for my part. The first one is regarding the cost efficiency. Can you provide more details about the 200 something improvement? If we could have more column by segment or by areas. The second question is regarding the environment in France. We see that the growth was almost stable in Q4, but in the same time, you have mentioned that the gift campaign was very good in Europe. Just to understand what's happened in France, and notably in terms of economic environment.
Sabrina, thank you for your two questions. First of all, as to the cost efficiency, OpEx growth of 1.3% in 2025, where does it come from? If you look at the, let's say, the OpEx structure of Edenred, 50% of our OpEx are payroll. In fact, the payroll is the combination of the total number of people and the average increase. In fact, in 2025, we employed less people at Edenred than in 2024, we worked on, let's say, salary moderation in 2025. In fact, behind that, when we say we employ less people, in fact, around 30%-40% of less people is coming from the synergies coming from the acquisition.
We talked, for example, about RB, ticket transport in Brazil. We have a platform. They have a platform in ticket transport. Obviously, there is cost synergies, and we implemented those cost synergies. Unfortunately, people that you employ are part of those synergies. In fact, you have between 30% and 40% that are coming from the synergies. You have what we call portfolio rationalization. For example, when you progressively exit from BaaS B2C, in fact, at the end of the day, in this division, you employ less people because we are exiting this activity. Let's say between 15% and 20% of, in fact, those payroll stabilization is coming from what we call the portfolio rationalization.
The entire Edenreders, so the employees of Edenred, we all made, you know, some efficiencies for everybody everywhere. It has been well-balanced, and as I said, the constraints creates the talent. 50% was the, in fact, a work on our payroll, coming mainly from the total number of people with the number one driver, which is synergies coming from the acquisition and efficiencies and portfolio rationalization. You have, in fact, what we call the cost of sales. In fact, cost of sales is about 15% of our OpEx, and basically, we renegotiated with some of our distributors new formula, but we also sold less hardware at Spirii that are, let's say, impacting in terms of cost of sales.
That's the reason why the cost of sales in % of our operating revenue has slightly decreased. You have the other charges, here the other charges are representing 35% of the total. The other charges in % versus the operating revenue went down. Why? We sat down with all our suppliers and we renegotiated with them, or we readjusted our, you know, our needs. When you think about our tech investments, we are buying a lot of tech from everybody around the world, and sometimes we have not been efficient enough in the past in terms of what do we need exactly? How do we use it? We sat down, we reviewed the way we were working, and we have been able to renegotiate.
To make a long story short, 2025 was a very good year to work on our efficiency, whether on the payroll, the cost of sales, but also the other charges. You had the second question as to the environment in France. In fact, in France, everything goes well at the exception, as we said, of, you know, the software sales for the workers' council. The Ticket Restaurant in France is doing well. The gift is doing well. The only blow we have in 2025, and we explained that in the past, is we have a negative growth in software sales. In fact, why? Because now you have a new, let's say, elective process.
In France, it's every four years. It means that the year before the election, you will see, in fact, a huge increase of our software sales, and in between, it's more slow. We expect the activity to rebound sharply in 2026 and even sharply in 2027. For France, everything goes well. Ticket Restaurant, gifting, you know, to name a few, but a big blow on software sales. We will be back on track very soon, and the rebound will start in 2026. Another way to say it, Sabrina?
The next question comes from Hannes Leitner from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Yes. Thanks for letting me on. I got two questions. You called out that business volume exposure meal and food are over 50% experiencing a face value increase led by Italy, Belgium, and Romania. Can you maybe square that? Why shouldn't that give more confidence in 2027, 2028 targets, given that those face value increases were only pending at the CMD? The second question is: if we calculate the Italian headwinds, they come up to EUR 10 million in Q3 and EUR 44 million in Q4. Slightly below your EUR 60 million indications. Should we expect that the balance now to the EUR 120 million is coming in 2026, or should we just think that the same thing will be replicated? Thank you.
Thank you for your 2 questions. First of all, as to the face value increase, yes, it gives us a lot of confidence in terms of upselling, and that's why there is a bracket between 8 and 12. The bracket was the same at the capital market day. It depends on where we are going to be on the bracket. It's true that thanks to, in fact, those very good news in terms of upselling, it will have a positive impact on our guidance, but let's do 1 year after another. As to Italy, yes, we confirm that the total impact for the Italian regulation is EUR 120 million.
What I can confirm as well is, as soon as it is swallowed, you will see double-digit growth in Italy in 2027 and in 2028.
Thank you.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Julien Richer from Kepler. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, both. Two ones for me, please. The first one on Reward Gateway. Could you please give us some details on its deployment and the impact of that deployment on the number of solution per head and ARPU? The second one on your dividend policy. If you look to 2026, let's assume a worst-case scenario where your reported earnings will be down, let's say, 10%. Do you still expect your dividend to grow in absolute terms in 2026? Thank you.
Julien, thank you for your two questions. I start with the dividend. We have been committing for many years into progressive dividend policy. You will see the dividend growing in fact, 2026, paid in 2027. The question is the intensity of the growth, it's a debate that we are going to have with the board and a proposal to the shareholders. We are committed to a progressive dividend policy, by definition, in absolute value, the dividend is gonna progress in 2026. By the way, can we do it? Yes, we are a cash-generative company. We are fully delivered with a ratio of 0.9, we are strongly confident in our ability to generate between 8% and 12% EBITDA growth, like-for-like, starting 2027.
That's why I'm able to answer like that. Reward Gateway, the deployment. The deployment is gonna accelerate in France, Italy, and we said France, Italy, and.
... and Belgium. As I said, in 2025, we had very good successes in Belgium. In Italy, 2025 was opposed because we had to renegotiate 14,000 contracts in a few months. When you do that, and I'm a great believer in the focus, when you do that, you have to make some choices. 2026 is gonna be the year of the extension of our engagement solutions in Italy. In fact, in France, we have been pleased by the signature in the second part of the world of a few, let's say, large contracts with very well-known French companies. We will see an amplification in 2026 on those three countries. What is the impact on ARPU?
The impact, in fact, is gonna be positive and also in terms of number of users, because it's another point of entry to have access to Edenred solution. It goes one way and the other. You are currently an Edenred user and client, in fact, engagement is gonna increase the cross-selling. That's one way. The other way is you are not a user of Edenred solution, you enter into the Edenred world via the engagement solutions. Our goal is to satisfy you so much that, in fact, you will beg for the other solutions of Edenred on your digital application. Reward Gateway, amplification of the deployment in France, Italy, Belgium, with a specific focus on Italy and France, because Belgium is well-launched.
Probably, we're gonna also accelerate the deployment in Spain and in India in 2026.
The next question comes from Justin Forsythe from UBS. Please go ahead.
Morning, Bertrand. Virginie, thank you so much for the presentation this morning. A few questions from me here. Thank you for the detail on Brazil. That was super helpful. Just wondering, is there a potential third avenue which might be you settling out of court with the government? Are there any terms that you might find attractive, whether that's like a phased interchange cap, maybe not a day one move to this 3.6% or the 2%, or anything else that would be attractive to you? It may be a delay in the 15-day settlement requirement or something of that nature that you might be interested in. Virginie, wanted to ask a little bit about the free cash flow guidance, the 35% conversion.
I think that, at least by my math, implies over 60% decline compared to where you reported in 25. I understand that's inclusive of the Brazil regulation, so maybe that has something to do with your expectations around float in concert with the overall drop in EBITDA. Maybe you could dig into that a little bit. Just wanted to give you guys credit because RB seems like it's doing really, really well in Brazil. Maybe you could talk a little bit about how you expect penetration of that solution to go. Are you expecting higher attach rates with your corporate customers? Could you get to maybe close to 100% of those that are using the voucher solution in Brazil? Thank you.
sorry, Justin, Your last question was about what?
RB.
About RB?
Okay. Okay, okay.
Yeah, yeah.
I propose that I take the number 1 and number 3, then Virginie, the number 2, as to the free cash flow. First of all, is there a 3rd avenue? Yes, there is a 3rd avenue. That's why we were pushed to go for a legal action. The industry is willing to discuss with the Ministry of Labor, the Ministry of Economy, with open arms to try to find a solution. At the end of the day, what is good for the workers is good for the industry. What is good for the workers is 2 things: First of all, you have 20 million users of the PAT in Brazil, and in fact, when you look at the full potential, the full potential should be 40 million users.
What can we do together, hand in hand with the government, to accelerate the development of those solutions in Brazil? By the way, the main target is probably the SMEs. When you look at our growth in Brazil in 2025, we have been growing at almost 15%, in fact, in benefits in Brazil. It is, in fact, the proof in the pudding that there's still a long way to go in terms of penetration, especially for the SME users in Brazil. Once again, we consider that full potential, there should be 20 million more. Based on this potential, yes, there is a third avenue to discuss, because we want more users of the PAT in Brazil, and the government has exactly the same, let's say, willingness.
The second thing is, for the program to be, you know, sustainable, it has to be well filtered. Well filtered, it's not possible at all with an open-loop solution. It's complex, it takes time to explain. We needed to, you know, reinforce our explanation, and it's part of the third avenue. You are right, Justin. On one side, there is legal action, and on the other side, as usual, with Edenred, open arms to sit down and to say, "Okay, what is best for the workers? What is best for the program, and how can we find a compromise?" Your second question was about RB. Yes, ticket transport is doing well, and the level of cross-selling is still, in fact, below, let's say, 40%.
There's still a long way to go knowing that ticket transport is a mandatory benefit, in fact, in Brazil. It has to be given by the employer, and we still have many employers who are giving this benefit, but not using it yet, the Edenred platform. All our commercial efforts, in terms of cross-selling, will amplify because the potential is there. The free cash flow guidance, Virginie?
Thank you, Bertrand. Thank you to Justin for the question. Sorry to do a little bit of mathematics, guys, but maybe that helps. It's a ratio, so we have to look to both parts, the numerator and the denominator. Number one, you have one element which is touching numerator and the denominator at the same time, which is that next year, we will be impacted by some lack of revenue and then EBITDA, obviously, coming from Brazil and from Italy.
In addition to that, and that's not helping the ratio, definitely our numerator is even more it than the denominator is because of the elements coming from working capital variations and the lack of float effectively, as you noticed, Justin, that will be eating us. That has an impact quite sensitive on the calculation of the ratio. To help you a little bit on that, as we said, we are moving from a guidance to 2 to 4 before, you know, the announcement of our
... new decree in Brazil down to -8%, -12%. That gives you an idea of the magnitude of the impact on the Brazilian regulation on our EBDA. Bertrand stated it again, based on the worst legal case scenario, that's the one that we reinstate, you know, for 2026, and then that's the way we compute what will happen to our free cash flow. On that part, we said it in November, we estimate that more or less 85% is operating revenue, and the rest is coming from the other revenue.
If I compute, you know, the float, which is touched the other way around, knowing, you know, that our interest rates are around 12%, a little bit more in Brazil, you'll be able, you know, to go to quite a sensitive amount in terms of a missing float that we will lose from Brazil. Another way to look at it is to start from the volume of float that we have in Brazil. In Brazil, remember, you know that 20% is coming from Latin America of our float, and Brazil is three-quarter of that.
Then we have a bit of a big part of it, which is on the merchant side, because Brazilian people used to consume their vouchers a bit faster than it is happening in Europe. Then the vast majority of our float is based on the merchant's delay. You cut that by half of it, and you'll compute almost the same figure, which is going really to hit us. That has an impact. Obviously, you know, as we said, on free cash flow, you will lose both the EBDA part and that float part.
Remember also that what we state into capital market day is that Mobility growing and Mobility having a very slightly negative working cap position, then on average, we expect it to go to 65%, meaning that the starting point that we expect to see also for next year is also touched by that. That being reinforced by a mix where you have less Benefits & Engagement and more Mobility. Mobility have no impact of Brazilian and Italy regulation. That's what it is. Just maybe to help everyone, you know, calm down on that, it's a one-year effect. You will have to suffer, into brackets, the working capital variance once, and after that, we'll go back to a usual cash generation ratio, and that's what we reinstate with our guidance.
What we see for 27 and 28, assuming, you know, 26 is taking the impact, is that we go back to the 65% cash generation ratio, because we won't have to absorb twice a working capital variance.
Super helpful. Thank you so much.
The next question comes from Kaitlyn Shao from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much for taking my questions. My first question is still Brazil. I guess, if my understanding is correct, if there's gonna be an unfavorable ruling at the end of the day, that decision is only gonna come towards end of 2026. Why are you still holding your 2026 guide of the full impact? Is it because if there is a more negative decision, it could be applied retrospectively to the full year of 2026? My second question is, I noticed you used to disclose the Benefits & Engagement section, take-up rate. It was 5.6% in 2024. Just wondering what the latest rate is for 2025.
Obviously, you know, in, let's say in 2026, there's still gonna be some impact from the full impact of Italy and Brazil. If we assume, you know, both markets, you know, That the impact fully happens and it's fully de-risked, what would that take-up rate look like in that normalized environment? Thank you very much.
Okay. so let me take those 2 questions. Yes, your understanding is not correct. Let me repeat it. Today, the presidential decree is not applied, and it was supposed to be applied starting February the 11th. It's not applied as of today. Why? Because we won the 1st part of the legal battle, and we are not the only one, because out of 12 issuers that went into court, 9 of them won, and the other ones are waiting for their appeal. It is not applied. The government has made an appeal with a federal judge. The answer of the federal judge can come as soon as today or tomorrow, or even 1 month.
Waiting for the answer of the judge, the decree is not applied, if the judge is giving reason to the state, we will have to implement the decree. If the judge doesn't give a right to the state, the state has multiple ways to go for an appeal, the appeal could be suspensive, i.e., the implementation, the decree would have to be implemented. To make a long story short, as long as we don't have the answer of the federal judge, the decree is suspended. As soon as the decree might not be suspended, the next step for us is an answer on the merits of the decree, it's gonna happen by the end of 2026. That's why we don't know, because we don't know.
every days that goes without the implementation of the decree is a good news. You will see us probably if it takes longer, you will see us more on the top of the bracket than on the bottom. That's, that's how it works, and I hope my clarification is helping you. Your second question is as to, in fact, the take-up rate. In fact, the take-up rate is a notion that makes less and less sense for Edenred, as we explained during the capital market day. Why? Because the take-up rate is a percentage on the transaction, and as you can see, we are providing more and more services that do not have anything to do with the amount of the transaction. If you think about engagement, it has nothing to do with the amount of transaction.
If you think, in fact, in terms of maintenance services in mobility or telematics, it doesn't have anything to do. When you look at the beyond part, which represent more than 40% of our total revenue today, the vast majority of beyond is de-correlated from, in fact, the value of the transaction. That's why we are moving to measurement that are much more the average revenue per users and the number of users. Having said that, to make the link between the old Edenred and the new Edenred, without the impact of Italy, the take-up rate would have increased in 2025 at Edenred.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Pravin Gondhale from Barclays. Please go ahead.
Hello. Morning. Thanks for taking my questions. My first question is on free cash flow. The 2025 free cash flow conversion was very strong, and you sort of flagged that it benefited from the stronger flow position at the year-end. Do you expect a part of that to reverse in 2026, and hence, the guidance of greater than 65% FCF conversion, excluding Brazil regulations, is kept unchanged? What are the dynamics here? Secondly, on the operating EBITDA margins, they were quite strong in 2025. Can you help us understand the moving parts of that margin progression between what's recurring and you expect that to happen in 2026?
What is what were sort of the one of the majors in 2025? Thank you.
Pravin, thank you for your question. I start with the margin, and I let you work on the free cash flow, unless you want to do the margin.
No.
No? Okay. I, I go for the margin. First of all, in 2026, our operating EBITDA margin, and so our EBITDA margin will go down. Why? Because we have to swallow the EUR 60 million, the remaining part of Italy, plus, for now, the worst case legal scenario in Brazil. Our EBITDA and operating EBITDA margin will go down in 2026. After that, you will see the both margins going up. Why? First of all, this business is a scale business, i.e., the more you grow, the more you are able to dilute your fixed costs on, you know, the revenue that you generate. You will see the margins going up based on the current plan we have in 2027 and after.
That's how I see the evolution of the EBITDA margin and the operating EBITDA margin. The scale effect is a powerful engine for us to increase our margin. The second thing you will see as a powerful engine is the efficiency program that we put in place. As I said, it's called Fit for Growth. We are now in the phase 2 of Fit for Growth. We have a plan. We have a plan in terms of efficiencies. We have a plan in terms of streamlining certain functions. We have a plan in terms of convergence of platform. I give you one very simple example: by the end of 2026, 100% of our users will be upgraded to our new platform in France. It's a very good news.
First of all, from a cost point of view, we will stop the historical platform, so we're gonna run with one platform, and if the law is voted in France, there will be no more paper. Today I'm running with three different systems: a paper system, the Edenred platform, and the Edenred plus the new platform. By the end of 2026, there will be most probably only one platform. Not only it's good for our cost base in France, but it's also excellent in terms of user satisfaction, because if you go on the web and you look at the ratings we have on this new platform, you will see that they are absolutely outstanding. It's a very good thing for, in fact, the churn and a very good thing for the profitability of the business.
Based on, you know, the scale effect that are natural in our business, plus all the product and performance improvement plan, part two of Edenred, you will see the EBITDA margin going up after a drop in 2026.
Maybe I jump on free cash flow? On free cash flow 25, you're right, Pravin, you know, was strong because you have a big movement on working capital element. If you look to free fund from operation, the conversion is very much in line with what we have every year, and which is fully in line with our anticipation of a cash conversion rate of 70%. Why do we do not only 70 but 82% this year? In addition to the good EBITDA performance, and obviously a big enumerator is and denominator at the same time is not showing your, your free cash flow, is that we have this movement on working cap element, which is an increase in float.
An average increase on volume in float just because we had bigger business volume to start with, you know, during the year. In addition, some other elements, and especially in Latin America, with additional volumes of orders by the end of the year, which pushed the cash up. And also, as I said, some elements around the rest of the portfolio, which is namely, you know, the what we call other working capital variance, and refers to the rest of our business, Mobility, for example, or also the headquarter and so on.
Bertrand just referred to all our efforts also in terms of negotiation on suppliers and so on, so that has a direct impact on the supplier debt that you have on the face of the balance sheet. We also have a very good cash collections, you know, on the side on Mobility. Remember, we talked about some missing elements when we disclosed the H1 free cash flow and some cash collection that needs to be back in, and that has been done since then, obviously, so that's definitely helping. Then, we have a lot of receivables in various countries in terms of VAT credit to be reimbursed.
Here also, you can see that the tax administration in each and every country are progressively digitalizing themselves, and then they become more efficient, and then we get reimbursement a bit more in advance. I cannot predict or anticipate whether it will be exactly the same next year in that respect, but part of the positives, you know, depending the way you take the photography at year-end, can move one way or the other, and then you might have a slightly better or a slightly worse variance in working cap next year to take into account in the computation of the free cash flow.
Really, the guidance on 26 is the elements I described earlier to Justin, and the fact that we'll be missing quite a significant volume of float. This volume of float missing will create a decrease, strong decrease and a movement in our working cap variance that will negatively impact the absolute value of the free cash flow.
But to make it-
Thank you very much. That's very clear.
The cash, the cash flow management is well under control at Edenred.
Thank you. Thank you. Good to know. Thank you very much.
The next question comes from André Juillard from Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Virginie. Good morning, Bertrand. 2 follow-up question, if I may. First one about Mexico. You didn't talk about this market, and could you give us some more color about the trends, and do you have any fears with the actual events? Second question about the leverage. Your leverage is quite low at the moment, 0.9 net debt on EBITDA. Do you have a target in mind, just to help us to manage the anticipation that we could have in term of reinvestment, return to shareholders and so on? Thank you very much.
André, thank you for your question. First of all, as to what's going on right now in Mexico, no, we don't have fears. That's part of life. We are in 44 countries. The trends in Mexico are good for Edenred. In Mobility, we have a sustained growth in 2025, and very good prospect, in fact, in 2026. I'm very pleased by the performance of the new CEO of Edenred Mexico in Mobility. As to Benefits, we also have very good perspective with the success of the deployment of Edenred Plus in France. In fact, we started a few weeks ago, the deployment of Edenred Plus in Mexico. We come with a new offer, totally renewed, revamped.
Based on the good results we have in France, we are very positive for what it's gonna mean for Mexico in the coming years. As to the leverage, yes, we are at 0.9. Do we have a target? No, we don't have a target. We know the maximum. We want to stay a strong investment grade, we know that to stay strong investment grade, you need to be in a normative band that is no more than 2-2.5. You have a period of grace, depending on the acquisitions, of 18 months. More or less, we are well, let's say, capped on the maximum.
As to, in between, in fact, it's a very good news for Edenred to be at 0.9, because it give us all the flexibility to accelerate our investment for the future growth of Edenred. It gives us a lot of flexibility to continue acquiring some companies in a built up or bolt-on with the same financial discipline in terms of strategy, but also in terms of return on investment. It gives us flexibility. For example, in EV, it's a growing trend in Europe. We have some successes. We started with the acquisition of Spirii. The market is moving fast. We are seeing opportunities every day, so maybe that's another thing where we could continue to invest.
We love the idea that we are very well deleveraged because we can fuel the organic growth, but also the very targeted growth in M&A to enrich our offer and consolidate our leadership position. Finally, we want to continue to have the progressive dividend policy and share buyback. With the balance sheet we have, Edenred is well in order to accelerate the growth, to go over the year 2026 for 2027 and 2028.
Thank you very much. Just maybe one follow-up on France.
It's really the last one, André, because.
Yes. Sorry. Did you have recent discussion with the government, about regulation in France or nothing?
Very quickly, the association of the issuers obviously met the ministers in charge. Their willingness is, you know, to push for a law voted in 2026. They have a preference for the first half of the year, but it's gonna depend on the calendar. To make a long story short, the current government is exactly on the same page as the previous ones. They want the reform to be voted, because they think it's a good thing for all the workers in France to have, first of all, the end of paper, and second thing, to have a clarification on the usage. We have, today, ministers who want more Ticket Restaurant in France. Once again, the penetration in France is only 28%.
As compared to many other countries, the penetration is not that high in France. They all want more Ticket Restaurant solutions in France. They want the law to be voted along the lines I just shared with you.
Fingers crossed. Thank you very much.
Thank you, André. Thanks a lot for all your questions, and I wish you a very good day.