Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Edenred H1 2020 Review Conference Call. I now hand over to Mr. Bertrand Dumazy, Chairman and CEO. You can go ahead.
Yes, thank you. Good morning, everybody. Thanks for being connected this morning for the H1 2020 results of Edenred. I propose that we go to point two of our presentation. And so the first message I want to share with you is, because Edenred is a digital champion with strong business and financial fundamentals, we have been able to overcome the COVID-19 crisis. What is a digital champion? First of all, we have a strong growth profile with a robust financial position. Then, remember that we are a global player, operating in 46 different countries on vastly underpenetrated markets. We are also a tech leader, delivering innovation around specific purpose payment solutions. Hence, we are able to propose more than 250 solutions covering essential needs such as eat, roam, care, and pay.
Finally, we demonstrated, and we have been demonstrating, and we will continue to demonstrate that we are an agile organization made of local entrepreneurs operating on the ground and supported by the headquarters scaling champions and technology experts, so thanks to all those fundamentals that are the Edenred of today, we are able to post in H1 2020 strong results with some resilience and a sharp rebound in June in Europe. Our total revenue of EUR 696 million was down 4.8% like-for-like. Our operating revenue of EUR 675 million was down 4.6% like-for-like, reflecting the growth of 6.6% in Q1 and a decrease of 15.4% in Q2. We saw a sharp improvement in June with operating revenue down 9% like-for-like. Our EBIT level is at EUR 255 million, down 12.8% like-for-like. We generated some free cash flow in H1 2020 at a level of EUR 130 million versus minus EUR 13 million in H1 2019.
Finally, our net profit group share is at EUR 100 million. So based on those H1 2020 results, based on the fundamentals of Edenred, how do we see the rest of the year? We believe that there will be a continued gradual recovery in H2, particularly in Europe, but with some uncertainties in Latin and North America. So the combination of all those elements should lead to year-on-year like-for-like monthly operating revenue growth superior to 0% at some stage in H2 2020. We are also able to confirm our EUR 100 million cost savings cost avoidance plan and selective downward adjustment of our 2020 capital expenditure. All those elements lead us to guide you on a full year 2020 EBITDA estimate between EUR 540 and EUR 610 million, and as to our leverage in 2020, it should be below 2.8 times EBITDA. What does it mean for the post-COVID world?
We think Edenred is a digital champion that is well positioned for this post-COVID world. The crisis accelerated the need for earmarked funds to fulfill essential needs, coupled with an agile organization combined with a technology platform, allowing the group to seize business opportunities. Finally, we have strong financials that allow us to pursue our product and technology investment strategy. We believe that Edenred has the capacity to rebound quickly thanks to the resilience of our business model, thanks to the strengthening of our digital leadership, thanks to the accelerated deployment of earmarked funds programs, and finally, thanks to our ambitious product and technology investment strategy. Now, if we move to page five to look into details, not into details, but to look at the highlights of the first semester of 2020.
Page five. The first thing to remember is we saw a sharp improvement in June driven by the gradual end of lockdowns and short-time work schemes in Europe. We have an overall resilience thanks to the digital business continuity. I remind everybody that more than 98% of our people were able to work remotely. We have been able to launch new initiatives around earmarked funds and products focused on essential needs that do not stop completely during a pandemic like COVID-19: essential needs in the eat, move, care, and pay. We saw a fast recovery in Europe since June, leading to a June month at -9% operating revenue like-for-like versus -19% and -18% in April and May, after a month of March at -0.5%.
You remember that for the first two months of the year, we have been growing at double digits. So fast recovery in Europe in June due to the phase-out of short-time work schemes, due to the ability to move again, and due to the higher spending volume at merchant stores. However, America is still highly impacted as COVID has still not peaked as of end of June. If we move to page six, the second comment is about the seamless business continuity that we have been able to demonstrate thanks to agile teams and digital solutions. If we look at the figures now, at the end of H1 2020, 86% of total Edenred business volume is digital. And we saw a sharp increase in employee benefit digital adoption in Europe versus H1 2019, leading to plus 9 points. So that's our product and services acceleration of digitalization.
As to our employees, close to 100% of Edenred employees have been able to work remotely, so we are a full digital company. The vast majority of our business volume is digital, and we are able to propose solutions that are fitting home and remote working requirements, then if we move to page seven, so on top of the digitalization, we saw a strong ramp-up of app-to-app payments, especially through the e-delivery platforms. I remind everybody that Edenred is the everyday companion for people at work, that we are leveraging strong technological assets with our platforms, and on these platforms of intermediation between our network of merchant partners and users, in between, at some point of time, you need to pay, and more and more, the payment is digital, obviously, and more and more, the payment is app-to-app. What does it mean?
It means that we saw a fast ramp-up of those app-to-app payments. So, for example, in Brazil, with the launch of our partnership with Uber Eats, iFood, and Rappi, we saw, since we go live in March 2020, more than 600,000 transactions. Indeed, globally, the number of transactions versus H1 2019 has been multiplied by two. And we are now connected with 60 different partners and live in six countries thanks to our unique technology called Edenred Digital Payment Services. Another example is in France, where now more than 30% of our Ticket Restaurant card users are now logged into this EDPS. And we will continue to invest and to increase the usage of the EDPS because we have an ambitious roadmap for H2 2020 and 2021.
If we move now to page eight, another thing to mention in terms of highlight is our ability to propose innovative food solutions to replace school or office cafeteria. And if we take two examples, the first one in the U.K., where we launched in less than 15 days an innovative e-voucher system to replace free lunches for U.K. pupils. So it's for 1.3 million British pupils as beneficiaries. It allows them to spend up to GBP 15 per week in a dedicated supermarket network for food. The initial project was only for April. We saw a first extension of our program till the end of June, and now it is extended to the end of August. It's a good illustration of our innovation capabilities and high agility. The second thing, in the U.S., very interestingly enough, we saw the launch of a new food benefit program.
Our first client is Spotify. It's a corporate meal card program to increase the employer's attractiveness and improve workers' productivity and well-being. It's particularly relevant for remote workers and when on-site food services are not available. Another way to say it is, you are an employee of Spotify. You used to get food in your offices. The offices are closed, or you are in remote. You want to have access to some food. You will be able to do it thanks to this new food benefit program, so it's a card meal program. One thing to note is we are able to push those programs that are a good replacement of the old way of doing, and there is no tax break.
The ability to earmark the funds and to give dedicated funds to employees for new ways of working is especially interesting for us and on a market that was not impacted by our solutions in terms of food, meaning the U.S. If we move to page nine, the other thing to notice is our ability to ensure efficient economic recovery via specific purpose solutions. Here, you see a few examples that are able to boost the tourism sector and promote a green recovery. In Greece, we have been able to put in place a program since March 2020, up to EUR 300 per employee, to be used only in a filtered network of local travel agents, hotels, and restaurants. It's a tax-exempt benefit. In fact, it's the leverage of things we have been doing for years in holiday benefits programs, especially in Romania and Slovakia.
So that's another example of what Edenred is able to do, i.e., to leverage solutions that we have in one country or another and to propose that to a government or private sector to promote the economic recovery. Another example is the Ticket EcoCheque in Belgium, where we saw some very strong performance in Q2. And in fact, the purpose of the Ticket EcoCheque is to stimulate green consumption. And as a reminder, anytime anybody is spending EUR 1 via the EcoCheque solution in Belgium, you have one kilogram of CO2 that has been saved. So once again, it's the rollout of the existing range of benefits dedicated to environmentally friendly solutions that we saw increasing everywhere around Europe. Another example is the launch of the Ticket Mobilité in France, visiting the USA with Commuter Benefits, but also in the U.K., in Belgium, and Finland.
Now, France, since last March, is launching the same program. Of course, Edenred is on it. The Ticket Mobilité, up to EUR 400 per year and per employee, to pay for mobility and soft mobility. Another way to say it, anytime you are using an Edenred solution, you contribute to a better world, or you contribute to the recovery of specific sectors that have been particularly badly hit by the COVID crisis. Not only have we been able to digitalize faster, not only have we been able to propose new solutions, not only anytime you are using Edenred solutions, you contribute to a better world, but page 10, we demonstrate that we also have been able to have active management of our P&L and cash flows. We are in business for business.
In terms of P&L management, we have been very strong on our rolling forecasts by country and by solutions. We have been very strong on our EUR 100 million of OpEx savings and avoidments for the full year 2020. In fact, we are well on track to reach this EUR 100 million cost savings target in 2020. What does it mean in terms of cash flow after the management of the P&L and our spendings? In fact, we saw in H1 an increased float as a result of longer retention time due to lockdown measures. We saw that we are able to control our CapEx for 2020, and we revised that downward. With the commitment to make sure that we will never, ever compromise the good capacity for technological innovation or growth, we want to be sure that we are absolutely ready for the rebound that will come.
Then, our float retention time will return to normal in H2, as the users will start to spend their funds again at merchant stores that will be more and more open. And based on all those elements, we are pleased to share with you that we don't have any risk to the group's liquidity, and we still have a strong financial position with our triple-A plus strong investment rating that has been confirmed by Standard & Poor's last May. Finally, page 11, you remember that we put in place the More Than Ever Relief Plan. It's a plan where we committed up to EUR 15 million to mitigate the consequences of the COVID-19 epidemic on Edenred ecosystem. We have three priorities to protect our employees. And thank God, up to now, the number of Edenred employees that have been infected has been very limited.
The second objective of the plan is to support our merchants, the restaurant owners, but also some professional users like the truck drivers. And finally, we know that a world of prosperity for everybody, but also for Edenred, will only be possible when we will all have access to a vaccine. So we will support the scientific research to find a cure for the COVID-19. Those initiatives are the number of 63. Those initiatives are at the local level, the way we like it at Edenred, and things are put in place more, in fact, very surely. After those H1 2020, it's now time to listen to Patrick Bataillard for the H1 2020 results, page 13.
Thank you, Bertrand . Good morning, everyone. Let's start in page 13 with the H1 2020 operating revenue.
H1 2020 operating revenue was down 4.6% like-for-like, of which 15.4% in Q2, and down 10.2% as reported. We moved from EUR 751 million in H1 2019 to EUR 675 million in H1 2020. And this, as said before, is a like-for-like increase of 4.6%. The difference coming from the scope effect, which is slightly positive, plus 0.4%, and this is mainly explained by the last acquisition we found, which has Easy Welfare in Italy, EBV in Lithuania, and Benefit Online in Romania. And then the main negative difference comes from the currency impact, - 6% in H1 2020. Of course, we've seen some big differences between Q2 and Q1. Let's remember that in Q1, we had a practically normal quarter until mid-March, and then the crisis came with some lockdown measures in Europe.
In Q2, we posted - 15.4% like-for-like to be compared to the - 20% we estimated at the beginning of the crisis. In page 14, you see the breakdown per business line. Employee benefits, which is our legacy business, still represent 61% of the total H1 2020 group operating revenue. The like-for-like decrease in comparison to last year is - 8.7%, which means that this is the most affected by the crisis so far. And the reported decrease is - 12.9%. Fleet and mobility solutions do represent 76% of the overall operating revenue. We saw some decrease of - 1.4% like-for-like or - 10.7% overall reported decrease. And then complementary solution, which is a mix of corporate payment services, incentive, and world businesses and public social programs, is now 13% of the overall operating revenue.
We posted a quite strong growth in like-for-like, in the personal like-for-like measurement, with +11%, but as well as reported growth with +6.1%. If we now deep dive into the employee benefits operating revenue in page 15, we are temporarily impacted by furloughed measures and delayed merchant revenue, so overall operating revenue for H1 was EUR 412 million. It is -8.7% like-for-like, but we saw some big difference between the lockdown period and what appears after the lockdown. During the lockdown, we have a strong impact from the short time working because benefit allowance calculated are based on the number of actual days worked. We saw as well some delayed merchant revenue due to limited traffic in store, meaning that we are creating backlog, i.e., merchant revenue that will be recognized later one day or another.
After the lockdown, regarding the client fee recovery is led by end of the furloughed measures. Regarding merchant revenue, the recovery is fueled by traffic rebound in reopened stores and restaurants. Regarding solutions in page 16, we have a mixed effect from stay-at-home requirements on heavy and light fleet equipment. Overall, we posted EUR 173 million for H1 2020, i.e., -1.4% like-for-like, of which -14.3% in Q2 2020. During the lockdown, what we saw is heavy fleet solutions, i.e., the fleet business, being more resilient than light-fleet solution, mostly vans and small trucks. After the lockdown, we saw some progressive rebound in heavy fleet solution, but fast rebound in light-fleet solution as soon as stay-at-home measures were lifted, especially in Europe, with the UK being the exception.
But we pursue as well innovation strategy with, for example, the launch of a new fleet management platform in Europe in H1. Regarding complementary solutions, on page 17, we've launched some new specific purpose programs, and we've acknowledged as well some stronger appetite for digital secure corporate payment solutions, leading to plus 11% like-for-like operating revenue growth in H1. Overall, we did EUR 90 million in H1 2020, i.e., plus 11% like-for-like growth, but as well plus 6.1% as reported. And as you can see, we posted those growth in Q1 2020 with plus 12.1%, and Q2 2020 with plus 9.9%. We posted a strong performance of new specific purpose programs to combat COVID impacts, such as free school meals program in the U.K., COVID-19 voucher relief program in Italy, NGO-funded food cards in Brazil, and childcare programs for caregivers in France.
More broadly, we see some increased attractiveness of digital corporate payment services as an alternative to paper-based solutions, such as CSI, B2B platform, virtual card issuing, or identified IBAN. Now, let's have a look at H1 2020 operating revenue per region, starting on page 18. Overall, Europe remains the strongest region for Edenred, with 61% of the total operating revenue, and a slight decrease of - 5% like-for-like or - 2.6% as reporting during H1 2020. Latin America is now down to 30% with - 8.1% like-for-like decrease in H1 2020, but - 24.5% as reporting, meaning that we face some strong negative forex impact, especially from the Brazilian reais and the Mexican peso. And it's important to remind that Latin America was representing a bit more than 49% of the total operating revenue in 2014.
To a certain extent, we've de-risked a lot of the company from the growth we posted in Latin America. In Europe, in page 19, what we saw was a strong rebound in June, particularly in France. Overall, Europe posted EUR 411 million in H1 2020. As you can see, we see some strong difference between Q1 and Q2, of course, but as well a strong difference between France with - 31% in Q2 and the rest of Europe with - 5.9%. In France, most probably, this country was one of the hardest-hit countries by stay-at-home and short-time working measure in April and May. We saw a strong rebound in June as client orders returned to positive territory.
In employee benefit, especially, merchant revenue is still delayed in June, but the situation is improving thanks to a daily spending cap that has been revised up from EUR 19 to EUR 13.80 in restaurants. And this has a huge impact on our business. As an example, the average digital transaction value in restaurants is up 50% in June versus the pre-COVID situation. And in fleet and mobility, it has to be noted that we have a positive performance in June versus last year. Regarding the rest of Europe, in employee benefits, we see some mixed situation with gradual recovery at different levels from one country to another, depending on timing and conditions of the lockdown easing. And for fleet and mobility, we have an ongoing strong recovery in continental Europe, while the TRFC in the U.K. is still impacted by the lockdown. Let's move now to Latin America in page 20.
Here, unfortunately, the COVID crisis has hit hard at the end of June. Overall, we see EUR 203 million in H1 2020, i.e., 44.3% as reported, with stronger forex impact, as mentioned before, coming from the Brazilian reais that devalued from approximately -20% in H1 2020 in comparison to H1 2019, and Mexican peso -9%. In Brazil, the COVID crisis has hit hard at the end of the period. The employee benefit is impacted notably by closed restaurants, but we saw some fast adoption rate of meal delivery platforms uptake of app-to-app payment solutions in more than 600,000 transactions, as mentioned by Bertrand, since the launch of distribution in March. In fleet and mobility, we saw a better resilience of heavy fleet versus light-fleet solutions, and this is especially explained by the fact that we saw some positive effects from a particularly good harvest season.
Of course, we are negatively impacted by the retail fuel price in H1. In the rest of this area, in Hispanic Latin America, we are facing an overall lack of control of the spreading epidemic, and Mexico is especially strongly impacted by the epidemic and as well by negative retail fuel price that has been impacted in fleet and mobility solutions. Let's move now to the other revenue, the formerly called financial revenue, as highlighted on page 21. Here, what we saw is a higher float. It was more than offset by lower interest rates and strong negative currency effects from Latin America. We see EUR 21 million in H1 2020 compared to EUR 26 million in H1 2019.
The main differences came from higher floats in 2020 due to the extended employee benefit retreat time, lower interest rate worldwide, especially in the non-Eurozone and non-European countries, and of course, some very strong negative currency impact in Latin America. Let me remind you, especially our float investment policy, as described on page 22. What is interesting to keep in mind is that the majority of our float is managed in Europe with approximately 80% of the total money. Latin America does represent a bit less than 15% of the total float. We still have a very contrasting investment policy with centralized cash management, as well as investment in money market instruments are done in local currency only. We mostly use bank term deposit with no risk on capital.
We never do any float transfer between currency, and we try to diversify and choose the high standard third party, mainly international banks. So, to sum up the total revenue in page 23, i.e., the operating revenue plus the other revenue, formerly called the financial revenue, H1 organic resilience is hindered by negative forex changes in Latin America. Overall, H1 2020 total revenue was EUR 696 million compared to EUR 777 million in H1 2019. The biggest difference on top of the like-for-like decrease of -4.8% coming from scope with a positive effect, and the currency impact, i.e.,minus EUR 47 million must be coming from the Brazilian reais and the Mexican peso. Let's move now to the EBIT in page 24. So, total EBIT in H1 2020 was EUR 192 million.
We have a high seasonality of operating leverage this year with encouraging signs of return and a EUR 100 million cost savings or cost avoidance plan that should pay off in H2. You see some difference between the like-for-like change in total revenue that was - 4.8% in H1 2020, and the EBITDA for which the like-for-like change has been - 12.8% or - 17.8%, meaning that the total EBITDA was in H1 2020 EUR 255 million, and the EBITDA margin did go down for - 3.3 points. EBIT as well posted - 17.7% like-for-like decrease or - 22.8% reported change, meaning that total EBIT was EUR 192 million to be compared to EUR 249 million in H1 2019.
If you try to understand the cost dynamics, we had some increased cost base in Q1 versus 2019 because we have a strong double-digit growth until mid-March, and of course, we had additional cost to bear that growth. Then we have a flexible funds with a EUR 100 million cost savings and cost avoidance plan versus EBIT designed via a bottom-up approach in all our geographies, including the headquarters. And what we can say now is that we are well on track to reach this EUR 100 million cost savings and cost avoidance target in 2020, meaning that the operating leverage was quite negative in H1 2020 and should be positive in H2 2020. Another way to look at it is the bridge you can see on page 25. We moved from EUR 249 million in H1 2019 EBIT to EUR 192 million in H1 2020.
Of course, this is explained by the lack of EUR 42 million of operating EBIT to be compared to the lack of EUR 35 million like-for-like operating revenue downwards. Operating revenue is minus EUR 2 million without the forex impact. Change in scope hopefully is positive at plus EUR 6 million coming from all the last acquisition withdrawn, i.e., Easy Welfare in Italy, EBV in Lithuania, and Benefit Online in Romania. And then we saw some strong negative currency effect of minus EUR 19 million in H1. If we try to understand how we move from EBITDA to net profit in page 26, as you can see, we moved from EUR 255 million EBITDA to EUR 100 million net profit group shares to be compared to EUR 146 million in H1 2019.
The main difference coming from not the D&A and PPA amortization that are quite stable in comparison to H1 2019, and that should be the case in H2 as well. You see slightly more other income and expenses totaling minus EUR 13 million in H1 2020, and this is a mix of very different things, but this is mainly explained by technology asset write-off, softwares, etc., totaling minus EUR 14 million. On top of that, we have some restructuring costs for minus EUR 4 million in H1, and we have a positive one-off reversal of provision of plus EUR 6 million, relating to the litigation we had against the Hungarian state, which is totally ended now. Looking at the net financial expense, H1 2020 is minus EUR 15 million to minus EUR 14 million in H1 2019.
Surprisingly enough, the cost of debt is sharply going down during the period, but the interest we get from the cash is sharply going down as well, explaining almost no difference between H1 this year and H1 last year. Let's look now at slide 27 to understand how we succeed in producing some free cash flow, some positive free cash flow in H1 2020, because our business model ensures profitable growth as well as cash generation. This is not generally the case every year in H1, but this was the case in H1 2020 with a free cash flow of plus EUR 113 million, which is a very good news flow in my view.
This is explained by the fact that the float increased a lot due to higher prepaid solution retention time, minus EUR 313 million to become plus EUR 313 million to become plus minus EUR 256 million last year, for instance. But of course, as well, we had much more restricted cash this year than last year, which is good news to prepare the future. We estimate the float retention times may return to normal by the end of the year. What is interesting as well is that you see that H1 CapEx reflects an ongoing technology development during this period, specifically with the stop of the strategic investment we are doing around CapEx, even if we stop some non-strategic CapEx during the period. Overall, what we estimate is that in H2 2020, CapEx should be lower than what we posted in H2 2019, i.e., last year before the crisis.
If we look now at the net debt as of June 31st on page 28, overall net debt was EUR 1,501 million, i.e., a lower net debt thanks to a high level of cash flow generation in H2 2019, a strong business resilience, and a longer float retention in H1 2020, despite a strong negative forex impact. It's probably more interesting to compare this debt to the one we had at the end of June last year because of the seasonality we have between H1 and H2 at Edenred. So this is explained by a strong free cash flow, overall EUR 526 million over the last 12 months. Acquisitions were pretty low, with minus EUR 14 million over the last 12 months, but this is partly explained by the positive impact we have from the exercise of the UTA put option.
Shareholder return overall was minus EUR 151 million, and as you can see, we have very strong negative forex impact, and here we are looking at the fixing rate and not only the average rate during the period, meaning that the sole forex impact was minus EUR 194 million over the last 12 months, an d finally, page 29, I would like to say very simply to you that I have absolutely no doubt about the fact that we have a very robust financial position with a high level of liquidity and a solid balance sheet. We have more than EUR 4.6 billion cash in the balance sheet. In fact, we have more than EUR 1.5 billion short-term financing options with undrawn revolving credit facility and commercial paper authorization.
We have no financial covenants, not at all, and we succeeded in issuing in June a new EUR 600 million nine-year bonds at a very low interest rate, increasing the disparity while optimizing the cost of debt, which is roughly 0.9% growth currently. We have as well a strong investment-grade rating, as mentioned by Bertrand previously. The triple B plus rating outlook is stable as it was set by Standard & Poor's last May, so quite recently, and we have no major reinvestment before 2024.
Patrick, thank you. If we move now to page 31 for the 2020 outlook, the first thing to share about the operating revenue. So what we see for the H2 2020 is continued gradual recovery in Europe, but still some uncertainties in the Americas.
If we look at the breakdown per product line after the geographies, in employee benefits, some delayed user spending in H1 will generate merchant revenue in H2. We will also see the ongoing positive effects of innovation and digitalization process in Europe. The more digitalized it is, the better it is for our operating revenue and our level of EBITDA. But as previously said, LATAM will still be impacted by lockdown measures, probably in Q3. As to fleet and mobility, we will see the gradual recovery in Europe, but just like for employee benefits, LATAM is going to be impacted by the lockdown measures that will continue in Q3. Finally, as to our third business line, the complementary solutions, we will see the further contribution from new specific purpose programs coupled with corporate payments which will be unfortunately still impacted by some specific verticals in North America.
The media, the hospitality, and the travel are very low, so the combination of all those elements, per geography and per product line, leads us to think that the like-for-like monthly operating revenue growth should be superior to zero versus last year at some stage in H2 2020, so back to growth somewhere along the line of H2 2020. Then if we move to page 32, the outlook in terms of profitability, based on this continued gradual recovery in H2 2020 and combined with the EUR 100 million cost savings cost avoidance plan, with a stronger operating leverage in H2 should have a positive impact on our results, and so what we say is the full year 2020 EBITDA estimate should be between EUR 540 and EUR 610 million, then page 33, what does it mean in terms of cash flow? As you know, cash is king.
H2 2020, the combination of the gradual business recovery with the float retention time that should return to normal after a longer retention time in H1 due to the lockdowns, with the further negative effects impact on the float, but the CapEx in H2 2020 that should be inferior to H2 2019, and some limited M&A transactions, the combination of all those elements should lead to a full year 2020 leverage inferior to 2.8 times the EBITDA. Finally, to conclude before answering all your questions, page 34, what you saw in H1 2020 with Edenred is a digital champion with strong fundamentals that allowed us to overcome the current crisis, but also that puts us in a very good position for the post-COVID world. First of all, as initially said, we are a company with strong business and financial fundamentals. Why?
We have a strong growth profile, a robust financial position. We are in 46 countries on vastly underpenetrated markets. We are a tech leader, and we are delivering relentless innovation around specific purpose payment solutions. We are able to manage 250 solutions that are covering essential needs such as the eat, the move, the care, and the play. And finally, we are a very agile organization made of local corporate entrepreneurs that are stimulated by skilling champions and technology experts. So if you take all those fundamentals that allowed us to overcome the current crisis, plus the fact that due to our agility, we are able to seize business opportunities, whether they are short, medium, or long term. And at the same time, thanks to our financial robustness and visibility, we are able to pursue the product and technology investment strategy.
If you combine all of those, we are absolutely convinced that we are able to rebound quickly, thanks to our resilient profile, thanks to the strengthening of our digital leadership, thanks to the accelerated deployment of earmarked funds programs that are more and more asked by different private and public organizations to make the infusion of cash more efficient, and thanks to our ambitious product and technology investment strategy. Thank you for your attention. Patrick and myself are now ready to answer all your questions.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question, please press all one on your telephone, please. We hav e a first question from Simon Ljungberg from MainFirst. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning. Three questions, please.
First of all, regarding the return to growth in H2, as you expect Latin America to remain impacted by lockdown over Q3, does it mean you anticipate a return to monthly growth to happen only during the Q4? And how confident are you on this return to the trajectory given all these uncertainties coming from Latin America? Secondly, what are your expectations for financial revenue over H2, which is part of your EBITDA expectations? And lastly, you talked about the programs you put in place with governments. Could you please share any details on the economics of these programs, and especially how it compared with your more traditional solutions?
Thank you. Simon, thank you for your questions. I propose to answer the number one, Patrick, the number two, and then I will do the number three. So the return to growth, yes, you are right.
We are confident in Europe, and we have some uncertainties in Latin America. That's why we said somewhere along the line in H2. Now, as to Q3 or Q4, it's too early to say. But remember that Latin America represents 40% of the contribution to our total operating revenue. So even if there are some uncertainties in Latin America, Europe is now the lion's share of the group, and we have more certainties in Europe than we have in Latin America. So it's going to happen. It's going to happen in H1. When? It's too early to say because we are in the middle of the storm in Latin America. But thanks to the fact that 60% of our operating revenue is made in Europe, we have a good level of confidence.
Regarding other revenue, what we call the financial revenue in the past, my best guess is that H2 should be comparable to H1. Maybe slightly down because unfortunately, we are still relying on the forex impact. And as you can see, the fixing impact coming from a Brazilian real and Mexican peso, where locked and closed is presenting a quite high level of financial revenue, is still down in comparison to the average we had in H1. O verall, pretty similar amount, but slightly down most probably.
As to your first question, Simon, the economics behind the programs of specific purpose money for the public sector, what I can share with you is, first of all, globally, the economics on those programs are pretty similar to the ones we have on, let's say, the private programs. Then you have to de-average.
We have certain programs on which our margins are very low, but we consider it's our social responsibility during crises like that to make sure that everybody can benefit from our technology. Another way to say it, thanks to the digital technology, we are able in 48 hours to put in place a program in France for 40,000 students who cannot go back home and so have limited resources, a program where they receive up to EUR 70 per week to have access to food and the minimum they need to continue living, and on those programs, it's our honor and our duty to mobilize our resources to make sure that it happens.
And so, yes, on those programs, the margins are low, but the pride of all our colleagues in France is very high because nobody else could have been able to do that in 48 hours, and only our digital solutions are able to answer those needs. So it's a mix, but it's a choice that we are doing program by program. Globally, the economics are the same, but for certain programs, we accept to work at low margin because it's our honor and our duty to do it in crisis time cycles.
Okay. Very clear. Thank you.
Thank you. Next question from Paul Sullivan from Barclays. Please go ahead. Yeah. Good morning, everybody.
Just to start off with me, firstly, can you give us a sense of the issue volume of businesses in France for employee benefits going into July and August, and how you see unemployment weighing on growth once you catch up on reimbursement washes through? I'm trying to get a sense of those two sort of underlying drivers of the employee benefits business and how they're interacting as we go through the third and fourth quarter. Secondly, in terms of your upper end and the lower end of your EBITDA range, what assumptions really underpin that? I don't know if you could share more in terms of the extremes of the range. And then just finally, looking through this and sort of whether we see a more permanent shift to work from home, are there any difference in your view by geography between in-work and in-workplace benefits?
Because in theory, work from home should be cheaper for you because of the canteens. But do some markets differentiate between in-work and in-workplace benefits? Thank you.
Okay. So maybe we can start with the lower range of our guidance, Patrick.
Yes. Overall, what we took into account is that we don't anticipate some significant strong wave in terms of COVID crisis. In fact, we have some temporary lockdown measures in some European countries, but we do not take that into account as a general measure everywhere in Europe. What we anticipate as well is regarding the forex impacts and the interest rates, we extrapolate the level of rates we see currently. These are the main differences we take into account, in fact.
And of course, we have more instability than the normal year, meaning the bracket is quite wider than the one we used last year, for instance.
Okay. So then, Paul, I'll try on question number one and three. And in fact, there is a correlation between the two. Yes, it is true that due to the COVID crisis, we have some headwinds, and we will have those headwinds in the future. And one of the main headwinds is the level of unemployment. So that's something we will have to face because it's highly probable that the level of unemployment is increasing sharply everywhere in Europe, everywhere in the world, but also in Europe. Having said that, remember that we are on a vastly underpenetrated market. So yes, it's a headwind, but we have some tailwind as well. First of all, the underpenetration of the markets we are dealing with.
The second thing that's going to be a tailwind for us is the fact that we are a tech leader, and we are the most advanced player in our industry in terms of digitalization, and in fact, we have more and more people who are working remotely, so they are looking for solutions where they have access everywhere, anywhere, anytime to our solutions, and we are the number one provider. To give you an idea, in France, we have 40% market share, but our market share of the digital solutions is about 60%, so our tech leadership is recognized on every market we are, and we know that the more it grows, the more people will look for some digitalization due to the remote working, and you also know that when you are a tech leader, you tend to increase your differentiation during both periods of, let's say, deep transformation.
So it's not absolutely easy to think that the technological leadership of Edenred will increase in the future. The third thing to take into account, you heard us, and you see that in the figure, we want to continue to invest. We are lucky to have entered the crisis in a very good financial state, and we are lucky to see a rebound that happened pretty fast in Europe. So based on that, we decided early in the crisis to continue to invest. Why? Because when the wind will start blowing, we want to be the first one to benefit from that. So yes, unemployment is a headwind, but there are many tailwinds based on the underpenetration of our markets, our ability to continue to invest, technological leadership that will, let's say, most probably increase versus our main competitors.
And finally, we are the worldwide champion of earmarked funds, and we see more and more, let's say, private ecosystems of payments, but also public, let's say, organizations looking for earmarked funds and the ability to track where the money is coming and where the money is going. So we see more and more interest into our solutions. So the combination of all those elements makes us very confident in our ability to rebound. Then, to focus on the remote working, I'm not sure, well, globally, we are convinced that remote working will accelerate, and remote working is very, let's say, positive for universal and digital canteens like the ones we propose. So we saw for the last few weeks and months some of our clients accelerating their move to digital in Europe.
That's why you saw the level of digitalization in our benefit solution in Europe in H1 moving up by nine points. It means that in one semester, we did the work of two or three years, which is very positive for our model. It's partly due to the fact that remote working, everybody wants to be ready for that in case of another wave of COVID or because now it's part of the way people are working. Remote working is the best ally for universal and digital canteen and probably the enemy of, let's say, a physical canteen. You asked one last question, and I'm not sure I understand the differentiation you are doing in remote working. Would you be kind enough to elaborate a little more if I want to be able to answer?
Sorry. Yeah. Sorry, Bertrand. I wasn't completely clear.
But I thought in some markets like Italy, there was some confusion as to whether you would get the benefits as an employee if you permanently work from home. Whereas in France, it feels like you do get it if you work from home.
Yeah. In fact, it's true that the situation is, let's say, the size of the remote working was not expected. So sometimes you have some lack of clarities on if I am a remote worker, do I have access to my benefits? And so that's why some employers tried not to, let's say, continue the benefits during the remote working crisis. Fortunately, the employees and, let's say, the trade unions and in all those countries, the governments are now clarifying the situation.
So be sure that when you are a remote worker, whether it's only a few days per week or the entire week, we are in the middle of a process of clarification, and so those people will have access to the benefits. And in fact, it explains a little bit the rebound we had in Europe and, for example, in France, where a few employers decided to wait and see, and boom, in June, they repay for all the things they didn't pay, for example, in April and May. So it's in the middle of the clarification. And yes, when you are a remote worker, you will have and you have access to your benefits, and especially the food benefits.
Okay. Super helpful. Just a quick thought. The June exit rate of minus nine, was issue volume better or worse than that in employee benefits?
So in fact, you remember we communicate on the issue volume, in fact, once a year on benefits. Because what happens in June, or let's say what happens in one month, in terms of issue volume and business volume, doesn't mean a lot. Having said that, in fact, and the business volume, as you remember, is made of the issue volume, so what we get from, in fact, the companies, and then the reimbursement volume, what is going through our systems. To make a long story short, three things to share with you, Paul. First of all, the growth of operating revenue is higher than the growth of, let's say, business volume in H1 2020 wide because you see that our pickup rates are up. And in fact, they are up because the digitalization allows to price higher. Okay?
When you see a number, most probably the business volume behind this number is slightly less thanks to the positive impact of the digitalization on the pickup rate. Okay? Then, as to the month of June, the issue volume was higher. Why? Because as in the phenomenon I explained to you a few minutes before, some companies were late into charging the accounts of their clients waiting for the clarification. So the issue volume was higher, but it doesn't mean and in fact, the issue volume was, for example, in France, positive in June. But it doesn't mean that you can extrapolate too much on that because you had an effect of what has been lagged behind in May and April. But to make a long story short, we see a rebound of our issue volume.
The rebound is higher than the reimbursement volume because you still have money to be spent, and this money is on our accounts, so it's going to be spent, and you see the effect of the float.
V ery helpful. T hank you, Bertrand .
Thank you. Next question from Ed Young from Morgan Stanley. Go ahead.
Good morning, and thank you for my questions. The first is on the cost savings. You mentioned you were expecting positive operating leverage in H2, but I wanted you to get more specific in terms of what you've booked in H1 in terms of those cost savings, looking at the capital expense. It's relatively H2-related if that's similar. My second one's on France versus Eastern Europe, a very strong Rest of Europe regions.
I imagine some of that is mixed, but if you give anything else in terms of background of why you think that is, that'll be useful, and the third is on the sort of post-COVID digital mix, I guess. You've already spoken about a couple of benefits, including pricing, and there'll obviously be negative appreciation. It should be, I'd imagine, positive for growth and for the cost structure. In particular, on the cost structure side, can you just remind us on what the benefit will be of reducing the sort of dual cost structures of running a paper and a digital capture business, and do you have sort of a line of sight to when you think you might be able to push the business towards going on 100% digital given the huge change that may be here, or is that just aspirational in the future? Thank you.
Sorry. It looks like we are waiting for the speakers to speak. We'll come back in a few minutes. I'm sorry for that. We'll come back in a few seconds. Please wait until we come back, and we are back on live for the question from Mr. Ed Young from Morgan Stanley.
Ed, sorry. We don't know what happened, but we are all yours.
Yes, so I didn't think there were that hard questions, but I'll say them again. The first one is on the cost savings. You said it's positive leverage in H2, but I just wanted you to be a bit more exact in terms of what you put. CapEx run rate, it looks like it's fairly H2-weighted. The second was on France versus Europe, obviously much stronger in the rest of Europe. I just wondered if you could give a bit of comment on what's driving that.
Is it all mixed, or is there anything else going on there? And the third is, do you have a view on when you might become a sort of fully digital business? I think previously, I've always seen it as sort of an aspiration, and it'll happen gradually. But as you said, you've seen a big mix shift. So is that something that you could see on a reasonable horizon? Do you have a view on that? And if so, what do you think the benefits are, particularly on the cost side? Can you remind us of what the benefits would be of removing sort of dual cost structures where you're r running paper and digital? Thanks.
Okay. So first of all, as to the cost-saving program and the CapEx. So basically, what happens when you think about the year? We signed for a year at double-digit growth.
To be able to do that, you have to start early, and you have to start fully prepared. So we invested a lot, in fact, in December and January and February, to meet this challenge of double-digit growth. And we have been caught by mid-March with COVID. So phase one is to stop any additional investments that are not a priority in terms of, let's say, innovation and technology. It's what we did. Then phase two is to start decreasing versus our budget, and it's what we did, in fact, in Q2. And then you have the phase three where it's going to be in H2. You have the full, let's say, benefits of all the efforts you made in Q2. So when you launch a savings and cost avoidance or cost-savings, cost-avoidance plan like that, it does not happen immediately.
It takes time before you see the full effect. That's why the visibility we have on the plan is, first of all, we know that we will do our EUR 100 million of cost savings and cost avoidance. We know it because we are well in control, and the trend is good. The second thing is we know by definition, because you have this time effect, we know that H2 is going to be stronger in terms of absolute value and so impact in percentage in our P&L. So we know it's going to be stronger in H2 versus H1. Then you have the question on CapEx. As we explained before, in CapEx, we try to find our way between the level of prioritization. So we reprioritize all our projects because the year is uncertain.
So we know that we're going to spend less than the initial budget, but we also know that we want to continue to invest for the future because we believe in the future of growth of Edenred. So what does it mean? And you have a time effect. That's why in H1 2020, you saw a level of CapEx that has been higher than H1 2019. But based on the prioritization we made and the programs with prioritization that will bear fruit more in H2 than in H1, we know that H2 2020 is going to be below H1 2019. So the level of CapEx in 2020 is going to stay at a good level to prepare for the future, but less than the budget we put in place initially.
As I said, there are many territories on which we want to continue to invest at the same pace. So innovation, digitalization, technology robustness is something we don't want to make any compromise on. But you also know that we had a malware attack in December, and we took the decision to increase significantly the level of security of our systems. And we decided that not a penny is going to be saved on that, and the program happened during H1. It has a cost, but in fact, it's not a cost. It's an investment for the future of the company because the IT security and the IT robustness of Edenred is key if we want to rebound fast and long.
So that's for your first question in terms of cost savings and CapEx, as to the positive and so leading to a positive leverage in H2 that is going to be stronger than what you see in H1. Then you had a second question about the pattern of France. As usual, France is not able to be like any other European country. It has been like that for centuries. It doesn't change. To my despair, I have to say, but that's the way it is. So France entered the COVID crisis mid-March by stopping everything. So what does it mean? It means that France went down really, really, really low in terms of economic activity. To give you an example, if you look at the construction industry in France, for two weeks, it was almost zero and then - 80, - 70.
We never saw those kinds of levels in Germany or in Italy. Another way to say it, the more you go up in Europe, up north, and the more you go east, the lower the level of confinement and slowdown of the economic activity was. And the champion in terms of total stop is France. But then there is a positive aspect to that, which is a strong rebound. So the French economy has been deeply contracted, in fact, in April and May and June, France is back, and so our activities are back as well. So we are not completely immune to what's going on, let's say, at the macroeconomic level. So that's what we saw in France. Let's say a stricter confinement and a longer confinement, but as soon as it is more or less over, a stronger rebound.
Then you had a third question about the full digitalization. So by when are we going to be able to be fully digital everywhere around the world? It's pretty difficult to say. But what is important is the acceleration, and the acceleration with two priorities: benefits, because you remember that on fleet availability, we are 100% digital. So the priority for us is benefits. And the second priority is, from a geographical point of view, Europe, because it's in Europe where the level of digitalization was the lowest. And we see, thanks to the COVID, a deep acceleration. So you saw H1 2020 versus H1 2019, Europe benefits plus 9 points. So we did in one semester the work that we were able or supposed to do in two or three years.
So by when it's going to be 100% in benefits, I don't know, but I know it's feasible because in certain countries in Europe, we are 100% digital. So if you think of Belgium, in Latin America, on the vast majority of the programs, we are 100% digital. So for example, in Brazil. So then your question was, when you move to digitalization, what is the impact on your P&L and so, I guess, on your margin? What we know is, based on our experience in countries that are now 100% digital, we know that when you pass the bar of about 80-85% of digitalization in one country, then you start seeing the very positive impact on the margin of digitalization because you stop having impacting these economies of scale on your paper.
Because when the paper is going down, in fact, the cost per voucher is higher and higher. So you start seeing the decrease of the diseconomies , and you start having enough volume from a digital point of view that are able to dilute your fixed cost in terms of the technology that is behind. So yes, we are moving fast into the digitalization. It has an impact on our revenue because we are able to grab probably more of the share as the technological leader, and it has an impact on the revenue because we are able to price higher because we share the benefits between the clients and ourselves. And it has an impact on the margin, but you need to be at a level of, let's say, 80%-85%. So to give you an idea, in France, right now, we are digital at 60%.
So we still have a reservoir of margin improvement in France because we are not yet at 80%-85% in benefits in France.
Thank you very much. Thanks.
T hank you, Ed. Next question from Rajesh Kumar. You go ahead.
Hi. Good morning. Thanks for explaining the digitalization benefits on the margins. Very helpful. Just following up on that, can you also run through the impact on the float and unutilized vouchers in such a scenario? What are the if you are thinking of more markets getting over 70%-80% digitized, what sort of balance sheet movement should one anticipate? Second question is, prior to this disruption of COVID-19, you had a very interesting growth story. Within your internal planning, when do you think you can start talking about innovative new products, launches of further penetration in markets in terms of growth story?
Appreciate you've got near-term questions in terms of unemployment and churn in SME customers. The third one is, just on the exposure to SME customers, have you seen any signs of distress which is higher than usual? It could lead to a higher degree of churn or delayed payment.
Okay. Maybe Patrick, you can start with those questions, and I'll complement if needed. Start with the float? Sure.
Yeah. So what we can say about the float is that what we are facing currently are two types of phenomenon. First one is the one we knew for quite a long time now, i.e., digitalization. Traditionally, digitalization has a negative impact on float intention because, obviously, it takes more time for the cards to be printed than the voucher to be printed. It takes generally much more time for us to redeem the merchants.
That's good news for them, in fact. Maybe you remember, I guess, that during the last investor day, we explained that we should move from an average 7.7 weeks of float before the crisis to 7 weeks. So most of this move is behind us now, and we see some limited negative impact regarding the float retention and then the float in the balance sheet. Second impact comes from the crisis. I've explained during the presentation, we are generally in a negative free cash flow situation in H1. And here in H1 2020, we are in a very positive free cash flow situation because it is completely impossible or very difficult in many countries for the users to use the credit they have on the wallet, in fact. So, as a matter of fact, retention time is typically much higher than what it is traditionally.
Our best guess is that probably till the end of the year, we will come back to a normal retention time, meaning that we have some outflows, meaning that overall, we should come back to the level of float that will highly depend on the issuing volumes till the end of the year, which will come back to, let's say, a normal situation.
Maybe on SME customers, Patrick, have you seen some special distress in H1 2020?
Not really, in fact. On one hand, we continue to have a strong sales momentum regarding SMEs, even if it was probably much harder to work with new clients during the crisis. We are considering that it was not a top priority to manage or to make a decision around using our solutions, in fact.
But the fundamentals are good, so we are pretty optimistic that, in fact, we will come back on the forefront as well to a normal situation. And regarding our capacity to get paid, to say it simply, it's not typically a difficulty to get paid from small clients because, generally, in many cases, we are either prepaid - we have prepaid solutions with themselves, or we have very limited payment terms with all of them. And regarding the other aspect, which is the kind of attrition coming from the bankruptcy, we see no negative impact for the time being, even if we are preparing ourselves to bad weather one day or another, but this is not the situation we are seeing now.
So it has been i ncluded in our EBITDA guidance, of course.
Yes, it is.
Okay. Then, Rajesh, you had a question about the growth story.
I'm not really sure I understood your question. Is it possible for you to elaborate and to help me answer you more precisely?
Yeah. So you talked about the 8% plus like-for-like revenue growth story, and obviously, no one in their right mind is prepared for 2020. But when do you think we get back to that sort of mindset in terms of your internal planning for 2021 or second half of 2021 or more like 2022?
Okay. Rajesh, I would love to answer your question precisely, but unfortunately, I have to tell you that I don't know yet. I don't know yet because we are in the middle of the storm in Latin America. And so, for me, the when is difficult. Having said that, I'm absolutely convinced that at some point of time, we will go back, Rajesh, to this level of growth. Why?
Because, explained earlier, we have many, many tailwinds that are working for us. Being a tech leader, I'm sure that our relative market share on the old programs that we are running, our relative market share versus the competition is going to increase. The second thing is the fact that we are the world champion of earmarked funds. We see more and more the fact that we are asked for earmarked funds programs coming from private organizations or public organizations. I think the Spotify example in the U.S. is a very good example. Could you believe that one day a full digital company like Spotify will call us and say, "Hey, we want to give back some meal card to our employees because they are not able to go on site, and we want them to be able to spend money that we're going to give them.
We want this money to be spent for meal and for food and not to be spent for something else." Frankly, I was absolutely amazed by this change because that's not something you would expect from the American economy, and it has been asked without any, let's say, fiscal incentive. So the digitalization is one tailwind. The need for earmarked funds is another tailwind. The fact that we continue to invest into our programs and the technology behind that and the ability to put in place very fast some programs is going to help us in the future. So, too early to tell you when we are back to the growth explained into the Next Frontier plan. We are still in the middle of the storm, but bear with us because we are working hard, and we want to go back to that as soon as possible.
And the question we are asking ourselves is, whatever the weather conditions, what do we need to do from a geographical point of view, from an innovation point of view, from a product and service point of view? What do we need to do to go back as fast as possible to the guidances we gave in Next Frontier?
Understood. Thank you.
Than k you, Rajesh.
Thank you. We have one last question from Johanna Jourdain . Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning. Two questions for me. So the first one is regarding France's digital mobility solution. I was wondering if you could share with us any feedback on the adoption of this product so far. And my second question is around CSI. I was wondering if you could share with us also any comments regarding the organic growth level in both the legacy verticals and also in the new verticals such as the utilities, telecom, etc., and also if you have any comments regarding the adoption of the virtual card in the current context? Many thanks.
Joanna, thank you for your two questions. So in France, for digital mobility, it's too early to say because the program just started, so we will know more in H2 2020 and probably in 2021. So, as you know, you have a low that has been boosted, then you have a decrease, and then it takes time in France, not from a technological point of view, but it takes time to put things in place. So, too early to say, but very promising.
We have the experience of those promising markets because we are doing the equivalent of Ticket Mobilité in certain countries. On a parallel, I'm sure you remember that we have this program called Commuter Benefits in the U.S., where, in fact, if you renounce to use your private car and you use public transportation in the, let's say, largest metropolitan areas in the U.S., you get credit. For example, we have been able to convert New York City to the Edenred Commuter Benefits, in fact, a few months ago. Too early to say, but we love this program. Your second question is about CSI. You are right to make the distinction between the new sectors and the legacy. The legacy on which we have been strong is media, travel, and hospitality.
On those three sectors, unfortunately, we don't have any organic growth in H1 2020 because, as you know, media, travel, and hospitality are very badly hit in terms of traffic, so in terms of payment, but in the new sectors, and for example, the telco and the utilities, it's the new verticals we opened, in fact, a few months ago, and here we see some growth. It's easier because we are starting from low, but we are seeing some growth. What is very interesting in what we see is we didn't lose any clients, i.e., all of our clients in the U.S. are absolutely convinced that what we put in place is the right way to go. What is also interesting is we increased our partnership in terms of distribution with two out of the three main banks in the U.S.
So it means that when the economic recovery is going to be there, we will see a lot of traction with our legacy base because the business will be back. We will see a lot of traction on the new verticals because we see today, and we will probably see a lot of traction in terms of distribution and partnership with those major banks. The feeling we get and the feedback we get from our clients is that COVID accelerated the need for digital solutions for payments. More and more, you see some clients saying, "We cannot continue paying with checks or with cash because if you have to work remotely or from a sanitary point of view, it doesn't make any sense." So we believe that we will see an acceleration of the adoption of our digital payment solution s in the future in the U.S.
Thank you.
Okay.
Thank you, Joanna. So I guess it's time to stop. Thank you a lot for your attention and for all the very interesting questions you asked this morning, and Ed, you are right. The questions were not too difficult, so we should not have cut the line. No, I'm kidding, so what we need to remember for H1 2020 is, first of all, a very good resilience because our operating revenue is down by 4.6% on a like-for-like basis. The second thing is the rebound of June, where we saw, in fact, June dividing by two, the level of negative growth we had in April and May.
The rebound is interesting in its intensity, but also the fact that we have been to rebound in all business lines and everywhere in Europe, or let's say everywhere around the world, at the exception of Latin America, where the peak at the end of June, the peak of the pandemic, was not reached yet. So based on this, each one demonstrating a very strong resilience and the ability, once again, to demonstrate the fact that Edenred is a sustainable and profitable growth company because we have been able to generate some EBITDA at the level of EUR 255 million, but also some free cash flow at EUR 113 million.
So the strong fundamentals from a financial point of view, the rebound based on the strong business fundamentals, the combination of all those elements led us to be somehow positive for the second part of the world, to the point where we think that at some point of time, on a monthly basis versus last year, in like-for-like for the operating revenue, we should go back to growth. And so based on all those elements, we have an EBITDA guidance of EUR 540 and EUR 610 million for H1 for the full year 2020. And to finish, as you can hear it, we see a few backwinds, sorry, a few headwinds, that's for sure, and a lot of tailwinds which would allow us to go back as soon as possible to the growth pattern we explained during our meeting in October, so the Digital Market Day in London.
Thanks a lot for your attention, and enjoy the rest of the day.
L adies and gentlemen, would you please state your name and affiliation?