Hello, and welcome to the Bouygues Q1 2025 results conference call. Please note this conference is being recorded, and for the duration of the call, your lines will be on listen only. However, you'll have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the presentation. This can be done by pressing star one on your telephone keypad to register your question. If you require assistance at any point, please press star zero , and you'll be connected to an operator. I will now hand you over to Frédérique Delavaud, Head of Investor Relations, to begin today's conference. Thank you.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for the presentation of Bouygues' first quarter 2025 results. This presentation will be led by Pascal Grangé, Deputy CEO and CFO of Bouygues Group. Pascal Grangé is accompanied by Christian Lecoq, CFO of Bouygues Telecom. Following their presentation, they will be answering your questions. Pascal, I give you the floor.
Thank you, Frédérique. Good morning, everyone. Before listing our highlights, I would like to point out that we had mentioned during the presentation of our 2024 results that the global macroeconomic and geopolitical environment was uncertain. The first quarter of 2025 has not proven us wrong. Yet, I am pleased to say that we had a good start of the year. Therefore, first, we confirm the group outlook for 2025. Second, group sales and COPA in Q1 2025 were both up year-on-year. Third, excluding the exceptional income tax surcharge for large companies in France of EUR 33 million, the net result attributable to the group was up year-on-year.
I remind you that the effect on the net profit attributable to the group of the French finance law on the social security financing law for the full year 2025, including mainly the exceptional income tax surcharge for large companies in France, had been estimated at around EUR 100 million. This is still our evaluation to date, and more than EUR 40 million have already been recorded in the first quarter 2025, having particularly strong distorting effects on the net result attributable to the group of the first quarter. Fourth, at end March 2025, our net debt was lower than at end March 2024 after acquisition of nearly EUR 1.2 billion made over the year. Last, I have two comments on our business segments. At the quarter level, COPA increased by EUR 44 million at EUR 177 million, and COPA margin improved by 0.9 percentage points, reaching 3.8%.
This increase demonstrates successful execution of the strategic performance plan. In our construction businesses, the backlog at end March reached a new record level at EUR 34.2 billion, up EUR 3.8 billion year-on-year, and up EUR 2 billion since end December 2024. Let's now have a look at our key figures on slide five. First, let me remind you that, like every year, mainly due to the seasonal nature of Colas activities and to a lesser extent those of the quarter, Q1 results are not indicative of half-year and full-year results. This is particularly true this year for the net result attributable to the group, given the tax effects mentioned previously. That said, group sales stood at EUR 12.6 billion, up 2.2% in the first quarter 2025 compared to the first quarter 2024.
This increase was largely driven by Colas, Bouygues Construction, and Bouygues Telecom, which recorded the sales contribution of La Poste Telecom. Like for like, on a constant exchange rate, group sales increased by 0.9%. In the first quarter of 2025, the group COPA increased by EUR 43 million compared to the first quarter of 2024, and reached EUR 69 million. This increase was mainly led by Equans. The net result attributable to the group was -EUR 156 million. This amount is not comparable to that of the first quarter of 2024, as it includes an exceptional income tax surcharge for large companies in France of EUR 33 million. Excluding this surcharge on a comparable basis, the net result attributable to the group was up EUR 23 million at -EUR 123 million. Last, net debt was EUR 7.1 billion, an improvement of EUR 645 million year-on-year.
This is a good performance, even very good, if we consider the amount of net acquisition made over the year, mainly including Bouygues Telecom's acquisition of La Poste Telecom for almost EUR 1 billion. This is a theoretical vision, of course, but without these acquisitions, our net debt would have improved by more than EUR 1.8 billion year-on-year. Net debt at end March is always higher than at end December of the previous year due to the seasonality of our activities. This year, the increase in net debt at end March compared to the level of EUR 6.1 billion at end December 2024 was, however, more limited than one year ago. I will provide you more details about these figures later during this call. Let's now turn to the review of our operations on slide eight. Let's begin with the backlog in the construction businesses.
As I mentioned during the introduction of this call, the backlog at end March 2025 was at a new record level of EUR 34.2 billion, up 12% year-on-year. This strong year-on-year growth in the backlog was driven by both Bouygues Construction and Colas. Please note that all geographies represented on the chart, namely France, Europe excluding France, and international excluding Europe, contributed to the growth. Looking into details on slide nine, let's start with Colas backlog, which was up EUR 1.3 billion year-on-year at EUR 15.1 billion, with Rail backlog up 18% year-on-year. In roads, the backlog was up 5% year-on-year, of which French and international backlogs were respectively up 5% and up 6% year-on-year. At end March 2025, the backlog to be executed in the current year and the next year were both at a higher level year-on-year, providing good visibility on our future activity.
In Q1 2025, order intake at Colas stood at EUR 4.1 billion. In roads, order intake was up year-on-year, with a strong increase internationally and a slight decrease in France. In Rail, new major contracts were awarded, notably in the U.K., in order to operate and maintain the on-track machines used for track maintenance across Britain during eight years. A contract was around EUR 380 million. In Morocco, in order to develop the Kenitra and Marrakesh high-speed line, a contract was around EUR 250 million, to which is also added a contract for the related civil engineering. Moving to slide ten, at Bouygues Construction, the backlog stood at EUR 18.3 billion, up EUR 2.6 billion year-on-year, mainly driven by Civil Works, with the exceptional contract won for the Torrance to Darrington project in Australia in the third quarter 2024. In building, the French backlog was up 7%, and the international backlog was down 3%.
To be noted that the backlog to be executed in the current year and the next year were both at a higher level year-on-year, providing good visibility on future activity. The order intake in Q1 2025 stood at EUR 2.3 billion, an amount largely driven by the normal course of business, which means for Bouygues Construction, the contracts were worth less than EUR 100 million. New major contracts were awarded in Q1, for example, for the building of the mother-child unit at Rennes Teaching Hospital in France, a contract worth around EUR 100 million, or for the building of the college campus Cardiff and Vale in the U.K., a contract worth around EUR 140 million. For a data center in France, a contract worth around EUR 110 million, or the modernization of airports in Cyprus worth around EUR 120 million.
The diversity of these new contracts highlights the know-how of Bouygues Construction in specific business lines such as healthcare infrastructure, academic buildings, airport facilities, or data centers. Finally, at Bouygues Immobilier, the backlog was at EUR 0.9 billion at end March 2025, a low level reflecting the still changing market environment. Let's have a look at sales on slide 11. The construction businesses recorded results which, like every year, due to seasonality, are not indicative of the first half and the full-year results. Sales were up 3% year-on-year and 2% like for like at constant exchange rate. First, at Colas, sales were up 3% year-on-year at EUR 2.7 billion, driven by Rail, up 12%, reflecting the momentum in relation to demand for soft mobility infrastructure. Roads were up 2%, with France up 2%, up 6%, Asia-Pacific strongly up 29%, and North America down 9%.
Second, Bouygues Construction sales were up 3% year-on-year at EUR 2.5 billion, driven by international building, up 13%, while Civil Works were slightly up, and France Building was slightly down. Last, at Bouygues Immobilier, sales were up also 3% year-on-year at EUR 0.3 billion, with Residential property up 4% and Commercial property remaining at a very low level, reflecting the market situation. Next slide. Current operating result from activities of the construction businesses was -EUR 240 million, improving EUR 24 million compared to Q1 2024, driven by Bouygues Construction and the lower loss at Bouygues Immobilier level in relation to an adjustment of structure costs implemented in 2024. Please note that in Q1 2024, Bouygues Immobilier has also reviewed some operations and booked some provisions. COPA at Bouygues Construction was up compared to Q1 2024, with a 0.4 percentage points COPA margin improvement.
As usual, Colas had a non-representative -EUR 305 million current operating result from activities, an amount very comparable to Q1 2024 figure. Let's now turn to the review of operations for Equans on slide 14. Equans continues to deliver significantly improved results in line with its roadmap. Equans backlog was up 1% year-on-year at EUR 26.4 billion at end March 2025. The order intake in the first three months of 2025 stood at EUR 5.2 billion, with still a gradual improvement in the order intake margin, highlighting notably positive impacts of the pricing lever of the performance plan. Sales were globally stable year-on-year in Q1 2025, reflecting both the continued selective approach to contract strategy, overall positive market trends, and some weight and assistance in the short term in a few activities in France and Europe.
France sales were down 3% year-on-year, and international sales were up 2% year-on-year, despite the ongoing exit from the new business in the U.K. that we mentioned in the previous publications. Equans' contribution to the group COPA represented EUR 177 million, with a 3.8% COPA margin, up 0.9 percentage points year-on-year. This is a very good start for the year. To end with Equans on slide 15, let me just add that in 2025, Equans will continue to roll out its strategic plan and its targeting. Continued organic growth at a lower pace than in 2024 due to some weight and assistance in the short term in a few activities in France and Europe, as previously mentioned. A margin from activities close to 4%, possibly slightly higher, and a cash conversion rate before Working Capital Requirement of between 80% and 100%.
As a reminder, Equans aims to gradually catch up with the organic growth of sector peers and to achieve a margin from activities of 5% in 2027. I now give the floor to Christian Lecoq for a detailed presentation of Bouygues Telecom.
Thank you, Pascal, and good morning, everyone. Turning to slide 17, let's start with a few comments on Bouygues Telecom's growth strategy in six with strong actions undertaken during the first quarter. First, convinced that our customers deserve the best of technology, Bouygues Telecom has been the first operator to discontinue the marketing of ADSL and Wi-Fi 5 in France in the first quarter 2025, and to enhance its B&YOU Pure Fibre offer in Wi-Fi 7, a unique proposal in the market.
Second, committed to ensure customer satisfaction through transparency and quality of service, Bouygues Telecom is the first operator in Europe to publish performance metrics and technical support on a daily basis, with, for example, over 90% of technical support calls being answered in less than one minute, and over 80% of appointments to resolve incidents scheduled within 24 hours. Last, I would like to remind you that, according to Arcep, Bouygues Telecom is the operator with the lowest Fixed complaint rate in France for five successive years in a row. On slide 18, our commercial performance has remained this quarter solid in Fixed, both in volume and value, with a favorable momentum observed for B.iG and B&YOU Pure Fibre offers. As you can see on the left side of the slide, we had a total of 5.2 million Fixed customers at end March 2025.
This represents an increase of 69,000 customers in Q1. FTTH continued to experience strong growth, with 148,000 new customers during the first quarter. With a total of 4.3 million customers, FTTH customers represented 83% of our Fixed customer base, up from 75% one year ago. This is the result of a wider FTTH footprint, combined with the excellent quality of our network and services. The momentum remained good on value, with Fixed ABPU up EUR 0.7 year-on-year at EUR 33.2 per client and per month. Commercial performance in Mobile was also solid, as you can see on slide 19, and the initial results from B.iG 's offers are satisfactory, both in terms of acquisitions and churn. At end March 2025, Bouygues Telecom had 18.3 million Mobile plan customers, including MtoM, thanks to 63,000 new customers in Q1.
As of this quarter, we present the Mobile ABPU, including La Poste Telecom, as shown on the right side of the slide at EUR 17.5 million per client and per month. In the still competitive market and the low-end segment, with low prices for new customers, Mobile ABPU, excluding La Poste Telecom, was at EUR 18.6 million per client and per month. Let's have a look at the key figures on slide 20. First, we achieved 6% growth in sales billed to customers year-on-year. They were up 1%, excluding La Poste Telecom, and driven by Fixed. Total sales were up 5% year-on-year, on which 2% growth in other sales. EBD after leases decreased by EUR 14 million compared to Q1 2024, on which EUR 415 million. This change is explained by, first, a growth in sales billed to customers and ongoing efforts to control costs. Second, a higher IFR tax on mobile sites.
Third, higher energy costs due to the end of very favorable hedging conditions. The current operating profit from activities was down EUR 29 million at EUR 101 million, reflecting the decrease in EBD after leases associated with the increase in DNA in line with our CapEx trajectory. Last, you can notice that gross CapEx was EUR 394 million in Q1 2025, and that this decreased by EUR 38 million with the disposal of some data centers. Moving to slide 21, Bouygues Telecom's 2025 targets are a slight increase in sales billed to customers versus 2024, like for like, excluding La Poste Telecom, to which is added the contribution from La Poste Telecom. A broadly stable EBD after leases compared to 2024, as in 2025, Bouygues Telecom will no longer benefit from the very favorable low-hedged energy prices launched in 2020 and 2021.
I remind you that La Poste Telecom's contribution to EBD after leases will be limited in 2025, with the full effect expected from 2028. Last, a gross capital expenditure of around EUR 1.5 billion, excluding frequencies, including expenditure related to the preparation for the migration of La Poste Telecom Mobile customers. Now, Pascal, I'm giving you back the floor.
Thank you, Christian. Turning to slide 23, let's talk briefly about TF1's results, which were released on the 30th of April. First, the TF1 Group maintained its audience leadership in the first quarter 2025. The total audience share among women under 50 who are purchasing decision-makers was at 33%, and the total audience share among individuals aged from 25- 49 was at 30.1%. In the first quarter 2025, total sales were up 2% year-on-year.
Media sales increased 2% year-on-year, with stable advertising revenues and a continued strong growth momentum for TF1+ , up 37% year-on-year. Studio TF1, the new name of Newen Studios, posted stable revenues year-on-year, including a EUR 9 million contribution from GPG, and less significant production deliveries during the quarter. COPA amounted to EUR 43 million, up EUR 6 million year-on-year, and COPA margin was 8.3% in Q1 2025 versus 7.3% in Q1 2024. The programming costs remained in the first quarter 2025, similar to the level of the first quarter 2024 at EUR 221 million, with premium programming maintained for both linear and streaming.
Turning to slide 24, I will end on TF1 Group by saying that in an advertising market with a very limited visibility, TF1 Group's objectives for 2025 are a strong double-digit revenue growth in digital, a broadly stable margin from activities compared to 2024, and on the dividend side, aiming for a growing dividend policy in the coming years. I will now turn our attention on the financial statements on slide 26, starting with the P&L. We have already discussed first quarter sales and current operating profit from activities at the beginning of this call. Let me add a few comments this morning. First point, PPA was EUR 29 million and amounts slightly higher than in first quarter 2024 in relation to the acquisition of GPG with TF1 and La Poste Telecom with Bouygues Telecom.
Second point, other operating income and expenses, which do not reflect operational activity, were negative at EUR 19 million in the first quarter. This amount is largely linked to non-current charges in relation to the Equans management incentive plan, which represented EUR 25 million, and to a lesser extent, to non-current income at Bouygues Telecom for EUR 9 million. Third point, financial results, which comprises cost of net debt, interest, expenses, and lease obligations, and other financial income and expenses, stood at EUR 97 million compared to EUR 74 million in Q1 2024. This change is mainly due to the impact of the La Poste Telecom acquisition on the decrease in the return on cash in relation to lower interest rates. This decrease being, however, mitigated by an increase of the average cash over the period. Fourth point, a tax charge was recorded for EUR 21 million in relation to higher operational results.
This amount excludes the EUR 42 million of exceptional income tax surcharge for large companies in France. First point, the effect of the tax surcharge on the net result attributable to the group was EUR 33 million, leading to this result to reach EUR 156 million. Let's now turn to slide 27 to describe the net debt evolution between end December 2024 and end March 2025. As you see, net debt increased by around EUR 1 billion since the end of 2024. This negative change is usual and related to the seasonality of our activities. The good news is that the magnitude of the increase in the net debt is lower than that of last year, which was EUR 1.5 billion. This increase includes first acquisition net of disposals totaling EUR 84 million, including small acquisitions at Colas, investments in joint ventures at Bouygues Telecom, and purchase of TF1 shares.
Second, capital transactions on other for EUR 9 million, including exercise of stock options and the liquidity contract. Last, EUR 939 million from operations that I will comment on in the next slide. Turning to the breakdown of operations for the first quarter of 2025 on slide 28, you can observe that, first, net cash flow, including lease expenses, stood at EUR 421 million and an improvement of EUR 89 million compared to first quarter 2024. Second, net CapEx was EUR 500 million, a lower amount compared to first quarter 2024, and a decrease largely explained by lower net CapEx at Bouygues Telecom. Third, you can see on the chart that the change in Working Capital Requirements and models stood at EUR 860 million, a usual negative change for Q1 due to seasonality, though less negative compared to first quarter 2024.
I will now turn our attention to the group's financial structure on slide 29. The group maintained a very high level of liquidity at EUR 14.8 billion, which comprised EUR 3.8 billion in cash and equivalents and EUR 11 billion in undrawn medium and long-term credit facilities. Net debt was EUR 7.1 billion at the end of March 2025, a strong improvement compared to end March 2024, even stronger if we take into account the amount of acquisitions over the year. As such, net gearing was 50% at end March 2025, an improvement compared to 55% at end March 2024. You can see from the chart on the right that the debt maturity schedule is well spread over the time. I remind you that our next bond redemption is in October 2026. Last, I would say the group benefits from a strong.
We would say that the group benefits from a particularly strong position and that our financial credit rating remains strong. I will now conclude this presentation on slide 31 by saying that in a very uncertain global environment, we confirmed the group outlook for 2025, that is, target for 2025, a slight increase in sales and in current operating profit from activities versus 2024. The effect of the French finance law and the social security financing law for 2025 on the net profit attributable to the group are estimated to date at around EUR 100 million. Thank you for your attention, operator. This opens the floor for questions.
Thank you, sir. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question or make a contribution on today's call, please press star one on your telephone keypad.
If you change your mind and want to withdraw your question, please press star two. Please ensure your lines are unmuted locally, as you'll be prompted when to ask your question. Our first question comes from Mollie Witcombe from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. I have two questions, please. Firstly, I was wondering if you could give us a little bit of color around the telecoms market at the moment in Mobile and Fixed and any pricing pressure that you may or may not be seeing. My second question is on Equans trends. Could you give us a little bit more context on how synergy extraction is going and margin improvements? What kind of trends are you seeing in terms of order book margins? A little bit more detail on that would be fantastic. Thank you.
All right. Thank you for your question.
I will answer the telecom question. First, on the Mobile market, we observe the Mobile market that remains less dynamic than previous years, with a small growth in Q1. Concerning the low-end part of the Mobile market, we observed sustained competition on this low-end segment during the first quarter. We started an upward trend on tariffs with SFR and Free at the beginning of the quarter, but the last player decided to not follow us. That is why this low-end part of the market is still very competitive. On high-end, I remind you that we have implemented a new marketing strategy in 2024 to enhance customer satisfaction and reduce our churn level. We observed during this first quarter good results on our B.iG offer, with good sales dynamic and already a decrease in churn.
This good result will give us an impact in turnover in some quarters, in some, sorry, in the medium term. Regarding the Fixed, the market is still good. We are taking market share and our ABPU is still growing. We are delivering a profitable growth thanks to the excellent quality of our networks and our boxes. That is a very good position. I will remind you that in the Fixed business, we are gaining market share in rural areas because we were not in these areas in the past with DSL, and we are now taking market share in these rural areas with FTTH.
Concerning Equans, we have, as we mentioned many times, in fact, we have implemented at Equans level a perform plan where there are different levers in order to improve the profitability of Equans, which are, for instance, the pricing, how the pricing is made in the different contracts and how the purchasing is done. Obviously, we had some non-performant business centers, which we are restructuring. Lastly, we have some productivity to reach in certain areas and for certain type of projects. All these levers have been gradually implemented in the whole perimeter of Equans. This induces that first, we have a gradual improvement in our margin backlog. Considering that this has to be very gradual because when you have a long-term relationship with a client, you can't improve your margin very rapidly. You have to be very gradual.
This is in a way, when we guided on what will be the future margin of Equans, we said that we had a path to go from the initial level, which was 2.3% to 5% in 2027. We consider that all things already implemented at Equans improve gradually the margin. You have seen that we are quite optimistic on the margin for 2025 as we have added that probably we will be, we said previously that we will, where our margin informations should be close to 4%, and we have added that possibly we will be slightly higher. That is fairly good news. We are on track to obtain what we guided. We are quite positive on that.
Can I just follow up, sorry, on the second question on Equans?
Can I just check that the guidance that you've given, you're not seeing any impact in terms of tariffs that might change your level of confidence for achieving those margins?
No, in fact, it's not the impact of tariffs because we're producing a lot of things locally. In the US, we are quite local. The question is more, what is the global economic environment and how confident are the economic actors and industrial than a direct effect on our P&L?
Okay, very clear. Thank you very much.
The next question comes from a line of Carlos Caburassi from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Hi everyone. Thank you for the presentation and for taking my question. I have a quick one also on Equans. As you've said, you're slightly improving your 2025 outlook to possibly slightly higher than 4%.
Do you believe that we could see another outlook improvement in the following quarters? And considering that you haven't updated your 2027 view, do you see any upside for that target as well? Thank you.
We prefer to remain very prudent when we change a guidance. We are not in a situation where we intend to change our guidance till now. We are improving gradually our margin. We know that there is room for improvement due to the different levers I mentioned previously. We consider very favorably how the market evolutes because we see that our peers are performing very well too. We consider that in the medium-long term, we will reach levels which will be comparable to our peers. The customer relationship is very important in this business, and going too fast could be a real problem. We prefer to remain very gradual.
Extremely clear.
Thank you.
T he next question comes from a line of Rohit Modi from Citi. Please go ahead.
Hi. Thanks for the opportunity. A couple from my side. Firstly, a follow-up from Mollie's question around the tariff impact. I believe you mentioned that there's no impact on the Equans. Can you also confirm if there's no impact on the construction side of business, given there are some equipment that you still source, I believe, from Europe? Just a bit of comment on that. Second question on telecom margins, EBITDA margins particularly, if you can confirm, excluding the impact of energy tax and La Poste, if the margins were stable or growing or declining, any color on that would be really, really helpful. Lastly, apologies for bringing this topic again, but we have seen a lot of news in the past few months around French consolidation and Bouygues being involved.
If you can give any comment around that would be really, really helpful. Thank you.
Considering your first question about equipment we could import, in fact, from the U.S., it's a second-range issue for us. We are globally local where we work in the construction activities and in the Equans activities. The main subject is really the global economic environment. This is the reason why we have mentioned that we consider the environment as very uncertain in reality. Every day, we read the newspapers and we have some news from the US. It's obviously something which is very important for our activities. We need obviously confidence. The second subject is for Christian Lecoq.
Yes. Regarding the EBITDA margin, yes, the impact of energy cost for this quarter is around EUR 20 million.
The impact of IFR tax is around a bit less than EUR 10 million, EUR 9 million exactly. Regarding the margin, I remind you two things. First, La Poste Telecom will have a dilutive impact until the end of the migration of the Mobile client to Bouygues Telecom's network. We are still paying wholesale cost to SFR in 2025. First point. Second point, the fact that our turnover growth is coming from the Fixed business has also a dilutive impact because in the Fixed business, we rent the network. We do not own the network, the Fixed network. The EBITDA margin to Fixed is lower than the EBITDA margin to Mobile. Two reasons, excluding energy and IFR tax. First, La Poste Telecom, and second, growth in the Fixed business.
As far as the consolidation is concerned, in fact, we read the newspapers, as you do certainly, and we have seen that probably the debt restructuring of Altice is on track. This is an event which is very important for Altice, but that does not change anything for us. The consolidation in this context, we have seen a lot of things about, we have read a lot of things about the consolidation. I remind you that a lot of attempts have been done in the past in this respect. This is a very complex issue and regulatory issues, competition issues, commercial issues. Nothing substantial to say at that stage.
Thank you so much.
A quick reminder, if you would like to join the queue for questions, please press star one on your keypads. The next question comes from the line of Eric Ravary from CIC. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Three questions from my side. First one is on Equans, so you mentioned some market segments slowing down in Q1. Could you be a bit more specific? And what are the trends that you see for these segments for the rest of the year? On Colas, we've seen a fall of the oil prices over the last months. Are you observing also a fall in the bitumen prices? And could it have a temporary positive impact on Colas margins in the next quarters? Last question is on Bouygues Telecom. Christian, you mentioned that the Fixed ABPU is still growing, but the growth rate slowed down in Q1 compared with 2024 at + 2%. Shall we expect for the rest of the year the growth rate of the ABPU to continue to slow down with the new pricing that you introduced? Thank you.
I will start with Equans. Considering Equans, we can give two examples, for instance, for considering the wait-and-see mode I mentioned previously. The first one is, for instance, the gigafactories for batteries, where you have seen that probably we are sure that the vehicles will be electric in a few years. However, the pace of growth of this market is lower than expected, and this induces some difficulties for certain actors of that market, for instance, the Northvolt issue. The second example is probably data centers. The pipe is just fantastic. We are in a period where actors are slowing a bit their decision because, first, there is the tariff issue and the US policy, industrial policy in the US, which could modify where they have to invest, but they have not decided.
Secondly, you know that in terms of technology, we have a new technology that is now very promising, which is the liquid cooling technology. A lot of actors have to decide if they maintain their original project or they move to this new technology of liquid cooling. For all these reasons, we are very confident on how the market will evolve in the future. We see in our turnover during the first quarter that there is a wait-and-see situation. Concerning Colas, we have learned a lot from inflation in 2022. We have negotiated in our contracts in order to be protected against the evolution of bitumen. That is the good news. We are protected. The consequence is that when the bitumen decreases, this decreases our cost, but this decreases also our turnover.
That said, we have a Colas-level plan in order to improve margin. You have seen that during the past years, year after year, we are improving our margin. We are not at the end of this story. We are on track on that plan.
On Fixed ABPU, yes, we have observed already a strong growth in our Fixed ABPU over the past two years, catching up with the market ABPU. Today, three points to have in mind. First, like in Mobile, we stopped to reprice our clients in Mobile and also in the Fixed business. Of course, the growth on Fixed ABPU will be lower in the next coming years. Second point to have in mind, we are working to increase our ABPU.
For example, the fact that we are following our decision to cease the commercialization of DSL and Wi-Fi 5, we have adopted our Fixed offer to incorporate new technologies. We have increased our prices. For example, also we offered to our client to move from our Wi-Fi 5 box to Wi-Fi 7 box, for example, by paying EUR 3 more. Positive impact. We could have a positive impact coming from that. Last point, you know that we launched our B&YOU Pure Fibre offer at the end of 2024. This offer is not cannibalizing our existing clients, neither the acquisition of the quarter. Thanks to that, we have a good momentum in volume. At the same time, as the B&YOU Pure Fibre tariffs are lower than the normal tariffs, I will say, it could have a small impact on our Fixed ABPU in the next quarters.
To conclude on that, I will say that our Fixed ABPU will continue to grow in 2025. You are right to say that it should be at a slower pace than in previous years. Thank you.
The next question comes from a line of Nicolas Cote-Colisson from HSBC. Please go ahead.
Hi. I have a few questions. Just a follow-up from Christian's answer on the ABPU in Fixed. Would you say that now we are down to close to 2% growth is mainly driven by stopping repricing clients for this quarter? I hear what you say for the coming quarters, but I was more interested for Q1. Is it the lack of pricing this quarter that leads to a slowdown in growth?
Back to your comments on the macro environment, both at Equans or looking at the backlog in the construction on the international side of things, do you think it's more an issue of clients not taking decisions right now, or are you also seeing some pricing pressure leading to adopt a more selective approach from your side? My very last question, housekeeping, just on the working cap, I'm not trying to read too much into the number in Q1, but just to check on Equans, there's a big swing for Q1. It's a positive number when usually we have a slight negative number for Q1. Is there anything that has changed there, or we should just shrug and ignore it? Thank you.
First, on the Fixed ABPU, yes, Nicolas, usually when we did repricing in the past, it was in Q1.
We did not do that this year. Yes, this has a negative impact. Maybe one other point. If you look at Q1 ABPU compared to Q4 2024 ABPU, you will see that the ABPU is down EUR 0.2 compared to the last quarter, Q4 2024. It was mainly due to a drop in non-working elements in Q1 compared to Q4. We had a high level of new customers in Q4, so we had some activation fees, more activation fees that we have taken in our ABPU in Q4, more activation fees in Q4 than in Q1. This is the main impact if you look at the difference on Fixed ABPU Q1 compared to Q4. Regarding the next quarter, I do not know what will be the trend. It will depend on the result of our B&YOU Pure Fibre offer.
Of course. Thank you.
If you consider your question regarding Equans, the first question, obviously, when you are being selective, it has an impact on our margin. You know that, for instance, we have decided to withdraw from the market a new build in the U.K. because we considered that the margin was not possible to have a good margin in that sector. Having said that, obviously, we have a double impact, which is we try to improve margin, but you know that different actors in the market are aiming for margins which are at a level which is comparable or higher than the one we have to date. We have always pressure of our customers on pricing. As we have a lot of competencies and a kind of scarcity in resources in that market, we are quite confident that we can continue to improve our margins.
Concerning the working capital, you knew perfectly when we bought Equans. I would say that we said that I don't know if everyone has believed us when we were saying that we had room for improvement on working capital at Equans level. We implement policies gradually in order to improve that. There is no specific issue of the first quarter explaining that the working capital improved this quarter compared to Q1 2023-2024. Having saying that, you have to know that it's quite difficult to modelize Working Capital Requirements for construction activities. In the same way, it's quite difficult to do so at Equans level. A lot of pressure is put on that subject at all levels of organization in Equans. Same in other entities of the group, by the way.
Okay.
If I may just ask a follow-up on the lower backlog in construction on the international side of things, is there any region that is driving this, or is it more a general effect? Sorry.
No. Order intake for building activities, you mean?
Yeah.
N o, you know our building activities is mainly realized with big projects. So order intake of one quarter for our construction activities makes simply no sense. We have to consider the backlog, which is very good, which secures the next year and the year after. And then we have projects in the pipe. We are not anxious at all on that subject. As a matter of fact, when you have an important order intake one quarter, for instance, the first quarter in 2024, it's not the reason to have the same level of order intake one year after.
A quarter is a very short period for these kinds of activities.
Sorry, maybe you misunderstood, but it was more the backlog for international building. I hear what you say, yeah.
Sorry. I have not understood your question. Sorry.
No, I was more referring to the backlog for international building, the - 3%. I get your answer.
It's not significant at this stage. Activities for this year and next year are very well secured. We are not anxious at all on that movement. It could go up next quarter or not, but no anxiety at all for next year and the year after to bring international building.
Okay. That's perfect. Thank you for that.
The next question comes from Nicolas Mola from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, gentlemen.
Just a couple of follow-ups for me. Just on Equans, in the release, it seems you hint to a slightly better performance at the revenue level for the next few quarters. I was just wondering what would give you that kind of confidence, especially taking into account the bit of the wait-and-see from customers. Especially in France, we see Q1 is down three. Some of your peers, but not all of them, were also down. It seems their outlook is relatively challenging. That's the first one. On Equans, on international, you are still growing in Q1. Where are you growing? Which geographies? If you could shed a little bit of color. Third one on Colas. What are you seeing in France? The order intake is slowing a little bit, but you had good momentum in 2024.
You still seeing good activity ahead of the municipal election. In the U.S., where you had on the flip side a very poor order in 2024, and the revenues are still under pressure. Is there a silver lining there? Last point on Colas still, Rail continues to grow 3, 4x the road business. Is there a margin mix impact there, or basically you do the same margin in Rail and road, and we should not care too much about this? That would be it.
Okay. Starting with your last question about Colas. Firstly, no. In fact, our margin in road construction and road construction on Rail are quite equivalent. No mix impact to anticipate at this stage. I could add that generally speaking, on average, our Rail contracts are bigger and longer than our road activity, than contracts in our road activity.
When we increase our backlog, the execution of these contracts will be executed during periods which will be far longer, which is good news because we have to sign the contract to also realize it. The increase in activity will be lower than the increase in the backlog in the short term. That's the first question. The second question concerning Colas is about the U.S.. Effectively, we have seen an important improvement of the backlog of the U.S.. activities. We are now quite optimistic on the activity in the U.S.. The third question related to Colas was the order intake in France. There is good news. We know that probably after the local there is a cycle for activities in France. Before the local election, we have an increase in the activity. We have this improvement.
The good news is the fact that we are now not too far from this election. I think it is March 2026. The backlog remains quite good. Probably we will have a decrease, a slowdown after. We do not see that at the moment. That is fairly good news. I think I have answered all your questions about Colas. I will move to Equans. How will be the growth? Obviously, we have a 0% growth during the first quarter, which is the effect of our selectivity. We have decided to be selective. Added to that, we have a wait-and-see mode, I explained previously. This is the reason why we have mentioned that probably the pace will be lower than the one we have in 2024. We have a lot of things in the pipe. Effectively, we do not know precisely when the wait-and-see mode will change. We will see.
The trends are good in all these activities. What it will be in 2025, we will see quarter after quarter.
There are no further questions. I hand you back to Pascal Grangé for closing remarks.
Thank you for your question and for joining us today. We will be announcing our year 2025 results on 31st of July 2025. Should you have any questions, please contact our investor relations team. Their contact information is on the press release on our website. Thank you very much.
Thank you for joining today's call. You may now disconnect your lines.