Hello, and welcome to the Bouygues 9-month 2022 results call. My name is Laura, and I will be your coordinator for today's event. Please note this call is being recorded, and for the duration of the call, your lines will be on listen-only. However, you will have the opportunity to ask questions at the end of the call. 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 will be connected to an operator. I will now hand you over to your host, Pascal Grangé, Deputy CEO and CFO of Bouygues, to begin today's conference. Thank you.
Good morning to all of you, and thank you for joining us to discuss Bouygues 9 months 2022 results. With me in the room are Christian Lecoq, CFO of Bouygues Telecom, and Armelle Gary, Head of Investor Relations. Following our presentation, we'll be answering your questions. Let's start with a few recent highlights on slide 4. On the 4th of October, we completed the acquisition of Equans, a key milestone in the history of Bouygues. This acquisition closed after we obtained all necessary authorizations under competition and foreign investment laws. Please note that we had already fulfilled the European Commission requirement with the disposal of Colas Rail Belgium on 13th of September 2022. The acquisition of Equans is a very significant move in the promising energies and services market.
Bouygues becomes a world leader in the multi-technical services market, which is at the heart of the environmental, industrial and digital transitions. More specifically, these services offer solutions to optimize energy consumption, a key strategic issue in the current environment. This new business segment, which combines both Equans and Bouygues Energies & Services, becomes the largest business segment of the group. Based on 2021 figures, it generates around EUR 17 billion in sales, employs around 97,000 people in over 20 countries, and enjoys increased capacity to design and roll out innovative and sustainable solutions and services. I would like to remind you that Bouygues has acquired 100% of the shares of Equans for the final price of EUR 6.1 billion. Equans net debt at the acquisition date was estimated at EUR 0.4 billion below the November 2021 estimate.
Therefore, the total impact of this acquisition on the group's net debt was assessed at EUR 6.5 billion, of which EUR 130 million had been paid to Engie on 12th of May 2022, upon signature of the share purchase agreement. On slide 5, you can see that the Together integration process started from day one with a global internal communication campaign. On 18th of October, Equans top managers met Bouygues top managers at Bouygues headquarters. The CEOs of each business segment presented their strategy. Immediately after closing, we started the integration process of the Equans and Bouygues Energies & Services team. A first executive committee meeting took place on 7th of October. A 2-day workshop was also organized, bringing together the top 120 managers from both business segments to draft an action plan.
Jérôme Stubler, CEO of Equans, and Pierre Vanstoflegatte, CEO of Bouygues Energies & Services, held 8 live chats with staff around the world. Subsequently, Jérôme Stubler began his world tour to personally meet the teams. As already described, since the signing of the agreement with Engie in November 2021, everything that could be done within the regulatory constraints have been done in order to move forward faster once the closing was complete. Therefore, from day one, work streams between Bouygues Energies & Services and Equans started by analyzing business segment development, procurement, IT, finance, HR, et cetera. We were able to start the first actions very quickly, especially the one dedicated to procurement. Indeed, procurement is a key area to improve performance through initiatives such as the alignment of commercial conditions and renegotiation, catalog implementations, and bulk purchasing.
In France, the process already started with the first set of tangible results expected by end 2022. Other countries have started their review and first actions will begin soon. As explained on slide 6, on 24th of October, Bouygues completed a new major milestone in refinancing the 2-year syndicated loan used for the acquisition of Equans. Indeed, Bouygues successfully completed a bond issue totaling EUR 2.25 billion in 2 separate tranches. The first tranche of EUR 1.25 billion for 10 years has a coupon of 4.625%. The economic cost for the group, after factoring in pre-hedging, amounts to slightly below 2.05%. The second tranche of EUR 1 billion for 20 years has a coupon of 5.375%.
The economic cost for the group, after factoring in pre-hedging, amounts to slightly below 3.16%. The strong demand for this issue from bond investors confirms the market's confidence in the group's creditworthiness. Bouygues credit rating is A3 with stable outlook with Moody's and A- with a credit watch negative with Standard & Poor's. Therefore, overall, Bouygues have already secured the financing of most of the Equans acquisition. Since May 2022, Bouygues issued a total of EUR 4.25 billion of bonds for an average economic cost of around 2%. Besides this, EUR 869 million were received upon the settlement of pre-hedging instruments associated with those EUR 4.25 billion. Lastly, we still have some pre-hedging instruments available to cover EUR 700 million dedicated for future financing.
The fair value of these instruments amounts to EUR 130 million as of 15th of November, 2022. Let's now turn to the Group's 9 months key figures on slide 7. The Group demonstrated once again its resilience in a very difficult environment and confirms its 2022 outlook. The strong backlog in the construction and services businesses offers us good visibility on activity. Total Group sales were up 8% in the first 9 months 2022. Sales were up in almost all business segments and were notably very strong at Colas. Like-for-like on a constant exchange rate, Group sales increased by 4%. The 9 months 2022 current operating profit increased by EUR 66 million compared to 9 months 2021.
The current operating margin reached 4.1%, a stable and robust level compared to the level of first 9 months 2021. Bouygues Construction, TF1, and Bouygues Telecom improved their profitability compared to last year. As already explained, inflation has a dilutive effect on Colas margin, and we will detail this later in the presentation. Net profit attributable to the group was EUR 537 million. Here, I would like to outline 2 things. First, Alstom no longer contributes to this number, while the first 9 months of 2021 included a positive contribution from Alstom of EUR 219 million. Second, this figure includes net non-current charges of EUR 106 million, mainly related to the 2 major M&A projects we managed this year, and therefore is not representative of our business.
In comparison, the first 9 months of 2021 net profit attributable to the Group included EUR 90 million of net non-current income, essentially related to capital gains linked to the disposal of data centers at Bouygues Telecom. I would like to reaffirm the Group's commitment to its employees. People have always been at the heart of the Bouygues Group. They are our greatest resource, and their expertise and dedication drive our performance. Considering the challenges of the current environment, Bouygues has decided to act in favor of the lowest earning employees in its business segments, both in France and abroad, in order to ease the impact of inflation on the cost of living of its employees. In France, in addition to the annual pay review, several increases in wages have been undertaken in the past 12 months.
In December 2021, March 2022, and September 2022. Furthermore, Bouygues has decided to pay a special one-off bonus to its employees. This bonus is paid to more than 36,000 employees earning less than twice the annual French minimum wage. It represents an amount of around EUR 25 million recorded in current charges and impacting current operating profits. In the international businesses, measures are being taken case by case and based on the local context, especially in countries experiencing extremely high inflation. Let's now turn to the review of operations on slide 12. Let's begin with the backlog in the construction and services businesses. The overall backlog at September 2022 was at a high level of EUR 34.2 billion, up 7% year-on-year. This increase in the backlog was driven by Colas.
Bouygues Construction backlog was nearly stable at EUR 20.2 billion, offering a good visibility on future activity, with order intake up 9%, of which international markets were up 12%. This momentum was driven by both the normal course of business and a large EUR 475 million contract won in Switzerland in Q3. Colas' backlog was up 30% and up 19% at constant exchange rate and excluding principal disposals and acquisitions. The order intake of Colas increased by 28%. Colas achieved a good commercial performance in roads activity, particularly in North America and Europe. This was also enhanced by inflation. Furthermore, Colas Rail continued its positive momentum with the award of a new contract for the Birmingham tramline in the U.K. in Q3 for EUR 192 million.
This comes after large contracts were already awarded in Q1 and Q2. At Bouygues Immobilier, the general market conditions in housing are tightening. We continue to see a catch-up in building permit issuance in the residential property market compared to the first 9 months of 2021. However, we observe longer timetables for negotiating construction work standards due to inflation, and such delays impact inventory of housing units available for sale, the level of reservations, and the backlog. Conversely, clients in commercial activity are still in a wait-and-see mode. As a result, Bouygues Immobilier's backlog was down 16% year-on-year. Let's now look at the construction and services activities key figures on slide 13. The construction and services businesses recorded solid figures. Sales were up 9% year-on-year and 4% like-for-like on a constant exchange rate.
First, at Bouygues Construction, sales were up 3% in building and civil works. They were slightly down in Energies & Services, but they were stable, excluding activities transferred to the building and civil works segment. Also, please keep in mind that Energies & Services sales growth is impacted by contract selectivity. Second, at Bouygues Immobilier, sales were down 5% due to a low inventory of housing units for sale. One main commercial project was sold in Q3 2022. Third, at Colas level, sales were up by 18%, driven by Colas international sales, which were up 30%, led by North America as well as Europe. Of note, in the 9 months, Destia contributed EUR 430 million to Colas sales.
Current operating profit of the construction and services businesses reached EUR 517 million, stable compared to the same period of 2021. First, Bouygues Construction margin improved to 3% versus 2.7% in 9 months 2021. This was mainly led by Bouygues Energies & Services, whose current operating margin reached 3.2% in 9 months 2022. Building and civil works has also slightly improved to 2.9%. Second, the current operating result of Bouygues Immobilier reflects the low level of activity in residential property market and the limited interest for customers for commercial property.
Third, in Q3 2022, Colas had EUR 373 million in current operating profit above the Q3 of 2021, helping the 9-month current operating profit and current operating margin to catch up compared to the situation in H1 2022. Nonetheless, inflation still have a dilutive effect on margin. As already explained several times, inflation has a dilutive impact on Colas' current operating margin. Therefore, Colas decided to replace its 2023 guidance. Sales in 2022 will be significantly higher than in 2021, boost by the contribution of Destia, higher unit prices for products and services sold by Colas against a very inflationary economic background, and an exchange rate effect caused by euro to U.S. dollar variations. In a complex environment like this, Colas had put in place action plans to offset the impact of cost increases and safeguard its financial performance.
Colas expects its 2022 current operating profit to be higher than in 2021. Given the inflationary environment, particularly in countries bordering Ukraine, and its dilutive impact on the current operating margin, especially in the bitumen trading business, it is no longer relevant to set profitability targets for 2023 in terms of the current operating margin rate. For this reason, Colas is replacing its target of 4% current operating margin in 2023 with a target for an increase in 2023 current operating profit compared to 2022. Nonetheless, thanks to buoyant fundamentals and the positive impact of a series of transformation projects that have been undertaken, Colas is confident in its ability to reach going forward the current operating margin rate target it sets. Turning to slide 16, let's talk briefly about TF1's results, which were released at the end of October. First, TF1 had a good set of results.
The 5% sales increase was particularly driven by Newen. Revenues for the media segment were up 1% year-on-year, with advertising revenue down 2%. This was due to a strong basis of comparison after a solid growth both in Q3 2020, post-COVID, and in Q3 2021, with the broadcast of the men's football Euro Cup. Furthermore, Newen Studios posted revenues up 35% for the first 9 months of 2022, with an excellent performance in Q3, led by the delivery of programs. Newen also benefited from the contribution of studios acquired in Spain and Germany in 2021. Current operating profit showed improvement, reaching EUR 239 million in the first 9 months. Cost of programs remained under control in the media segment and demonstrated the ability of the business to monitor spending and achieve savings when necessary.
Newen reported current operating profit slightly up, and margin at 10.1%, taking into account the cost related to the end of broadcasting the daily soap, Plus belle la vie. As a result, TF1's current operating margin reached 13.7% and was up 0.2 points versus end September 2021. On 27th of October, TF1 announced that the Board of TF1 appointed Rodolphe Belmer as CEO and Gilles Pélisson as Chairman of the Board of Directors. With a solid track record at the head of several leading French multinationals and strong experience in media and streaming, Rodolphe Belmer is ideally prepared to meet the challenges faced by TF1 and well-positioned to steer the long-term development of the TF1 Group. To conclude with TF1 on slide 17, I will be brief, as the TF1 team already commented on its 2022 outlook.
TF1 needs to accelerate its transformation to meet changing consumption uses. It also must develop partnerships with platforms and continue its expansion in the buoyant markets. I now leave the floor to Christian Lecoq for Bouygues Telecom performance.
Thank you, Pascal, and good morning, everyone. Before discussing figures, I would like to say a few words on our Donate a Gigabyte campaign. As a committed operator and citizen, Bouygues Telecom has teamed up with 4 associations for the Donate a Gigabyte campaign. Everyone can give one symbolic gigabyte to support one of these associations. Bouygues Telecom converts collected gigabytes into mobile plans and smartphones given to associations, which distributes them to disadvantaged beneficiaries. This is the second edition of this operation, and through it, we want to raise awareness among our employees and our customers to act against digital vulnerability and exclusion. On slide 19, I would also like to highlight some successes that demonstrate Bouygues Telecom's excellence in quality networks. First, the ARCEP survey, published in October 2022, recognized once again the quality of our mobile network.
Bouygues Telecom has been recognized as second operator for 9 years in a row, number one or number one ex æquo in voice in subways, and number one ex æquo in voice and text in very dense areas. Second, we entered in 2 major projects in B2B in the last few months. The first one is with the French Interior Ministry, where we will contribute to the modernization of the national communication system for the police, military police, fire departments, and emergency services system. It shows that Bouygues Telecom i-is recognized for the quality for, of its network and its ability to innovate. The second one, named Nubspot, is an alliance for the development of a reliable cloud computing service. This new cloud will offer the highest market standard and is an answer to market challenges of data sovereignty, security of digital architectures, and data portability.
Let's now have a look at figures on slide 20. Once again, you can see that commercial performance in mobile and fixed were solid in the first 9 months. At September 2022, Bouygues Telecom had 15.1 million mobile plan customers, excluding M2M. Commercial activity remained dynamic during the quarter, as Bouygues Telecom won 175,000 new customers in Q3 and 368,000 new customers since the beginning of the year. Now, let us turn our attention to our fixed customer base. As you can see on the right side of the slide, we had 4.6 million fixed customers at end September 2022. FTTH continued to experience strong growth with 157,000 net adds during the Q3 and 473,000 net adds since the beginning of the year.
With a total of 2.8 million subscribers, FTTH customers represented over 60% of our fixed customer base, compared to 48% one year ago. Having already more than 28 million FTTH premises marketed, we are ahead of our schedule to reach our target of 35 million by 2026. Let's have a look at key figures on slide 21. First, we achieved good performance both in volume and in value over the past 12 months, leading to a 6% growth in sales billed to customers. Mobile ARPU, now including B2B2C and restated for roaming impact, was up EUR 0.3 year-on-year at EUR 20.1. Fixed ARPU was up EUR 1 year-on-year at EUR 29. This good performance was partially offset by the continued decrease in incoming sales, leading to a 3% increase in sales from services.
Other sales were up 12%, notably led by B2C revenues. EBITDA after leases grew by 9% in 9 months 2022 and reached EUR 1,308 million. Consequently, margin improved compared to last year, which is consistent with our goal to progressively increase it. The current operating profit of EUR 500 million was higher than in 9 months of 2021. Operating profit was EUR 507 million and takes into account a non-current income of EUR 7 million, mainly due to the gain on the disposal of data centers. Please note that 9 months 2021 non-current income was EUR 107 million, also mainly related to the disposal of data centers.
Last, you can notice that gross CapEx reached EUR 1,232 million in 9 months 2022, a higher level than in 9 months 2021. Divestments were also lower than one year ago. We are on the way to achieve all of our 2022 targets, including our gross CapEx guidance of EUR 1.5 billion, excluding frequencies. Now, Pascal, I am giving you back the floor.
Thank you, Christian. I would like to briefly comment on the financial statement on slide 23. We have already discussed 9 months revenues and current operating profit at the beginning of this call. Other operating income and expenses were negative at EUR 106 million in the first 9 months. This amount includes non-current charges mainly related to our M.&A. project. As a reminder, in 9 months 2021, the other operating income and expenses were positive at EUR 90 million. This amount included, in particular, non-current income of EUR 107 million at Bouygues Telecom, mainly that Christian has already talked about. Regarding the share of net profit on joint ventures and associates level, I just want to remind you that Alstom is no longer contributing to our figures, contrary to last year. We'll now turn our attention to the group financial structure.
Moving to slide 24, net debt was EUR 3.7 billion at the end of September 2022. Compared to end September last year, net debt was up EUR 1 billion. Net gearing is at a low level of 27%. As such, the Group benefits from a particularly strong financial position. Aside from the change in operations, end September 2022 net debt position was positively affected by the interest rate swap mark-to-market that I will explain to you later. Let's now turn to slide 25 to describe the net debt evolution between end December 2021 and end September 2022. Net debt increased by EUR 2.7 billion since the end of last year. This change is mostly explained by the following items.
First, acquisitions net of disposal totaling EUR 140 million, of which EUR 130 million is the payment to Engie in connection with the signature of the share purchase agreement on 12th of May. Also included is the TF1 share buyback. Second, Bouygues share buyback for EUR 183 million. Third, the payment of dividends totaling EUR 776 million. Fourth, positive fair value adjustment on interest rate swaps contracted for the Equans acquisition totaling EUR 935 million. Lastly, EUR 2.6 billion from operations that I will comment in the next slide.
Regarding the fair value adjustment on interest rate swaps, let me remind you that between November 2021 and January 2022, to be protected against interest rate increases, the Group entered into pre-hedging contracts in view of refinancing the bond issue maturing in 2023, and the syndicated loan signed for the acquisition of Equans. At 30th of September 2022, the fair value of this pre-hedging swap totaled EUR 931 million versus EUR 38 million at end December 2021. The EUR 931 million included the value of contingent swaps for EUR 245 million locked in at the time of the bond issued on 17th of May 2022.
If we include the EUR 42 million received as part of the May 2022 bond issued in respect of non-contingent swaps, the total impact of swaps over the period amounts to EUR 973 million. I now suggest looking at the details on the change in operations on page 26. Turning to the breakdown of operations for the first 9 months of 2022 on slide 26, you can observe that first, net cash flow, including lease expenses, remain comparable to last year. Second, net CapEx was at EUR 272 million, largely due to higher gross CapEx and lower disposals at Bouygues Telecom. As you know, the phasing of CapEx is not linear over the course of the year.
Third, you can see on the chart that working capital requirement related to operation, operating activities and others increased by EUR 1.4 billion compared to the same period of last year. With a strong increase in activity in 2022, mainly driven by inflation, some items like inventories and customer receivables have increased. As we do every year, we will manage this situation as much as we can by the end of the year. Furthermore, I remind you that we started 2022 with an optimized level of working capital related to operations by business segments. Moving to slide 27, I would like to share with you our decision to release a new financial indicator. As you may know, Equans acquisition will lead to the recognition of an amortization of intangible assets, what is called an amortization of purchase price allocation.
To provide an accurate view of the operational activity and performance of the Group and its business segments, we'll implement a new financial indicator that will be the current operating profit before amortization of intangible assets recognized from acquisitions. This new indicator will be called the current operating profit from activities and will be implemented from the start of Equans PPA amortization or from 2023 financial year at the latest. Of course, we'll continue to provide the current operating profit in our financial statement, but in our financial communication, we will replace current operating profit with current operating profit from activities, also called COPPA. Please note that end September 2022, this COPPA would amount to EUR 1,214 million before amortization of PPA at Bouygues Telecom, Colas and TF1 for a total of EUR 33 million.
Lastly, on slide 28, I would like to add that from October 2022, Equans will be consolidated in Bouygues group's accounts with a new business segment. At the beginning of 2023, Bouygues Energies & Services will join this new business segment. Regarding Equans contribution to Bouygues non-financial performance, some data on human resources will be available and disclosed in the 2022 Universal Registration Document. The full non-financial data will be available in the 2023 Universal Registration Document. I will now conclude this presentation on slide 30. The 2022 group outlook is confirmed. In 2022, we expect a further increase in sales and current operating profit versus 2021. After SBTi endorsement of Colas greenhouse gas emission reduction targets in 2021, the other business segments are now aiming to receive SBTi endorsement for their own decarbonization targets.
Lastly, we remain very vigilant regarding any changes in the macroeconomic situation and their direct or indirect consequences on the Group's activities and reforms. Thank you for your attention. Operator, please open the floor for questions.
Thank you, Pascal. Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Thank you. We'll now take our first question from Nicolas of HSBC. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Thank you. I'll start with some questions on free cash flow because we still have lower contributions year-on-year from Bouygues Telecom and Colas. If you could give us more color on the moving parts here and what the full year could look like. Obviously a follow-up question would be on the working cap, 'cause I understand you don't guide on this, but is it right to expect a big reversal in Q4 as we have seen in the previous years? I've got a second question on Bouygues Energies & Services because you mentioned contract selectivity impacting revenue growth. Does it mean there is more price competition right now because this activity is often described as having some sort of pricing power? If you could give us more indication, that would be great. Thank you.
Okay. Hi, Nicolas. This question I will answer on your free cash flow question on Bouygues Telecom. The free cash flow for Bouygues Telecom is around EUR 200 million below the level it was last year. If you look at the 3 components, first, this is +EUR 100 million on EBITDA. Second, -EUR 150 million on CapEx. As we will have the same level of CapEx than last year at the end of this year, you can be sure that this figure will be zero at the end of the year. Second, around -EUR 170 million on disposals. We will have less disposals than last year.
Of course it will have a negative impact at the end of the year. This is not, I would say, current free cash flow. It is only due to disposal of data centers. For your first question, 2 parts, on free cash flow and working capital requirement. For free cash flow, obviously we have at Colas and Bouygues Telecom a lower level of cash flow, net cash flow during the first 9 months. The reason are fairly different for the 2 businesses. For Bouygues Telecom, Christian answered you. For Colas, we had a result which is under pressure during the Q1, half of the year.
We see at the end of September what we saw at the end of June with the pressure on net cash flow for Colas. We'll recover part of it during the end of the year. For working capital requirement, we started with a high point at the end of 2021. It is normal, in particular in construction, to have a deterioration which is either cyclical and either starting from a high point. It is fair to consider that during the last quarter of the year, we will recover an important part of this working capital deterioration.
Now, concerning Bouygues Energies & Services, I would like to say that it is fair to consider that the market is a growing market. In this market, the Bouygues Energies & Services has decided to improve profitability. You have seen that, year after year, we are increasing the profitability of this business segment. For that, we prefer to have a lower level of growth and to improve profitability, and this is precisely what we see during the 9 first months of this year.
Okay. If I understand, it's more for the new contracts, but you don't see much pressure on the existing contracts?
No, frankly speaking, the demand remains strong because, you know, the environmental transition needs to develop the equipment in terms of energy and services. The market is a strong market. The megatrend on this market is a growth. If you consider our competitor, they have some growth rate which are quite significant. The market is growing. If we have decided to stabilize our turnover, it is to improve the profitability which was expected.
Understood. Thank you.
Thank you. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Thank you. We'll now move on to our next question from Nicolas Mora of Morgan Stanley. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. First question on disposals. There have been a few articles in the press and especially on Bloomberg that you were looking to dispose some specific business within Equans, some EV charging station business, some business in the U.K. as well. Do you see the opportunity in the short term to fine-tune the scope of the Equans business? What would that lead you to in terms of underlying margin for the remaining business within Equans? That would be helpful. That would be the first question. Second one is on Colas. We understand you're dropping the guidance for the margin for next year. Can you help us understand a little bit the wiggle room on the margin? You will be below 4%, but will you be at, you know, 3%-3.5%?
I mean, we're talking about the growth guidance on EBIT is not particularly challenging, but just trying to understand, to put a bit of color and granularity on where a suitable margin for Colas is in an inflationary environment. Can we go back up to, you know, 3.4%-3.5%, and then build up on that? Is it gonna still be challenging in the low 3%? Thank you.
On, sorry, for 2 questions and answer. It's a bit early for each of it. For the first question concerning Equans, we know perfectly that when Engie decided to constitute the Equans perimeter, they decided to sell activity subsidiaries where the asset-light activities was in majority. That means that in certain circumstances, there are some asset-based activities in the Equans perimeter, and we will consider how to sell it. It's quite too early to say what will be the calendar or what will be the amount. We don't see any major impact on profitability for the moment, but it's very early to speak about that.
We have promised you to have a capital market day at the beginning of next year, and we will deliver that in due time. Concerning Colas, as you have understood, our margin rate is under pressure because our turnover is increasing due to inflation and over-inflation in certain perimeters. I mean, for instance, North America or the countries just around Ukraine. For this reason, it's very difficult to know what will be our turnover because it will depend of what will be inflation in those countries during the next year for 2023. Frankly speaking, no specific guidance from anyone on that respect. It's very difficult to know what will be our turnover.
As we don't know, we know that it will increase. Certainly, globally, but we don't know in what extent it will be. For this reason, it is very difficult to know what will be the turnover of Colas. You have seen that during the 9 first months of 2022, we have a very important increase. The part which is related to inflation is major. This is the reason why we prefer to guide not on a margin rate, but on the figure of current operating profit. This is the reason why we have said to the market for 2022, we expect an increase compared to 2021.
For 2023, we expect an increase compared to this year. It's too early to give you any further information in that respect.
Okay, understood. If I may come back just on Colas. When we look a bit at the profitability, the building blocks, for example, in the H1, you got hit on the spike in raw materials. You had signed contracts on lower raw mats assumptions. You've got the higher bitumen costs. Okay. That clearly has an impact on margin. Getting into 2023, at least one of these 2 elements should go, which is the, let's say, the margin losses in North America. Is that enough to bring basically margins, you know, in the higher end of the 3%-4% range, or not enough?
We're just trying to understand basically if there's anything else struggling within Colas, if it's potentially Colas Rail which has been struggling, or if it's just really an inflation issue.
We have essentially an inflation issue.
Okay.
Thank you. We'll move on to our next question from Matthew of Barclays. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, and thank you for the presentation. The first question was on the telco market competitive environment. Different players have characterized the competitive environment differently over the past few weeks. It would be great to hear how you view the competitive environment today and what you expect. The second question was about the order book, the pure construction business, which remains kind of flattish. I don't know if you can add a bit of color there. Are you being more selective, or is it just the market trends? Lastly, on Equans, I understand that until now, you did not communicate it about the numbers that Equans was publishing because you did not owned it.
Now that you own it, can you give us a sense as to how the COP, current operating profit, developed throughout 2022? Thank you.
First, on the telecom business. In the mobile, I remind you that the market is still growing. This quarter, we observed less aggressive promotional offers compared especially to last year. We also observe also trend of increasing prices in the mobile business, especially for the low-end part of the market. In the fixed business, thanks to FTTH, we had 18 very dynamic months boosted by the pandemic effect. Now the market is returning to a more normal volume growth level as before COVID. About prices, we also saw slightly growing in the fixed business.
In the medium term, I would say that we think that as the customers' need for connectivity remains high and data usage will continue to increase, we will have the opportunity to continue to increase tariff and so revenue. If you look at the cost side, we have the opportunity to increase prices, but we also need to do that because the cost of the net-work will increase with more sites, and so more technology, more higher energy costs in the medium term and so on. That's why we will continue, and we need to pursue our More for More strategy.
As far as your question related to Equans, in fact, I remind you that the closing took place a month ago. In one month, we didn't have the time to analyze Equans' figures. Because we have to understand what the Equans' performance is related to the constitution of Equans perimeter and what are the results, and to compare it with methodology which are equivalent to ours. It's too early. We'll give you all Equans data sets when we will do the Capital Markets Day beginning of next year.
As far as the order book is concerned for Bouygues Construction, the order book is effectively flattish in a context where, you know, the order book of Bouygues Construction is always variable. Where when we have very important contracts which are signed. During the period, we didn't have any contract of that kind except for the Quai des Vernets project I mentioned in Switzerland. We are quite confident with our level of activity at Bouygues Construction level. We see that our 2023 activity is covered in a ratio, which is very satisfactory compared to the previous years.
Okay. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask questions, please press star one on your telephone keypad. We'll now move on to our next question from Virginie at Oddo. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, Virginie Rousseau from Oddo BHF. Thanks for taking my questions. I have 2 of them. First, on inflation, could you update us on the inflation you expect for 2023 in terms of energy but also in terms of salaries? Question, follow-up questions on construction and demand in construction. We begin to see some comments from associations, et cetera, stating that local authorities in France are looking carefully at their spending budget and that demand for construction could be impacted. Do you already notice anything in that field? Do you continue to see a quite solid trend? Thanks a lot for your answer.
As far as your first question is concerning inflation, precisely, we don't, and this is at the heart of my answer concerning our guidance for Colas. We precisely don't know what will be the inflation next year, and this is precisely the reason why it's very difficult to know what will be our margin rate next year. We prefer to guide saying that Colas margin will be increasing Colas result, current operating profit will increase next year. No, we didn't guide on this. This is part of the uncertainties I was mentioning previously. As far as construction demand, for the moment, we don't see any movement in that respect, either at Colas or Bouygues Construction level in France, for instance.
It doesn't mean that it will not happen, but we have a very important order book, so we will see that. If this event occurs, we'll have the ability to adapt our structure, but it's not the case for the moment.
Thank you.
Thank you. We'll now move on to our next question from Nicolas again at HSBC. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Thank you. Short question on the construction activity, especially the U.K., because it's probably one of the most challenging markets at present. I wonder what is your activity doing in the U.K. I wonder if you're able to manage your margin, and can you afford to be selective in such a market? The reason I'm asking this question is to see if the U.K. could give an indication of what could happen to your business in other countries if the macro trends were to deteriorate further. Thank you.
As far as our construction business is concerned in the U.K., we have some long-term contracts which allows us to obtain a certain level of activity. I mean, for instance, our Hinkley Point project, where first it is a long-term contract, and secondly, we are on a cost plus fee basis, so we are not impacted by the inflation, which is very important. We have the ability to pay what we need in order to have people to do the work.
Obviously margin is under pressure in the U.K., but we don't see an important movement in terms of volume in the next year.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you. We'll now take our next question from Nuno of Société Générale. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning. I hope you can hear me well. I had 2 quick questions. One was on Bouygues Telecom. In the press release, you mentioned that other sales have risen 12% year-over-year, and they've been driven mainly by the build-to-suit of sales of towers. I was wondering if the sales of towers are contributing to your EBITDA margin, and if so, if you could let us know what has been the EBITDA growth over the 9 months, excluding these. A question on Equans. I'm sorry to go back on Equans. You've mentioned that you're probably saving this information for the capital markets side.
I was wondering from a perspective integration cost, because the last time we spoke on Equans, you mentioned that you would have about EUR 150 million CapEx costs for I.T. systems migration and some EUR 60 million OpEx costs for integration. Are you still seeing these sort of short-term costs in terms of integration, or is this slightly changed? A final point, you also mentioned at the time that the latest contract signed on Equans over the last 18 months had margins of 4%. Is that still true or have these margins fallen a little bit? Thank you.
First on telecommunication, uh, the growth in the other sales, uh, up twelve percent year on year, uh, is notably coming from Samalo project, which is not, uh, to work with but more, you know, the fiber to the office and fiber to the antenna net-work that we are rolling out with Cellnex. This is a big project, around one billion euros, uh, spread over 6 or 7 years. Uh, and we, uh, more, uh, more work on this project this year than last year. Uh, the margin on this project is very, very small. Uh, and so there is no impact on the year. As far as your question, your question concerning, uh, Equans.
First, I don't remember we have said that the order book was at 4%. One thing is sure, Jérôme Stubler and Pierre Vanstoflegatte has a policy to increase margin in the order book. They are increasing this margin gradually. I don't recognize your 4% figure. As far as CapEx concerning integration, part of this CapEx were related to Equans and related to what they have to do in order to constitute Equans. As you may remember, Equans is constituted by subsidiary which were splitted in the Engie organization, and they have to build an IT system.
This process is already started, and this is the reason why it's partly integrated in the figures we have given to you concerning the impact of the Equans acquisition on Bouygues' debt. I mean, included in the EUR 6.5 billion impact on Bouygues' debt. For more detail, I would suggest to wait on the Capital Market Day we'll have beginning of next year.
Yes, of course. Thank you for the detail.
Thank you. We'll now move on to our next question from Gerry Delis at Jefferies. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Thank you for the presentation. I've got 3 questions, please. Firstly, in relation to Bouygues Telecom, Christian, I was wondering if you could indicate to us how important the effect of back book repricing has been so far, and whether you feel sufficiently confident about the scope for continued price increases to formalize it within customer contracts, as we have seen in some other markets. My second question, please, is related to the Colas margin guidance today. When wholesale gas prices started to increase this time last year, you explained to us that Colas is characterized by short cycle contracts, making it easier to pass cost inflation through to customers. I'm simply sort of interested in what's changed on that front now.
Finally, in relation to Equans, you mentioned that there will be disclosure in the 2022 registration document. I just wanted to clarify. Will we be getting pro forma Equans financials for 2021 in the 2022 registration document and at the Capital Markets Day? Thank you.
First on telecommunication, you're right. Back book repricing is a big part of the growth in revenue billed to customers. We are very confident to our ability to continue this strategy for 3 reasons, I will say. First, as I said before, the customer's need for connectivity remains high and data usage continues to increase. First, the fact that we observe the trend of increasing prices in the mobile for new customers, especially in the low-end market, it help us, of course, to continue to increase prices also for the existing customers.
When you have, for example, an offer at EUR 12 and the lowest offer on the market is at EUR 15 or EUR 16, you can increase the price for the existing customer, and he has no choice to go to find another at the same price. We'll stay with you. Third point, inflation is also a help for us to continue price hikes because the customers now understand that prices in telecommunication, but also in energy and other things also, of course, are increasing. It is good for us, and it will help us to continue to increase price hikes.
As far as your question concerning Colas, let's say that when we have seen the inflation impact during the beginning of this year, Colas has asked people to adapt and not speculate. Let's say that probably we have more accurate indexation formulas. We have more accurate contracts in order to transfer that risk to our clients. We couldn't expect any extra margin related to the fact that energy costs could decrease, if I have properly understood your question.
For Equans, we will provide some pro forma figures for the entire 2022 year, which is already not an easy thing to do, because I remind you that the perimeter has been finally constituted end of June this year, the Equans perimeter. We will give you some 2022 pro forma figures, but not, I don't think so, 2021 figures. Too complicated to organize and to make sure that figures are comparable.
Thank you. Could I just follow up on that? In relation to Equans, presumably when you were doing due diligence prior to making an offer, you had visibility on what numbers look like. Just interested in why it is so hard to constitute the backward-looking perimeter.
Because we have aggregated figures and not consolidated figures.
Okay, fair enough. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Now we'll take the last question of Eric Lemarié of CIC. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Morning. 3 questions from my side. First one is on the Bouygues Construction EBITDA figures. If you look at the 9-month figures, the EBITDA is decreasing by 45%, while the operating profit is increasing by 13%. I would like to understand this big difference. If you look at free cash flow, it is increasing for Bouygues Construction over 9 months, so I'm a bit lost on those figures for EBITDA. Second question is on Bouygues Telecom. Could you give us some visibility on the energy costs for next year and give us the support of your energy costs which are hedged for 2023? Based on this hedging, what kind of increase you expect for energy costs in Bouygues Telecom for next year?
Last question is on Energies & Services. Could we have the 9 months revenue figure, please?
Can you comment on energy?
Yes. On for energy for Bouygues Telecom, I remind you that we are totally hedged until the end of 2024. They will have no impact coming from energy costs on the profit on the Bouygues Telecom results for 2023 and 2024. We are now working on 2025 energy hedging position.
For the Energy & Services revenue for the 9 first months of 2022, it is EUR 2,818 million, which represent a decrease of 1.5%. This is stable if you exclude the fact that we have transferred a few activities from Energy & Services to Bouygues Building and Civil Works. This is for the first question. The second question was related to EBITDA. Generally speaking, in terms of construction, EBITDA is not an indicator because the results is done with contingencies and provisions which are fluctuating, but there is no reason to integrate this indicator.
The proper indicator which is relevant for construction is EBIT. There are some movement of provision due to the fact that we anticipate some expenses at one time. When we spend the money which was anticipated, we have the EBITDA decreasing. There is no real impact on the global performance of this activity.
Thank you. There are no further questions in the queue, so I will now hand it back to your Host, Pascal Grangé, to conclude today's conference. Thank you.
Thank you for joining us today. We'll be announcing full year 2022 results on 33rd of February next year. Should you have any question, please contact our Investor Relations team. Their contact information is on the press release on our website. Thank you for your attention.
Thank you all. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's call. Thank you for your participation. Stay safe. You may now disconnect.