Ladies and gentlemen, it's always a great pleasure to welcome you here. The holidays are now behind us, in fact, it's all the greater pleasure to tell you about our accounts, such as you see they are, broadly speaking, good, that our prospects are good. The highlights. First of all, our good commercial performance and the sustained or robust growth of the results at Bouygues Telecom. Our backlog in the construction business is at a record level. This is after a first quarter, which was adversely affected by poor weather in Europe. The current operating profit improved in the second quarter, year-on-year, despite strikes in the French railways and the difficulties in completing three energy and services projects.
As you know, with the French railways, SNCF, in fact, its subsidiary, Colas Rail, does a lot of work for SNCF on either new work or maintenance, as does reconstruction. During the strikes, work stopped. Obviously, the supervisory staff at French Railways was absent on strike, it was impossible to continue. Of course, this did adversely affect our performance in this field. Here you have the group's key figures. In the first half-year, sales amounted to EUR 15.7 billion, up 4% year-on-year. This is a reflection of good growth in France, solid growth outside of France on a like-for-like basis at constant exchange rates. Sales rose 5%. This was adversely affected by EUR 350 million in currency translation, particularly because of the strengthening of the dollar against the euro.
It was also affected by a positive scope of consolidation impact due to the integration of Miller McAsphalt, which we've told you about before, integration by Colas and Aufeminin, which was integrated by TF1. The group's current operating profit amounted to EUR 303 million in the first half against or versus EUR 347 million for the same period last year. This is a reflection of the continuing profitability at Bouygues Telecom, but also current operating profit in the construction business, which was adversely affected by poor weather in Europe, as we said, in the first quarter of this year. Operating profit was up EUR 4 million, this includes the capital gains from the sale of the Cellnex sites or sales to Cellnex by Bouygues Telecom. Net profit attributable to the group was up 18% to EUR 260 million restated for non-recurring items. It was up 6%. The group's financial structure is robust.
Net debt at the end of June 2018 was up EUR 800 million year-on-year. This includes the cost of the acquisition of Miller McAsphalt by Colas and the acquisition of Aufeminin by TF1. This change in net debt, I think, also bears the signs of the highly seasonal impact on Colas' business. At the end of June 2018, net debt does not include the acquisition of Alpiq Engineering Services by Bouygues Construction and Colas. This is an acquisition that was split between Bouygues Construction and Colas, as you know. Overall, this acquisition amounted to CHF 850 million in terms of enterprise value. Moody's has increased our credit rating from a Baa1 positive outlook to A3 with a stable outlook. That was on the 5th of July.
Standard & Poor's, while on the 12th of July, Standard & Poor's maintained our credit rating of BBB+ with a positive outlook. That's been maintained. On the right-hand side, you have the main changes in shareholders' equity, net debt, and gearing. I'm now going to give the floor to Olivier Roussat to tell you about our review of operations. Olivier.
Good morning, everyone. Starting with construction on this slide, you have three productions by the group. On the left-hand side, the site of Line 14, a metro line as part of the Grand Paris project. It was built by Bouygues and the tracks by Colas. On the right-hand side, you have the racetrack, Paul Ricard. That was done by Colas. In the middle, you have a building. It was developed by Bouygues Immobilier. The building houses the headquarters of Colas, and it was built by Bouygues Construction. That brings us All three businesses together. Regarding the backlog at end June 2018, a record high EUR 33.7 billion, up 9% compared to end June 2017, up 13% on a constant exchange rate basis. It includes EUR 800 million from Miller McAsphalt, which we didn't have last year.
If you look at the breakdown of the order book, you can see that 57% of the orders were achieved internationally compared to France. That's a stable proportion compared to last year. In France itself, business goes on pretty much as usual. We have an 8% increase in the backlog in France, EUR 15.8 billion. A few snapshots, sites in the provinces. We built the future headquarters of the Métropole de Lille. It used to be intended for the European Medicines Agency. In the end, it is the municipality of Lille which will take it over. We have the streetcar in Angers. You also have the chemistry, pharmacy, and biology university in Angers, and a hospital in Maubeuge. Internationally, we're very well-positioned in a buoyant market. You can see where we are located around the world.
Because we choose our territories well, we have good orders. We have EUR 17.8 billion, up 11% over one year, up 17% on a constant exchange rate, not including foreign exchange and not including Miller McAsphalt. We'd still be up 12% compared to last year. You have a few examples of projects, bids if you want, in Q2. Canada, we have the repairs on Highway 401 and 402 in Canada. We have the innovation center at Cardiff University, EUR 134 million. At the top you have electrical work, like-for-like in Calgary, Canada. If you look at the key figures for construction, sales stood at EUR 12.1 billion, up 4% compared to last year, mostly thanks to the good sales performance of all construction businesses. On a like-to-like basis and constant ForEx, it would be up 5%. The weather conditions were very negative in Europe.
That was Q1. Thank God that is behind us. In Q2, we have a EUR 6 million increase compared to the same quarter last year, and that means that there's a strong improvement in the operating profit by Bouygues Immobilier. La Route at Colas, good performance there. That more than made up for the negative factors, the strikes in SNCF, which was negative for the freight business of Colas Rail and the work business by Colas. There were three businesses in three projects in the U.K. and Ireland in Energy and Services, which encountered difficulties. If you left that out, the current operating profit for Q2 would have been 4.1% over that quarter. In the end, the prospects for improvement in both operating profits and operating margin, this outlook has been confirmed for the year 2018.
To TF1 and, of course, the victory of the French team at the Football Cup. Gilles gave you the numbers recently. We'll go quickly over this. The sales stood at EUR 8.84 billion, and that's because of the good performance of the free-to-view channels and the revenue streams from TF1+ Premium. That's the first time we have this. We have operating profit at EUR 101 million, down EUR 7 million. That's because in Q2 we had the cost of the World Cup, but that was EUR 46 million alone. That was essentially compensated by control of programming costs and more revenue from production. All in all, the current operating profits stood at 9.3%, down 1.1 point over one year. If you factor out the World Cup to have a comparable basis, it would have been 13.1%.
Operating profits stood at EUR 90 million. That included EUR 11 million in one-off expenses. That is mostly the depreciation of the audiovisual rights acquired when we purchased Newen Studios. If we look at Bouygues Telecom, we have, of course, a good sales performance and a good financial performance, starting with mobile phones. Growth continues in the mobile business, carried with new offers, B&YOU and Sensation, that were launched in Q2. Q2 was a very busy month. We have an additional 900,000 customers in H1, including almost 450,000 in Q2. In Q2, I beg your pardon. We have almost 13 million customers in mobile. On the contract plans, we have 120,000 customers in Q2, 250,000 in H1 2018. Looking at the coverage in mobile phones, you may know about our pooled network project that started in 2015.
That pooled network means that we have extended Bouygues Telecom's offered coverage, and we have new catchment areas in areas where we used not to have any customers or prospects, and so we're in a better position to sell our offers. At end June 2018, 82% of that network was rolled out. We have about 10,000 sites. By the end of the year, 95% of the project will be rolled out. Let me just mention that when you look at the areas that have been covered since we started the project, on average, it was an additional 45% additional sites in those areas where we rolled out this pooled network. We have extended the coverage considerably, and that means extended the catchment areas as well.
Once that has been completed, when we have rolled out the network, well, that's one thing, but we have to sell it, and we have to tell our customers, "No, that we are here," in those areas where we used not to be. Then, of course, we have to sell. We use local retail and we have shops, but we also have an agreement with Fnac Darty, and the Fnac Connect stores will be marketing our offers in H2, and this is how we'll be able to reach out to customers in these new areas. In the dense areas, we continue. Well, we had a satisfactory network and satisfactory coverage. Because there's more consumption by customers, we are adding density, and we're adding 50% additional sites, 2,000 additional sites by 2022 to ensure better coverage, better speeds for our customers.
At end June 2018, Bouygues networks covered 97% of the population. We'll have 99% in 4G by the end of this year, and that will be made possible through the 21,000 sites we'll need to provide that coverage. By end 2023, when all the network, well, we had a sharing of networks with SFR, and we'll have more than 99% 4G coverage. We are looking at almost 28,000 mobile sites. Even at the end of this year, 21,000 sites. That's considerably more than we had a couple of years ago. Still in the mobile business, we're looking forward to 5G technology that will be marketed, that will be rolled out by end 2019, or more likely beginning of 2020, when we have acquired the necessary frequencies. We're preparing the network.
One thing we need to do, first thing we need to do indeed, is to ensure that the speeds made possible by 5G will indeed be available on the network, and that means we have to have fiber connections for all the sites, at least for the cities that will receive 5G in 2020. We started this last year. This is progressing very well. We've decided to build additional equipment because 5G we have very short response times. That is because 5G decentralizes the nodes of the network. That means we need to build an additional concentrators. These are small machine rooms that will host specific equipment, and that is something we're doing right now so as to be ready for the rollout of 5G as soon as the frequencies are available. About 5G, we are testing it out.
We've actually had a pilot test in real life conditions. There were lab experiments, but this is the real life conditions. We are the first ones to do this in Western Europe, in the city of Bordeaux in July. We have actual sites using actual 5G with actual off-the-shelf software, not a lab experiment. Still, in the group, we have what is known as the Smart X 5G incubator. What is this all about? Well, the idea is that 5G brings about new possible solutions, applications, and uses, and we are testing these things out in smart building, smart mobility, and with Bouygues Construction, Bouygues Immobilier, and Colas, also smart entertainment with TF1. The idea there is to look at all possible potential uses of this new 5G technology. Let's move on to fixed phones and landlines.
Q2 was not as busy this year. In H1, good performance. An additional 91,000 new customers in H1, including 41,000 in Q2. At end June 2018, we had 3.5 million fixed line customers. This growth, again, was thanks to FTTH. At end June, we had 391,000 FTTH customers, including 126,000 new ones in H1, including 62,000 in Q2 2018. The share of FTTH accounts for 11.1%. Now, for this to happen, you need to be able to roll out FTTH networks. Number 1, we look at the orders known as secured premises, and that means having agreements with our partners, including PIN partners that own the networks, or partners that cover certain areas. At end June, we had 25 million premises secured. That's an additional 5 million compared with end December 2017. We have an additional partnership, indeed, with Orange.
That means we now have as much as 90% of the PINs, the Public Initiative Networks, that have been allocated. There's only 1 for which we haven't come to an agreement, and that's SFR's. At end June 2018, Bouygues Telecom has already had 5.5 million premises marketed. That's an additional 1.5 million compared to end December 2017. Our objective is to have as many as 12 million premises marketed by end 2019 and 20 million by 2022. We are present in 62 départements, so there's extension of these covered areas as well. We have EUR 2.6 billion, up 7% million on our sales. Services and sales bill to customers are up almost 5% in what was a very competitive market in Q2. That growth is attributable to, of course, the new offers we've been launched. That is acquiring new customers.
Also, we've had price increases in May 2017, and that, of course, made a positive difference. 1 additional point about these new offers in mobile phones. In Q2, we decided to divide out retail distribution channels. B&YOU is only available on the internet so that the premium world is kept out, as it were, of the internet universe. Regarding the online universe. Regarding Bouygues Telecom now, the profitability EBITDA was up 12% to EUR 549 million year-on-year, up 1.7 basis points, up 26% margin. Operating profit is up 31%, EUR 239 million, including EUR 104 million of one-off dues due to the capital gains on the Cellnex site sales. EUR 90 million in one-off expenses due to the sharing of the network. We have EUR 621 million for the gross CapEx, which is in line with what we announced, EUR 1.2 billion for the year.
We are exactly in line with the number we had announced. I give the floor to Philippe Marien.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. In addition to the copy that you received on arriving, you will also find on our website the entire consolidated accounts and notes to the accounts for the group, for the five businesses, and for the parent company, Bouygues S.A. Just a few additional comments on the accounts as of June 30th. I am not going to dwell on sales and current operating profit because Olivier has described them both business by business. Other operating income and expenses was EUR 80 million for the first half year, which includes the capital gains from the disposal of sites to Cellnex. That is EUR 104 million. Non-current charges or non-current expenses, including EUR 18 million in accelerated amortization due to the network sharing with SFR that Olivier also mentioned. This also includes EUR 11 million in non-current charges for the amortization of broadcasting rights subsequent to the acquisition of Newen.
We had the same figure in 2017. This amortization will be completed this year for TF1. The net cost of debt is down fractionally on the comparable period last year. Financial income up fractionally. Financial expenses are down fractionally. Working our way down through the consolidated income statement. EUR 37 million in income tax, which is a low effective rate of taxation at 20%. Remember that in 2017, we had the 3% tax on dividends. We did not have this in 2018 because the budget law was modified in the meantime. If we factor this 3% tax on dividends out of the equation, the effective rate of tax would have been 25% in the first half of 2017, which was slightly below the normative rate.
In the various areas, we have produced good results in areas where the tax rate of taxation is lower than the normative rates, particularly in France. Share profit of joint ventures and associates amounted to EUR 89 million, up very slightly on 2017. Despite Alstom's contribution, which was up substantially to EUR 73 million. That was in the first half year, of course, up from EUR 45 million for the same period in 2017. Same figure in the first quarter because, as you know, Alstom does not publish its results every quarter, only twice a year. Its half yearly and annual results. Unfortunately, this improved contribution from Alstom was partly offset by the lesser performance of the bitumen refining business that Colas has in Asia. The subsidiary of Colas' equity interest in this subsidiary was impacted by Venezuelan crude oil, which it uses to refine its bitumen.
Unfortunately, supplies were more difficult in the first quarter and of course, had a negative impact on the production of Tipco's bitumen, which of course, resulted in its performance being slightly down in the first quarter. Overall, net profit through to the group of EUR 260 million, up quite substantially on the comparable period 2017. The interesting line here is the last line. That is the net profit attributable to the group, excluding exceptional items, both for 2017 and 2018. Here you will see that to a lesser extent, this good momentum of our results is to be found here again. This is one of the elements that we gave guidance on for 2018. We are continuing to improve our overall profitability. A few words on the balance sheet now. Non-current assets up substantially, up by EUR 1.134 billion, EUR 239 million more in property, plant, and equipment.
This was mainly due to the investments made by Bouygues Telecom, which substantially increased its intangible assets, or tangible assets, I should say. The bulk of this increase was due to our two acquisitions, Miller McAsphalt, EUR 585 and Aufeminin for EUR 249 million. This is the two main components of this increase in goodwill. One technical point here, in the first half-year, as we did at the 31st of March and before attribution in September, the full price to be paid for Miller McAsphalt is, at this point in time, fully booked to goodwill. The full price. Now, that will not be the case when we publish our accounts in September because certain components of the price will be reallocated to other assets. Not so at the 30th of June. Technical point. However, this is a non-current assets were mainly impacted, as I said, by these two acquisitions.
Current assets now. Current assets were down EUR 205 million. Two big changes here. Current operating assets up by over EUR 2.1 billion and cash down by over EUR 2.3 billion. They are the two big changes. This was due to the seasonality of the Colas' business. These are quite substantial increases and decreases in terms of the actual amounts, but they are also very traditional due to the seasonality of Colas' business. One final point on the asset side of the balance sheet is the assets and operations held for sale. EUR 16 million outstanding. This is the remaining sites due to be transferred to Cellnex. On the liability side, shareholders equity down EUR 469 million. Here you have the main variations, which are customary at this point in time. Net profit plus EUR 312 million. The full dividend paid by Bouygues SA to its shareholders and by minorities, that's EUR 680 million paid.
Capital transactions, minus EUR 22. That is the net of the exercising of stock options in the first half-year, which led to a capital increase. On the other hand, share buybacks, the balance of the two being minus EUR 22 million. Income and expenses, minus EUR 13 million, and scope effect of those, minus EUR 65 million. Of this EUR 65 million, EUR 76 million were spent on buying out minority shareholders in Aufeminin, which was bought in 3 stages, shall we say. First of all, we bought over 78% of the share capital in Aufeminin from Axel Springer. Second stage was a public tender, which enabled TF1 to increase its stake in Aufeminin to slightly over 93%.
This will be followed up, is being followed, I should say now, by a certain number of transactions in the market to exceed the 95% mark in order to organize a compulsory buy-out by TF1 at the end of the year. The EUR 76 million in the decrease in the shareholders' equity covers the full buy-out of minority shareholders. This required that this debt to Aufeminin minority shareholders to be carried. Non-current liabilities was up EUR 942 million. This was mainly due to non-current debt, mainly at Colas, which amounted to EUR 1.1 billion. This comes in two parts, EUR 400 million debt increase due to the acquisition of Miller McAsphalt. The remainder being Colas' usual drawdown on its medium-term lines of credit or facilities to get over the usual decline in its cash position for seasonal reasons, and in particular, in North America.
On the other hand, to be complete, slightly over EUR 100 million, EUR 103 million, were reclassified. This is because we bought out the minority's 30% stake in Newen, Fabrice Larue and Associates. This liability was non-current up to now, but insofar as the deal was completed in July, this liability becomes a current liability. You have EUR 100 million that's been reclassified under non-current debt. This gives us a total debt of fractionally over EUR 5 billion, EUR 5.04 billion. Now look at the bridge to see how we got from EUR 3.1 billion at the end of the year to over EUR 5 billion at the end of June. This is mainly due to acquisitions, fractionally under EUR 1 billion overall. Miller, EUR 185 million. Aufeminin, EUR 292 million. These were the two big acquisitions. Other is the impact on cash of stock options exercised, share buybacks, EUR 607 million for dividends, which I've already explained, EUR 680 million rather.
Our operations, which used up EUR 1.46 billion in cash. That is standard, customary, and structurally normal at this point of year. Last year, this was higher by some EUR 400 million. If we take a closer look at this variation in working capital requirement, we see we have net cash flows up fractionally over EUR 100 million by comparison to same period last year. It's mainly Bouygues Telecom, which improved its net cash flow, and Bouygues SA, which also improved its net cash flow. On the one hand, thanks to the tax savings, because there was no longer a 2% tax on dividends. Substantial amount, nonetheless. Secondly, the decrease in financial expenses, which is a burden on Bouygues SA. We used up more cash because of acquisitions. This offsets, or compensates the increase in net cash flow. Nothing in particular.
This is all about timing and phasing of investments, but overall, CapEx for the year will be, as expected, around the EUR 1.6 billion mark net, which will be at a comparable level to 2017. The important point here is the change in operating working capital requirements, which is less than last year by some EUR 400 million. This is because in construction, we benefited from better terms of conditions of payment and better launches and startups on a certain number of major projects at Bouygues Construction and at Colas. This is the immediate impact of the good order intake in the first half year, but we've already commented that in the operational review. One, for CapEx, you have the breakdown, which I don't think requires any particular comments. We're definitely on course. One final point is the cash situation. Here again, not a lot to say.
We have a very high level of cash, with available cash of over EUR 8 billion. EUR 6 billion in medium-term facilities that have not been drawn down, confirmed, but not drawn down. A debt schedule, which is mainly in the form of long-term bonds. Well spread over time, as you can see, and no particular redemption peaks at any point in time. That's what I wanted to say to you about our accounts as of June 30th. Thank you for your attention.
Well, thank you, Philippe. By way of conclusion, let me just make a few comments. The outlook is confirmed. As we said, we should be able to continue improving profitability throughout the year. Number one, because both in France and internationally, we are in a positive buoyant environment. We will, of course, be selective, looking more at profitable projects than numbers. Current operating profit and current operating margin are expected to improve in 2018 compared to 2017. TF1 has confirmed its targets to improve profitability. This year, in 2018, we are expecting a higher current operating margin, leaving out, of course, major sporting events. In 2019, we are looking at double-digit current operating margin, and we expect the five free-to-air channels to account for about a third of consolidated sales. Annual average cost of programs should be down to EUR 969 million for the five unencrypted channels.
Regarding Bouygues Telecom, we are looking at still profitable growth. The target for free cash flow is EUR 300 million for 2019. In 2018, sales from services are expected to grow more than 3% compared to 2017, and the EBITDA margin should be higher than in 2017. Gross CapEx is expected to stand at about EUR 1.2 billion. This is a calendar of future events. We have next events. We will meet on 2nd October for Capital Markets Day for the construction business. This is only for analysts and investors, this half-day Capital Markets Day. We will propose to introduce with the executives of Bouygues Construction, Colas, and Bouygues Immobilier. We will be there presenting a strategy in these three business areas, our long-term outlook, looking at smart neighborhoods, smart cities, industrial projects for Colas, and indeed, innovation and digital transformation in the construction business.
If I may, a few words about what is known as our integrated report. We are publishing this for the first time today. This integrated report is an information communication tool for our partners, telling you about those projects where we propose to create value. We have about 50 pages to include the challenges, the projects, the strategies implemented, and of course, the results achieved. In this document, we believe this is a useful document. We present our societal, our social performance, our environmental as well as financial performance. This integrated report completes the other documents about the group and presents our long-term vision in a comprehensive way. This will make for a better dialogue with all stakeholders. I urge you to look it up. It has been available on our website since this morning, and this definitely, I hope at least, will be of interest.
Thank you so very much. Having completed this presentation, together with my aides, I will be happy to take your questions. This gentleman here. Well, one or the other.
Good morning. Jean-Baptiste Bouchet . I have a questions. Number one, regarding those items that have sort of cast a shadow on the performance of the construction business in H1. Is this behind us or are we expecting other negative effects? We have, in particular, the Bouygues Energies & Services contracts in the U.K. and Ireland. After the strikes, the railway strikes, can you still expect to have some form of compensation for I mean, how does it work if your projects were hampered by strikes? The third point about Tipco and Venezuelan oil, have you found other sources of supply? It is bitumen, not oil, or is it more complicated than that?
The second question, this time on bitumen in France. In July, in the trade press, there were reports of shortfalls, shortages rather, in certain parts of the country. Is everything back in order now or not? Regarding contracts with Bouygues Construction, Philippe Bonnave will tell you more. These things occasionally happen in the construction business. These contracts sometimes, well, there may be incidents. They're difficult to completely supervise. These are prototypes every time. I think that all the difficulties now have been fully identified and are well under control, so we're not expecting any untoward developments in the coming months. Regarding the railway strikes and, well, the SNCF, I'll make two comments. Number 1, well, the work that we could not complete because of the strikes will need to be completed. Basically, we've postponed completion, and they're still in our portfolio.
As you may know, there was a dramatic event in Italy, the collapse of the bridge. Needless to say, operators or owners of bridges will need to take steps to ensure that, of course. Such tragic events should not happen again, and that should ensure the safety of these bridges. Railway strikes are temporary events. We'll have to catch up. We'll make up for lost time. The tragedy in Italy will prompt all bridge owners. Well, you have highway operators, you have municipalities, central government, or here in France, the French railway services, SNCF, will need to take all this on board and take a hard look at the state of repair of all bridges, not just SNCF, EDF, the electricity grid as well.
In all, this business, such tragedies, well, I suppose one of the consequences will be that more work will need to be done, and that probably will mean more business for us. I don't know if Philippe wants to add anything. Regarding bitumen, we have a bitumen expert and the head of Colas. He'll tell you more.
Is that working? Okay. First of all, we have a long-term contract with PDVSA, which ships one boat every month. It's complicated as a rule, but more complicated than usual at the start of the year. We do have other solutions, but they are less competitive. As for what happened with bitumen, this was a twofold effect. First of all, very strong demand because the market is growing. There's, of course, the tons of coated bitumen that we were unable to produce in the winter because of the weather. Well, they had to be produced in the summer. Strong demand, sharp increase in demand, and at the same time, the railway strikes disrupted traffic. Refineries that had bitumen found themselves unable to ship it out. The impact on Colas was limited insofar as we were able to anticipate this.
In July, we recorded a record month over 2 million tons. This is an all-time record. It's about the equivalent of 120 tons of bitumen that we booked in May and June and is stocked in our plants for these works. I should remind you that since the acquisition of Miller McAsphalt, the Colas group has become a major player in bitumen. In fact, it's probably the biggest buyer of bitumen in the world. This gives us a very particular position because we are buyers, but we also have a lot of product to ship and to store. Bitumen is a particular type of product that has to be maintained at a certain temperature, failing which it solidifies. There's a gentleman here, and then over the other side.
Nicolas Cote-Colisson from HSBC. Let me begin with construction. You were talking about a buoyant environment.
How would you characterize the rest of the markets if you characterize non-recurring phase? I think at Bouygues Construction, the demand for housing has slowed. What are your anticipations for 2019? In telecoms, I see the ARPU is slowing by something over 2%. Could you give us further information on the impact of the price increases, the product mix, and so on that lead to this financial performance? Concerning the Grand Paris project and the market, Philippe Bonnave is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Bouygues Construction. As for the market as a whole, my assessment is that the market is experiencing strong momentum, particularly in the Paris region, the Île-de-France region, and particularly in offices. There are a lot of projects in the offing. Overall, as you've seen, there's a certain slowdown in housing, residential and social housing. This is largely offset by a greater volume of refurbishing.
Overall, in France, the market is still at a good level when you factor in these various components. Earlier on in the year, there was a pickup in industrial construction, particularly with productivity gains in industry, particularly with the installation of more and more robots, with assembly lines being optimized. Broadly speaking, the market is, shall we say, positive, buoyant. François Bertière, who is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Bouygues Immobilier, say a few words. As regards the housing market, 2017, with over 130,000 dwellings sold, the market peaked. Our feeling is that 2018 should stabilize at about 125,000, which is still well above the 20-year average, which is usually around, the average would be around 105,000. The market is slowing because of demand for the Pinel law housing offer. Housing permits or applications for housing permits have declined, particularly for individual homes, individual houses.
Apartments is up, but in cities, our experience is that cities are increasing. Less dense areas have individual homes. I think of various components that were not really affected by them. The ministry has just published the figures for the first half year, and the number of reservations in the first half year was up 0.8%. Our volume figure is minus 0.2%. We're very much in line with the market and expect to be stable in terms of reservations by comparison with last year. Richard Viel, add a few words to that. As for ARPU, you have to distinguish between the mobile, of whether the average revenue is stable, and in fixed, while the trend is fractionally downwards.
This is because of, first of all, the market is strong, as you can imagine, but over and beyond the strength of the market performance, there are a number of promotional drives on the 12-month plans. The upshot is that these 12-month plans have a temporary impact on ARPU, which then stabilizes after that 12-month period. Gentleman here.
Thomas Coudry from Garnier. I would like to come back to two things that were mentioned about Bouygues Telecom. First of all, in distribution, you mentioned the fact that certain offers would not be distributed in physical points of sale. I am just wondering when this will come into effect and what the impact would be in terms of volume and value. Particularly, if you could say a few words about the contribution of the B&YOU sales in physical points of sale. You are also rolling this out to the regions, I believe?
If you could say a few words. In addition to this, in less dense areas, how about high-density areas? Do you plan to increase your presence? My second question concerns mobile networks and 5G. What about the sharing contract with SFR in 5G? Will you be sharing the 5G operations around network? How do you plan to organize yourselves with SFR? Maybe Olivier Roussat would like to say a few words about that.
I am going to begin with your second question concerning the 5G. When we signed the shared rollout with SFR, we anticipated that there would be something after 4G. Yes, we knew there would be a 5G and thereafter if we agree, if we are still in agreement. When we venture into these areas with our shared networks, we will continue to share our network.
The reasons that led us to do this in 3G and 4G are still the same and still valid. The idea being to reduce costs. As for competitive distribution, or the way we manage our distribution channels, where we put B&YOU, how we sell B&YOU, the idea is very straightforward. When there is a fierce online battle, we separate our sales channels to ensure that the premium sales are sheltered, protected from these very aggressive online promotions. This is how we protect our basis. In the mobile market, bear in mind that there are very aggressive promotional drives, but the premium market is the one that is sold through stores. 50% of that volume is in store. We want to protect this premium market to ensure that it is not contaminated, shall we say, or polluted by these very aggressive promotional drives online.
When we look at the breakdown by channel, this is something that we do not do. There is no reason to tell you any more. Gentleman here.
Sorry. Three questions, please. Firstly, in terms of your leverage, can you comment whether you've got any appetite for further acquisitions in production? Also, I think you've previously guided on where you expect net debt to end up at the end of the year. Could you maybe. Then on the Telecom side, two questions. Could you comment a bit on the reception or the impact on churn from your new tariffs that they introduced this quarter? Finally, also in telecoms, you mentioned that you expect to end up with about 28,000 mobile sites in Q3. Could you maybe comment on what you think is the longer-term run rate for CapEx? Given you've got pretty clear plans on connecting them with fiber and availability. Thank you.
[Foreign language]. Philippe Marien will take that question, Olivier Roussat will take the others. Concerning external growth and acquisitions. Well, the general strategy we've been presenting for several months remains unchanged. The idea is that in construction, we want to strengthen when possible, when opportunities arise. For Colas, that will be mainly through a better coverage of the territory, stronger positions where we are with higher levels of activity, such as Miller McAsphalt in bitumen. The idea with Colas is always to make acquisitions that have coating, quarry storage, distribution capacities in addition to the actual works themselves. We don't buy just construction works. We are investing in the industrial side of the business. If opportunities arise, even big opportunities like Miller, we're quite prepared to look at them.
At Bouygues Construction, the strategy is, well, if opportunities arise, we will be for proposition in energy and services as we did with Alpiq. Again, nothing preventing us from strengthening our position, and we will look at all opportunities. Remember that acquisitions mean that we need to know what we're looking for, but also that targets become available. It depends on the opportunities. As for net debt, well, the guidance is net debt of EUR 4 billion at the end of the year. That includes EUR 1.8 billion in external growth for acquisitions that have virtually all been made already, with Miller McAsphalt, aufeminin, Alpiq, and A W Edwards in the case of Bouygues Construction. That's covering your first question. Will you-- Now that the translation is finished. Translation is instantaneous, you can proceed.
This brings me to your other questions. The level of churn caused by our new prices.
These new plans and offers are for new customers. They do not apply to the existing customer base, no real impact in terms of churn. These new offers are doing rather well. They did rather well in Q2. Secondly, the number of sites. 28,000 by 2023. There's only so much territory to cover in France. We'll be putting sites in a lot of places where there were none before. What will remain to be done after that, well, this will be in high-density areas, and of course, the increase will be much smaller. We're putting an additional 2,000 sites in. We're seriously covering the high-density areas already, this is bordering on what we call the asymptote. In terms of CapEx guidance, well, for 2019, the guidance is fractionally below the EUR 1 billion mark. Thank you.
Nicolas Didio from Berenberg.
I have two questions, one at group level and one concerning Bouygues Telecom. Could you give us the upper limit that you would put on your debt? I think your rating has been confirmed by S&P, but what are the limits you're prepared to go to to protect your rating and to protect your gain? The second question concerns the buyer of Bouygues Telecom minority shareholders. Could you repeat that? Minority shareholders at Bouygues Telecom. Oh, no. Did somebody tell you they wanted to sell? Concerning the group's financial structure, we are guided by the rating agencies. The gearing is fine at a low level, but really the acid test is the rating. This is, of course, mainly dependent upon EBITDA of debt. Of course, that would depend on the ability of the target to generate EBITDA. There is no magic figure.
There is, however, a magic rating, or let's say a rating we intend to remain a strong investment grade. BBB+ is our guiding light. The lower limit, barring something very unexpected or very unanticipated in the prospects, it's BBB+. This is our acid test, shall we say, for all our investments. From Val Garnier, two questions. One on Colas. I don't think you've mentioned this. Could you give us the figure for the impact of the railway strike on Colas and the impact in Q2? Second question concerns real estate development. Could you tell us about the level of stock at hard stock at Bouygues Immobilier? Hervé Le Bouc will answer the question concerning Colas.
No, we can't quantify the consequences of the railway strike on our business because it concerned freight, construction, maintenance work that should have been carried out during the strike and that will still have to be carried out. We can't put a figure on that. Very often with this type of situation, we have compensation, or we receive compensation. Bouygues Immobilier. Well, in real estate development or project development, we only build when the level of pre-sales is very high. At the end of June, we had 177 properties unsold, which is equivalent to three or four days marketing. We always keep it at a very low level.
Hello. I'm Frédéric Boulan from Bank of America. My first question concerns telecommunication. There was a previous question on ARPU, average revenue per user, and the customer base.
Very often we get offers from Bouygues Telecom or your colleagues for 20 or 30 gigs between EUR 5 and EUR 10 a month. How well do you think you can defend your premium customer base? Isn't there a risk with repricing, such as what's happening at SFR at the moment? My second question concerns the structure of the French market. This is for you, Mr. Bouygues. Two of your competitors find themselves in financial difficulties, or certainly in greater difficulty than in the past. Do you believe that your financial structure is sustainable? What catalysts for change have you seen?
Let me answer your second question first, then Richard Viel will answer the previous one. Concerning the market structure, you will agree that I haven't been the locomotive. I haven't insisted for the increase from three to four operators. I felt that this would be a source of problems.
It wasn't very difficult to anticipate. We made huge efforts to adapt to the situation. As you know, we suffered a lot. Our employees in Bouygues Telecom and in Bouygues in general were all affected. I think we can be, say, satisfied with what we've achieved. We focus our financial resources and reserves, we focus them on investments in Bouygues Telecom in France, period. That cost us, but it was a major strategic orientation, a major strategic decision. We worked on our costs, and we restructured our commercial offerings. I believe this has all produced good results, even very good results. Now, as for whether the market will continue to be operated by four players, I'm not a clairvoyant. I don't know. In the spring, last spring, I think it's public knowledge that I initiated discussions.
This is a particular moment in time because ARCEP has put out a call for tenders to re-farm out frequencies. During what we call these windows, these calls for tenders, we are obliged to refrain from discussions between operators. Now, that's going to continue being the case until early 2019, and between now and then, nothing is going to happen, no matter what else. After that, we'll see. I feel that we are in a position that's currently satisfactory. Thereafter, well, we'll try and keep an open mind. We'll see. I can't anticipate the future. As for the first part of your question, Richard Viel will answer that. Your question concerning all these, is there any danger of a collapse in the real estate market? I don't think so because the mobile market, contrary to common wisdom, is highly segmented.
Some people want low prices, want independence, don't want to have any commitment. They're only interested in price. There's a whole category of clients who want after-sales service, customized service. They want to be able to be called back at particular times of day. There's a lot of alchemy here, and it's the good control of this alchemy that keeps our balance. On the one hand, we are increasing value, but we're reinforcing volume. This is an economic equation that requires further sales. It's a combination of volume in price-sensitive segments, in premium segments, with the attendant revenue because of the increase in the customer base, too. It's possible to do all this. It's a little bit of alchemy, but when you look at ARPU, you see that it's stable in ARPU. ARPU is stable in mobile, I should say, which is a good sign in itself.
Other questions? No? In that case, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for attending.