Morning, everyone. Let us start this presentation of the half-year results. We'll do this with Pascal Grangé, then we will have a discussion with all the heads of divisions that have come here for the occasion. Let us start with the main figures for the H1 of the year. Revenues stood at EUR 26.1 billion, a 41% increase, reflecting the acquisitio n of Equans in October. At the beginning of the year, we didn't have Equans. On a like-for-like and constant exchange rate basis, the actual increase is only 3%. COPA stands at EUR 214 million, at EUR 727 million. Net income attributable to the group stands at EUR 225 million, up to EUR 78 million.
We'll put some details on the net debt. Net debt grew from EUR 3.7 billion to EUR 10.6 billion. Well, if you restate this for the acquisition of Equans that took place last October, so restating it, and also plus the amount paid to Free Mobile, I'll get back to that, and the buyback of our own treasury shares, the net debt would have been actually better. The reason I said I would mention this thing with mobile is that we challenged both the amount and the immediate execution of that amount. As we do every time, because of the seasonality of some of the businesses, in particular, Colas, the performance for H1 are not representative of the annual performance.
Let's move on to the highlight s of this half year for the group. On this slide, you can see that we celebrated 60 years of the Minorange Guilds. Creation that. It was created to celebrate the best workers, with the values of the group, the notions of respect, exemplarity, love of the, of a job well done, availability, belonging, team, teamship, teamwork, and belonging to a company with building the, the, the future. The guild members, there are about 600 around the world involved in the building of complex works, and there are 16 guilds right now, bringing together 1,500 members around the world. You have the Energies Guild and, Jérôme, you're supposed to... You should come down to the front row.
You can do this, nobody will notice. As I was saying, guild members, well, Energy Guild members, especially those within Equans, working for Jérôme, who's just joined us. Another point here, employee shareholdership. We've completed the twelfth operation of shareholdership reserved to employees, Bouygues Confiance. These are employees in the French subsidiaries of the group, including those of Equans, this was greatly oversubscribed, which displays the attachment of the, the commitment of our employees. This has brought about the creation of 6.8 new shares, but the dilution was fully compensated because precisely with this in mind, the group bought back and canceled shares in 2022. In...
Employee shareholdership accounts for 23.9% of the capital stock, compared with 21.3% at 31 December last year. This confirms Bouygues' position as the first company in CAC 40 in terms of employee shareholdership. We have two representatives of shareholding employees on the board, plus the two staff representatives, which is statutory. A few words about Viva Technology. Viva Technology is a technical, technological show. We showed a number of innovations and agreements with startup companies, in particular, to reduce the carbon footprint of the building industry. With Colas, we have a tool to analyze roads, and all the data collected by our vehicles make it possible to use materials that can be reused or recycled.
Bouygues Construction developed a platform that can recycle some items such as false ceilings, doors, and such like. We had a solution for energy consumption. Equans presented this. We can store thermal energy in aquifers. It's called ATES. That makes for a greener air conditioning. For storage of electrical energy, Bouygues Construction showed batteries for construction sites that are charged up at night, so as to make them available during the day and using less expensive energy. Smart charging by Equans is a software that enables buses to be charged optimistically to optimize energy consumption. Bouygues Telecom has brought about new innovations related to 5G. We have tele-rehabilitation, distance rehabilitation by Apizee.
That is for patients that need rehabilitation. We have an autonomous droid delivery system presented by and built by TwinswHeel. We have the box Wi-Fi 6 for Bouygues Telecom, and a 4K Bbox, and a 5G box. These are new innovations that give us an opportunity to rub shoulders with startup companies, and then offer new services and products to our customers and understand new trends and areas where we should try and make headway. Let's move on to the operational review with the backlog. The order book for the construction business, it stands at EUR 30.8 billion, which gives us good visibility on future business.
If you look at this in detail, that backlog, starting with Bouygues Construction, where orders were taken to the tune up 68%, with many significant contracts, especially overseas. There, there's also good legacy business. That is the businesses where. Of course, individual contracts are lower, but Bouygues Construction was chosen to extend a metro line in Hong Kong. This is one of the territories where we've been working on a recurring basis to the tune of EUR 470 million. We were also chosen to build two data centers in Australia for EUR 350 million. There's another country where we've, we've made headway with the Riviera Tower, a 200 meter tall tower, EUR 200 million contract.
The new deals which occurred in Q1, and in particular in Q1, we signed the Abidjan metro contract for EUR 770 million. At EUR 15.4 billion, the order book is up EUR 1.6 billion, up 12%. This is mostly driven by the building business, Bâtiments International, where the order book is up 29%, and also, although less so, by public works, where orders are up 7%. In the property business, Bouygues Immobilier is facing a challenging market. This has been going on for several quarters running. The backlog there is down EUR 400 million, -21%, standing at EUR 1.4 billion. Colas. Colas, its backlog is up...
Well, the order, the order taking is up 12% compared to H1 2022. Significant contract in rail, but also roads, with the renovation of a road in the U.S., the Interstate 26, for about EUR 110 million, and then a number of major projects driven by Colas Rail. In particular, the modification of lines in the London Tube, EUR 250 million. The backlog is up 9% at EUR 14.1 billion, with orders in road up 5% and rail up 21%. Let's look at the revenue and COPA.
Revenue from the construction business stands at EUR 12.2 billion, up 3%, of which 4% on a like-for-like and constant exchange rate basis, thanks to Colas and Bouygues Construction. Remember that Bouygues Immobilier is unfortunately off. Revenue for Bouygues Construction is up 5% because of the international businesses. The revenue of Bouygues Immobilier, including the share of co-development, is down 12%. We zoomed in on this, on co-development, we do this with well, other developers to share the risk. This is a portion of the business that uses Bouygues Immobilier's resources. Without that, without co-development, revenue would have been down 14% and not 12%. Colas' revenue is up 4%, 6% on a like-for-like and constant exchange rate basis.
It's driven by two main businesses, namely road, mostly in EMEA areas, but also Canada and a lot in the United States. Rail, as I said, that order book is growing fast. COPA now, that is Current Operating Profit from Activities, is down EUR 7 million. Now, you have to remember what I said, this is a seasonal business. This is not representative of annual performance, because Colas, of course, has a slow business in the winter months, so this is not a reflection of the expected performance for the year. COPA in Bouygues Construction is slightly down over one year, EUR 120 million, and the COPA margin is 2.5%, but this is related to the non-linear rhythm pace of construction projects.
This, again, is not representative of the expected performance. As business is down in the property business, Bouygues Immobilier's COPA with co-development stands at EUR 15 million. If you look at COPA without including that, we were able to contain the drop in COPA. Finally, Colas' COPA stands at -EUR 127 million, down EUR 29 million over one year. There are positive effects due to the measures taken, which we showed after the high H1 results in 2021. Let's move on to Equans. This has been consolidated since Q4 2022. We have the integration, therefore, of Equans, but we changed the scope of Equans because since January of this year-
We've also integrated Bouygues Energies & Services' business, the comparisons with H1 2022, of course, are irrelevant because, well, back then, Equans was not in our books in the H1 of 2022. In line with what we announced at Capital Markets Day with Jérôme and Etienne Jacolin, our strategy is to go for profitability rather than volume. We're very selective in our contracts. We have an order book of EUR 26.4 billion at the end June 2023, up 2% compared to December 2022, giving us good visibility on future business. This is a buoyant context. We have dynamic order taking, EUR 9.5 billion, 38% in France, 62% abroad. We have data centers, in particular, built in Germany and the UK.
One item we've been monitoring is what you call the underlying, the underlying margin of the order book, which is estimated in such a way that we can ensure good performance in the end. Equans' revenue stood at EUR 9.1 billion in H1 2023, EUR 3.1 billion in France, EUR 6 billion abroad. Again, this is a very positive momentum around the world. COPA stood at EUR 243 million, so that's 2.7% profit margin. From activities, that margin has improved compared to Q1 2023. That reflects, of course, the seasonality of the business, but also efforts of the PERFORM, as part of the PERFORM plan conducted by Jérôme, which is bearing fruit.
As regards Equans, we confirmed the outlook for 2023. Equans in 2023 enjoyed a slight growth in revenue because of a selective choice of deals, of contracts. Our current COPA was expected to be anywhere between 2.5% and 3%, the conversion of current operating profit, COPA, to cash flow before the WCRs is estimated anywhere between 80% and 100%. TF1, Rodolphe gave you the presentation yesterday. TF1 confirmed its agility in managing its programming costs, while confirming its leadership in ratings on commercial targets, while cutting costs on operations, the performance is good. As expected, revenue is down in H1, was down in H1 at TF1.
On a like-for-like basis, it was down 9%. The media arm was hit by a scope effect because we disposed of Unify last year. On a constant basis, it was down 6%. The advertising revenue reflected lower investment by advertisers in... Well, in the context of the retail business has suffered headwinds, so we are down 5% on a like-for-like basis and constant exchange rates in Q2 2023, so less of a drop than in Q1. There's also a decline in revenue at Newen Studios, down 16% because of cyclicality of the delivery of program, but also the termination of the Salto business.
COPA margin on H1 stood at 14.7%, so we caught up with some of the slowdown in Q1, and that is because of the good performance of the media business. The COPA margin for that stood at 21.6% in Q2, up 0.4 percentage points compared to Q2 2022. We should note the sound cash generation of TF1, including free cash flow after WCR, at EUR 151 million-EUR 155 million, up EUR 34 million compared to H1 2022. Finally, the outlook for TF1. The outlook is maintained. New, different outlooks for different businesses.
On the media area, we should be able to go back to 2022 levels in H2, and that will be, of course, partly due to the broadcasting of the Rugby World Cup in September. There's been a recent announcement of the resumption of the iconic series, Plus Belle La Vie, but that will be broadcast on TF1, and they will be streaming on the MYTF1 platform, and that is a clear illustration of the channel's strategy to move towards a digital transition under Rodolphe. TF1 will consolidate its leadership in 2023 with a COPA margin close to that of 2022, and TF1 as a group will still generate sufficient cash to have stable or even growing dividends over the next few years.
We will continue with Bouygues Telecom. A few Good news, we, Bouygues Telecom is number 1 on Wi-Fi for the 4th year running. This rating is conducted by nPerf, and for the first time, we are number 1 on the fixed business on all technologies, and that will enable Bouygues Telecom to be just not number 1 on the, on Wi-Fi, but also on the fixed-line business. You should also know that some of our competitors advertise last year's rating, and we remind them that this is 2023. They better use the figures from 2022 rather than 2023. You can imagine that those who are announcing their performance did better last year than this year.
The second interesting information about the fiber technology is that Bouygues Telecom is investing to give more comfort to the clients. We've invested in the XGS-PON technology, thanks to which we can have a better throughput, four times faster, so that we can reach up to 8GB . This technology is available today in Paris, and progressively, it's going to be deployed in the other major cities. The commercial momentum is continuing for Bouygues Telecom, as you can see on the right-hand side. At the end of June, the operator had 15.3 million customers with a mobile plan. This means up 109,000 customers during the H1 year, including 82,000 during the second quarter, which is a good performance given the market today.
The momentum was continued as well in FTTH, with a gain of 270,000 new fiber customers, including 122,000 during Q2. The fiber to the home clients, FTTH clients, reach a total of 3.3 million. They represent 69% of the fixed installed base, to be compared to 58% a year ago. That's what you can see on the bottom right-hand side. The customer base now has posted a good performance. We have 4.8 million customers. That is up 86,000 customers for this H1, including 40,000 for Q2. The performance of fiber is to be explained thanks to the deployment of FTTH.
Bouygues Telecom has already commercialized 32 million FTTH premises and is about to reach its objective, which is 35 million FTTH premises for the end of 2026, when we presented the Capital Markets Day two years ago for Bouygues Telecom. The key figures now for Bouygues Telecom. The good commercial momentum goes together with an increase in value, a growth in value, which is still our strategy. We want volume and growth simultaneously. At the end of June, sales billed to customers was up 6%, and that's thanks to a solid customer base and a growing customer base and an increase in ABPU. In ABPU, that is the amount that's charged or billed to the customers. For mobile lines, ABPU is going up EUR 0.30 for the year to reach EUR 19.7.
In fixed lines, ABPU is up EUR 1.8 year-on-year to reach EUR 30.5. The services sales during the H1 of 2023 is at EUR 2.9 billion, therefore up 4% year-on-year. This is still penalized by the incoming sales due to the drop in the incoming uses that we can charge or bill, but this has no impact on EBITDA after leases. Overall, sales is up 5% during the period and benefited from the other sales, which is driven by the works sales. EBITDA after leases was up 12% year-on-year, thanks to a growing sales and thanks to a good monitoring of our costs at Bouygues Telecom. The EBITDA after lease margin is improving to reach 31.5% nowadays, therefore up 2.1 points in a year.
I'd like to draw your attention to the fact that during Q4 2022, we re-qualified or restated for the full year, that is 2022, the annual fixed fees, that is frequency bands 900 megahertz and 1,800 megahertz. That means we are now aligned on the three main competitors. The effect was a positive effect of EUR 23 million on EBITDA after leases during Q4. The growth rate for EBITDA after leases for Q1, Q2, and Q3 2023, all things being equal, benefited mechanically of this re-qualification, and this effect will be offset as of Q4, which will be a good basis for comparison. COPA was up EUR 57 million to reach EUR 366 million. Operating profit was up as well in the same amount.
Gross capital expenditure, excluding frequencies, that reached EUR 857 million, which is the level we had in 2022. Now, what about the outlooks for Bouygues Telecom? Well, the outlook has not changed. Bouygues Telecom for 2023 foresees an increase in sales, sales billed to customers, and also EBITDA after leases nearing EUR 1.9 billion and gross capital expenditure, excluding frequencies, at approximately EUR 1.5 billion. We will now continue with more figures with Pascal Grangé.
(Foreign Language )Thank you, Olivier. A few additional details on the accounts at 30 June. Regarding the income statement on page 26, it is... Well, you have had details about revenue and COPA that was already presented. We have PPA depreciation at Colas TF1 and Bouygues Telecom. We also recognized a PPA depreciation of EUR 26 million for Equans in H1, in line with the forecast we announced at Capital Markets Day. We announced EUR 50 million for the year as a whole. Non-current, that is non-representative of a business, stand at -EUR 80 million in H1 2023, compared with -EUR 44 million in H1 2022. Bouygues Construction recognized a non-current charge of EUR 46 million.
This is related to a dispute in Singapore for a building delivered in 1997, change in regulations in a country where it is present. Equans recorded EUR 19 million in non-current charges because of the implementation in Q2 of the management incentive plans we announced at Capital Markets Day, plus legal fees as part of our disposal plans. TF1 also noted recognized EUR 19 million in non-current charges. This is related to the optimization of the property, of the plants and property, the strengthening of the career plan for our employees, and the acceleration of the digital transition.
These non-current items for TF1 are related to the implementation of an optimization plan to reach EUR 40 million in savings in operating expenses starting in 2025, EUR 10 million or EUR 15 million of which will be reinvested in the acceleration of the digital transition. Net financial debt is up EUR 76 million. This is related to interest expenditures related to the acquisition of Equans. Regarding the income statement, the bottom line also includes a EUR 155 million tax charge, compared with EUR 103 million in H1 2022. We have an effective tax rate of 39%, compared with 30% in H1 2022.
This higher rate is related to deficits, tax deficits abroad, which do not give rise to the recognition of deferred tax assets. The share of the net income of companies on an equity basis is up EUR 54 million because of the of Tipco's contribution and the stop of losses at Salto. As a result, the net profit attributable to the group stood at EUR 2,225 million, up EUR 78 million compared to last year. As you can see on page 27, net debt at June 30, 2023 stood at EUR 10.6 billion, compared with EUR 7.4 billion at December 31, 2022.
This EUR 3.1 billion increase is related to the usual seasonality of our business. It also includes the paying of EUR 310 million to Free Mobile on 16th May, including EUR 308 million, plus interest as part of our dispute on smartphones and mobile contracts. Let me remind you that we strongly challenge both the ruling and the validity of its immediate execution. It should be noted that variation in capital, in working capital requirements related to business and others is up EUR 209 million, reflecting the efforts made by all businesses. The ratings remain strong: A- negative outlook for Standard & Poor's, and A3 stable outlook for Moody's.
In the following pages, let us look at the changes in net debt in 2023. On page 28, the change in net debt on H1 2023 is not to be compared with H1 2022 because H1 2022 had a positive impact related to the fair value variation of pre-hedging swaps introduced as part of the financing of the Equans acquisition. The good news this year is the positive improvement in WCR changes and the others businesses standing at EUR 291 million. The changes compared with December 31st, 2022, as follows: includes net acquisitions and disposal, -EUR 62 million for acquisitions and disposal of Colas, Equans, and the buyback of shares at TF1. The capital increase for employees, +EUR 150 million.
The buyback of shares and the liquidity contract, minus EUR 29 million. The variations of residual swaps, not including taxes on completed swap operations, minus EUR 44 million. Dividends, EUR 741 million. The EUR 310 million paid out to Free Mobile, and operations standing at minus EUR 2.1 million. I'll get back into the details now. Let us start off with the net cash flows standing, not including the taxes on net to date on completed swaps, including the payback of these obligations, stood at EUR 1.2 billion, up EUR 138 million compared to H1 2022. CapEx, net CapEx, not including frequencies, stood at EUR 1.1 billion, up EUR 67 million over the year.
That change reflects mostly the integration of Equans. Variation WCR related to others and business and various businesses was marked by the usual seasonality, but the change is -EUR 2.1 billion compared to -EUR 2.4 billion in H1 2022. This is an improvement of EUR 291 million. This completes this presentation. Thank you for your attention. Well, we will conclude with the outlook. Well, that's pretty straightforward. We confirm the outlook. Revenue close to that of 2022. Improvement in COPA, Current Operating Profit from Activities, that is based on the 2022 pro forma, integrating Equans as if the acquisition had taken place on January 1st, 2022. Let's move on to the Q&A. We'll have 2 parts to that.
First, we'll take questions in the room, and then there will be questions online. We will, of course, take these questions as well with the representatives of all the businesses of the group. Don't speak all at once. There will be a chance for all of you to speak. Holidays are coming. Maybe the presentation was too clear and called for no questions, which is good news. It means that we are communicating better and better. (crosstalk) We can take questions online. Press star and one if you wish to put questions in French. The first questions comes from HSBC, Nicolas Côté-Colisson.
Hello, I have lots of questions, starting with Equans. Have you noted a change in the commercial attitude of your competitors since you took over to Equans? Do they manage to retain their customers, or are they losing them out to you? I realize that this question applies to many of your competitors. Second question about WCR. If you add the figures for H1 2023 compared to 2022, there's a significant improvement of almost EUR 600 million, not including Equans. If you have details about the way in which you were able to achieve that EUR 600 million gain, not including Equans, can you drive, draw consequences for the rest of the year? I realize there's seasonality from one half year to the next, but can you expect seasonality at Equans as well?
Last year in H2, there was a EUR 400 million gain on WCR. Final question on telecoms. On the price environment, the average ABPU is up in the fixed line business, much less so in the mobile business. Can you comment on your ability to raise prices in one but less so in the other? I'm turning to Jérôme on the attitude of our competitors. We were seen as being the company offering lower prices beforehand.
Well, yes. We are in a position to raise our prices inasmuch as our competitors seem to be ahead of us in terms of profitability. This makes it easier for us to gain on profit margins. We're not losing out on market shares. In fact, we're gaining market shares.
It should be pointed out that the fact that we've joined Bouygues has stabilized our customers, the Equans customer base, and so this makes for better orders. Looking at our competitors, the fact that we are going for profitability rather than volume, this is good news for the industry because it means that rates are going up, and so they are not bringing them down on their side. Regarding seasonality, we are in line with the plan announced on the thirtieth of June. On WCR? Well, this may be disappointing. You know that for many years, WCR has been going up and down. In the construction business, WCR is not a relevant indicator because it is subject to significant fluctuations.
It was unfortunate last year. It is more fortunate. It's happier this year. Nonetheless, this is not a reflection of what will happen by year's end. What really counts is not so much variation WCR, but rather the efforts made by all our teams on the ground to make sure that bills should be collected on quickly, and once. Well, first, bills should be drawn up and then collected on. Then, of course, that a contract should include good payment clauses. There are no lessons to be drawn from H1, except, of course, we're happy that the situation is better now than last year. We're continuing these efforts in all parts of the group precisely to optimize WCR by year's end, as we do every year.
That is why we do not give guidance on this indicator, because it fluctuates too much based on our contracts in various businesses. The question about rates. On the fixed line business, we were the least expensive operator. We're gaining ground here, but we're also gaining on prices in the mobile business. The price environment of the market, says Benoit, is such that now, we are facing less promotions than last year, both in the fixed and the mobile business, which is, of course, it's a positive factor because we have a stabilization of prices. Regarding the different movements in mobile and fixed businesses, it should be pointed out that Bouygues Telecom has two features, in both in...
Well, we have the lowest install capacity, and so new customers that join us represent, of course, a larger portion, and so they have a 1-year contract.
... sort of, promotion deal, and then the prices go up. The transition from year 1 to year 2 is felt stronger at Bouygues Telecom than our competitors because the share of new customers is bigger. It's true that we had a lower ABPU on the fixed line business than our competitors. We are catching up on that compared to the rest of the fixed line business, which is not the case for mobile. Okay, next question.
Thank you very much. Jacques Sequentini from Investir. The floor is yours.
Hello. Well, I wanted to talk about the dispute with Free, EUR 310 million. This is, for the time being, an exception, an exceptional item. It's probably part of what you can pay overall. What's the total risk, please?
Well, no, no. No, no.
This is a huge amount. This is something for which we're going to the courts, so no, no, no. This is okay. That's the amount.
You shouldn't go too far. Okay.
You've paid them. You've paid the money, now you have to get the money back. Yes, yes, that's why we told you twice, I told you, Pascal told you, that we contest the ruling and also the provisional execution of this decision. When we reach appeals, we will get back a big part of this sum. Thank you.
Thank you. Mr. Mathieu Robilliard from Barclays, the floor is yours.
Hello, thank you for this presentation. That was very clear. However, I have a couple of questions to ask. I have a question about construction. You have signed many contracts during Q2.
I wanted to know the decisions you made between volumes and the return, the profit level you gain on these contracts. Second question on Colas. Your rail performance is really good. Several years ago, you had slightly pulled out from some rail activities that were not profitable enough. My question is to know if you've changed your vision or if these contracts, however, are still profitable and the risk level is not too high. The third question has to do with the telecom business. Well, of course, there are promotional offers that are less aggressive than a year ago, yet I have the impression that during Q2, there was a slight deterioration. Bouygues new, for instance, with a EUR 10 offering with 40 gigabits, that's quite aggressive. I wanted to know more about this. Can you give us more color on that?
Also, what can you say about a deterioration on the side of the competitors, and can you tell us more about the beginning of Q3? I'll answer this quickly.
Well, we didn't want to say we want volumes and not margins at Bouygues Construction because the COPA objective in 2023 is quite close to the one we had in 2022. Then, if we look at the activities that were discontinued at Colas Rail, it wasn't the project activities. These were activities that had to do with transportation when Colas Rail was a rail operator for freight, and this is something that we discontinued in 2018 or 2019.
Today, the Colas Rail's business is a project-based activity to develop, for instance, Edmonton and the route around Edmonton, and the two contracts that Frederic won in the Philippines for an overhead metro line. There's maintenance activities. We signed off a UK maintenance contract with a good profit, good margin, that we signed off at the beginning of the year. The telecom activities. Are we really lowering prices in the mobile business? I think that's your question. We'll answer that. Well, if you look at the mobile market, today, the situation is much more favorable in terms of promotional offers than a year ago, but we have to segment our approaches.
If you look at the mobile offerings that we have, that is in the digital world, what we sell on the web, that's where there are more promotions. We have different segments, different customers. The digital offers today that have quite a lot of data package, 100 GB or more, are at EUR 16. A year ago, they were at EUR 10, so there's a big gap between 16 and 10. Then sometimes you have less data offerings, and of course, the prices are lower. It's EUR 10, but then it's different user profiles or categories. We create value for consumers that use a lot of data, and we have price competition, but the prices have remained stable. Thank you.
Can I ask another question about telecom?
We've seen an improvement in ABPU, and if you look at Q3 and Q4, would you say that there will be an acceleration in these improvements for fixed lines? You were saying EUR 7 on the back book, and this is not going to have an impact on all of the subscribers. This is not yet factored in in all of your contracts. What about the rest of the year? Is there some type of ramp-up to expect? Well, I'm not going to give you too much information because I don't want the competitors to know what we're going to do with our installed base, and flows, and pricing for Q3 and Q4. You'll have to attend the February meeting so that you know what we've done during the H2 of 2023. Thank you very much.
Thank you, sir. Now we'll go to the English-speaking.
We'll take our next question from Jakob Bluestone from BNP Paribas. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I've got 2, please. Firstly, on Equans. I guess this is, we're sort of gradually getting the first quarterly disclosures for the business. I was hoping if you could help us understand the intra-year phasing for revenues and profits for the business. I mean, Q2 revenues were up sort of EUR 350 million versus Q1. Your operating profit was about 50% higher in Q2. Can you maybe just help us understand what is sort of the, the lower earnings quarters, and which are the higher earnings quarters, and what is it that drives the seasonality of that business? Is it just people want more air conditioning in the summer, and that's why you have high, high revenues in the summer? How exactly does that seasonality actually work for that business?
Just secondly, on the telco business, you've reiterated the EUR 1.9 billion of EBITDA after leases for Bouygues Telecom, which is about 9% growth. You did 12% in the H1. If you maintained that, even if you adjust for the EUR 23 million spectrum fee, you would end up closer to EUR 2 billion of EBITDA than EUR 1.9 billion. I guess my question is: Is the guidance for telecom's EBITDA conservative, or are there some headwinds, some other headwinds other than the sort of Q4 spectrum comp effect, that we need to be aware of? Thank you.
We will start with the answer from Benoit. We'll let time to give some time to Jérôme to prepare the first answer. Please, Benoit, your expectations.
For EBITDA between the two halves of the year, as Olivier said in his introduction, I'll describe this again. If you compare the H1, 2022, with the H1, 2023, then if you take the data to compare the H2, please remember that at the end of last year, we restated the cost of our frequencies, this was a burden on EBITDA. Now they're in the CapEx line, we do what the other operators do, therefore, there's this base effect to take into account. The H1 last year, in 2022, the frequency costs were still in the EBITDA line. It's no longer the case on the H1 of this year. That's a positive effect. Conversely, during the H2, the two second halves are equivalent in terms of the restatement of frequencies.
That's a base effect to take into account to look at the changes in EBITDA from one half to the other half. Therefore, our guidance is EUR 1.9 billion for EBITDA. The fourth quarter can be compared. Yes, the fourth quarter can be really compared on a like-for-like basis. Jérôme, now you have time to answer the question. That's true, there's a seasonality effect on our business in our books, and as I said earlier on, we're in line during the H1. There's a seasonality effect, which is such that we expect an overall improvement for the year.
If I could maybe just follow up on the, the second point. I guess my question was just in the way that Colas, for example, has very low profitability in the winter and then high in the summer, is there a similar seasonal pattern within Equans, where some periods are lower earnings and some are high, or is it just sort of more steady throughout the year?
Well, there's part of outdoor works, and, this is, of course, subject to seasonality, seasonality of outdoor works, to a lesser extent, if we compare this with the Colas group. There's a very effect. Thank you very much.
We'll take our next question from Nick Lyall from Société Générale. Your line is open. Please go ahead.
Morning, everybody. Could I ask two questions, please? Firstly, on the broadband subscriber growth, it seemed a little bit slower this quarter and also last quarter. Could, could you comment on that, please? Is this just seasonality, or do you think the market's slowing a little bit, which was suggested by one of your competitors? Secondly, on the debt, your bonds are pretty long term, but there's quite a lot of bank and syndicated loan debt coming up. What sort of coupons are you paying on the bank and the loan debt? Could you give us a bit of a handle on your expectations on interest costs, please? Thanks very much.
Merci. Benoit?
Yeah. Regarding volumes, in the market, what we find, and we will see it in ARCEP's numbers, the volumes, both for fixed and mobile, is lower than last year and the previous years. There are two things. On the mobile business, the higher rates have or may have stabilized the market in terms of overall volume. We were at both in Q1 and Q2, you have this stabilization. Still, it's pretty good. On the fixed business, volume is a bit lower than in previous years. This is to do with rates, but also because we passed the, the, the high growth peak, both in fixed line and the fiber business during the COVID years.
We're back to more reasonable numbers. Compared to last year, yes, there's some decline on the very high speed and the fixed line businesses. Thank you. Pascal?
... and oops. Regarding the Bouygues' debt, and in particular, the bonds, we are well covered, well hedged for rates, the interest rates, because the maturity is. Average maturity is 9 years. Over 9 years, the coupon we've been paying on average is three point what, what? 3.15%. The average economic price, taking into account the hedging, is less than 2%. Thank you. What's the next question?
In the syndicated loans, in particular, there's, there's no risk on the very short-term debt. I realize your bond debt is very long-dated, but on the bank loan and the syndicated loans, there's no risk there in terms of interest rates or refinancing rates, is there?
No, there's not much of a concern because the average maturity, again, is about nine years, and the longest are 20 years. The timetable is well distributed over the next 20 years, so there's no immediate risk of a sudden increase in interest rates. Should that happen, this would not have a major effect on our income statement. Thank you. The next question, come Madame Abdoli from- Hello, I have three questions. Molly Widdowson from Citi. Yes, thank you. I have first a question on Colas. You said that the older book, the backlog, was up 11% on a like-for-like basis, but can you help us understand just how much of that is due to inflation and how much is due to actual volumes? The same question for Equans, but on revenue.
Frédéric will give us the beginning of an answer there. If you look at volume rather than unit prices, it's difficult to give you a big breakdown between the share of inflation and volume. Inflation will account for 5%, and the balance is basically more sales. Jérôme, we looked at our growth. When you leave out inflation, you still have a residual, significant residual growth in our numbers. May I also point something out about Equans? I believe you said that your performance plan would be, what? EUR 20 million per quarter, but I find that you stood at about EUR 8 million. Is that because the margins were below expectation, or is there something else going on?
Pascal will spell it out. The central scenario is about EUR 60 million a year, but the implementation of the plan should be gradual over the years. In H1, you really have less than what you would normally get in a quarter. We're not disappointed in the performance. We are in line with expectations. Yes, Equans' integration is going well. The PERFORM plan that was devised by Jérôme and his teams is being rolled out, including with the inclusion of WIG Energie and CEV BYES into Equans in H1, and things are going exactly according to plan.
Thank you. Thank you. We have no further questions online, and so we will have other questions from the audience or the closing remarks.
Well, since there are no further questions, I wish you a happy holiday, and we will see you again in February next year. Thank you!