Good evening. Thanks for being present today for the presentation of our half year results. Thanks especially to those who are present with us in this audience and those who follow remotely. We could not be very numerous in this audience. With us today, the ExCo members. Please allow me to introduce Cécile Cambier, who became head of concessions last spring. She started her career at Eiffage in 2003 and then joined VINCI in 2008. She was leading previously the Société Marseillaise du Tunnel Prado-Carénage et Prado Sud. Eiffage is shareholder of this company. Thank you, Cécile, for having accepted to leave Marseille, this marvelous area, to lead the portfolio of the concessions of the group. First half of 2021 is back to growth after 2020, impacted by the health crisis. Supported by historic order book, the contracting record a revenue which is higher than 2019.
Concessions go on being impacted by the limitations of the movements, less than in 2020, given the upstart of economy. Globally speaking, in construction as well as in concessions, our results are increasing over the half year. I suggest to go over the highlights of the half year before giving you the perspectives for fiscal 2021. Christian Cassayre will introduce the financial elements in detail. In contracting, the half year was highlighted by a dynamic order book, even if it doesn't reach the first half of 2020, where we have recorded, as you remember, three very important construction sites. This is a proof of the upstart of construction. In France, Eiffage Construction, together with Eiffage Energy System , won the last leg of the rebuilding project of the penal institution of Baumettes in Marseille for over EUR 990 million.
Our teams won the tender for the implementation of a new building of 27,600 sq m of Dassault System in Vélizy. Since 2008, we have built already the four previous buildings. To be noted, development by Goyer of an alternate concept of windows, whose analysis of life- cycle enables a reduction of the carbon footprint of the building. End of 2019, the government decided to streamline its park of 39 administration areas. Most of them are not offering any more satisfactory working conditions. In 2021, Eiffage won two contracts in the framework of this program. First program that you see on screen for the renewal of the administrative area of Colmar, including the renovation of eight buildings, construction of a new building, and the operation maintenance for eight years of all those. Those works will enable to save 70% of energy.
We have been earmarked to lead the first leg of the rebuilding work of the administration city of Lyon in the quarter of La Part-Dieu neighborhood, including a building of offices and a building of apartments for EUR 88 million, high environmental quality, and will use bio-sourced material. We already launched the works of the E Sector of the Village of Athletes in Saint-Ouen, a suburb of Paris. Projects will mobilize over 4,000 people, will enable to welcome slightly more than 2,500 athletes in the summer of 2024, and as of 2025, inhabitants of Saint-Ouen. It has been designed to meet the environmental and social challenges through a saving construction system, mixing wood and low carbon concrete, a smart energy steering, and a solar energy with a storage of energy with cells. We leave a large room for vegetals to bring some freshness.
We have a unique model of contractor promoters. It's the teams of Eiffage Construction that will build for Eiffage Immobilier and all the promoters, constructors. The beginning of the year has been highlighted by the delivery of the Hypérion Tower in Bordeaux. The tower has been acknowledged by the government as industrial demonstrator for the sustainable city, and was awarded the prize Residential Low Carbon. As an example for many operations, this operation of the E3C2 level is really illustrating this low carbon strategy of the group. Hypérion, over its life cycle, will store 1,400 tons of CO2, meaning a volume comparable to nine years of energy consumed by a building of this size. Other operations are underway, like a school, high school in Clermont-Ferrand, implementing timberwood frame with walls isolated with straw.
Eiffage Aménagement was appointed for the tender of the urban design concession of Lallier Gare des Trois Communes in L'Haÿ-les-Roses In Belgium, our teams won the contract for the transformation of the train station of Gand-Saint-Pierre, and the renewal of the tracks and the piers for EUR 86 million for Eiffage. In Switzerland, our teams launched the works of the apartment tower Artisa in Zurich. This 80-m high tower and 26 stores will welcome 140 units as well as a restaurant and stores. In property, reservations for units are reaching 2,194 apartments, above the number of 2020, but below to the tune of 13% as compared to 2019. The decrease of property market in France is offset by the starting of several projects in this activity that we created in Poland. I discussed that in the previous years.
On screen, you see a building of 450 apartments in Warsaw, sold as a whole to a northern investor. Our facade builder, Goyer, signed a memorandum of understanding for the implementation of the 98,000 sq m of the facade of The Link tower that will welcome the future headquarters of Total at La Défense. As you know, the group is committed on the program Grand Paris Express. We employ over 2,700 people on the various operations which were awarded the group. Since the beginning of the year, we won several new contracts. We have been appointed laureate for the works of the station La Courneuve - Six Routes and Le Blanc-Mesnil, for an amount of EUR 97 million, and we have been notified for the train station of Les Ardoines and Arcueil.
Together with Equans, we won two markets for the implementation of the ventilation smoke, and the compression of the Line 15, and the extension of Line 14 for a global amount of EUR 56 million. As a reminder, this expertise, state of the art, enabled the same group to win, in July 2020, a contract of the same kind for the Line 16 and 17. Outside of Paris, we were awarded as a group, the works to increase the capacity of Joannès Couvert embankment in the port of Le Havre, which is due to welcome a manufacturer of wind turbines and blades. We have also won, beginning of July, one of the two major contracts of implementation of the base tunnel French side in the framework of the project Railway Tunnel Lyon- Turin for a total amount of EUR 1.47 billion.
That is EUR 660 million for the group, namely more than 700 employees. Our civil engineering teams are working since 2014 on the implementation of recognition works in Savoie on over 12 km. In Germany, we will build a new bridge in Leverkusen for a total amount of EUR 180 million, namely EUR 116 million for Eiffage. Eiffage Métal, with its implementation in Germany and Belgium and France, will build the future bridge, twice three lanes, that should double the capacity of the existing bridge, which is not sufficient enough. Through this project, Eiffage participates to the program of improvement of the quality of the bridges in Germany. In Senegal and in Mauritania, Eiffage goes on working on the Grand Tortue, our main projects for BP.
Since July, six of the 21 concrete boxes, there's only five on the picture because the sixth has been launched yesterday, 33 m high that will be the breakwaters of the GNL terminal were installed 10 km from the coast between Mauritania and Senegal. The building of the boxes mobilizes over 1,500 people. In Djibouti, we launched the desalination factory of Doraleh. It will feed 250,000 inhabitants in drinking water and sweet water, thanks to renewable energy. In the U.K., works go on on HS2. As you may see, the groundwork started on the project. 15,000 freight trains will be used to transport 10 million tons of granulates, enabling to reduce to the tune of 30,000 tons the release of carbon. On roads, the activity hasn't reached the level of 2019, but one has to remind that this was then a pre-election year, which is always favorable to strong volumes.
The first month of 2021 showed a better traction of the proximity shops. Always innovative, our teams developed Bioklair, a coating which is ecological and aesthetic, devoted to the improvement of the standard of life. 100% recyclable, this coating uses a vegetable ligand instead of bitumen. It reduces the release of carbon by decreasing the temperature of fabrication. Bioklair was used in the area of Gironde on footpath and cycling path to create freshness islands in school grounds. We restarted our works on the ring road of Paris, a large site on which our teams are working at night for over 20 years now, with an average yearly of 8,000 tons of coatings, including 20% of sound coating since 2013. Steel activities, very intense on the offshore.
In Germany, we work together with Fabricom for this electric substation of the wind farm offshore of Baltic Eagle, a structure of 7,150 tons, similar to the one you see on the screen. This will be the largest station on the Baltic Sea and will provide renewable energy to 475,000 households. In France, we take part to the development of the wind farms offshore through several projects. Smulders and Fabricom are building a substation of electrical transformation for the wind farm of Saint-Brieuc. The substation, total height of over 100 meters, includes a jacket of 1,630 tons and a topside structure of 3,400 tons. We implement the design and creating of monopiles and transition pieces of the 80 wind farms of Saint-Nazaire, the linking by cables to the electric terminal.
We build also the maintenance base of the park of Fécamp, and we are stakeholders in the pilot projects of floating offshore wind farms in the Gulf of Lion in Mediterranean Sea. For Energy System, the activity remains very dynamic in France as well as on the international level. The organization by markets implemented in the framework of the strategic plan is bearing fruits and enables its branch to go on its path of increase of activity and improvement of profitability. To support the preparation of the decommissioning of Fessenheim nuclear power plant, EDF asked us to work together with Endel and [Omixon]. Starting last March, the contract could go on until the end of the decommissioning of the power plant. 35,000 sun panels have been installed for the sun farm of Eosol Energy in the land area southwest of France.
Those solar cells can also use the solar reflection from the ground. In Belgium, at the heart, in the core of Brussels, Eiffage Energy System will light the church Notre-Dame du Laeken. 4,000 hours of work were needed to install more than 400 spots, 100% LED. In Senegal, we implemented the project of Boucle de Ferlo, a 225-kV line of 275 km. The aim of the project is to develop the transportation network to secure the energy for the zones of Touba and Dioum in Senegal, increase the transit capacity to Dakar, and improve the quality of service. We implement also four contracts of electrification in Benin and Ghana in the framework of a program of development of Africa. Some total on contracting.
We could have feared a decrease of our activity, but the good traction of the proximity shops, as we can see in the book of orders, is very reassuring. We are very watchful about the property. As you have seen, the request for public equipment, new or renewed, is very strong. We can hope an awareness raising by the government to facilitate the property because the request for housing is very important. Even it's not been felt as of today, the recovery plans of the various European countries will be an element in support, as well as the activity generated by the major sites. They enable the order book to remain at a high level while not integrating yet the EUR 660 million of our share in the Lyon-Turin railroad. You have noted our very important positioning on all of the renewable energy.
Wind farms, terrestrial with the masts, offshore with the foundations, transition pieces, and substations. Sun farms, where the French and Spanish teams are recognized for the construction of the wind farms, we ensure also their maintenance for 5-20 years. Hydraulic, with the works and the operations of micro power plants for Eiffage Concessions. In renewable energies, our subsidiaries works implement EUR 800 million of activity, EUR 800 million. All this enabled us to get back faster than foreseen to the level of activities we had in 2019. In the concessions, we go on diversifying our portfolio on territories where we are located. We acquired two new hydroelectric power plants on the Tarn, enabling us to increase our portfolio of assets in the micro power stations that we started in 2019 with the acquisition of eight micro power plants.
We installed also sun farms on the unused parts of adjacent lands to the motorways. The widening and up to standards of the motorways of our National Road 79 are in the full peak of production, with representation on site of all of our business lines mobilizing over 1,300 people. The site was sped up during the summer, all along the 88 km of the projects to be implemented by the second half of 2022. The Bridge of Allier, the most iconic part of the site, is moving quickly. On the roads, half of the coated have been implemented, and 25 km were open to traffic at the beginning of the year. After three years of works, we implemented the new turnpike of Montmarault at the core of Allier, totally financed by APRR.
This infrastructure enables to fluidify the circulation, the traffic, and to increase the security of the clients on the A71, totally connected now to the A79. Beyond those elements, we have already noticed an upturn of the circulation during June. I am pleased to confirm that the summer traffic has even went above the one of 2019 and 2020. Philippe will give you more details answering your questions. After the summary of the highlights, contracting concessions, allow me to get back to the low carbon strategy of the group I presented in details during the annual results of 2020. According to our commitments, we have published this year our second climate report. We stated our commitment to go on with the 1.5 degree Celsius strategy adopted by the Paris Agreement, committing ourselves to reducing by 2030 at least 40% of our gas release compared to year 2019.
Eiffage committed to reach the carbon neutrality by 2050. As you have seen previously in my presentation, with our partners, we put forward action plans of offering of low carbon offers in all the business lines of the group, so our clients can hold their commitments, too. Among the various actions, let's remind our participation announced in June in the third Fonds Bois et Éco-Matériaux of Bpifrance in the framework of the support of the French line of business in this kind of development. The success of the group is linked to the consistency of all the employees through strong values. For over 30 years, we are all collectively committed in the success of the group through the salary shareholding. This year, all the indexes are in progression with 73% of the employees who subscribed, which is the token of a major trust of our employees in their company.
I cannot conclude this overview without our pride in supporting since 2015, high-level athletes, French athletes. Five of them were this summer in Tokyo. On these pictures you recognize Clarisse Agbegnenou, gold medal in judo, individual and by teams. Amandine Buchard, silver medal in judo. Valentin Belaud, pentathlon. Gabriel Bordier, athletic walk, and Manon Valentino, BMX. I'm not forgetting the Belgian male team of hockey, supported by our activities in Belgium, who won the golden medal. After this summary of our highlights of the year, let's get back to the major figures of the half year. Return to growth of the revenue. Very strong increase to the tune of 25.8%, the first half year 2020 being impacted by the containment in France, like in the major countries where we are located. Even more important, we are growing by 1.9% compared to 2019.
An operational result that is of EUR 679 million, with a contribution of the contracting slightly above 2019. It's a very good news. The Concessions remains impacted by the limitations of the moves. This leads to an increase of the net share of the group result to EUR 260 million, close to its level of 2019, than to the one abnormally low in 2020. The debt net is at EUR 10.2 billion, so a very important decrease of EUR 700 million, thanks to a good cash flow of the group. The book of order maintains itself at a very high level. The order intake is more solid than expected. As you will notice by turning on your phones, we have decided to exert our right of preemption on the 35% of the capital of the motorway A65 between Pau and Langon, which were held by SANEF, co-shareholder of Eiffage.
We are in discussion for the acquisition of Sanef Aquitaine, detained 100% by SANEF. Once finalized, those transaction will make Eiffage the only shareholder of the motorway A65. Due to those elements, we anticipate an activity of our contracting in a significant rise compared to 2020, slightly above 2019. An activity of concession still impacted by the limitation of the moves, but less than in 2020. Group results in significant increase. Thank you for your attention, I leave the floor to Christian for in detail financial elements.
Good afternoon, good evening, everyone. Let us go through the numbers again. Revenue, as was just pointed out, was significantly up compared to H1 2020, up 25.8%, almost 28% in contracting. You can see that in France, the bounce back is twice as high as the rest of the world, plus 3% compared with 16%. That's because, of course, in 2020, everything ground to a halt. Let's look at the next chart using 2019 as a reference, just to see just how back to normal we are. The good news is that revenue is up 1.9% compared to 2019, up 3.8% in contracting. You have to remember that there were two years of strong growth, both in 2019 and 2018, and so the basis of comparison was high, and yet we are up 3.8% compared to that.
Concessions are still suffering because, of course, people are not allowed to move about so much. Here we're still looking at a decline, 7.3% decline in revenue. In contracting, infrastructure and energy have had a very dynamic half year. Construction is slightly down. On the right-hand side, you can see that business in France has been buoyant, up 4.3%, even though there were no significant acquisitions, any external growth. In the three countries that generate in pro forma upwards of EUR 1 billion in revenue, Germany has enjoyed a 26% growth compared to 2019. Spain is up 16% and Belgium 7% up. Again, a good momentum in three flagship countries. Operating profit is understandably high up compared to 2020. The good news is that contracting has displayed a profit margin slightly better than 2019, and an additional EUR 13 million in profit.
Concessions is still below 2019, even though, because we didn't have, of course, the negative contribution of airports. All in all, operating profit margin is 7.8% versus 9.8% in 2019 and 3.8% in 2020. Here we have the breakdown branch- by- branch. We're still using 2019 as a comparison. In construction, most of the business is done internationally and mostly in Poland. At the beginning of the year, we've seen a resumption of growth that should continue in 2020. There is a slight growth in France, where we had some significant businesses in commercial property and public buildings. That is doing rather well, whereas residential property is down. Reservation for property development is slightly down 13% compared to 2019, but it's minus 30% in France, that is in line with the contraction of the market.
You have to compare this with Poland, where you had 500 reservations or 100% of all the properties were actually pre-sold. Operating profit from current operation in property development is EUR 29 million compared with EUR 39 million in 2019. In 2019, there was capital gain because of the sale of an office building. Operating margin is back at 3.4%, so in line with 2019. There's a lesser contribution of property development and a EUR 10 million improvement in profits from building operations. There's a rehabilitation extension of the public baths in Strasbourg, and that is modernizing this listed monument. You can see nice pictures. The rotunda, the Roman bath work is well underway and it will be completed in November. In infrastructure, revenue has been pulled thanks to civil engineering in France, in particular Grand Paris Express.
That was EUR 370 million in the half year, compared with EUR 313 million in 2019 and EUR 300 million in 2020. The growth in Métals is because of the project in Saint-Nazaire. There is a wind farm being built there. In roads, there's a slight decline, but that's because there was a high comparison basis in 2019. Of course, there were municipal elections in 2019. We see that there are new businesses where we are bidding, which was not the case a year ago. You have, in particular, some businesses for local authorities around the country. Internationally, we've got a positive momentum in Germany with work on Motorway A3. In the U.K., again, the building of the high-speed railway track, HS2 is, of course, gaining grounds. Profit margin at the beginning of the year is not representative of the figure for the whole year.
Here you can see that Eiffage will be building the pedestrian bridge linking the island of L'Île-Saint-Denis to the village of athletes for the Olympics. This is a bridge made of concrete and steel. It is 140 m long, 16 m wide, and that will bring together Eiffage Génie Civil, Civil Engineering, and Eiffage Métal for the structure. It is worth EUR 26 million, should be completed in March 2023. Energy Systems has enjoyed significant growth, up 7% without external growth. There is good momentum both in France, up 5.4%, and internationally, 10.6%. In France, Eiffage Energy Systems has been involved in most of the projects for building the railway stations of Grand Paris Express, or concessions PPP being completed. We are also in a good position for renewable energies.
There are quite a few projects in France and in Spain. In Spain, our business is up 30% compared to 2019.
In Germany, it's up 16%. That's in both countries, only organic growth. In Germany, we have been developing a new business, electricity distribution, and we had no presence in Germany before that, but we are building on Eiffage Energy's expertise. Operating margin for the half year is up compared to 2019, homogeneously in France and in the rest of the world. I did not mention the activities outside Europe. This is in Benin, in Africa, we're building a solar plant, a solar farm. We also have a high-tension connection linking it to the grid. That is funded by the EU, the French Development Agency , and SBEE. Regarding APRR, so the motor works concession, because traffic was down 17%, especially with the third lockdown, we had, of course, less business, also less business from ski stations.
Traffic has improved since the beginning of May, and we're close now to the levels of 2019. EBITDA margin actually was able to stand its ground compared to 2019, even though there was a 17% decline in traffic. Of course, we kept expenditure well under control. The performance is still rather good. Let me look at a new line of business. This is the low carbon business for APRR. We are providing charging stations for electric cars. These are being rolled out at a sustained rate. We have now a number of high-power charging points. We propose to have all of the service stations equipped with these by 2022. We have also what is known as the KiWhi Pass for electric cars, which will enable cars to have access to as many as 35,000 charging points in France, and 90,000 in Europe.
We look at the revenue for other businesses. We have the Millau viaduct down 14.9%, the A65 down 18.1%. For the Senegal motorway, we're looking at an increase in traffic, up 8%. Airports, of course, have been suffering considerably because there has been some resumption of traffic, but we're a far cry from the levels of 2019. Let's look at PPP's revenue, EUR 83 million. That, of course, does not suffer from ups and downs in traffic. On the bottom right corner, you can see the operating profit of concessions. The losses in airports does include goodwill amortization to the tune of EUR 16 million for the half year. A few words about BPL. Here we're trying to avoid animals being hit by trains, and so we have these protections for railway crossings.
We cannot have fences there, and what we've done there is a sort of a rubber crossing with rubber spikes that should stop animals from crossing the tracks. Much for the numbers. Let's look now at other income and expenditure, EUR 14 million. That's a net charge, a EUR 14 million charge. The cost of net financial debt is down only EUR 5 million compared to previous years, but still down. That includes the additional financial charge for the bond that was issued in June 2020. Financial cost for concessions is as high as EUR 9 million, there's EUR 9 million savings right there. For other financial income and expenditure, we have EUR 5 million from non-consolidated stakes, that is companies where we have a stake.
The tax is down because we had a positive outcome in a dispute to the tune of EUR 16 million, but not including this, we are close to the usual level of taxation. The net profit group share stands at EUR 260 million. If you look at the debt position now, you can see the transition from one year to the next. You can see that EBITDA, we wanted to look at the numbers of both 2019 and 2020. EBITDA is close to the level of 2019, EUR 1.287 billion compared to EUR 1.338 billion. Change in working capital requirements, of course, it's higher than in 2020, but it's still below the level of 2019, EUR 518 million, even though the construction business is higher than in 2019. That's good news. Taxes and interest is down compared to both 2019 and 2020.
If you add them all, add the three boxes, we have EUR 525 million compared to EUR 287 million in H1 2019. Operating cash flow is positive. Operating CapEx, EUR 216 million, close to 2020, slightly higher than 2019. For the concessions, this includes EUR 200 million for APRR. That's the second item of capital expenditure, EUR 130 million for the building of the new motorway, A79, compared to EUR 51 million in 2020 for the same period. The next item is reimbursement of the PPP debt. That includes lease, the rentals, and the fact that we sold an office building as part of the partnership for the Pierre-Mauroy Stadium. All in all, we have net CapEx at EUR 536 million. This is higher than both 2019 and 2020.
Well, that's mostly because of the building of the A79 motorway, and that is, of course, this is a factor of growth for the company. You can see that free cash flow, on the one hand, is just about break even. Normally, we're in the red at this time of the year. Last year, in 2019, we still had EUR 135 million, EUR- 135 million, so that means cash flow is looking very good. Finally, capital operations. We have the dividend that was paid out by APRR to its minority shareholder. The dividend paid by Eiffage in 2021, that's because to make up for the previous year, there's capital increase for employees and share buybacks, and then there's the shares being canceled when they will be bought back.
The net debt at 30 June is up only EUR 345 million to EUR 10.2 billion, which is rather low considering the significant increase in business. You can see that debt was down EUR 700 million over 12 months. In the red part of the box, you can see that you have a high cash position for the holding company. The gross cash position is EUR 2.9 billion, and you have the details on page 40. Cash is up EUR 350 million over 12 months, even though we paid out a higher dividend. Of course, there was, as I said, a significant amount of capital expenditure for A79, we've been keeping our debt well under control. Our order book stands at EUR 16.6 billion, which is still high, as Benoît pointed out, even though no major contracts entered the order book.
If you look at the various businesses, we have an increase in construction and energy systems for core businesses. In infrastructure, we've been consuming the order book, the big operations of Grand Paris Express, the A79, the HS2, and A3 in Germany, without equivalent orders. In our core business, the business is still stable. The order book is only down 3% over one year, which is perfectly acceptable. We will now take questions. We'll have questions from the audience right here, and then online, starting with the questions in French, and then we'll move on to the questions in English. Benoît and I will take all your questions now.
Jean-Christophe. He's coming. Jean-Christophe Lefèvre-Moulenq .
Jean-Christophe Lefèvre-Moulenq . We have two questions. One's a strategic question and a question about concessions. A strategic question, we've talked about Equans and Fabricom. Benoit mentioned them three times. Is the merger with Equans coming any closer? Is Eiffage going it alone or with partners? That was question one . A second question about concession. That's a standard question, Could we have the capital expenditure budget for 2021- 2022 for the A79 and APRR, and also the budget for PPPs?
Regarding Equans, you should note that this is part of the group's strategy. In February 2017, we gave you the outline of the strategic plan. In 2019, we gave you a progress report. You may remember that I referred to the group's development, We're looking on the right balance between contracting and concessions. We wanted to pursue Eiffage development on both fronts, both contracting and concessions.
It should be pointed out that we are fundamentally European. Our concessions, well, there's a political risk for concessions, so we are very much committed to those territories where we do have an active presence, and that does include contracting. On contracting proper, there are a number of items where we decided we should focus on our core region. Because, of course, that is what makes the business viable, that is having the right people, and that business can be attractive if we can propose a long-term perspective for the business that will attract the best people. That's the one thing. We don't propose to branch out into too many different businesses.
Of course, the energy transition and the digital transition does mean that all our businesses will necessarily change over time. When we were asked about possible acquisitions of contracting companies, you have to know that mergers in this business never really work out internationally, because what you do need to have is a common base of values, a common cultural base. Eiffage, 86% of its business in Europe, it's mostly in the energy business, and most of the business is in France. Eiffage activities are mostly in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland. Of course, Eiffage is already very much present in these countries. These are businesses at the core of the energy and digital transition. Of course, it stands to reason that we should look into Eiffage as a possible target. That's part of our strategic development plan.
Indeed, a number of developments have occurred in concessions. We have increased APRR's capital. We have a stake in Getlink. There is APV. We have been investing in the A79, so that is, of course, a significant investment in the future. We are now acquiring 100% of Aliénor, the A65 operating company. We do believe that we will forge ahead, and indeed, Eiffage is still very much in the picture. Having said all that, we believe that there you have a significant operation. The stakes are high, but I think we can take this using our own resources. Of course, we have to work with our teams. This is not an easy matter. Taking on board another company is not easy, but we have to make a move. Engie is expecting us to make an offer by September. That was question number one.
Christian, on question number two on APRR, we said that we would be investing EUR 400 million both in 2021 and 2020. I beg your pardon. EUR 450 million and EUR 350 million. That's what we announced. We announced EUR 450 million and EUR 350 million. In fact, it will be EUR 400 million and EUR 400 million. We'll be investing somewhat less than announced for this year, but somewhat more next year. Regarding the A79, we still propose to have about EUR 340 million in contracting. The balance being about EUR 100 million. If you look at the existing facilities, we have EUR 100 million in CapEx for projects being built and the PPPs now in operation. That is about EUR 100 million in CapEx.
Thank you. Further questions from the audience? Yes.
Eric Lemarié. I have three questions, if I may, about the growth in revenue for contracting in H1.
Are we basically looking at a volume effect or is there a price effect as well? That's on revenue. On road work in France, business is looking better. Have you found price pressure or do you believe that competition as it were, is healthy or is it getting out of control with too much pressure on pricing? What about road traffic? Do you have any numbers for the past few months on that?
Regarding question number one, the growth in revenue, it's not just volume. Of course, you do have a volume effect, but there are price effects. Part of our revenue is index-linked, necessarily, there will be a mechanical increase because of that.
Of course, since 2019, there have been significant increases, and it's just as well because, of course, we have to be able to take on board price inflation in raw materials and such like, and be in a position to pass on that cost to our customers. Another point is that demand is high. Indeed, one of our concerns has been to make sure that before we can bid for a project, we have to be able to pull it through should we be selected. That is a concern. That was question number one. Question number two regarding price pressure, competitive pressure as well. We could go around our businesses, but by and large, there hasn't been any fundamental change. Business is pretty much the same. At least the competition scene is pretty much the same. There are areas where we have to watch developments very carefully.
I mentioned raw materials. There are no particular concerns, we believe that the market is still pretty buoyant, even though we have to be careful and pay a close look at issues of profitability. Philippe can give you details about question number three on road traffic figures. This summer, road traffic was pretty high on the APRR motorway network compared to 2019, that is the pre-COVID baseline. In July, we've seen growth to the tune of about 6% compared to July 2019. Indeed, slightly upwards of 6%. August, we're still in August, we're looking at about 5% growth compared to 2019. Slightly upwards of 5%. We'll give you the final figures at the end of the month. Question is regarding trucks, we're looking at numbers for July and August in line with the numbers of 2019.
For the heavy goods vehicles, the HGVs, of course.
LV and HGV.
Eric Lemarié, if I may, a follow-up question. Could we have your view on property development, the outlook for this year and next year? Should there be a deal on Equans? Are there red lines regarding things such as debt- over- EBITDA? Just how much money can you put on the table should you decide to make a move and acquire Equans?
Maybe Olivier can give you an answer to that.
Regarding residential property, one thing is for sure, as soon as we put something in the market, it is grabbed and sold. The real concern is getting building permits. French government is aware of this. Indeed, François Rebsamen is now chairing a special committee looking into these issues of delivery of building permits, and the report should be completed by September.
Having said that, residential property development is not going to turn around overnight, but there are a number of commercial property developments which will sort of make up for the decline in residential property development. We also have a business in rehabilitating buildings and, of course, we have this good business going on in Poland. Even though there may be a slight decline right now in France overall, I'm very confident.
Regarding Equans, well, one thing is for sure, we will not increase capital in order to acquire Equans. The financial package is part of our own competitiveness. While I cannot give you details about the bidding, but one thing is important, is to keep both a good gross cash position and our overall position, not just for the holding company. All these items, of course, are significant, but I cannot give you more details.
Of course, all the bidding process is highly confidential.
[Non-English content]
Well, it didn't escape you that there are some sites in the U.K. and the Benelux that are really raising issues. I suggest that more than the commitments that were made with the unions, I think those little hurdles will be taken into account for the prices of Eiffage. It's the base principle when you have something, we look into it, and given that, we decide. I try to reframe the why it was natural for us to look into it, its interest, and then we'll be aware about its intrinsic quality to see how we progress. Maybe we can move to the questions over the phone. In French first.
Q&A session in French over the phone. Elodie Rall, JPMorgan.
Hello, good evening, Benoît, Christian. Three questions. First, about I think you're much more confident that you were in the past month on the possible impact on the margins, on the contracting margins. What has changed in your vision of those risks? Second question about the Grand Paris, and the news information we had about the delays.
Can you confirm the impact it might have on Eiffage? Especially, can you confirm that the extra costs will be attached to the company of the Grand Paris? Third question, if ever, Equans would not come out, what would be the other opportunity of external growth that you could consider, and which would be of interest to you? Thank you.
On your first question regarding the impacts, obviously, on the provisions, we were worried half a year ago because we see that out of the crisis, the procurement chains were not working, and it was worrying. Behaviors that were not very rational on sudden increases in the prices, on wood, for instance, in a very significant way, without first notice. Half a year later, we remain very vigilant, very aware, but no construction sites were stopped for a procurement system or procurement issue.
Teams are mobilized, think ahead of time. We have a dialogue with our providers to avoid negative impacts. Six months have elapsed, and things didn't go too bad. It's very irrational. The issue was on equipment someday, on something different another day. We have to notice that the flows are not back to normal, but it's been half a year that we operate without a major impact on our activities. We're less worried, less concerned, but we remain very aware, very vigilant. The profitability of the works, sum total, the demand on next door shop was more important than expected in our property. When there's more volume, it's easier. Greater Paris. Guillaume, please be kind to him. It's his birthday today.
Hello. I hope I'll be able to answer the question on the Grand Paris, Greater Paris. They redefined their schedule, especially on lines 15 and 16.
Delay of two years on the civil engineering on which we're committed, 15 South since 2017, line 16 since 2018, and 14, where we are now. The tunnel borers are out. On 15, two tunnel borers are out, and 16, two-third are being bored. We had some delays on the schedule due to the COVID. The Society of Grand Paris mentioned those problems of boring due to COVID, when you had to remobilize the various German teams in spring 2020, couldn't come to France, to Paris. As you know, the two other elements that were put forward by Grand Paris, it's the necessity to start total lines and beyond the system, and the capacity to mobilize also the operator, so that at the implementation, the commissioning was being done nominally, and the Greater Paris has recalculated and worked a lot on this issue. So it goes beyond civil engineering.
Second element, it's the need that was made even more crucial to make sure that the works would be done in densely populated areas and should be accepted by most of the population. This has been integrated in the schedules. As to answer your question. To get back about civil engineering, are there financial impacts? As of today, discussions for impact of the COVID, we had it with the Society of Grand Paris. Negotiations are on. We're still negotiating, still discussing in the correct manner, and I think we should really have a proper outcome as it has been done until now.
Thank you, Guillaume. You can make comments on procurement and inflation when you take the floor. Last question was regarding Equans and the possible other opportunities.
My answer is a year ago, before the strategic review of Engie, we wouldn't imagine that Equans was on sale. The strategy of Eiffage was already implemented. I think that we will remain focused on our will to develop works like concessions rather in a European framework, because it's exactly what is the right scale for us, and we have a lot to do in a certain amount of business lines, especially on the energy line. We have an activity in Germany that remains very low compared to what we do in other business lines. If you take Belgium, where we are one of the major actors of contracting in Belgium. The energy part of Belgium is relatively low compared to all that we do in the other business lines. We have a lot on our hands to go on densifying our presence and progress.
It wouldn't be with operations of this size, but many things are to be done in the concentration of the market to develop our works, not forgetting our concessions, obviously, on those territories.
Next question. Yes.
Nabil Ahmed, Barclays.
Good evening. Three questions. A65 motorway. It's been a long time you have a majority of shares, beyond this participation of 35%. Why did you make this decision now? Are there things that made it mandatory to be done now? Second question. Can you update us on the second part of your activity? One of your competitors talked about a mini-investment plan on the motorways, was in discussion with the government. Do you have any information about that?
Thank you, Nabil. On your first question regarding motorway A65, it's simply that the co-shareholder became selling. There was a decision, Abertis, to sell their minority participation.
They understood that we would not sell our majority share. They were interested in selling the minority share. What was important to us was to take hold of the operational society. It's simply the fact that there was suddenly someone to sell, because they were talking about that for quite a long time, but it was the first time that they really decided to make an arbitration on this asset. On the Energy System line, we are at half year. We do not despair to have margins in full year that would be above the percentage. I always considered that there was no reason when a line of business is working well, why shouldn't we reach the 5% of profitability? It's not 4.5%, but it's 5%, and this is the target. About the government, Philippe?
Yeah. I alluded to this issue last February.
We are indeed discussing with the services of the transport ministry for the building of a new investment plan, smaller than what we thought at the origin. This investment plan would have a large part of the decarbonated part and to the environmental investments. The scope and the volume of the plan are being discussed for the time being. Before the ART would be questioned and before the State Council. A decision by the end of the first quarter 2022.
Crystal clear. Thank you very much.
No more question French. However, we have one question that has been recorded from Nicolas Mora, Morgan Stanley.
Yes. I'll do it in French, rather. First, contracting margin. Beginning of May, you surprised the market with an announcement, and suddenly you announce a margin which is better in this line of business than in the past month.
With your volumes, can we dream about a resumption of the margins following several difficult years? Second point, the results are good. One negative point from my point of view is the lack of progression in the infrastructures. Your neighbors came out with very strong margins in the roads. What prevents you on the infrastructure margin, less than 1%, even negative? Last point, on cessions with Lille Stadium , the property around Lille, you pocketed EUR 80 million in term of the gain of the boost. I wanted to know if this is the size of the envelope of the budget?
No, on the last point, Nicolas, we usually have a repayment of Bpifrance of EUR 30 million. We have EUR 90 million this year, so 16 session, we communicated on the cession of the sale of the building inhabited by Orange. There's a capital gain, but much smaller than what you say.
It's the total flow of session 35 in normative. Very good. Roads. Laurent, a comment.
Good evening. A short comment of what has been said, especially on the announcement that were made by VINCI. VINCI talks about the outcome, it talks about the Eurovia world results. We are very Franco-French, the figures cannot be compared. This being said, regarding the activity on the first half year, as been said, we have an activity that is slightly decreasing compared to 2019, which was not really expected at the beginning of the year. We thought to have a first half of the year rather weak and a stronger second half of the year. We're surprised by the level of the activities and the orders. The major operations, I mean, major operations, all the electric train, have not resumed yet. The fourth project has been acted.
We are really on the run-of-the-mill. It went over our expectations. We have an order intake, which is rather good, and an activity which is according to what we had at the first half year with a profitability, which is equivalent, so to speak. This is my short comment on the outcome of road.
Thank you, Laurent. There's something else that is important to be said, two elements. We always told you that we were very cautious on the recognition on the margins of the sites of Grand Paris Express. This part of the very large works is very important for Eiffage, and we manage them at zero. It has an impact, a direct impact on the profitability of the line of business, even if it's not the margins that are expected when we'll be through. We will be through all the risks of operation.
Like Laurent said, our scope of roads is 100% French, so the effects are different. I can confirm there is no return to good fortune as compared to the past. It's the operation, the way it is happening day after day for the infrastructure line of business. Your first question is on the contracting. A year and a half ago, you had a lighter question. You asked if you could expect the margin of the construction come back. My answer was yes. On a much more ambitious question of today, I'll tell you that we have a large awareness about the order intake. We see this about the stable revenue, and this awareness will bear fruit. We are very focused on our structural expenses, and we have a work on our productivity. All this put together should make it that we should progress. Also, the raw materials.
Raw materials, as Benoît said, for the time being, it's managed day after day on the sites, on the construction sites. Some of our markets are on indexed prices, set prices. Globally speaking, it will offset the rise of the raw materials. What we didn't talk about is the lack of talents and of manpower, which appears to be a real issue. Eiffage has a very good image, but this is an issue of worry and concern that will not be over tomorrow morning or overnight.
Is there a risk to see a rebound on the increase of the salaries? Are those things you take into account already? Is it anticipated in your tenders?
Yes, we're very aware about that, of inflation of the prices of raw materials and the impact of the cost of manpower, of staff.
There is a non-negligible element in the energy system. We are on a domination of short-term contracts, so the update of the pricing is done very quickly, and it helps us a lot. The real issue today is not to take too much activity and not to be able to put up the right teams, whether it's our own teams or when it's subcontractors, it's not the same thing. We have to be very selective. Added to the fact that our customers for quite a long time wish us to serve them with the same quality of service, so we have to be very aware. The intrinsic growth would be more important if we had more staff today. It's rather good news, and we focus more on high added value offers, which are relative.
Super.
One last but crucial about the acquisition of the 35% of the A35 motorway, EUR 222 million. It's above what we had in mind, what I had in mind. What does it mean for you in terms of acquisition? What's the level of assumption? How do you think to have a return on investment about this acquisition? You know the asset. Are there opportunities to improve the profitability? Because the entrance ticket seems very high.
You have to have in mind that the global price is the price of the asset and the price of the operator. You had in mind the price of the asset. It's an aggregated value for the operator. You have to keep in mind that the operator was 100% held by SANEF and had its operational margin. That was good quality, let's say.
Today, when we take the margin of the asset and the margin of the operator, we aim at a little small 10%. Something which is reasonable, slightly below 10%, to give you a good idea of what we're thinking of.
Thank you.
With optimization and work that will be done by the teams of Philippe, we shall mutualize the means and optimize the structure.
Another question.
We will take another question from the line of Gregor Kuglitsch from UBS. Please go ahead.
Hi, can you hear me?
Yes.
Excellent. Thank you. two questions. Maybe can I just be clear on the A65, what you just said there, what did you mean? Maybe putting the question differently. Obviously, we don't see exact numbers, but if you could give us sort of maybe the 2019 EBITDA margin of the asset and how that changes with the insourcing, I guess, or the buyout of the operator, if that makes sense. That's the first thing. The second question is on contracting margins. Can I just be clear what you're actually saying for this year? For 2021. I think you previously said your margins will still be a bit below the 2019 level. Is that still the case today, or are you increasing that guidance? I think I heard you say Energy Systems 5% this year. Correct me if I'm wrong. I'll leave it there. Those are my two questions.
Thank you.
Concerning the A65, what we just said is that if you combine the acquisition of the 35% of the asset together with the acquisition of 100% of the maintaining and operating company, we believe that the target IRR will be close to 10%.
On the contracting, we have no idea about the margin. We have no ideas about the margins. We had an idea about the volumes. We're aiming at a level of activity revenue slightly below or close to 2019. What we say today will be slightly above 2019 on the activity. Our margins are improving, but the margins are weak. We would talk about the global outcome that will be raising, and we confirm the guidance we gave at the first half year. The only thing that changes the volume of activity in works contracting, which is slightly above the one of 2019. Does that answer your question?
Can you give us some indication whether you think you can recover to the 2019 margins, or you don't want to commit to that?
At this period of the year, we'll try to get back to the margins of 2019. It's too early to give a guidance. You see that the difference is 10 base number . We'll have the increase of a result in contracting and in concession by then.
Okay. Thank you.
You have a good trend, given the outcome of the half year.
Okay. Thank you.
The next question from the line of Tobias Woerner from Stifel.
Yes, thank you for taking the questions. Two questions, if I may. Number one, let me ask the question slightly differently about margins for the contracting side, construction and infrastructure in particular. Do you feel that in the first half you've seen an abnormal effect in terms of normalization, or in other words, catch-up? On top of that, actually, when you look back at 2019 in the first half, your order book looked weaker than it looks today. Why are you so conservative on the margin side with regards to the full year? What sort of costs could be in there over and above the costs which were discussed, labor and input costs or raw material costs or bill of materials, whatever you want to call them, which could hold your confidence back? That's the first question. The second question is about the EBITDA margin at the APRR.
It's not a big difference to what we expected around it, but it's still a difference in terms of the outcome. You've achieved a good margin, but we would have expected a little bit more on a drop-through of 80%-90% of the top line. Is there anything in there on a one-off basis we should be aware of, or any other costs which we should be aware of, or were we simply wrong?
For these two questions, there's no specific issue. There are no particular one-off effects. As we saw it for APRR, the EBITDA margin proved resilient because we kept costs well under control. Having said that, it will all depend on road traffic, and, of course, we can't bank on that. What happened in H1, as Christian said, is indicative of what we're expecting for the rest of the year. Regarding contracting, are there catch-up effect compared to 2019? I don't believe so because our order books were quite full by then, and our teams have been well capable of taking on board COVID issue, because in any case, on the construction side, people wear hard hats and masks, they wear this sort of uniform. One more mask doesn't make much difference. There is a cost included.
That comes at a cost, but we can pass on that cost. No big deal. COVID is no longer an issue, and indeed, we've been able to work normally ever since the end of the first lockdown. Now it's pretty much business as usual, and that is why we were able to continue with the trend of a big order book. The pleasant surprise is that demand kept rising. Even though we have substantial business that we've not been consuming our order book because there's more new orders coming in to replenish the order book. We are back to business as usual in a very dynamic environment, I should say. Having said that, we have to keep a watchful eye on property development. There's this business of delivery of building permits.
Of course, there are two things, issues of inflation for raw materials and the availability of people to work for us, because looking at talent and labor are in short supply. I hope that answers your questions.
Thank you. Maybe one follow-up, if I may. Apologies. If you look at your order book, the backlog, is there anything in there compared to 2019, the composition, which should make the margin structure different?
Honestly, I don't think so. [Foreign language] No, I don't believe so. Going back, I can go over the structure of the order book, of the backlog, business by business. Regarding public orders, well, we have more now than we did back then because there's less residential and more public buildings, and public buildings are index-linked. It doesn't make a significant difference, honestly. Maybe one of my colleagues can add something to that. Maybe not. Well, of course, we are always selective when we accept an order, we have to be very selective. Projects have got to be profitable. Of course, there's the real issue of being able to deliver. We need human resources, and human resources are in hard supply, so we have to be careful. Further questions in English, maybe?
There are no further questions.
There may be a final question. Yes, a final question from the audience.
Eiffage Construction and Property Development, you can see that its contribution to H1 was not quite as high as usual. Do you think they will make up for this in H2? Are there other factors, for instance, the Hypérion project might make a difference, at least in numbers.
Christian said that in H1, there's a big difference compared to 2020, and that is the disposal of an office building in Portugal that took place in 2019. Other than that, in H2, there are no expected developments. There are a number of commercial property operations. Of course, depending on whether the sale is finalized in January or December, well, that would make a difference to the numbers for the year. Either in 2020 or 2021. Right.
Well, look, if there are no further questions, I would like to thank you all for attending. Thank you for your questions, and we'll look forward to seeing you again. Hopefully next time there will be more people allowed in the auditorium. Thank you