Good evening, all. Thanks for being here for this presentation of the results of the first half year 2019 of Eiffage. As you've seen the movie, with the acquisition of Meccoli, a major actor in the French rail, Eiffage Rail has now the whole array of skills to answer to the major challenges of the French rail network. It enables us to answer to all the challenges of Grand Paris Express or Charles de Gaulle Express. To get back to the first half 2019, regarding contracting, activity remains dynamic, ramping up of the projects of Grand Paris Express, but also road and international. Regarding concessions, the traffic is slightly subsiding, knowing that the first half 2018 enjoyed the windfall effect of the strike of the railroad in France. Globally, our results are in line with the perspectives we have described during the presentation of our results in 2018.
Let's have a look first of the highlights of the half year, starting by France, then international, before focusing on the low carbon strategy of the group and give you some elements of perspective for all of the fiscal 2019. Christian Cassayre will present the financial elements in detail. In France, half year has been highlighted by several deliveries. On Grand Hôtel-Dieu, Lyon on screen. After four years of work and the delivery of a first lot in 2018, we have delivered the Cité internationale de la gastronomie. Five-star intercontinental hotel will be inaugurated in some days, 12th September. Other major delivery, the first phase of the renovation of Hôtel du Palais in Biarritz. It didn't escape you, this hotel just welcomed the heads of states of the G7 meeting.
This first lot started in October 2018, mobilized 200 people without interruption to renew the façade, the roofs, the swimming pool, the restaurant, and 40 rooms seaside. The second phase of works to finalize the restoration of the hotel, the 80 other rooms, will restart October 1st. After a year and a half of works, Eiffage Construction and Eiffage Énergie Systèmes inaugurated on July 1st, 2019, the lab of medical biology of the Hospital of Nancy and Institute of Cancer in Lorraine. This building is an illustration of the know-how of Eiffage in the realization of health buildings of high technicity. In Monaco, Eiffage Génie Civil took part in the town planning on sea of the Anse du Portier. Our teams implemented the 18 concrete caissons of 10,000 to 12,000 tons and the protection. It's an extension of 6.5 hectares, one on the sea.
On the picture, you can see the closing of the belt of caissons that took place in 18th July. The delivery of infrastructure of the launching pad in Ariane in Kourou took place in July. This operation was signed three years later with the launching pad, the two fluid ducts, and the mobile gantry. In July, we implemented the implementation of the 10th ultimate power backup, five years after EDF asked our group to deliver the studies, the qualification, the provision, the assembly, and the tests for the ultimate power backups for the 36 location of the nuclear power plants. It's the largest contract underway for our energy system with more than 550 employees. In property, housing reservations reached 2,504 units as compared to 2,237 first half 2018. Given some block sales during this first half year, reservation are regarded to be stable on all of the fiscal.
On screen, the new neighborhood Impression, Pontoise, with the creation of 370 housing units and the revamping of the quartier, of the neighborhood of the train station. In Châtenay-Malabry, on the location of the former École Centrale, Eiffage Aménagement started the works of the eco-neighborhood La Vallée, with housing units, shops, and offices. It's a true demonstration of our know-how in terms of innovation and circular economy, from the deconstruction of the school up to the design, management, and the various uses. Dynamic activity for our façade builder, Goyer. The half year was highlighted by the development of his activity in region and several projects of refurbishment. On screen, top left, Orange headquarters in Lille. The refurbishment of the Silex Tower, urban garden in Lyon. Bottom left, Pascal Towers at La Défense, the Carbon Street, and the Îlot Gaîté in Montparnasse in Paris. Motorway activity is on the rise.
You can see here the works performed on the strips at the Lille Airport. Seven teams mobilized 200 people to implement the 100,000 tons of coating in 35 hours without interrupting the schedule of the planes. The continuity of the presentation of the results 2018, activity generated by all of our projects of Grand Paris Express is still ramping up. Those major projects are mastered. Let's look at it quickly in pictures. On Line 61, the first of the six tunnel borers is being assembled, and will start work from the former site of Peugeot at Aulnay-sous-Bois. You can see the delivery of the cutting wheel in August. Line 15 South, lot T2B. Hundreds of convoys enabled to bring the elements of the first tunnel bore on the site of the station Créteil l'Échat.
In parallel, the diaphragm walls of Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, the largest of Grand Paris, have been achieved in June. Regarding still on Line 15, the electric infrastructure of all of the line, the energy system line is studying the dimensioning. Line 14 North has been commissioned delivered. Part of the teams and the machine have been allocated on Line 14 South. The starting of the digging started in May. 360 meters have been already bored. On Eole line, on the project of tunnel going from Haussmann Saint-Lazare to La Défense, after several month of assembly on site, Avenue Gambetta, the tunnel bore, named Virginie, dug already 200 meters and will be in the final configuration as of September. Works on the bridge of Bezons go on until delivery in 2021. On screen, the bow string has been led during the bank holiday end of May.
On the Eole line, we go on with the program of heightening of the tracks, and we have a new contract for the catenary and metal work of 28 km between Haussmann station, Saint-Lazare, Nanterre. On the same line, Eiffage Énergie Systèmes won in March the contract for high voltage, low voltage for the stations of Porte Maillot La Défense and the nine pits of ventilations. The group is active on the Charles de Gaulle Express. The overhaul works on the tracks have been start on the various zones between Porte de la Chapelle and Mitry-Mory since the beginning of the year, with a major campaign this year in the area of Bourget with the restitution realized in time to hand back the railroads and the tracks for the circulation of the local train.
As you have seen, the group is very implied and involved in the project of Grand Paris Express, on which are working currently 3,200 people and more than 4,400 in peak time. Regarding the order intakes, Eiffage Immobilier won the concession of revamping of the 65,000 sq m of the area Entrée de Ville at the city of Les Lilas. On an area of three hectares, the project encompasses 900 apartments, 1,800 sq m of shops and services, and a new school. This is a very ambitious environment. It anticipates on the regulation of RE2020 and aims at a certification E3C1. Eiffage Immobilier will create a mixed group with a wooden tower of 25 m, a three-star hotel, and an ownership program housing in Rouen. This operation adds to several wooden projects underway, like the Hyperion Tower in Bordeaux and council flats in Salon-de-Provence.
Eiffage Route will implement the earthwork and access roads of the future European Center devoted to Kubota tractors, Japanese constructor of tractors and construction machines, on a site of 30 hectares in Crépy-en-Valois. It's over 450,000 cubic meters of earthwork. As said this morning, after years of studies, we won the design, fabrication, and implementation of the 80 monopile steel foundation of the wind farm offshore of 480 megawatt in Saint-Nazaire. It's going to be the first in France. Concession sign, the half year has been highlighted by three breakthroughs within our strategy of diversification and extension of the length of our portfolio of concessions, focusing on territories on which we are sustainably implemented. We have been appointed bidder in Marseille, Provence, airport of Lille. We will do the missions of investment, maintenance, and operation for 20 years as of January 2020.
The project includes works of renovation and extension of the terminal to improve the welcome of the customers. Quality of service will be improved, thanks to a ramping up of many digital tools. All this will be implemented by the teams of the group. In June, we have been appointed preferred bidder for the road Centre Europe Atlantique in the region of Allier. The project of EUR 600 million is about the widening and up to standard of the highways of part of the National Road 79 between Sazeret and Digoin. This illustrates perfectly the relevance of our constructor model. We started exclusive negotiation to acquire the 49.91% owned by Casil Europe and the capital of the Aéroport de Toulouse-Blagnac, which is the concession owner of the third regional French airport, with the traffic of 9.6 million passengers in 2018.
This transaction has to be approved by the Conseil d'État on the compliance on the sale in 2014 of the state's shares to Casil Europe. We also look into small hydroelectricity project when they need upgrading to standards in the areas where our teams of Eiffage Génie Civil and Eiffage Énergie Systèmes are implanted. Eiffage Concessions also won the refurbishment market for the restoration of the building Îlot Péré in the third arrondissement of Paris. That will welcome the police station of Paris Centre. Eiffage Construction will provide the works for this prestige building, built first in 1908. For the past four months on the area of Dracé, on the motorway A6, APRR offers to the customers a new service area fully offering fuel at the prices equal to those outside of the motorway.
Customers understood what was the interest, and this station welcomed its 100,000th customer on August 13th. As of next year, this station will also be extended as a pleasure break. Group goes on developing internationally on two modes. The dynamic in organic growth and the support of the recent acquisition of our substantial implantation in Europe, and on the other side, our teams of Eiffage Énergie Systèmes infrastructure go on export mode projects, especially in Africa. In Poland, as you see on screen, we have finished the building of the welding factory of Volkswagen in Antoninek near Poznań, after only nine months of work. In Belgium, after three years and a half of work, the teams of Eiffage Construction delivered the mixed tower, The One, of 94 meter high in Brussels. The One offers a mix of uses with housing, offices, and shops within the same building.
In the Port of Antwerp, the teams of Eiffage Énergie Systèmes and Eiffage Métal finalized the flyover of the Schelde by a new high voltage line, which needed the implementation of 2 pylons of 192 meters high. In Senegal, Eiffage Énergie Systèmes implemented the extension of an electric ring of 225 kilovolts between Fatick and Keur Massar, west of the country. Projects implemented the construction of a transformation of Fatick, extension of the station of Keur Massar, and the aerial construction of 225 kilowatts of 47 kilometers between the two stations. In Switzerland, we started the residential work of Upgrade Wädenswil near Zurich. Total surface of 23,000 sq m for housing units and commercial buildings that will be implemented by summer 2020. Eiffage Métal, very active on offshore wind farms on North Sea.
In Germany, many projects of sound muffling walls have been implemented, as you have seen here also on the picture, near Hamburg. In Spain, our teams are implementing the sun farm of Núñez de Balboa. With 500 MW, it's the largest sun farm in Europe and able to deliver clean energy to 250,000 people. It will be commissioned in September 2020. Beyond the sustained activity, order intakes remain important with some major projects like the EPCI contract of marine infrastructures of the gas terminal of Greater Tortue Ahmeyim off the Senegal and Mauritania coast. Also the offshore wind farm of Moray East in Scotland, which is mobilizing several factories in the U.K., France, Belgium and Poland. Projects comprise the design, provision, and laying of 100 jacket foundations of 85 meters high and 1,000 tons each.
In Spain, our teams won the contract for the implementation of technical lots of the new hospital in Teruel. In Germany, a contract of over EUR 40 million for the modernization of the rail track Emmerich Oberhausen in Rhine, North Rhine-Westphalia. In Germany still, regarding concessions, we finalized the works on the motorway A94 that will be commission delivered in October. In Senegal, the motorway of the future, Autoroute de l'Avenir, is very successful with the growth of the traffic with 150,000 transactions per day. Teams are very mobilized on improving the service, security, and flow. In export mode in Benin, Eiffage Énergie Systèmes implemented two transformation and triple transformation stations north of the country in Kandi and Malanville, 800 kilometers away from Cotonou, the capital city. This will enable the implementation of a high voltage line feeding all the country that up to now was subjected to several cut-offs.
In Ghana, we delivered the port platform of 100 hectares in the port of Tema. North of Chile, the sun farm of Guatacondo, power 103 megawatts, implemented by our teams at Eiffage Énergie Systèmes. It's been delivered in April. It's one of the most important of the country, one of the 10 most important of the country. It was visited by Mrs. Susana Jiménez, Cabinet Minister of Energy in Chile. Djibouti, the teams of Eiffage Génie Civil go on with the works of desalination factory with a production of 35,000 cubic meters per day. This will be the main source of sweet water for the inhabitants of Djibouti. In Côte d'Ivoire, the teams of Eiffage Énergie Systèmes won three contracts, strengthening our sustainable situation in the country.
Nine electric stations in the city of Abidjan, restructuring of high voltage of Abidjan to enable the inhabitants to have an access to all the electric services, and the conception, design, construction of the dam of Singrobo-Ahouaty, have a capacity of 44 MW. Following this tour of France International of the activity of our various departments, I wish to focus on a topic which is dear to us. For the year 2019, we choose to strengthen our engagement and commitment to low carbon strategy. Beyond the digital transition I alluded to, we are convinced that the environmental transition, which is a fantastic opportunity for our different businesses. More projects are still acting as a catalyzer of solutions by all of our businesses. It's in this continuity that we have oriented our policy of innovation and our R&D investments toward the low carbon economy.
It's in this view that the group inspired of the TCFD process, Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, in its extra financial reporting as of this year. We signed a new facility of credit of EUR 2 billion. Margin of credit depends on the performance of the group in two social criteria and environmental criteria. We aim at a global reduction of greenhouse gas effects reduction on all our businesses. We have to be proactive to reduce our carbon footprint, as you see on the left side of the screen. Also as a player of construction, our role is to support our clients in their own process of reduction of their carbon footprint by developing alternate solution of substitution and deploying our solution low carbon in our office, as you can see on the right side of this slide.
I suggest to share very quickly some pillars of the commitments of this low-carbon strategy put forward by the group. This slide summarizes the levers enabling to act on our strategy, low-carbon, bearing on innovation, training, demonstration, support funds, and all this framed by a very mobilized governance. Allow me to put forward two concrete examples. The strengthening of the offsite line at the Eiffage Construction through internal innovation, but also acquisitions such as bathrooms HVA Concept, totally set up in factory with all the wirings and types, reducing the construction delays, reducing the waste on location, and all are recyclable. The last one on the left-hand side is called W'all-in-ood, because it's in wood. The acquisition on three production sites of Charpentes Françaises, specialized in the implementation of industrial frames and traditional frames, beams, and walls under the brand Savare.
It enables to have a vertical integration to better understand in depth those businesses. Finally, the acquisition of the company B3 Ecodesign, specialized in the transformation of containers out of use in places of habitation and housing units, a technique which is within a rationale of circular economy. Second example, the implementation with our partner, Impulse Partners, of the first French platform totally dedicated to materials, equipment, and low carbon processes that we have named Sekoya. Sekoya aims at enriching in all the solutions in the city and sustainable infrastructures, the array of low carbon solutions available to us and to our partners. To gain efficiency and consistency, but also in rapidity, we have started the creation of a French industrial club of low carbon, open to all those who contribute by their innovative capacity to the urgent mutation towards a low carbon economy.
Let's get back to the major figure of the half year. Revenue up by 11.6%. Operating profit at EUR 839 million, 3.7% progression, combined with a new significant increase of our financial debt, leading to a progression of 33.6% of net profit group share. F&D, EUR 10.7 billion. Intake is up 3%, up to EUR 15 billion. We confirm the perspective of progression of activity and results for 2019. Thank you for your attention. Invite Christian to give you the details of our financial elements. Thank you.
Good evening. Good evening to you all. I'll be commenting on the major figures that have just been given, beginning with our revenues. You see here that despite sluggish growth of all the concessions, the group's revenues are up by 11.6% thanks to the dynamic of the contracting work and essentially organic growth. Close to 11% due to internal in-house growth is remarkable. On the right-hand side, you see that the performance is well-balanced between international plus 13% and France plus 11%. Of course, you remember that in 2017-2018, it was the international development that was driving our business. Today, we have a more balanced growth. The increase of business concerns all our construction sectors, and I'll be commenting on these. On the right-hand side, you see the balance that I was referring to, that plus 13%, international plus 11%.
No difference in the share of the revenues, which is stable at 34%. International, in this first half, has been growing by the acquisitions that we undertook last year in the Netherlands and in Switzerland. Revenues is given on page 37 by country. The highlight, in addition to these acquisitions, is the strong growth in Spain, plus 45%. Following this, our operating results per branch are representative, of course, of what we're expecting for the year. Concessions is up 11% and works 16% with a 14% growth. Operational performance is driven by the dynamic of the volumes more than by the results of operations. This is in particular case for Construction, where margins are slightly down, whereas it is growing in other branches. The slowdown of the group's margin is essentially due to a change in the mix of constructions.
We're up on construction, and you see that the two sets are significantly improving their contribution to the group's operating profit, EUR 16 million and EUR 13 million. By sectors, we're up by 115% with the acquisition of Eiffage Suisse. In France, +20% growth. You see on the slide, 8% growth in France. Actually, it's 20% in property development and 5.8% in the works and construction. +5.8% in the construction work. You see that we benefit from Eiffage Construction because last year we were down -10%. You see that in residential, that is still bullish, and we are processing a number of mid-size commercial centers, a data center in Orange, and we could have had the teaching hospital in Brest. Also, this is a new structure in our work, these mid-size developments.
Construction in France is still suffering from the scissor effect, which is with the prices which are increasing in the Grand Paris region. The operating has an EBITDA of 30% in growth. What we note is that in this period of significant rise of construction cost, we can actually rely on sticking by our commitments, and promoters are having greater difficulty in mobilizing construction companies. This is the strength of our integrated model within Eiffage Construction. We begin this delivery of the Rue La Boétie office complex in the eighth district of Paris, 7,000 square meters, and has already received three architectural awards.
In particular, hosting today the law firm Gide. We also have very good momentum in Forclum Infrastructures with the ramping up of the Grand Paris Express, as we saw in pictures earlier, contributing to over EUR 300 million for the first half, compared to EUR 100 million last year. Also a road market that is generally bullish in these pre-electoral periods, hence the growth of 30%. Slower growth international, with a market that is still strong for public road transport in Germany. We are seeing also start up to the road in Carrión in Spain, with a slight slowdown of the offshore activity as well. Because of the phasing of the contract with Smulders, this is typical of this period of the year.
The traditionally negative result of the branch in this first half, sorry, the margin in the first half is down by -1%, but has benefited from the increased activity. We'll have a look now at the Paris ring road, where we are undertaking major work for the noise reduction bitumen on the Paris orbital road. In energy, growth is still strong, with a growth of 8.6%, driven by 12% organic, the gap between coming from Kropman in the Netherlands, which was included in the first half of 2018. Our Spanish subsidiaries are still growing, but our export margins are not quite as strong, even though we have seen some successful growth as well. In France, the growth is limited but still robust at 3.8%, and our business is actually quite stable across the regions and the specialities as we are traditionally producing.
In Brussels, we are undertaking the junction of the tunnels between the Nord-Midi station, and we're providing also the electrical supply, the fiber optic network, and fire detection centers, and the dynamic signaling and ventilation of the tunnel. This was put into service, commissioned on the 10th of April last. For our concessions, let's begin with APRR, which continuing to grow with traffic that is suffering in the slowdown of light vehicles. The EBITDA margin comes to 76.4%, and we're continuing our program for investment for the motorway restructuring with the A75 in Clermont-Ferrand and the A480 in Grenoble. We shall see this in the financial investment flows. Our concessions in France are slowing down slightly at -2%, but growing on the A65. The Avenir motorway in Senegal is still a great success, and overall profitability of our concessions is improving. We've talked about our construction PPPs.
We have on the right-hand side here, the arena in Reims, and also an aqua center in Amiens, which went ahead very well and was delivered. To summarize, on our income statement, I've given you the main figures. For other operating expenses, reduction of our net debt, essentially with APRR and EFRI. This is essentially due to the comparison to June 2018, when we still had a hedging contract and the financial charge is now properly standardized. Other financial income expenses go from EUR -12 million to EUR +3 million, essentially driven by the dividend received for Getlink for EUR 10 million, which is not yet consolidated. This is a financial income.
We have the negative impact of the transformation of CICE, the special French government measures for taxing corporate profits, impacted also by the inclusion on the 30th of June of a 30.02% charge, whereas in full year, we would have a rate of 34%. The corporate tax is slightly down, therefore, in France. For the full year period, we need to take into account a higher tax rate than in 2018, it was 32.5%, because it will be degraded by the transformation of the CICE tax. In total, you see that our net income is at EUR 290 million, and the good performance of the first half. Also, let me remind you that there are specific factors, in particular the corporation tax, and also the decline of the AREA June 2018. There will no longer be any involvement of that.
The Impact Link, which is fully included in the first half of 2019. For our balance sheet, no major change in the aggregates. We have EUR 53 million for EUR 13.3 billion. The main change is the presentation of accounts of the new IFRS 16, which needs to take into a passive financial debt for our intangible assets. We have a debt for under IFRS 16 was EUR 777 million, whereas in the past it would have been a period of some EUR 300 million-EUR 350 million. This IFRS 16 debt, being a non-backed one, is not contracted with bankers. We have chosen to analyze our net debt, excluding IFRS 16, as most of our competitors have been doing. In the bridge of the evolution of our debt that we are presenting, we have EUR 10.544 billion net debt.
To be clear and consistent, we remind you the leasing debt, which stood at EUR 359 million. It's in the gray colors here. The net debt figures at EUR 10.185 billion, which is going to EUR 10.7 billion. The generation of EBITDA for the half is growing by 13%, restated for the impact of IFRS 16. The working capital requirement variation is close to what it was in the 1st September 2018, slightly down EUR 500 million if we look at contracting only, which was EUR 536 million in 2018. Interest and taxes, of course, down with the significant decline of the financial interest paid. Investments of production tools in contracting at EUR 110 million, slightly up because of mobilization of the Grand Paris Express and the acquisition of the tunneling boring machines. The investments in concessions of EUR 235 million compared to EUR 185 million last year, essentially at APRR.
This leads us to a free cash flow of negative EUR 135 million. It is traditionally negative in the first half. It was negative by EUR 221 million first half last year. In terms of acquisitions, we've had relatively limited external growth, as we announced. We said we want to give 2019 for dedicating it to the integration of our acquisitions. With that, with the Meccoli rail company, as we saw in the introductory remarks. Variations there flow are not significant, but operations in capital include moving some securities and dividends paid by Eiffage to minority shareholders in the controlled companies. Also, of course, an increased dividend to its shareholders of EUR 2.14 compared to EUR 2 last year. This leads to an increase of EUR 37 million. This leads to a net debt of EUR 10.7 billion compared to EUR 10.2 billion restated at the introduction.
Remind you here on the left, debt in full year with the historical figures that have been posted. On the 30th of June, we see the debt of EUR 10 million with the black debt is detailed on page 38. If you look at the evolution over 12 months, restating the leasing debt, we published at the end of June a debt of EUR 11 billion, of which EUR 316 million for leasing. We had a stable debt compared to between the two periods. This stability still includes the increased investments, in particular the increased stake in Getlink and the quarries in France. At the beginning of the year, the EUR 39 million for Meccoli. This is our buyback program for the 12 months. Of course, this have the counterpart on the free cash flow of the group and leads to this stable debt at EUR 10.7 billion.
I'm sorry, I was a bit long on our IFRS 16, but I think it was necessary. The order of magnitude is a significant computed debt, and in particular, the variation of debt and the cash generation over a year. The standard doesn't have any significant impact on our results, with the exception of EBITDA, as mentioned in the bridge. We will conclude with our order book at EUR 15 billion. It's historically high, stable in construction. We haven't had any new major contracts, but our ongoing contracts are regularly being renewed. The increase in infrastructure is due to the road contract in France, but also the main contracts, Moray in particular. In energy systems, as in construction, we are renewing our logbook. You can see this is growing by 3% in total, despite the consumption of the contracts under the Grand Paris Express.
With that, I've finished with the detail and the figures, and now leave it open to you to ask your questions.
Good afternoon. I have two questions. The first concerns the Lille Lesquin, the Lille Airport. You were rather brief with the figures. Could we have some elements about the amount of the investment and the turnover, EBITDA, and passenger flows, and also maybe the fees that you've had to pay back to your predecessors, SANEF, who used to pay fees, and what are your commitments of Eiffage Concessions? Also, could we have figures for your outlook for investment for the full year 2019, and in particular, that of P2R? Thank you.
Maybe first, on the first question on the Lille Airport, the call for tender was designed that we merely bought the part of the non-amortized capital of the last year.
The acquisition itself is very limited, less than EUR 5 million. That we are committed to an investment program of some EUR 100 million, and we're expecting some EUR 20 million the first years, and then three years with that after that. We have also figures that depend, of course, on the increase in traffic over the 20 years. We will still need some additional extension CapEx. The first fundamental commitment is EUR 100 million spread out over four years, one year at EUR 20, and three years taking the balance. The principle after that is that beyond a certain threshold of revenues, we share that with Smalling, and these will be under the same conditions as previously. The turnover is roughly EUR 30 million. We don't communicate by asset. That was as much information as we can give you at this stage.
Well, we can suppose that Eiffage is going to be improving the industrial performance of its assets. Well, look, there are various elements. We have prepared this bid with a lot of precision to define what were the investments that we felt were important to support the growth, and we were involved, of course, with the experience of the teams at the Marseille Airport. Based on this development plan, we're undertaking these investments, and as I said earlier, these investments, €100 million, will be undertaken by the group's contracting teams. The historical value of our concessions essentially lie in the work that we undertake to begin with. That's how we are used to communicating about this.
For your budgets of investment, well, for work, it's EUR 110 million, to doubling up with Grand Paris and the acquisition of the tunneling machines, it should be some in excess of EUR 250 million, excluding the IFRS 16 impact. Outside of APRR that Philippe will be referring to, we only have building construction PPPs some EUR 60 million. Something quite limited therefore. Philippe, would you like to add to this? Good evening to you all. This year, 2019, corresponds to the peak of investments. I think when we met in February, we said that we reckoned the investment for 2019 at EUR 550 million. I confirm today this budget envelope of EUR 550 million. I can assure you that we will be slowing down next year with an estimate of EUR 450 million in 2020 and some EUR 400 million in 2021.
Just to be exhaustive, of course, this does not include new concessions, of course. Which case, of course, there would be, if we do sign the RCEA contract at the end of the year, you could well imagine that we'd have an investment of additional EUR 200 million in 2020.
Good evening. Pierre Rousseau, HSBC. I have two questions. The first is on the evolution of margins in construction, in particular in France last year, because of the electoral period and the disappearance of certain fiscal niches. How do you see the margins moving in construction for H2 and next year? My other question is, I've seen that you had to bring down your prices from XAF 3 million to XAF 2 million. Where do we stand now, exactly?
Yes, good evening. On the margins in construction, Christian was saying that we were still suffering on a number of contracts, so the end of the scissor effect. For some time now, we are saying that the market is competitive, and it is still the case, despite the fact that we are seeing some signs of take-up in certain regions. In particular, with the electoral period, our revenues only consist of some 30% of public contracts, and we feel that the electoral cycle will not have much or any effect at all on our general turnover in construction. For the Senegal motorway, the Autoroute de l'Avenir, it is just we have had a request from the government, but that was already the case when we met last time in February.
We undertook this decline, we have a proposal for compensation that is currently being discussed, which obviously would imply the extension of our concession. You've seen that in fact, the traffic has been very positive in reaction to these lower tariffs.
David Gremm, Barclays. I have three questions, two on concessions. The first one, I'd like to come back to the lowering of the margin of APRR, it seemed that you were expecting a higher impact in this first half. I'm somewhat surprised by the evolution of the margin. Do you have any explanations for this slower growth? Even though the traffic is lower. I have another question on Millau. It's been several quarters that we've seen traffic slowing down. What's happening there? What are you doing to try and counteract this trend?
My last question concerns on your road business. How do you see 2020? I know it's still early, and obviously there'll be changes after the municipal elections, but are you expecting a take-up of new business, or are you hoping that the decline will be slower than in previous cycles? Philippe, maybe? Concerning our EBITDA margin, the progress over this first half is consistent with that of past years. The extension was quite significant, contrary to what you said. Maybe not the same level of 2019, but it is one of the longest winter season years of these recent years. EBITDA margin for the first half is not necessarily significant of what it will be at the end of the year, even though we are already anticipating growth for the full fiscal period.
Concerning the traffic on the Millau viaduct, indeed, you've noted that there is a downturn of the traffic. I must say that the summer traffic is not better. It's still of the same order. We are currently studying this. We are looking at the issue. We would like to understand if this is just a local issue or rather a transfer of people traveling on other motorways. We're currently studying these different trends. Laurent, could you give us some news about the motorway structure? You haven't often met him. I'd like to introduce Laurent Girou, who is the Chair of our Motorway Division. Just concerning the growth of business in 2020, today, we are reasonably optimistic. Let me explain why.
You know that our business depends a lot on local authorities, you know that the general fiscal health and budget health of our local authorities has significantly improved. People now have cash. They have a capacity to invest. The general layout has changed because now we have major conurbations that are less sensitive to municipal election effects. Because of this, we are expecting 2020 to be slightly up compared to 2019. The forecast today in terms of investment of local authorities is plus 1.5% increase in 2020 compared to 2019, then there's the rest of the business. We have these major projects such as Grand Paris, which is going to have direct impact on our business. It's very underground, of course, which goes without saying, it clearly is advancing well, we are relatively optimistic for 2020.
We could also add to this that we're far more flexible than in the past, and we have kept a lower headcount than in the past. I think that the general organization is much more capable of anticipating a slowdown.
Stephanie D'Ath, the Royal Bank of Canada. Three questions. First, regarding the targets of end-year remaining slightly vague, could you elaborate on that, on the margins of the various lines of business? Can we expect the trends of the first half year to be carried on in the second half year? Second question is the scissor effect you mentioned for the construction. Are we right for the projects of Grand Paris? You have contracts that are adjusted properly. The third question is about your investment in the Getlink. You paid over EUR 11. Are you interested in acquiring more shares and at which price?
Easy, your last question, right? On the scissor effect, you're absolutely correct. We suffer a lot more in private markets and in building because they are on longer periods, and they are non-changeable. In the major markets on civil engineering, it's indexed markets, so we have lighter, smaller effects. On the end year targets, you understood the trends. The fact that our intake order is positive, we see no major reversions. The major problems we have with the slight subsidence of the construction will not be finished in a few months. However, we go on improving on infrastructure. We enjoy the volumes, but remember, I explained in the past on the major project of Grand Paris, we're enjoying volumes, but we have still a lot of risks. The recognition of profitability is in the future, but the volume is positive and enables to improve profitability.
On energy system, we go on working because we're not yet the best. We're still working to improve our profitability. On Getlink, you're right, and you questioned about the average price at which we acquired Getlink. I insist again, it's a concession for 2086, long-term. The entrance price seems important compared to the creation of value. We didn't change the terms of our communiqué of last December, which are still right. At the scale of a concession for 2086, it's okay. We're still ready to improve our participation, but it will depend on the price of the share.
Virginie Rousseau, Oddo BHF. Two questions. One quick one about the motorway traffic in summer. Second quarter, as expected, was decreasing according to the base effects. What happened in July and in August? Next question, more strategic and wider question. You wish to make two operations in airports on the half year. We could be surprised by this timing. Some of your competitors invested earlier. The price of assets is rather high. What's interesting you in this kind of assets on Lille, we understand the works part. On Toulouse, how do you think you will create some value? More globally, you were saying that you would be interested in investing in geographies where you are present for quite a long time. Does it mean to say that you could acquire airports in Senegal, in Belgium or elsewhere? Philippe.
On the summer traffic on the motorways. Yeah. 2019 is slightly special in terms of traffic analysis. Last year, we had two exceptional elements with the railroad strike and the
Yellow jackets at the end of the year. We have to be very cautious regarding the gross figures appearing, especially the one in June. August is not over yet. We still have one very important weekend, which is the weekend of the people coming back to work. If you look July, August, we are on traffic that will be slightly inferior to the one of last year. It's mainly July, which was disappointing, probably because of a heat wave right smack at the middle of the month. We had a very low traffic by July 14th, and in July 14th, we had a base effect due to the strike of the railway. Because of reservation upstream to have attractive prices, people, in spite of all, took the road instead of taking the train. We have a negative impact on July on the summer traffic.
To get back on the concession strategy, I alluded to it earlier. I don't wish to talk about a airport strategy. No. It's to get back to the positioning of the group and the balance of the group, which is at the same time, concession on the one hand, works, construction on the other hand. What's of importance to us is to focus on elements, so that the whole of the value chain could be mobilized easily. For us, the first risk of the concession bidder is a political risk. It's not a risk we can eradicate just like that. We're convinced of being a player on the territory, an important employer, an important player in the economy of the region, in charge of a social economy responsibility, strengthens its presence and make it more understand this balance between concession and works on the other hand.
Hence, the political risk for a concession, which is in a place where we are a recognized player for quite a long time, like in Senegal, is totally different from the fact that if we would be a financial investor from far away, a remote one. This being said, we wish on the medium-long term, maintain this balance between works and concessions. A very significant part, and we're close to this balance in contribution net result of the Group by our two activities, works and concessions. In the territories where we are for quite a long period of time, we can also be a concession owner if you do some works. You have motorways, you have airports, you have small hydroelectric concessions, and this is the approach we led.
If I resume with the example of the Lille airport, there is a work aspect which is right away for the territory of this region to be basically the partner and the basic contractor for the development of the airport in the region. It has a very strong impact for the region, for all our lines. The region and the conurbation is everyday clients when you do housing units and all that. The fact of working and be part of a basic part of the work in the region is very important. Our first wealth is the men and women of the company. Having a company present in concession and in the works in a given territory makes it very attractive for the people in this territory.
I think that Senegal proves it every day as the vision of Eiffage in Senegal is totally different since we built this Autoroute de l'Avenir, this motorway. Conversely, this position of the concession owner of the motorway is justified by the fact that Eiffage is a major employer in the economy of Senegal with a clear social responsibility, and will go on. Where you're right is that in the future, the assets in concession in Länder in Germany were very present because in Germany, you have to look at the Länders, not at Germany as a whole, would be interested in that. Same as for Belgium. I hope I was clear enough in my explanations.
Hello. Josep Pujal, Kepler Cheuvreux. Three questions. One, on the scissor effect of construction. Can you be more specific on the items, on the costs?
Have there been specific costs for materials, salaries, something specific, or is it all the costs that were submitted to inflation? My second question is on the margin of infrastructure, which is improving in margin. When you come up with a ratio between the growth of the revenue, EUR 500 million more than first half year last year, and that the net profit decreases. Is there something else? Is it the right way to look at things, or should it be seen on an annual basis? Another question, the railroad activity, which is expanding, has margins which are superior or inferior to the infrastructure line of business. A last one, we read recently that there was a lack of bituminous material in France. Is it impacting you?
On the first question regarding the scissor effect, I'll give you an example.
First example, what's happening in defense and a certain amount of provision of equipment or small rental of equipment, you have a boom of activity, which is very important by the projects of Grand Paris Express. It involves an inflation on the costs. It makes it that building suffer, construction suffers because of the boom of other businesses in the same area. That explains that. In some businesses intention, you have also pressures from a salary point of view. The third element on construction, a certain amount of providers in the chain of provision are working on shorter periods. During the bid, the call for tender, they said they would be able to do something for a certain price. After half a year, their capacity is to have better markets.
Since there is an increase of activity, you lose a certain amount of subcontractors who will go on more recent contracts with better prices. If you look at what's happening with the building contractors, they all suffer due to an increase in the prices. Today, the real issue, and we're not there yet, is to successfully report the costs onto our final customers. We are lagging slightly behind, hence the scissor effect. On the margin infrastructure, I think that on the half year, it's not representative. We're still on negative margins. The only element I'd like to put forward, but we alluded to that earlier, is that enormous part of this growth in revenue comes from the works on the Grand Paris. We do not push on the margins. It's revenues that are with zero margin.
They have a direct effect on the calculation you're making. What's important is to look at on a full year, which is more significant. Rail is still a specialty sector. It's very demanding. We were looking to reinforce our capacities now because we didn't have certain resources that were fundamental required to be a strategic partner for SNCF Réseau, the network manager. Of course, it's a very specialist work, but it's also a business in which there are not that many clients. We have to be totally dedicated to those clients day and night, and above all, at night, in order to be capable of delivering the margins required for this type of business, which are highly specialized and where we expect for higher profitability. For the bitumen aspect, let me ask Laurent to give you the answers. Well, for bitumen, it's true.
The situation is somewhat tense. We have peak periods. It's June, July, and then September, October. That's when you have the highest consumption of bitumen, some 300 tons, a bit less maybe in June, October. We had a lot of problems in the refineries in France in the first half. You know that there are not that many refineries in France because they've been reduced in half over the past 10 years. This immediately creates problems. We were rather concerned for July. Pretty much it turned out relatively normal. We just had to offset certain projects which were pushed back to August, maybe. We're keeping our eye open because if a refinery were to stop again, a shutdown for technical maintenance in September, it obviously would have negative repercussions for us.
We could still encounter a tense situation in September.
We will remain very watchful here and very close, breathing on down the necks of our suppliers to make sure that we have what we need.
Yes. Good evening, Eric Lemonnier. Just one question on HS2. There's been a lot of articles in the British press, and also in the French press, concerning this project, which according to some commentators, might be even canceled or at least amended by the Johnson government. You've had study and contract effects and the expenses. What would be the compensation for you were the project to be actually canceled? Thank you. Let me take the opportunity also to introduce Guillaume Sauvé, who is in charge of Eiffage Génie and Eiffage Métal, to give you an answer about HS2. Yes. Good evening to you all. Yes, it's true, there've been a lot of comments in the press on HS2.
It's a project in which we are extremely cautious. We've been advancing for some two and a half years, with teams working on this very carefully in the study of this British contract. Today, in our order book, we're only taking what is guaranteed. For the moment, this gives us a visibility that is cautious. I read the press like you do. It's true that we're also in contact with the client, who was expecting the announced audit following the change in the British government, so it's not a surprise as such. They confirmed last Friday that they were ready to face the audit, and well, that's where we stand for the moment. They even confirmed to ask us to keep our study teams on the ball for a few additional months.
Good evening. Nicolas Mora, Morgan Stanley.
I have a few questions concerning your property development. First half of the year was relatively good, with a market that seems to be slowing down in France, and there's a slightly lower supply, but I know it's very volatile. Is this basically a growth year that you expect, and where we could expect good years in terms of revenues? The second question is, again, to come back on your margins in infrastructure, in particular roads, where you are historically lagging behind people like Nicolas and Eurovia, and the activity is in full boom. This would seem to be the good year to come out with acceptable margins. Could we expect that you will compensate the zero margin projects in the Grand Paris Express? Could you give us some ideas on what you have in the pipeline for your major projects?
We saw the information this morning concerning the offshore project in Saint-Nazaire. Are there others like Grand Paris or in Africa where there's a constant need for renewing the order book? We see that it's somewhat sluggish. Is there anything moving in that area? Well, Olivier, maybe for the property development? Well, yes, percentages are important, but you need to come back to the actual figures. We did 300 additional housing units by the end of June. Whether you do them in June or July, of course, changes the percentages. Whereas I wasn't worried for work, but for electoral periods, in electoral periods are necessary a slowdown because we are no longer receiving any construction permits. We're expecting some decline in the reservations for 2020, 2021, and even maybe already in 2019.
I've already had the opportunity to say that with some 4,000 to 5,000 housing units per year, we only pay 4% in the market. The idea is more a question of renewing our portfolio and creating new business, rather than trying to find out whether the macro market is growing by plus or less 10%. It's not what's going to impact us so much. All the more so, as I'd already explained on other occasions, that our developer activity gives us medium-term visibility that other promoters don't necessarily have. Much then for our vision of the property development market. For roads, well, there's something that you need to bear in mind, that the margin of road manufacturer is very dependent on their industrial power, and Eiffage Route doesn't have the same industrial clout as Colas and Eurovia now.
We don't have the same fallout coming from quarries and the bitumen. Laurent is absolutely right when he say that it's a year when we should be able to produce significantly better than usual. I would have let him answer, but I could have done it in his place. Now, another comment on our order book. The 3% may seem low as such, but don't forget that last year, we brought in the order of the Line 16 batch, which we did at EUR 60 million. Now we have lower orders in terms of infrastructure today, but we're doing it for much smaller projects, and we haven't at all lost that EUR 1.7 billion, which could have had a one-off scale effect. Whereas today, we're continuing to add to our order book.
Of course, we've had the offshore wind farms that we were talking about this morning, and we don't know what may appear in the U.K., but our two contracts in the U.K. that weigh over EUR 1 billion, not included. We own the A3 motorway in Germany, which weighs EUR 3 billion. We have BAFA again at the end of October, so we should get a decision by the end of the year or beginning of next year. In Africa, we have contracts that are not quite as large. For us, in the short term, what was important was to have a new dynamic in the energy systems branch, where, as you've seen, there was sluggish order take in distribution posts in Africa. We have renewed a lot of contracts in the first half and even a few others which are currently in conclusion phase.
I think that the real issue behind your question is the fact that it will not affect the base effect of the EUR 1.7 billion for Line 16 last year. We have more problems in ensuring that we'll continue to grow the headcount, and train people, and make our workers happy, than actually finding new contracts. That is our very positive dynamic today. Under Guillaume's leadership, the teams are going to be working on the new phase of the new calls for tender for the Grand Paris Express, and Guillaume, in September, will be involved in this. Yes. The Grand Paris company has redefined its project, and they have selected their contract managing consultant on the end of July, and that's Systra. They will be providing this assistance, and this is now going to lead to large calls for tender at the beginning of 2020.
We are monitoring these, and it's going to be design and production. For Line 16, as we already said, which is the largest batch currently in the work, is truly an asset that we'll be able to capitalize already on this new phase of tenders in 2020. It's going to be enabling us to stay very present, very close to the ground in France, and also for RCEA as well. If I may, a last comment on M&As. You talked about a year, a digestive year with the recent acquisitions. Do you not feel capable of continuing to feed the acquisition flow, in particular in energy? It's a market that is still quite splintered. You have Lille now, you have Toulouse, and we get the feeling that you would be strong enough to add more in the energy division.
Well, that is indeed the case. The problem is having the right women, the right men to do this, the right teams to do this. We want to make sure that the people joining us share the same values. We're a family. We're not just a big anonymous machine. We felt it was important. We're still doing some small acquisitions. There still are some, but not as significant as what we did in 2018. In 2018, they were more significant acquisitions, but also entering new countries. We felt it was all the more important to actually settle them properly and be able to show that we were indeed creating value with these acquisitions. We are extremely pleased with what's happening. Of course, we will be willing to continue in the future after this wave of smaller acquisitions.
Which, as I said, are not as significant as the ones you've seen in the past. In energy in particular, we are keen to continue and making sure that we have the fair value of these acquisitions rather than going through none or illogical acquisitions. Any other question? In such case, thank you. You've been invited, as well as the drink, to have some recent innovations delivered by the teams of the motorway concessions, and we'll meet in the upper room. Thank you again.