Good evening to all. Thanks for being present at this meeting of Presentation of the Annual Results of the Eiffage Group. I commend the presence of members of the management and the board members who are with us this evening. 2025 concluded on the same trends as the one we had already observed end of June 2025, during our last publication, half-year publication. In spite of the ongoing tension in geopolitical area, the trends of sovereignty for industry, energy, and development of new mobilities remain very powerful growth and for the medium and long term drives. It's a very good year again for the group. Lines of business growing strongly improve their profitability.
To be noticed, the performance of Eiffage Énergie Systèmes, who overshoots the perspective that we had told you about, slightly in volume and more important in profitability. This path of the group has been commanded by its integration to the CAC 40 of the Paris Stock Exchange, end of December. A recognition appreciated by all of our employees and our partners, and an encouragement to follow our strategy based on the complementarity of our businesses and our geographical focus, so as to strengthen our positioning as one of the European leaders of the businesses of construction, real estate, service to energy, and concessions.
At a time when Europe seeks to strengthen its sovereignty while speeding up its energy transition, the group enjoys very good assets, initiated for some of them since many decades. First and foremost, the positioning of the group as a very large European player of the renewable energies. As said in the past years, the group remains the first sun farm installer in Europe. We delivered numerous stations in 2025 in France, Spain, Italy, Ireland, and we have more than renewed our book of order. Those stations are also going together with operational contracts and maintenance, as well as linking to the network. Stations of Cabra and Olivar in Spain are a perfect illustration of that.
Beyond the ground farms, many projects of self-consumptions are being developed in the European countries. We were awarded an installation for the Minister of Ecological Transition in Madrid, aimed at reducing the release and improve the energy efficiency of this public building. You can see on this picture, right-hand side, the sun farm on metal framing installed by our teams in Rouen, above the parking lot of a bus depot, fueling or feeding electricity to a mechanical workshop and offices. We're also very active on wind farms, onshore masts for the wind farms, and also the rolling out of fields with Eiffage system and Eiffage Énergie Systèmes in France and in Spain.
We were awarded two major contracts for the construction of two onshore wind farms in Castilla y León, Spain, for a global amount of EUR 80 million, at a total capacity of 270 MW of renewable energy. Beyond the sun farms, well, our teams are also ramped up on the rolling out of capacity of storage of energy, a major challenge for resilience of the networks. In the north of France, Eiffage Énergie Systèmes ensures the design, engineering, and building of installation of a energy storage station and its high voltage station, but also maintenance and operation, together with the provider of batteries and Envision Energy.
This station of 50 MW will enable to store energy when the RTE network would be in overcapacity and be able to reinject up to 100 MWh , once or twice a day, during 15 years. In Belgium, mobilization of expertise of several of our entities of Eiffage Énergie Systèmes and Eiffage Construction enabled us to win the contract for the implementation of a storage station with batteries of the Tesla technology. Our Spanish teams started installation of a new system of storage with recycled batteries and new batteries from electric cars in a sun farm in Extremadura.
The challenge was to analyze the performance and the behavior of recycled battery compared to new batteries, contributing to the promotion and development of circular economy. Eiffage concession through Sun'R is active in development, operation, and maintenance of sun farms in France, with a installed electric power of 150 MW. Sun'R won in grouping on the Airport of Toulouse -Blagnac, a project aimed to revalue areas on the airport area, with a sun farm of 56 MW. Right-hand side, the solar revision of a parking of HVs of Montbartier, operated by Park +. Works are being made by Eiffage Group and Eiffage Énergie Systèmes.
Second part, our positioning as a European leader on the market of metal frameworks offshore. Thanks to our Belgian entity, Smulders, which is a subsidiary of Eiffage Métal. Offshore wind farms remains a essential lever for the energy sovereignty strategy, especially on the North and Baltic Sea. Its questioning in the United States is not impacting us since we have no locations there. Smulders has an unequaled capacity in Europe, with factories specialized on offshore in Belgium, UK, Poland, Netherlands, France. On screen, the location of Hoboken. Smulders implemented 40 substations and over 2,500 pieces of transition.
It was awarded in 2025, the market for the development and building of three electrical substations to link three wind farms in France for an amount of over EUR 1.5 billion. Those three substations, with a capacity of 750 MW each, will enable to be linking the transport of electricity of over 2 GW of decarboned electricity. We also took part in the pilot floating wind farm. Each one of them has been built on Fos-sur-Mer, and each one is 10 MW of power. The park will provide green electricity to 50,000 households per year. We went on with our strategy of development, with the acquisition in 2025 of HSM Offshore Energy in the Netherlands.
Acquisition, strengthening our expertise on the offshore wind farms, enabling us, beyond the structures, framework, metal framework, to consolidate our capacity in EPC on the substations. Other asset, our participation to the program of the French nuclear program, with the preparation works on EPR2 in Penly, mobilizing over 1,500 employees at Eiffage Génie Civil Eiffage Métal. In parallel, Eiffage Immobilier develops capacity of housing for the employees of on the work site, and Eiffage Énergie Systèmes goes on with studies to contract generators, diesel generators, for the EPR2 of Penly, Gravelines, and Bugey. Beyond that, our teams are active for some years on the nuclear park all through France.
They participate in the installation of EDF on new cells of high voltage on the DUS of 25 nuclear reactors and contribute thence to the robustness of the French nuclear stations. Beyond the projects, over the framing of the extension of the life cycle, we also intervene on operations of classical maintenance. You see on the screen the Blaye, where we have been awarded the renewal of our contract of maintenance for 10 years. This market covers the strategic equipments for the safety of installations and mobilize over 20 employees for the implementation of training work site as to train the workers in real conditions and enable the onboarding of new employees.
We also have, with our subsidiary, Tabelec, in Toulouse, a capacity of design and construction of electric boards, very specific, especially for the nuclear market. In 2025, Tabelec designed and manufactured boards for the nuclear central, nuclear power point, Hinkley Point in the U.K. Beyond this exposure to the wind farms, sun farms, and nuclear, the challenges of ecological transition and of electricity are supporting our entities of transport and distribution of electricity, very present in France, Spain, Germany, Austria. Through the acquisition of EQOS, we're one of the major players who participate in the strengthening and the maintenance of the electrical European networks, made even more so necessary by the increase of the renewable energy sources.
We do also operations in export, mainly in Africa and Central and South America. On screen, Eiffage Énergie Systèmes installed switches, non-polluting, on a high voltage station in the area of Arm. We saved 1,000 tons of equivalent CO2 in the framework of modernization of the high voltage stations of EDF. To summarize, Eiffage positioned itself on this market 20 years ago. During this strong development, we are really supported by the growth, our global exposure having reached EUR 3.3 billion in the works in 2025. Beyond production and transport and storage of energy, European energy sovereignty is also supported by the improvement of the energy performance of our buildings, our factories, and our infrastructures.
The branch Énergie Systèmes is also very active in the maintenance and optimization of the buildings. On screen, programming and implementation of the lighting system in several buildings of the Bank of Spain, realized by the teams of Eiffage Énergie Systèmes . Building side, crisis of energy in the past years acted as an accelerator for looking for energy efficiency and generated a very strong dynamic in terms of renovation in tertiary and as well as in building. Eiffage Construction saw an intake of EUR 450 million of order book, about the renovation of housing units in France.
Contract of design realization, 1 September for the refurbishing of 620 units, an occupied site in Rouen. Eiffage Construction also launched, at the end of the year, the refurbishing of 360 housing units in the area of Saige in Pessac. This huge program will give a new life to all of those buildings while improving the quality of life of the inhabitants. The refurbished households will have an energy consumption below 90 KWh per square meter. The teams of Eiffage Énergie Systèmes support the Hôpital Saint Joseph Saint Luc in Lyon, in order to obtain a contract of energy and environmental performance for 10 years.
An ambitious partnership aiming of a reduction of 40% of energy consumption per year of this hospital, while securing its technical infrastructures. Our concessions are also active on the renovation with the Nové project, which beyond the construction of over 2,500 housing units, are also refurbishing over 7,500 housing units for the families. Having said about the elements, illustrating the force, the strong exposure of the group to the themes of sovereignty, energy, and transition, it seems interesting to talk about another asset explaining the growth of the group. Its strong exposure to the traction in our sectors of several major countries in Europe: Germany, Spain, U.K. Sorry, Netherlands.
Spain is our larger country of activity after. Sorry, Germany is now our greatest country of activity after France, with 10,000 employees and sales of EUR 2.5 billion, covering all our works and concessions. In project 125, Smulders and HSM generated EUR 300 million activities in Germany, bearing on the Belgian and Dutch factories. At a time when the German government said it wishes to invest massively in its infrastructures for the decade to come, the group is very well positioned to enjoy part of it. Among the many contracts won on the first half-year, EQOS signed an important market for the building of high voltage lines and the replacement of cables on 31 km that will increase the capacity of transport of the electric network.
SEH, German subsidiary of Eiffage Métal, won a contract for the construction of the new metal bridge on Levensau, on the channel of Kiel. The new contract illustrates the recognition of the know-how of Eiffage Métal on the civil engineering works in Germany. Through the recovery plan for the renovation of German infrastructure, Eiffage Métal enjoys a very strong book of order. Eiffage Infra-Bau finalizes the works on the motorway A3 for the Eiffage Concessions through a German contract of the type A-Model. Beyond organic growth and after the phase of integration of EQOS and Salvia, Eiffage Énergie Systèmes continued to strengthen itself by external growth and by acquisition of small companies and goodwill that are strengthening specialties or new territorial matching.
In 2025, beginning of 2026, we have thus acquired IFT, Esacom, HTW, Stump Spezialtiefbau, and the goodwill of Claus Heinemann Elektroanlagen. Those five acquisitions represent, in a full year, sales of over EUR 90 million and a headcount of 440 people. Second country with a strong traction, Spain. We make there EUR 1.6 billion of sales in the works of services to energy, road, civil engineering, and metal, with a headcount of 7,200 employees. Our teams of Eiffage Construction won, in groupement, the contract for design and construction of the new car race circuit, F1 in Madrid, as well as a second contract for the new buildings and temporary structures aimed to host the booths during the Grand Prix of Spain in 2026.
Eiffage Énergie Systèmes has a national coverage in Spain, very present on wind farms, sun farms, and transport and distribution of energy, while being the first company to maintain the national network. It's also present on the tertiary market and service to collectivities. As to strengthen its positioning on industry, Eiffage Energía Sistemas acquired three companies: CVS specialized in solutions of refrigeration for industry, M3i Controls and Inmotechnia specialized in the control systems. Third country with a strong traction, the Netherlands. Eiffage Énergie Systèmes entered through the acquisition of Kropman in 2018, with sales of EUR 150 million and 800 employees.
Following several acquisitions and organic growth, Eiffage Énergie Systèmes has now over 2,000 employees and sales over EUR 400 million in this country. In 2025, with the acquisition of HSM Offshore Energy, Eiffage Métal now has a long-standing location in the Netherlands, with two factories and over 150 employees. One example on screen, Eiffage Energy System implemented in six weeks only the total replacement of the alarm fire system of the theater of De Tamboer in the northern Netherlands. To summarize, Eiffage enjoys the strong traction for our markets of Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands. Those three countries represented EUR 5 billion of activity in the works in 2025.
Beyond those three countries with a strong traction, the Group enjoys its historic French base, solid, robust, and in growth. Of Belgium, where we are the second actor of the country in our works. We build and group in the new General Headquarters of Defense in Brussels. The Belgian teams are also working in the port of Antwerp and Bruges, the second greatest port in Europe. Herbosch-Kiere participates in the works of modernization of the Europa Terminal that will increase its capacity by one third, but also towards a transition of a climate-neutral port. Three stages in nine years, so that the terminal will remain operational.
Eiffage Énergie Systèmes transforms the port in a connected and smart space, thanks to installation of IoT sensors and a new software infrastructure. Teams of Valence were awarded the market of construction for the new buildings of the school, Leonardo da Vinci, in Brussels. Real estate teams signed a bulk sale of 80 housing units, enabling Perrard to start the new works in the future neighborhood of Belval in Luxembourg. After having talked about the exposure to the dynamic of some markets in some countries, another asset of the group, thanks to the capacity of its organization, is to know how to mobilize efficiently the complementarity of its businesses to make the difference on several large-sized contracts.
First example, within the construction, the integrated model, developer, promoter, builder, proved its strength, enabled this line of business to face the very significant decrease in real estate. Eiffage Aménagement achieved by the end of the year, the main works of infrastructure of the Îlot du Ponant , a project of urban redevelopment with the transformation of a former brown land into a top residential area. Eiffage Immobilier in Poland started the transformation of a former streetcar depot in Poznań, an operation of urban redevelopment that will see the total renovation of the depot, as well as the historic buildings made all by Eiffage Construction.
Expertise in management and of project of Eiffage civil engineering and Eiffage Construction, combined with the know-how of Eiffage Énergie Systèmes , enabled us to train even more and more teams to face the strong demand of data centers and also to change our scale. We implemented our first hyperscale for CloudHQ in Lisses. Its extension is already started. We are answering to several other requests in France, Germany, Belgium, and Spain. The combination of the know-how of all those, Eiffage Génie Civil, Eiffage Construction, Eiffage Métal, and Eiffage Énergie Systèmes, were necessary to deliver in time the gigafactory of electric batteries for ACC in the north of France.
During the first stage of the Grand Paris Express, with the lines 15, 16, 17, and 18, the group was present on 11 stations, and separated batches are on micro- macro batches. It has always been the combination of those specialties of Eiffage Énergie Systèmes and Eiffage Construction, which enabled the group to be the first provider of the Société du Grand Paris for the implementation of the station. For the new phase, the major project decided to start four mega projects in design building, including all the parts of Eiffage Construction, Eiffage Rail, and Eiffage Énergie Systèmes.
Eiffage secured the lean Line 15 East, one of the major lot, mobilizing and integrated teams, all of its businesses, all of its jobs, because it's really a system of transportation that will have to be delivered in 2031. Beyond those complementarity, a large concession enables us to go up and down the value chain by being contractor, designer, builder, financer, but also operator and maintenance operator. Once again, our model, meeting call for tenders, is to mobilize our internal skills to realize to implement the needed work for the implementation of the new assets that will strengthen our portfolio of concessions.
This is the case of our project, Nové, for the Ministry for the Armed Forces, and its ambition families, which ramped up with now over 90% of the designs that are being implemented. 2025 was the acceleration of production and delivery of housing units, with 600 housing units, new housing units, and over 1,200 which were refurbished. That's also the case of the Port of Marseille, which combines a PPP. The denial was also to revalue a nearby property. Mobilization of most of the lines of business of the group was determining to secure this contract.
In Belgium, starting a tremendous amount of PPP project, buildings, infrastructure, group with its partners won the PPP for the jail of Vresse-sur-Semois, for a global amount of investment of EUR 171 million. On our motorway concession, traffic remained constant for the HVs and the LVs. Motorway A79 ramped up in power with over 10% of growth of its traffic. The project of A412, all of the authorization request has been introduced so as to enable a beginning of the works by the end of 2026. Those two motorway concessions are the perfect example of projects won by the group after tenders on which the expertise of our concessionaires were partnered with the expertise of all of our lines of businesses without any exception.
As to roll out our expertise and our innovation on the servicing areas at an era of new mobilities, we participated and won the tender for the concession of the servicing area of the Champ d'Amour on motorway A20, on a network which is not part of our concession. It's gonna be operated under our brand Fulli. As you have seen, more than a diversification as such, it's the complementarity of the lines of businesses which is there. The compactness of organization and our family mindset, embodied by the engagement of all behind our employee shareholding, enables us to seize a lot of opportunities that need the mobilization of many, even all of our lines of business.
Facing the ecology transition, which with most of these values at the crossroads of our businesses, this is special, an asset to capture development opportunities. Without forgetting, it's also a fantastic asset of resilience when one of our lines of businesses is under pressure, like, for instance, real estate for some time now. In terms of concessions, the quality of the results of the group enabled us progressively, for over seven years, to get to the capital of Getlink and becoming its referential shareholder with 27.66% of the capital, following the last acquisition of 7.1% of the capital on October 23, 2025.
Our participation in Getlink is hence a masterpiece, among other, of the renewal of the portfolio of concessions of the group, since Getlink is concessionaire of the tunnel, of the channel until 2086. There, again, it is about complementarity, because Getlink is active in the businesses of an rail infrastructure and electricity transport that we know very well. This good year of the group should be also in its extra financial component. 2025 was also rewarded by the improvement of most of our extra-financial rating by the various stakeholders, as you see on screen. On screen again, the monitoring of our path of reduction of our gas releases, greenhouse gas releases on Scopes 1 and 2, by reference to 2019.
The growth of the sales is more important than the simulated normative growth. Our releases are in line with the target, meeting our engagement at Horizon 2030. As you have been noticing, 2025 has been an excellent year. The group was beyond EUR 25 billion sales after a growth of 8%, 4.8% in organic growth. The operational results of the works reaches EUR 1 billion, EUR 500 million for the only branch Énergie Systèmes , as profitability reaches 6.2%. A slightly decrease, given the overtaxing of major companies, growth to 8.9% in the constant perimeter. Thanks to the excellent performance, operational performance, we are much closer than expected of the 2048, 2024 results, sorry.
A debt reduction to the tune of EUR 900 million, thanks to a very good performance, operational performance, and a variation of WCR, generating cash up to EUR 300 million. This debt reduction coming after EUR 800 million of investment for external growth. Finally, visibility of the group is comforted by a book of order, growing by 3%. For our perspective 2026, we're expecting sales on the increase in works and in concession. Activity and growth at Eiffage Énergie Systèmes, and of the same amount as in 2025, in infrastructure and in building, construction.
Operational result, an increase in the works and concession, with an improvement of the operational margin of Eiffage Énergie Systèmes, a consolidation of level of margin of the other lines of businesses and the works. Hence, the net result of the group is expected to be increasing. Thanks to those very good results and the solidity of the group, the board of management decided to suggest a increase of EUR 0.1 of dividend up to EUR 4.8 per share. Thank you for your attention, and I invite Christian Cassayre to give you the details of our finance.
Hello, good evening. We're now going to go into the details of the figures that have been broached upon. When it comes to our business, it's going up. This has been detailed by Benoît de Ruffray, so I will simply give you a reminder of the figures. 8% growth, including 4.8% organic. Over the last several years, this follows a 2024 year, where we already had a strong growth at 7.3%. On the period of the graph, it's +35% over four years. The same commentary over the evolution for contracting, a 9.2% growth, 5.3% organic, after a 7.5% growth in 2024, and 36% over the last four years. If we look at 2025, you can see the geographic distribution in France, growth is higher than usual at 5.6%.
This is because there's been a lot of ramping up on larger civil engineering projects and thanks to the Nové contract. The growth in Europe, outside of France, is 16.6%, driven by acquisitions for 18.4% and organic growth for 6.2%. Current operating profit is EUR 2.6 billion, increase of 5.3%, which seems limited when you look at the performance of the branches, which is far above this average. It was already the case at the 30th of June, because this year we have a higher amount of expenses for share payouts, which has been calculated according to the IFRS 2 accounting standard, EUR 60 million more than in 2024, which including EUR 52 million on the holding.
This followed the improvement in the price of the Eiffage share, following the equity subscription period that was exclusive for staff. For the rest, you can see our margin has improved, +30 basis points for contracting, +15.8% for an improvement in turnover of 9.2%, and +30 basis points in concessions, in spite of an increased amortization expense. We're going to go into the detail of the branches. In construction, after two years of decrease, we now have a 2.7% increase. Despite Eiffage Construction going down 15.5%. This is not an impact on reservations, it's an impact on turnover, because reservations has been going slightly up for the last two years, and we've reached the low point of inflection.
It should no longer go down in renovation. It's renovation and services that allow us to perform. The Nové contract has generated EUR 400 million of activity at Eiffage Construction versus two. Which is EUR 220 million more than in 2024. We can see that this contract is very important for the figures of the branch. Our global operating margin is improving marginally, but you have to take into account a smaller contribution of real estate, which is significant. EUR 29 million less in 2025 versus EUR 41 million in 2024. It was EUR 84 million in 2022.
This lower contribution, because both the rates and the base have been going down, has been compensated by an increase in margin for buildings, thanks to a very careful attention to the execution of projects and a better selection. I've chosen this year to illustrate the activity of the group through its history, looking at our roots, which often run deep.
In 2025, we had two anniversaries in the branch, Perrard, our building subsidiary in Luxembourg, which is 150 years old, and Herbosch-Kiere, which works in trawling and maritime works, and celebrated its 50th anniversary. The infrastructure branch has reached a high point of activity at EUR 9 billion, which is the result of several factors. A good year, all in all, in roads for France, +3.9%. There was also an increase in our big major projects in civil engineering in France, Greater Paris Express, EPR2 line, Lyon-Turin. The European projects also are working very well, HS2 in Norway. A sustained level of activity in civil engineering in Germany, without any real acceleration.
Finally, it's— we've talked about it's linked to the improvement of wind and sea activity in France and internationally, which also benefited from the acquisition and integration of HSM. This has allowed us to make over EUR 9.2 billion in turnover, mostly on mobility, sustainable mobility, infrastructure, and energy production. Profitability is mainly connected to the activity of Eiffage Métal, +22% growth, half of which organic and half of which connected to the acquisition of HSM. In Senegal, you will note that it's the only country in Europe where Eiffage deploys its construction concession model, which allows us to design multi-branch projects, and this subsidiary is now 100 years old.
At Eiffage Énergie Systèmes, 2025 was a new year of growth, with 11.8% growth rate, with external growth, and was also a strong year of improvement for profitability, which is up 40 base points. Organic growth is 3.4%, 2.4% in France. Which is, the country growth plus inflation, if inflation plus a little more, and plus 4.8% internationally, where we are gaining market shares, mostly in Germany, Spain, and the Netherlands. This organic growth of almost 5% internationally was completed with targeted acquisitions. In 2025, we benefited from the integration of EQOS, which was there with us the whole year, against only two months in 2024, and we consolidated with the acquisitions, close nearby acquisitions in Spain and Germany. We talked about these.
Our profitability has strongly improved beyond the target that we had set for ourselves because of the quick integration of acquired companies in 2024 and 2025, which has allowed us to fully capitalize upon new opportunities in the German and Spanish market. This is because of our remarkable historic implantation in France and Europe. We're very agile. We can integrate in a multi-branch projects, which allows us to go look for both opportunities and added value in other branches. 125 years ago, the Société de Force et de Lumière Electrique, which became Forclum, and then Eiffage Énergie Systèmes , had worked on the lighting for the Paris Exposition Universelle.
In concessions, you can see here our main assets consolidated globally with the date of end of concession and our rate of retention. The main number to look at is EUR 800 million of a turnover on PPPs and concessions in APRR and AREA. There's been an increase in capacity, including in ALIAE. There's been a slight slowdown in other PPP activities in a light gray because of the contract for renovation of Nové. The renovation of Nové is generating a decrease in a rent, which is planned for in the model, and the Decathlon Arena Stade Pierre Mauroy, had enjoyed an exceptional year in 2024 because of the Olympic Games.
15 years ago, SNCF Réseau gave Eiffage Construction the task of funding and maintaining the rail line in Bretagne-Pays de la Loire, which is now one of our key assets in our concessions portfolio. Here we look at the APR scope, an area where traffic has improved 1.3%, with a turnover that has increased 2.9%. EBITDA margin has slightly gone up, despite the increase in share payouts, expenses that I mentioned earlier. I'd like to remind you that since 2024, EBITDA has been diminished of the tax on highways for EUR 127 million, and this year, EUR 123 million in 2024.
When it comes to funding, we've issued two bond tranches, one in May 2025, one in 2026, for EUR 500 million. With a fixed income coupon of 3%, which is competitive, which contributes to a slight increase of the cost of debt. Finally, last point mentioned, APRR. We've sold our co-owned subsidiary, Access, which has allowed us to generate EUR 20 million, about half of which for Eiffage, not included in EBITDA. You'll find it in other financial revenues. 20 years ago, it's another anniversary. On the 20th of February, almost 20 years ago, day for day, we've integrated APRR to the privatization process.
18 candidates were competing, Eiffage, with its Australian partner, made the best offer. Outside of the APRR network, we're looking here at the EBITDA margin for main assets. You can see that it's around 80%, on the right, we wanted to indicate for PPPs and concessions that are being constructed, the incoming turnover for projects, which you can see is not negligible, which is at the heart of our integrated construction and concession model. This was explained to great lengths. The final brink of our concessions, you can see our participation in Getlink. We're now at 27.66% participation.
The numbers, the figures on the right are 100% Getlink, you can see our quota share is EUR 62 million for EUR 66 million of dividends perceived. This quota share is based on the consensus. We don't have final figures, we took into account our detention rate pro rata temporis, which gives us a final result of EUR 62 million. We had a remainder of the result of 2024. The consensus had resulted in EUR 14.6 million amortizations for overvaluation of EUR 14.3 million. This is concerning operational elements. When it comes to the profit and loss, I don't have a lot of comments beyond what we've already mentioned.
You can see that the cost of net debt is stable, which means that the cost of the new bonds that I talked about was absorbed by the reduction of net debt. The element that we have to comment upon is the increase of corporate tax. It's a strong increase of EUR 200 million, EUR 176 million of which are connected to the new taxation in France, which impacts our net result and our net result group share, which is nevertheless very close to its 2024 levels. Adjusted for tax fluctuations, it would have been an increase of 8.9%. You can see the evolution of net debt for 2024.
EBITDA is up EUR 378 million, which is very significant. Dividends received from equity associates is mostly Getlink. Working capital requirements has generated cash for the sixth year in a row, EUR 300 million of which come from projects. Taxes paid are up because of the new French taxation, which gives us EUR 3.5 billion in free cash flow. Investments in projects are higher than in 2024 because of the increase of the activity, but also the 2024 base reference, which was not that high. Over two years, this has increased proportional to activity. In concessions, investments have increased.
They were connected to the Nové contract without any effect on the debt at the end of the year, because this company is now consolidated as an equity associate. I'll come back to that. We have free cash flow at EUR 2.1 billion after investments. You understand that this is because the investment of Nové, of taxation, and because working capital requirement contributed less than last year. It remains very high, thanks to a strong EBITDA and the contribution of working capital requirements. This cash flow has allowed us to finance EUR 825 million investments for growth after EUR 900 million in 2024.
You can see that we're reinvesting our cash flow significantly. The EUR 825 million amount includes the acquisition of 7.11% of Getlink's equity and acquisitions that were presented in the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, and Italy as well. When we come to no-flow variations, it's a bit technical, we're talking about the EUR 370 million of debt of Nové, which was consolidated as an equity associated at the end of 2025 because of a change in our groupment agreements at the end of the design phase. The final flow, I will comment upon capital operations.
You will find the usual movements on equity, the dividends paid out to APRR, to its minority shareholder, and the dividend paid by Eiffage, EUR 453 million, which brings us to our net debt of EUR 8.5 billion, which is down EUR 870 million after more than EUR 800 million invested in external growth. This EUR 8.5 billion debt includes our debt for concession of EUR 10 billion, down EUR 685 million, and a net treasury of the holding and the projects branch EUR 1.5 billion, which allows us to remain very agile financially to capitalize upon any growth opportunity as we've done, especially these last two years.
When it comes to our order book for projects, we see a 3% growth over a year. We can see it's a growth in every branch, which allows us to expect a new year of organic growth at a slower rhythm, nonetheless, than in 2024 and 2025. This concludes for the figures. I believe we can now move to the Q&A. Thank you very much.
Thank you. I'm from CIC. I had a few questions. First question: Could you share with us your vision of the market of real estate in France and development? We say in France, there's a concession. Second question: We say in France, there's a consensus on the concession system, which should last with new tenders. Don't you think that this will depend on foreign investments? It's not obvious that these investments will be massive, without massive investments, maybe the state could change the system, which would not be the same scenario for us.
Third question, for 2026, it's a year for local government elections in France. Do you consider there will be an impact risk with these elections, with the projects activity for Eiffage in France? You also said that there was a German economic plan. Do you think you'll be signing the first orders connected to this new German plan?
Olivier, please answer the question on real estate and development.
The market in 2026 for real estate development will remain under pressure, especially since 2026 is a year, as you've said, where there will be local government elections, and these are never favorable to launching new projects or obtaining new permits. Nevertheless, we will not experience in 2026 what we experienced in 2025 with the collapse of demand for private investors because of the Pinel change, and we favorably welcome the housing plan of the government, especially the Jean Braun law, which should improve our sales. In this context, we imagine that 2026 will see an increase in real estate activity, both when it comes to operating income and turnover. Camille?
Good evening. You've interrogated me on the consensus concerning highway projects. It's true that this consensus you reference is the conclusion of the work of the Ambition France Transports conference, which was presented to the Council of Ministers by Minister Tabarot. Today, this is the most probable outcome, and it's the one on which the Transport Ministry is working when it comes to services, and we are talking to them concerning that, and we are preparing for that as well. I would like to indicate as well that even if highways are, in fact, already built, you mustn't imagine that there are no investments, and you need three types of investments.
First of all, renovations, exploitation, and maintenance, adaptation to new mobilities, everything that has to do with electric cars and investments connected to resilience. When it comes to climate change, we can see that in the mountainous regions in the Alps, we already see the effects of that. There will still be investments that will justify the concessional model in the future. Concerning 2026 and the elections, the upcoming elections, I believe that's something we already shared with you. The decision is more and more made in a broader, in a broader, local government, so it's further detached from the direct voter, we see more and more projects that know how to overcome local government elections.
I won't say there's no effect, but there's a lot of mitigation. It's much less impactful than in the past. I would like to add to that our teams and your neighbor to the right, which takes care of roads, they're so used historically to have huge gaps. They're so worried about it that they're extremely agile in the face of that. I must say that it's something that impacts us less and less. It's more significant in terms of construction permits. That's where the impact is. Of course, as of today, we're not talking about orders. There is one big German client, Deutsche Bahn. The entire German railway network needs significant work.
Their activity is increasing. They had a model to attribute contracts, which was very, very cumbersome, let's say, and they're working on their operating model now to go faster. I don't know how to make a direct budgetary connection, but fundamentally, their investments are much more significant than in the past. We have a strong growth when it comes to that, and the growth in metalworks are also connected to railroads. We can already see it on Deutsche Bahn. On other issues, we don't see it yet. I believe there's a real issue when it comes to the way in which German ministries can implement these projects, because traditionally they did construction, and only after that did they make public tenders that we could act upon.
I believe there will be more and more models in the future, like the A3 highway, and we already have partnerships that are operating from time to time. This is what will allow us to accelerate it when it comes to implementation. What you have to remember in the end is that everyone is talking about it. That's great news, because we were facing a big deficit in terms of attractiveness, and now it's completely changing. There's a lot of restructuration in German industry. I believe that historically, we wouldn't have been able to hire workers from the automobile industry, but now there's visibility, long-term visibility.
People see that this is work, that there's recruitment on, and we'll be able to accelerate, not only because of budget constraints and budget opportunities, but because there are new people available in the field. We're very confident that it will be a growth factor in the future. I want to say, chi va piano va sano, because you can't change as quickly when it comes to human capacities as we often want to, but it's a very good news for the sector in the mid and long term. There has been some level of acceleration.
We've managed to stabilize at EUR 1.2 billion when it comes to German roads, despite the lower contribution of the A3. We've managed, thanks to orders, mid-size orders, to compensate and generate 4%, about 4% growth on civil engineering and roads in Germany and railroads.
Bonsoir. Thank you for taking my question. The first one will be about your policy of capital allocation. Could you please remind us what are the major guidelines of yours? You have CapEx of growth. What is your cash for the acquisition, and what is the focus on 2026 for those acquisitions? Getlink, you're close to 30%, meaning that according to your policy, until now, you put this aside, or are there some other news this evening? That's my first question. Second question, the free cash flow. Beautiful performance, one of your—is there a free cash flow guidance?
A question about the data centers, because what you presented the slide earlier, I imagined that for the time being, it's a small exposure, but what is the growth rate on this segment, and how far could it go?
I'll leave some questions for Nicolas. Okay, we'll start with the free cash flow. You feel like answering, aren't you? We shall disappoint, but there's no guidelines. We guide on the result, and you can reconstitute the free cash flow before variation of WCR. This is where the complexity starts, is to anticipate the variation of WCR, which normatively should be close to zero. We enjoyed for the past six years, I said we were in decrease of WCR over the past six years. It's absolutely exceptional in the history of the group and on our industry. We enjoyed two major elements.
First, is whatever is the regulatory and the reduction of payment delays, especially in France, that are abided by or better abided by. We have ins more than outs, and this conformity to the delays of payment is really settled. It's normalized. That's the first element. The second element, which is close to us, the strong growth and the company's industries, which are with a negative WCR, mechanically generate a decrease on the cash flow. You can see this in the book of order. It comes from the share of the major contracts, long-term contracts. They have down payments with this conjunction of strong growth, especially on major contracts, is beneficiary for the long term.
This long term will be, how should I say, leveraged, or we will not enjoy that in the future. We established our policy on the WCR at zero because the two major contracts for engineering that were quoted, in the final phase will restitute the cash flow, which is an accident. No guidance. Elements that were, according to our track, past track, no guidance. No guidance, because it's part of the WCR performances is done by the end of the year. Ludovic, on the data centers.
Good evening. Data centers, there's two activities: goodwill, there are a lot of them. We worked on that for several years on activities of works, but also of maintenance. For some time now, we have seen emerging hyperscales, i.e., data centers of a very large size. We positioned ourselves successfully on the first one, the data center of Lisses, where thanks to the group, we could come with a large global offer. It was a success. Those operations are accessible, but very, very, how should I say, resource-consuming. Our aim is quickly to be able to have two hyperscale in parallel and to extend this activity to the rest of Europe on the goodwill first, and then on the hyperscale.
Those contracts are very demanding. Our first operation in Lisses was a true success. The teams did an admirable work. Those are on the Anglo-Saxon contracts. You have to select your clients. It's a race to quality, a race for margin more than volume, because we don't always have the capacity to perform an infinite amount of data centers. Let's remain quiet and let's grab this opportunity to develop ourselves on those hyperscales. maybe to get back to the allocation of capital, nothing different from what we said in the previous years. What you have to look into is, remember, the non-recurrent debt and the EUR 1 billion.
We always wanted to be comfortable regarding the variations of WCR we have in the year. Historically, we always talked about the variation of WCR of about EUR 500 million, and the group is much more important than it was some years ago. It's even EUR 700 million variations of WCR in the year. If you look into the metrics, take the EUR 1 billion of sales, EUR 550 million after distribution. For the time being, we still have some ideas in our various businesses. I think what's important is to look over the past two years, also for the past five years, six years, we always found opportunities to reallocate our capital.
We intend to do so. If you take what's happening on the Énergie Systèmes branch, the market, I'm sure that the market is being consolidated now slower than it grows. Four major players consolidating on the European level, they're all French, originally French. At the end of the game, when we look at each other— I like this example: when we announce an external growth, none of our competitors announce it, we don't know it. It's Bolton. It's just to tell you this expression, because sometimes it's specialties which are born in the territory, and at a given time, the market grows so fast that it wishes to be supported by an important group.
It's our teams in their area that know them, that work with them, and they come to pair, and together, we will grow faster, hoping that one plus one makes three. That's the model. We have opportunities. We would never look for structures that would be in a bad shape because we do not have the available resources to focus on a major restructuring. We have a lot of ideas to go on Bolton and work on the country. This is a work side with the Énergie Systèmes branch, with which there is much more opportunities because the market is not consolidated yet.
The other element of interest is that when we develop the coverage at the national level, when we become a recognized actor, you increase the attractiveness, which is basic when it is about hiring new people, if you wish to grow the way we do in Germany. When the Énergie Systèmes changes size in Germany, it helps the civil engineering, the rail, the metal in Germany, because Eiffage is a name, a brand, who changes its size in each and every business. There is a cross increase, a cross improvement, and we wish to operate the same model, to roll out the same model.
I'll give you a simple example. We came up with two manufacturer of armament in 2025. One that we built in a French area because we answered several tenders for batches, and someday the customer said, "Oh, I want it quick, and I've seen that you have Eiffage Énergie Systèmes and Eiffage Construction. Couldn't you do it faster if you are paid?" Okay, we had Eiffage Infra-Bau and Salvia, who was acquired by Eiffage, and the customer said, "Together, couldn't it go faster?" That's the same model, and many opportunities.
You have to take time not to make a mistake. In our businesses, the acquisition of a company of construction is first and foremost, it's men and female and women, and the culture to be consistent, to be able to develop it, and this is what's concerning us. The second element are the concessions. There are some assets from time to time who are on sale, but it's difficult to imagine to be able, with the cost of capital, to create value.
We focus much more on assets which are already in the territories we know and where there are a lot of investments to do, because as I said previously, it's our teams of works that will enable to create this value and have an asset that, at the end of the day, will be more profitable. When you combine both, currently, we always succeeded year after year, sometimes very importantly, sometimes less importantly, to reinvest more than what we successfully created. This model, we wish to carry on with that. Getlink, I won't pretend I didn't hear the question, because if not, you're gonna re-ask it again and again. Globally speaking, things didn't change.
I insist, for some time, we have seen APRR, AREA, AVEAST to be in very concentrated assets for the group, representing globally the concessions of the Eiffage Group. It was very focused in terms of political risk, in terms of contract, because there are only two contracts. On the other hand, an asset spread on kilometers and kilometers. Tomorrow, you'd have a major incident in the Alps, it can block a mile of motorway, but it doesn't stop you from operating the rest of the network. On Getlink, we're a focused, concentrated in time, but also concentrated in terms of risk.
Even if the cable passage changed a little bit and diversified the risk, we are comfortable with it. We are with a share that represents in our concessions, in our portfolio, Getlink is significant. I'm not gonna tell you that that 40% would have changed our life compared to 30% in terms of risk. The pro is that it's a ranked company. 30% makes a difference. We're not yet at 29.9%,: we didn't change. It's still our intent. If there are some opportunities, we're ready to strengthen ourselves to grow up to 29.9. We're very glad to have this major element adding to all the others.
The management is doing excellent work. We're absolutely in step. We have to focus on the core of activity that we have to develop. It fits us to go on like that. I'll just conclude by saying that we have this lock. We never were compelled, facing something, an opportunity of works, of concession, to be able to, compelled to arbitrate, because we seized them one after the other. With the current financial structure of the group, if tomorrow we have both things and we're able to mobilize and to move ahead because the group is much stronger than it used to be by the growth of its size and the quality of its results.
Nicolas Mora, the Morgan Stanley?
Nicolas Mora from Morgan Stanley. I'm going to give you a short question. On working capital requirements, this is for Christian.
Yes, Nicolas.
For six or seven years now, this masquerade has been ongoing. It has to end. Six years. Six years, seven years, we'd be richer, but it's only been six years. We see prepayment inflows. We could give the number. This year, last year, it was EUR 150 million. There's a lot of provisions, which you can see in the cash flow, and we can see that among your peers, accounting is very conservative, and we can see this reflected in the working capital requirements. Aren't we simply looking at structural working capital requirements with a growing group, which is helping on cash, prudent accounting?
We're trying to get you to admit that the cursor on zero was, probably valid for pre-COVID Eiffage, probably no longer today. That's the first question.
I don't see the connection between the end of COVID and cash, the fact of the matter is, the fact that we have more, current provisions, you'll see on the balance sheet, we have bigger large contracts, we have more risks, and they are directly provisioned. We have bigger, contracts that generate more favorable payment terms, and bigger contract with a bigger level of onboarded risk, which generate larger provisions. This has to be the case. It has to be like that.
These prepayments, if we consider that we're going to renew them, that we'll have the same flow of large major contracts in the years to come, then yes, we can say that we're going to maintain that level, and that working capital requirements will not slump and will continue to generate cash. We have to be very conservative because we can see, for instance, on offshore perspectives, there's been a lot of growth, but right now it's normalizing, and one day these programs will stop, and we'll have to find new sources for growth. This isn't going to happen tomorrow, but working capital requirements are working capital requirements.
Otherwise, it's a hidden income, which is not the case. We provision our risks. We make sure that we make ironclad contracts, so we protect ourselves from defaults from clients. This is very coherent with a growth that is normalizing. Next year, it's normal to anticipate working capital requirements that are going to generate cash, honestly.
Thank you very much.
Maybe. I just wanted to add to that. In our business, I don't think you realize the cash, the cash influx for December. It's far more than the yearly working capital fluctuation. It's just to illustrate, it's a multiple of the yearly working capital requirement flows. I'd like to add that. The idea, for us, is completely impossible, and on the 25th of December, we don't know where we're at, because over the last five days, it's much more than the yearly change in working capital requirements. Yes, what Christian was describing is reality.
We maintain the group in growth, having a certain number of major contracts that are ongoing, it's logical, but it's connected to that. It's not connected to a structural change.
I will continue. Just to come back to the French residential sector, the activity of promoters, which are extremely optimistic for 2026. What's going to happen if the market really accelerates? Do you have enough projects up your sleeves to accompany that in 2026, 2027? On Eiffage Systems, it's a very beautiful performance on margin for 2025. The question we ask every year: What about 2026? When you can see this, 40 basis point improvement in margin, could you tell us what's really just scope M&A, so the contribution of Germany, and what's really the underlying improvement? Give us a pro performance on France, for instance. That would be useful.
We hope things are going to pick up. It's more likely it will happen in 2027. I was talking about the local government elections. This had an impact on offer, so elections are in 2026, but we've been talking about it for the last 10 months locally. Yes, we have the products, but we're looking at launch in 2027. I will let Ludovic complete if he wishes to.
If you look at the history, when we had moderate growth, our progression was 0.2% a year, with a recovery phase. Over the last few years, we've gone from 5.8% to 5.9% to 6% and 6.2%, and we've had improvements on basis points while we've been accelerating on external growth. There's an effect of external growth because we acquire quality countries. We also have fixed expenses that don't increase as quickly because we consolidate. On the yearly performance, when we analyze the past, about half of our basis points improvement is intrinsic to our activities, and the other half, roughly, is the product of acquisitions.
Any other question?
Any other questions?
I'll carry on. On the infra, you were talking about Smulders offshore. That will stabilize someday. We had a good visibility, two years and more. Is this still the case? Could you carry on filling the book of order? There's this little contraction before the next investment cycle. Secondly, on the PPPs and the focus on Greenfield, we have in mind Belgium with the big infra, maybe Germany. What about France? You left the crumbs to Vinci on the A54. Do we have a beginning of a pipeline, short, medium, long-term, local government, except France?
Guillaume, on Smulders.
Hello, answering Smulders, what we see on the past years. It's a market structuring on substations and on foundations. Activity is really driven by the substations. This is why we positioned ourselves on HSM, enabling us to have, as Benoît said, to combine this metal structure and the equipment within those metal framework. It's the contract that we signed in France in 2025. When you do substations and there is a political will, and that the market foundation will restart because it was confirmed by a certain amount of conferences.
One activity which is drawn by the substations, foundations are slightly behind. I think it's going to be rebalanced soon. After, we're not exactly at one year, one or two years, we don't have a visibility at two years from now. It's about the appetite of the developers. You know, they are constrained by the interest rates, the market, and the developers go faster or slower. We've seen that in the U.K. recently.
To add to what Guillaume said, it's two different market. The customers are not the same. It's network operators that bought in the substations like RTE, which is our customer on substations, it's tenders from the wind farms. It's not the same clients, it's not the same life cycles. There's always been years where we're more exposed to substations, and other years we were as exposed to foundations. We're very vigilant about the topics linked to protection at the borders. As you know, there are already measures regarding the import of metal. Obviously, we are very aware and vigilant that it's not barely transformed parts that are being important because it perturbates strongly the European market.
The European policies are very sensitive to that. Other elements which are linked to the substations in DC, and the market said a lot about that. The market was very active in the reflection phase because the costs of those substations are very important, and we have less visibility in the short term about what will be the decision of the Baltic Sea. Cécile?
Good evening. Yes, indeed, in PPP, we have a beautiful project pipe. You can see in Belgium, we gained the Evereste prison. We already had another prison in our portfolio. Nowadays, we're positioning mostly on infrastructure projects, including the R0, the Brussels Ring, and we've structured to be able to go 100% with the Eiffage Group. The offer should conclude this year. There will be two more offers on the Brussels Ring. There are other projects, waterworks projects, and many infrastructure projects in Belgium, and we will study them on a case-per-case basis. In France, we've identified the need to remain agile on PPP.
It's not necessarily the same type of PPP every time. You've seen the presentation for the Greater Port of Marseille. It's port infrastructure plus real estate around it. The Nové concession could have offshoots. There's the CapSatory project, which is the housing for the Gendarmerie GIGN near Versailles. This project is underway. There are projects in the pipe, road projects, less projects with the state. It's mostly local government nowadays that are requesting new projects. There's the heating and network project. We'll have to integrate that to concessions for 2027. Yes, there is a pipe. What we have to pay attention to is to make sure we select the right projects.
In Germany, we haven't identified any projects that are coming out of the planned funding package, but we will see for the future.
To add to what Cécile was saying, Nicolas, the fact that services, as Camille was saying, are already working on what could be future tenders for motorway concessions. It means that for us, small roads will be thought of within the context of future motorway projects, as we saw it for the A69, A54, the A79, et cetera. Merci.
Thank you. One last question, if you allow. You mentioned the storage centers, you mentioned Tesla. One of your competitors signed a framework agreement with Tesla. Could it be also for you, Eiffage Energy? I know it's small at the group level. What does it represent, those storage centers in terms of sales for Eiffage?
The market is of two kinds. There's one storage, C&I, which is small, and we talk about storage, about balancing of networks, though you have major fields of battery storage. Currently, we have a partnership with a provider of batteries Envision. We are also working with Tesla, and given the nature of the contracts and of the technical criteria, we choose the right battery. We just made a deal with three major fields for EUR 80 million. We have another one being built, smaller, in Belgium. More than those EPC markets, we have some amount of markets where we do only the electricity part.
What we do, the balance of plants and the foundation part. What is of interest to us, as we said, is to do EPCs and then to take the maintenance of those systems for several years. It's a market that is really booming. The market of reservation is gonna be taking some years, so we grab the opportunities on the go. We do partnerships, and we got closer to some providers. We know well the topic. To answer to the tenders, which I'll see one after the other. What we may add is that in expert mode, on solar farms in Africa, we will not imagine not to have the storage besides, because the network is the backup, and the storage is the main element, and this was not possible some years ago.
The first references of the group in energy storage were made in Africa for those reasons. The other element, you have to be careful in terms of sales. It's like the solar farms. Given the clients, some bought their own panels, and others asked us to buy the panels. Same as clients will have chosen the provider of the batteries and will have what Ludovic said, the balance of plant. In terms of teams mobilized for the project, it's the same thing. Be sure that if you don't deal with the batteries, we are paid to take care of them.
It's relative in terms of margin, but it can change totally the volume. Remember, some years ago, when we made the central of Cestas, we had effects on the sales of the energy system branch then, because Cestas was representing, by the acquisition of the panels, solar panels, an important amount on which we didn't have the same overheads that we had on the rest of the operations. You have to be very careful about just looking through the sales.
It's about the amount of teams we can focus on those markets, and most of the time, the client is the driver of the choice of this battery partner and would rather have partners which are very flexible and know all of the technologies to be a strength of counsel as an advisor, and then do what's necessary.
Merci, bonsoir.
Shit! You didn't talk about rail. I think we made tremendous progress in terms of quality and quantity in the past years. We have a project which is absolutely stopped, which is the Bordeaux-Toulouse link, where the government is really dilly-dallying. Our experience on Bretagne-Pays de la Loire may be used there. It's indeed a project that is, work in progress. The government didn't choose if it would be a PPP or a classic building construction. It's gonna take some years, but the choice is not made yet. It's gonna be done by the Conseil d'orientation des infrastructures. If there are no other questions, I thank you all. Is there questions online? Go ahead.
Conference call from Dario Maggioni, BNP Paribas. Please go ahead, sir.
Hi. Hello, thanks for taking my questions. I have two. One of the Paris district consortium that you won officially in December, what could be the CapEx level for the consortium, and what could be the benefit for revenue for the contracting business of Eiffage? The second question is the ordering book for Q4, and especially the intake seems a bit weak year-on-year. If you can give us some color of what's driving this intake and, yeah, what to expect for growth in the contracting business for 2026. Thanks.
See the regarding the heating networks, I'll be short because currently we are in a process. We notify the European Commission regarding the concentration, we cannot say a lot about this project, and the contract is not signed, for call to action. I give you only the public figures. It's a contract, about EUR 15 billion sales over 25 years, and the investments are at EUR 3.4 billion. That's all I can say on that topic.
Thank you, Cecile. On the fourth quarter in intake of orders, there were no major contracts. It's erratic. We had a tremendous contract at Q3. That's the three substations for EUR 1.6 billion for RTE, no intake for Q4, and we finished the major projects. On the goodwill activity, the renovation on road and buildings, even if there are less today, and the current energy system, there's we didn't notice any trend. There's no difference of trend, not speeding up of trend, but it's due to the fact that there are no major projects that were taken in Q4. Goodwill, no change in trend on the road, energy system, and contractor building.
Thank you.
Next question.
No other question from the call.
Thank you very much, and I'll see you right away.