Welcome to this presentation of Sopra Steria's H1 2026 results. For the first part of the presentation, participants will be able to listen. During the Q&A session, participants can ask questions by dialing the pound key and five on their telephone keypad. I hand the floor to Rajesh Krishnamurthy, CEO. Over to you.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to this webcast to present Sopra Steria's H1 2026 results. I'll be leading this presentation with Etienne du Vignaux, Group CFO. I'll start with a few comments on the highlights of the first half. Etienne du Vignaux will present the operational situation in each of our reporting units and the details of the financial results over the first half. I'll conclude with our priorities for the second half of the year and our annual financial targets. We'll finish with a Q&A session.
Let's start with the highlights of the first half. Firstly, I'd like to drill down on the acceleration business that we have recorded in Q2 with underlying organic growth of 5.3%, while in the first quarter, the Group was already at 4.4%. At the same time, operating profit on business activity was at 0.4 points and stood at 9.6%. This good operational performance is also reflected by an increase in the net results of Group share of 3%. Based on this and our outlook for the second half, we are able to raise our annual growth target to between 2% and 2.5% compared with +1% and +2% previously. We can also confirm our operating margin on business activity target and our free cash flow target as well. There was solid momentum in the second quarter. There was strong growth in France, Norway, Spain, and Switzerland.
Germany and Belgium continued to recover with revenue stabilizing in the second quarter. The Netherlands remained moderately contracting, but has good outlook for improvement. We're expecting a return to growth in these three countries during the second half. This momentum was driven by strategic verticals, with strong growth over the quarter. Defence, Security and Space recorded an increase of 14%. Aerospace was up 12%. France Financial Services and the Public Sector grew +11% and +13%, respectively.
All these verticals have a good outlook in the midterm, and that's what makes us confident with regards to the trend for the second half. I also want to highlight the good performance of our consulting business in the second quarter, which brings the third quarter of consecutive growth after 2025, which was a difficult year. 11% growth over the quarter is driven by France, Germany, the U.K., Spain, and Italy. Good business momentum came with some good business success.
For the European Space Agency, for example, Sopra Steria and Starion won a framework agreement covering project management activities as well as space engineering, AI, and data for all European sites for the agency. This highlights the complementarity between Sopra Steria's space expertise and the reinforced geographic footprint and contribution from Starion. This enables us to support the full European ecosystem. In the U.K., we won a contract with the FCA, and that's for the modernization of its information system based on automation, artificial intelligence, and leveraging data. In France, we were selected by the Ministry of the Armed Forces for the ODEN program. That's rolling out the future in-service support and the IT system. This obviously positions us well when it comes to defence, digital transformation, and critical systems. We also won a major contract with BarentsWatch.
This is the National Maritime Surveillance Platform, and this covers development, operation, and maintenance for critical services following ships, fighting against illegal fishing, and supporting research organizations and rescue operations on the Norwegian coast. This obviously highlights our expertise in critical systems, ongoing availability, strong resilience, and the highest security standard. We have made artificial intelligence development priority. We're obviously convinced of its potential and the positive impact that its rollout will have on our customers' demand for digital services. It's a driver, it's an engine for growth and transformation. During the first half, we've concentrated our efforts on three different areas. Developing agentic AI solutions, vertical to address our customers' needs, and reinventing business process services with the launch of Lumina, and renovation of our production methods, thanks to the rollout of an internal AI backbone.
Let's take a look at each of these points. First one is agentic AI for Sopra Steria. The idea is to roll out AI solutions that can be applied to a specific business and that address a specific need, but also to provide sovereign solutions in critical and regulated sectors where we're particularly exposed, d efence, aerospace, public sector, and financial services. This comes with a high level of industrialization, thanks to the AI factory, and it means we can roll out use cases at large scale. To do so , we're drawing on our internal expert, our IP, and the tools that we've already developed, such as the IAKA sovereign AI platform, as well as a selection of technological partners like Mistral or Red Hat. Second area focuses on new generation business process services with the launch of Sopra Steria Lumina.
This new offer embeds native AI. It's a unique platform, fully integrated, combining assets, tools, and artificial intelligence solutions with operational expertise that we've had in our teams for a long time. It's based on an outcome-based model, and this will be rolled out in highly- regulated sectors like financial services, public sector, defence, or health. Now, the third area concerns or regards production of our services at an industrial scale. This is the AI backbone. This is the foundations of the way we'll produce services in the future, and it can be progressively accessed by our production teams, combines open architecture, it's agnostic. It's got a production platform which has been designed natively. This enables us to roll out AI quickly across all of our activities.
Our teams will be progressively trained on this platform, and we're aiming to have half of our teams trained on it by the end of the year. Together, all of these initiatives show how AI is being taken into account across our business, turned into a tool and added value for our customers. From design of sovereign solutions suitable for each sector to transforming business operations right through to industrial rollout, and keeping things under control at large scale. One of the points that makes Sopra Steria unique is its specific positioning that it has in critical sectors that are regulated at the heart of European priorities. Two-thirds of the group's businesses are focusing on four strategic verticals: public sector, defence-based security, financial services, and aerospace. They're promising in the midterm.
They're at the heart of European sovereignty challenges, they should benefit from significant investment in the coming years. Sopra Steria is a leading player in Europe in these critical sectors, it's particularly legitimate when it comes to European sovereignty matters. Also specializes in critical systems in regulated environments, it's capable of taking on a results-based commitment, which is the case for 50% of its business. During the first half, we carried on investing in order to reinforce this positioning. We've acquired Starion and Nexova to establish a leading European player in this base sector at a critical size of over EUR 200 million, and with 2,000 employees. We're also in exclusive negotiations with two companies to reinforce our footprint in aerospace.
The company Digital Product Simulation to reinforce our PLM business, Manufacturing Engineering from Daher Industrial Services, and that will reinforce our expertise in space engineering. Finally, we've acquired business capital firm from Uavia. That's a team with about 20 people, specialized in steering, supervision, and automation of drones. It's addressing industrial needs for sensitive sites, infrastructure management of critical infrastructure, and obviously public security. Before we conclude the highlights, I wanted to talk about the environment, responsible digital, and impact on society. We have acquired the Level 2 Numérique Responsable certification, and that's awarded by France's Institut du Numérique Responsable. This recognition obviously recognizes the commitment that we've had for several years now. Over 10,000 employees have been made aware or have received training on eco- design.
We've also reinforced our commitment to trusted digital technology, with [Foreign language], so protecting young people in the digital age, making them aware of good practices to have online. Our ESG commitments are still recognized by the key rating agencies, the key extra financial aid agencies. EcoVadis, we're platinum in the top 1% of companies assessed, and our score is at 98 out of 100. We have the ongoing ISO 14001 rollout for the Group's major sites i n France, and this obviously highlights our willingness to keep improving our performance in the environment in the long term. With that, I'll hand the floor to Etienne du Vignaux who will talk about the situation by reporting unit as well as the consolidated accounts for the first half.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
Before we go over the situation by reporting unit, just some information for you on the segment information. In light of changes to our operating model, we've reviewed how we allocate costs to service lines and verticals. In real term, group level investment in service lines like consulting, DPS, and cyber, and in the verticals, aeronautics, defence, financial services, that was previously assigned to the France reporting unit, and now it's allocated across all reporting units. This adjustment has no impact on the Group's operating profit on business activity, and the various reporting units have been restated, with the 2026 methodology to ensure comparability. Let's come back to the results by reporting unit, starting with France. France revenue stood at EUR 1,315.6 million.
Q2 got off to a good start with organic growth of 7.1%, supported by the Public Sector, Transport, Aerospace, Defence, Security and Space, as well as Financial Services. Operating margin on business activity was 9.5%, a contraction when compared with 2025, and this reflects use of higher subcontractors, more subcontractors to ramp up major programs throughout the first half. In the U.K., revenue stood at EUR 454.1 million, organic growth in revenue of 2.5%. This was driven by development of next- generation BPS, financial services, defence, and services related to new technologies. Operating margin on business activity stood at 9.5%, up 0.8 points when compared with H1 2025. Europe revenue stood at EUR 1.8 billion, excluding SFT. The division had organic revenue growth of 3%. Switzerland, Italy, and Spain had good momentum, just like Scandinavia, which experienced an acceleration in Q2.
Germany and Belgium improved in the second part of the semester. The Netherlands experienced a moderate contraction with an outlook for improvement. Return to growth in these three countries in the second half. That's expected. SFT revenue stood at EUR 37 million, aligned with the program, with the planned stop of the program.
That's EUR 37 million vs EUR 35.8 million in H1 2025. Operating margin on business activity stood at 9.1%, most of the countries contributed to this improvement, particularly Germany. For SFT also, there was some reversals of some provisions as part of the end of the program. Now, let's move on to solutions. Revenue stood at EUR 180.9 million, with organic growth of 5.3%. This performance was mainly driven by the human resources solutions, which represents two-thirds of the business in this unit, and they experienced organic growth of 4.3%. Real estate or property management solutions also had sustained growth. Operating margin on business activity was relatively stable at 14%. Now, I would like to suggest we go over the details of the Group's accounts.
[Foreign language]. We'll start with income statement. EUR 2,958.9 million total revenue, organic growth of +3% versus the first half of 2025. We had an increase of 8.5% for the operating profit on business activity. This shows a 9.6% margin rate versus 9.2% during the first half of 2025. The expenses for shares reached less than EUR 10 million, a decrease versus the EUR 15.9 million. The amortizations allocated in tangibles were quite stable. That means we have a profit from recurring operations of EUR 263.9 million, therefore, up 12.8% versus last year's. The other operating income and expenses represented EUR 40.4 million for the half year. I'll tell you more about the details of this in a minute. All in all, the operating profit reached EUR 223.5 million, therefore up 3.8% versus the first half of 2025. The cost of the net financial debt, that's an improvement at EUR 8.2 million versus EUR 10.4 million the year before. We benefited from decrease of the average debt for the first half and a slight decrease in the average cost of debt. There's this EUR 3.9 million increase for the other financial income expenses. The main reason is an increase in interest rates for the leases, the IFRS 16, and also on pension liabilities. This is non-cash.
The tax expense that I'll talk you through later on, reached EUR 55.5 million, which means a net profit of associates. T hat includes the net profit of associates, which broke even versus a loss the previous year. The net profit attributable to the Group after factoring in the non-controlling interests, reached EUR 2 million, and we reached EUR 146.3 million, therefore up 3% versus the figures we had last year. Other operating income expenses, as you can see, during the first half of 2026, they represented a net expense of EUR 40.4 million, to be compared with EUR 18.6 million for the first half of 2025. This change is explained thanks to an increase in restructuring costs and reorganizing costs, which reached a bit more than EUR 29 million, to be compared with almost EUR 19 million last year.
This year, as we said, they include the costs connected to the end of the SFT program, which reached almost EUR 20 million for the first half. The tax expense is EUR 55.5 million, as I said before, which shows an effective tax rate of 27.2%, to be compared with 23.7% during the first half of 2025. The normative rate, excluding the non-recurring higher tax rate in France, is assessed at more or less 25%. For the full fiscal year, we count on an effective rate, which will be similar to the one that we saw during the first half. We'll talk about free cash flow and cash generation. As usual, during the first half, we saw strong seasonality in terms of cash generation. The FCF for the first half was negative.
That is EUR -143.6 million, a bit better than what we had for H1 2025, which was EUR -145.9 million. This performance is satisfactory in as much as the first half this year included several non-recurring disbursements for a total of EUR 29 million. Restructuring costs connected to the SFT, and the end of the SFT program, as we said, the end of the higher tax rate in France, and modification of the schedule for payment of social contributions in Norway. EBITDA contracted a little. The difference with the increase of EUR 23 million for the operating profit on business activities to be explained with two elements, a decrease in project risk. This is because we have normalized provisions now versus the provision levels we had during the first half of 2025, and also more reversals of provisions during the first half of 2026.
These reversals have been used mainly, that is offset by the booking of operating expenses during the half year. The WCR improved, this is a positive contribution, reaching EUR 41 million for the cash for the half year. The receivables unrelated to cash represent 49.4% of total revenue on the 30th of June, a level that is 2.5 points lower than the average ratio that we've seen over the past 10 years, which is exactly at 51.9%. Let me recall that the Group has had zero transfer of deconsolidated receivables neither in 2025 nor in 2026. The change in disbursements connected to taxes, restructure, and reorganization represented EUR 36.2 million and more than EUR 15 million connected to the end of the SFT program.
To conclude, the cash generation for the first half is totally in line with the annual objective, which was set at the end of February 2026. With the same seasonality, the net financial debt reached EUR 618.7 million on June 2026, versus EUR 246.7 million at the end of December 2025. This includes, as usual, the payment of dividends during the first half, that is for a total of EUR 102.7 million, share buybacks for EUR 42.7 million, plus the disbursements connected to the change in scope and the financial investments reaching EUR 87.2 million. This gives us a solid balance on the 30th of June 2026. As you can see, the equity represented 61% of the assets and WCR, whereas the gearing ratio improved at 29%, to be compared with 34% the year before. As far as the leverage ratio is concerned, at the end of June, it is 1.1 x the EBITDA.
That is pro forma numbers on rolling 12 months before IFRS 16, below the ratio we had last year, which was at 1.2x, and well below the banking covenant and bond covenant, which is a maximum 3x . The Group has a comfortable financing with almost EUR 2 billion lines that are authorized, 67% have not been drawn at the end of June 2026, and the maturities go from July 2026 to 2029. We've recently reinforced our liquidity profile. Thanks to the fact that at the end of June 2026, we signed a Schuldschein financing for a total amount of EUR 300 million. This includes two maturities, EUR 217 million in five years with variable rate and EUR 83 million with seven years with variable rate. This refinancing will cover the two tranches of Euro PP, that you can see on the table, EUR 250 million total.
The first tranche will reach its maturity in July this year, and the second tranche will have its maturity in July 2027. Apart from the maturity extension, this financing will give the group more diversification of its financing sources for an average weighted cost below 4% when we signed the contract. To optimize financing also in terms of cost, but also in terms of flexibility, the group has an NEU MTN program totaling EUR 300 million, plus the NEU CP program totaling EUR 700 million. On the 30th of June 2026, for the NEU MTN program, we have EUR 35 million, and for NEU CP, EUR 160 million. We can use these programs, and that's covered with a multicurrency credit facility reaching EUR 1.1 billion, which would be used as a source of financing versus NEU CP and MTN if we need them. That's the end of the financial statements.
Now, Rajesh, the floor is yours for the outlook for 2026.
Thank you, Etienne. So before we come back to the priorities for the second half, I just want to take a few moments to speak about a few ideas that I've had after my first months as CEO of Sopra Steria. So these first five months have been focused on meeting teams and understanding our offering and what makes us specific or unique. There are three areas of strength that have absolutely convinced me that the Group is unique. Firstly, we've got teams with great business and technology expertise. Next, we've got long-term trust-based relationships with our customers, so based on long-term commitments. Then our positioning is unique.
We're exposed with significant exposure to promising sectors like defence, aerospace, public sector, and this puts us in a good position when it comes to quick evolution that we're seeing on the market, and then the emergence of sovereignty challenges. We're also clear-sighted when it comes to our environment. The macroeconomic and geopolitical backdrop remains uncertain. Furthermore, the basis for comparison in the second half of 2026 won't be as favorable as in the first half. Finally, as previously stated, we have taken into account the dilutive impact on growth of the wind down of the SFT program, and this impact will be more significant in the second half compared to the first half. We are going into the second half with confidence. We're benefiting from favorable trends in our strategic markets, so in particular in aerospace, defence, security and space, and in the public sector.
What's more, we're expecting ongoing improvement in the situation in Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. This means that we can expect a return to growth in these three countries during the second half. Based on this, we are capable of raising our organic growth target for 2026. We are now targeting organic growth between +2% and +2.5% for the full year, compared with +1% and +2% announced previously. This target still includes a negative non-recurring impact of 2 points linked to the SFT program. Excluding this impact, the organic growth target, which has been revised, would be between +4% and +4.5%. For the rest, we're confirming our margin targets and our free cash flow target as communicated at the beginning of the year.
Operating margin on business activity of at least 9.5% and free cash flow of around 5% of revenues. I'd like to suggest that we move on to the Q&A session now.
So that everyone can ask their questions, please limit yourself to two questions per person. Thank you. If you'd like to ask a question, please dial hash or the pound key five on your telephone keypad. If you want to withdraw your question, please dial hash and then six. The first question comes from Nicolas David from Oddo BHF. Your line is open. Over to you.
Good morning, Rajesh. Good morning, Etienne. Congratulations on these good results. My first question regards Q2 and what were the positive surprises, when compared with what was initially planned in terms of geographies and sectors? My second question regards Q2.
We've seen the acquisitions, but we've got negative net recruitment, on an organic basis is negative. Can you just help us understand the trend here, 1,000 people, Q2? Can you just give us a bit more details on these figures and explain why the momentum is what it is?
Thank you, Nicolas, for your question. For the first one, we've not been particularly surprised by Q2, even if we've confirmed the positive momentum, especially in France. With growth rates of basically equivalent between Q1 and Q2, 7.1% compared with 7.2%. All geographies, just keep it simple, there wasn't one geography that stood out. All geographies, as Rajesh said, have made a positive contribution. We're just slightly above what we were expecting. This is what enables us to raise the guidance for the year with the comments that Rajesh has made.
Obviously, we'll have a less favorable basis for comparison moving into the second half when compared with the first half. Obviously this will be less favorable with regards to SFT, but this has already been flagged. Now, for headcount, excluding acquisitions, we are up. Excluding acquisition, we're up 200, 300 full-time equivalents Q2 compared with Q1. There is an organic growth in headcount in Q2 versus Q1.
Thank you for this detail. The contribution of Starion and Nexova in terms of headcounts?
It's about 600. Bear in mind that we've got internal headcount, but then there's also subcontracting, especially for space, that's more significant than in other sectors.
Thank you. Just a follow-up question in terms of margin, EBITDA. That's stable year-on-year. Can we have an explanation of what the momentum is here? Is that why you're not raising the margin guidance for full year?
Obviously, I explained this previously when I talked about cash. EBITDA is flat in H1, fewer provisions, obviously that's good news. It means the level of risk the Group had is going down, and conversely, we've eliminated certain risk that was previously provisioned. That's for about EUR 20 million if you look at the details net. That's a favorable impact on H1, and we shouldn't see this in H2, or at least not at this level. That's the explanation of the non-progression in H1. Now , we give guidance on operating profit on business activity. Obviously, these impacts that I've mentioned are now behind us, these reversals of provisions, that's behind us, and we won't see this going forward.
Thank you. Next question from Thomas Poutrieux at BNP Paribas. Your line is open, over to you.
Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. One question linked to defence and sovereignty. Could we have a little bit more strategy or more information on the matter for the second half? Could we have perhaps some examples of new initiatives or new skills that are being developed, things that you're pushing to be able to address new opportunities in the coming years? Next point on the U.K. Could you just zoom in on momentum that you have in the pipeline for the business? Various contracts. There's obviously been the change in CEO, I think that took place at the start of July. In the public sector, could you give us some more information with regards to your expectations for growth in the coming quarters?
For defence, as you've seen, we've had good commercial success, which I described during the presentation, we are reinforcing the Group in various sectors where we're expecting strong growth, in particular space. This is why we've made the investment in Starion, which has obviously enabled us to win interesting contracts with the European Space Agency. All digital transformation solutions based on AI, sovereign AI, based on solutions like the fight against drones, anti-drone solutions. All of this is very promising, and we're expecting growth in the future. In the U.K., obviously change in CEO. That was planned because our current CEO, John Neilson, is retiring. It happens. A new CEO has been appointed not that long ago.
Obviously he's already been with the Group for over 10 years, this is aligned with what we've been doing previously, and it's not an external recruitment. Now, for business momentum in the U.K. Last year, you'll remember that the business wasn't linear, it was bumpy. There were some quarters where there was growth, and there was others where there was a contraction. It's transactional volume that can obviously have an impact from one quarter to another. You have to take a step back and not necessarily look at the figures quarter on quarter. First quarter were organic growth of 4.2%. That was the first quarter. Q2, we had slight growth, 2.5% over the first half. Q3, we're expecting more growth.
Obviously, the third quarter was slightly weaker last year, in particular for NHS SBS, the two joint ventures that we have with the health service. Conversely, Q4, which experienced strong growth last year, should have less growth this year. You have to bear that in mind when we talk about growth in the U.K. Broadly speaking, we're expecting slight growth in the U.K. over the year. Public sector business, SSCL, but not just that's now 100% owned by Sopra Steria. For SSCL and other business outside of the JVs, we had growth in Q1, growth in Q2, and we're expecting growth in Q3.
Just a question on aerospace, which wasn't that strong in the second half, but 12% group level. I think Q1 was 15%. What are you expecting in future?
The basis for comparison is going to be less favorable because we started to take off, excuse the pun, last year. That was obviously driven by Airbus, as you know. That materialized in July, August last year. The basis for comparison was not as favorable, but it is a buoyant sector.
Thank you very much.
Next question, Laurent Daure, Kepler Cheuvreux. You have the floor. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much. Good morning. I have a first question to ask. To pick on what Thomas said before on the joint ventures in the U.K., I think that 2026 was the year when we were supposed to have many calls for tenders for new possible contracts. I wanted to know more about the commercial momentum to secure our growth for 2028 to 2030 for the two joint ventures. That's my first point. Number two, you've mentioned the public sector. You said that's one of the factors for you to grow, like aero and defence. For the public sector, is it the base effect? It was complex during the first half in France. Maybe there's some type of pickup or recovery depending on the countries. A third question.
I missed the beginning of the conference call. Did you tell us more about reversals of provisions for SFT? If not, could you give us the number, please?
Well, as far as the U.K. is concerned, we have a pipeline in the U.K. which is still good with interesting opportunities in the defence sector, financial services, and public sector, with decisions that will be made in the year to come, not necessarily only in 2026. That's the timeline you have to remember. This includes opportunities in IT services and BPS, new generation BPS. For this, we have the new Lumina offer that Rajesh described before. That's at least EUR 1.5 billion total. That's quite a lot. We're not going to be the winners of all these deals, but there's enough in the pipeline. We have good commercial activity in the U.K.
You said EUR 1.5 billion. Is that annual?
No, that's what we have in the pipeline. Then this would spread covering five, six, or seven years. It all depends on the deals, on the contracts. What I mean is that we have enough to support our future growth in the U.K. Of course, you have to be the best bidder and find these contracts and not lose any. As far as the public sector is concerned, you're asking a question which covers much more than U.K. Of course, there's growth. If you look at France, the Q1, we have the base effect in Q2, which is at a lower level, but favorable. Everything included in France, we had a similar growth in Q2 versus Q1, more or less 7%. Quite dynamic, quite good. We know that in France, there'll be elections soon, but that's going to be an issue in 2027.
For the end of the year, we're quite confident. We know that there are ongoing projects that will bear fruit before the end of the year. We are working and focusing on the best topics. Well, of course, there'll be a budgetary debate, decisions will be made. The government has mentioned that, but for the time being, there's no impact in the short run. The third question, the SFT provisions. More or less EUR 10 million, reversals of provisions for SFT.
Thank you very much.
If you want to ask a question, please dial hash and five. Next question, Derric Marcon, Bernstein. The floor is yours.
Good morning, gentlemen. I have a couple of questions. To pick on what Laurent said.
Could you tell us more about the public sector and this market, not just in France, but in other countries as well? I'd like to better understand this positive trend that you're seeing at present. Is that something that's happening in other countries? Is it sustainable? That's my first question. The second question is a more technical question. What about the minority interest? Why are they lower than last year's? Third question, HR. There's a strong acceleration during the second quarter versus Q1. Is there a large contract signing, an explanation, that would account for this difference, this change between Q1 and Q2, even though there's a lot of services in this activity? Would you say there's a new trend given the very good numbers we had for Q2? The fourth question is about restructuring, what could we expect during the second half?
F our questions. First, the public sector. Well, thank you for asking. Public sector. It's not just France, as you know. We have a good footprint covering all of our geographies for the public sector. It's not just France that hangs out. The other countries don't need France to grow in the public sector. The momentum is good everywhere. Given the weight of this sector, well, we don't have the breakdown of all the numbers for each country, but that's a good momentum in France. Now, the second question, NHS SBS. Look at the annual numbers, not the half-year numbers. They don't mean much. You should compare this with last year's. NHS has a net profit, which is at a lower level of contribution. Your third contribution, HR software. This is a seasonal effect. Correct. There's no massive acceleration.
We're very happy with the growth we had for this business during the first half, and we expect growth for the full year. We signed an important license during the second quarter for the public sector in France, and that's good in terms of growth rate during Q2. There's no need to extrapolate this and say it's going to happen for the rest of the year. Fourthly, restructuring. There's going to be less restructuring during the second half versus H1, because in our P&L, we've taken most of the restructuring costs for SFT, as you saw when you looked at the numbers.
Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Frederic Boulan from BofA. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. My question was around the pricing environment. If you can comment on what you're seeing in competitive bids, and in particular, any more color you can give us on how pricing expectation from your customers, to what degree GenAI is a factor in those price negotiations and any specific kind of opportunity you can flag on the positive side to offset some of the AI deflation we're seeing. Thank you.
What we're seeing today is no major impact connected to or due to AI. Of course, all the clients are trying out a number of things, and there are some use cases that go scale or scale up. Today, we've not seen a price decrease. We've not seen anything in terms of productivity connected to this. If you look at all the bids, the large bids, they're very competitive, and they're more competitive because most of the big players like us have managed to use AI to bolster productivity. Prices will adjust as a consequence. This is something that's going to speed up, a trend that will speed up. The trend will focus more on restructuring types of contracts. There'll be outcome-based contracts so that the digital services company like us can take a big share of the cake and can take more risks.
That means that we'll be able to use our own solutions and the deployment of AI more massively when we design and deploy our solutions.
Next question, Laurent Daure, Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Thank you. A follow-up question. Could you tell us more about Ordina? A progress report, if you will, because the revenues are recovering, I think. What are you doing with this division? It had gone up and down after being acquired. Could you give us the timeline? When will we have good revenue again?
Ordina. That's for the Netherlands, if you don't know, where Sopra Steria had not any presence in the past, and they included the Group once we acquired Ordina. The revenue, Rajesh said it's the same trend in Q2 versus Q1 with a moderate decrease, which means a decrease which is not as marked as last year's decrease. We had a two-digit decrease in the Netherlands last year. It's not the same trend at all. Our forecast is that we'll be back to growth during the second half. That's very important, you see, because there's a tipping point, if I can say, in the Netherlands. As Rajesh said, we've done that in Germany and Belgium already. If we look at our margins, they've improved. We're not going to give you the country breakdown, though, but we've improved our margin, and that was the case during the first half.
It's going to be even more marked during the second half. We have appointed a new CEO. You probably know that. Joined us end of August, beginning of September. That's really good for the teams. There's good momentum. The mindset, the mood is certainly different in the Netherlands.
Etienne, what about Belgium? I think you've worked a lot on Belgium. There were three companies to be amalgamated. What about this integration? Is it over? Is Belgium in marching order?
My answer is yes. Integration is over. It's done. We integrated two companies. We had a foothold in Belgium, EUR 100 million more or less is what we had. We increased revenue threefold over there. We expect EUR 300 million in revenue this year with the acquisitions of Ordina, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Tobania not long ago.
As far as Belgium is concerned, for Q2, we've changed the trend. We have net recruitment. It's positive. It had not happened for a number of quarters. If you look at our margin, it's recovering versus what we saw last year. We saw that during the first half. We'll see that when we look at the financial statements for H2.
Thank you very much.
There are no more questions. I'll hand the floor back to our speakers for the conclusion.
Thank you very much. Thank you for your questions. We've now finished the call. With Rajesh, we'll be seeing you soon. Thank you very much.