Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for attending this Investor Day of SPIE. It's a pleasure to see you all, and I hope that we are able to give you a good picture of what we plan going forward. The speakers today will be Jérôme Vanhove, our CFO. Jérôme has been more than 16 years with the company, and for a long time was Head of M&A, which is an important part of our model. We have Séverine Mazeur, our HR Director. She joined last year and has discovered the world of services. We have Holzke, who is the head of Germany, and he's also responsible for Switzerland and Austria. Markus joined in 2013 when we did acquire our first large platform in Germany, Hochtief Service Solutions. He has run ever since the business in Germany and made it to a very significant player in the country.
He has been instrumental in making Germany the first country of SPIE. We have Isabelle Lambert, who is our Sustainability Director. Isabelle has joined us, I think, more than five years ago. She really has brought us on the cutting edge of sustainability. She played an important role in spreading the good spell and making sure we're really understanding what sustainability would mean for us, but more importantly, for our customers. We have Arnaud tirmarche, who is Head of France. Arnaud will show you how strong his business is. France was the whole story of SPIE started, and Arnaud is really leading up the values and the model of the company. We have Evert Lemmen. Evert is our newest addition to the EXCom of SPIE. He became a member of the EXCom of SPIE a few weeks ago.
Before that, he was heading the building solutions business in the Netherlands, which stemmed from the Worksphere acquisition. We have the whole EXCom of SPIE present with us today. We have also Pablo Ibáñez, who is Head of Operational Support. Pablo makes sure that all the nitty-gritties work within the company. I think we are very much dev to Pablo to ensure that all our systems work. What he does is not seen all the time, but it is absolutely instrumental. We have also Pascal Lekeu, who is Head of Belgium, also since last summer. Christophe Bernard is Head of Global Services Energies. It was our former oil and gas business, which now has also the responsibility to grow the wind business outside of Europe.
Christophe is leading this diversification while still managing to grow further and improve our oil and gas business. It is a great team. It is always a pleasure to work with this team. I think that together we have devised a new plan. Obviously, it is a whole commitment of the team to deliver on that plan. At SPIE, we tend to deliver on what we promise. One thing we did over the last 18 months was working on a purpose in France, [Foreign Language] . We felt it was really important in a world which is changing and changing fast. It was really important to reestablish a strong compass and give our employees, our customers, a strong sense of what we were standing for. We did devise this purpose. Again, it was not a top-down exercise.
It's been done with 500 workshops, all amongst 500 employees working in numerous workshops all around the company to make sure that this purpose was coming from the base and was really corresponding to what our employees feel and to what they want to do in their daily professional life. We have a simple sentence, also working around solution. We are here to implement reliable technical solutions to tackle society's sustainability challenges. We have four commitments because obviously you don't need only a sentence. You need commitments which then are transformed into concrete steps always in the company. These commitments are around talents, technical competencies of our people. They're around trust towards our customer. They're around sustainability, so and mainly decarbonation, and then innovation.
These are commitments that we want to live and demonstrate all through our activities with our employees, with our customers, and with all our stakeholders. I keep repeating it. It is a good time to be an electrical engineer. I have been more than 20 years in this business. I think it has never been a better time to be an electrical engineer. SPIE has developed as a number one independent player in Europe for technical services. We are delivering best-in-class performance. I think the margin that we displayed yesterday is best-in-class. We have demonstrated, and we will come back to that, strong talent for compounding model in our industry. We are very strongly embarked on digital transformation and energy transition. We are the independent leader. Let me just spend a few words about that. Why is independent important?
It means that first, our customer recognizes us for what we do. It is a very clear message towards our customer. We focus on technical services, and that is what we want to do as best as we can for them. We have a very cash-generative model, and this cash is totally invested in the company. It is not like we funnel up cash to another company. The cash is devoted to shareholder return and acquisitions. That is a very important message also to our employees. They are all core of the business. That is why independent is important. I think it has been a strong driver all along these years to bring us forward. In terms of geographical presence, we are number one in the Netherlands following the acquisition of Worksphere three years ago.
We are among the top three in Belgium, in Austria, in Poland, and in other Central Europe countries as well. By the way, I missed, because he was not sitting on the first rank, I missed to introduce Pawel Skowronski, who is our Head of Central Europe. Pawel joined us with the acquisition of SAG. Sorry about that, Pawel. We are number four in France, and we are number two in Germany, very close to number one. Probably the ambition is not to remain number two. In terms of geographical spread going forward, we managed over these last years to really rebalance the company and to make sure that we have a much better spread geographical presence. Now we have Germany becoming this year the first country of SPIE. You will see that later in the presentation.
This year, in 2024, Germany was the first contributor in terms of EBITDA to the group. On a pro forma basis, just on par with France, with the differential in organic growth that we anticipate this year, Germany is the first country of SPIE. Going forward, we think that Germany will continue to take a growing share of the business because of the drivers which we see right now. More fundamentally, German GDP is 150% of French GDP. At some stage, it's only normal that Germany is 150% larger than our French business. We may get something like EUR 5 billion for a start. Clearly, on top of that, industry in Germany is three times as large as in France. You have seen also the present drivers in Germany. That's just a natural path of growth.
We obviously do not forget the strength of the French business, where the whole SPIE story started. As you will see, Netherlands are emerging as a very strong third pillar. We have a good presence in Central Europe and probably a lot of area for further growth. We do welcome the strong booster we get from oil and gas and wind, so GDC going forward. Compared to where we were at 10 years ago at peak time, obviously, I do not want to dwell too long on that, but basically, we nearly doubled in terms of revenue. We more than doubled in terms of EBITDA, and we also doubled the return to the shareholders with a dividend now at EUR 1 per share.
We have generated over this period EUR 3.2 billion cash flow, which is to be compared to the market cap at the time of IPO, which was in the range of EUR 2.5 billion. Since IPO, we've achieved 71 acquisitions, so one large platform acquisition, which was SAG in Germany, and 70 bolt-on. We have been pioneering the measurement of our green share, which is the share of our revenue, which is aligned with the European taxonomy. We are standing at present at 49%, which puts us as the number one in the SBF 120. It does demonstrate the commitment of SPIE to decarbonization of the economy. The reason why we are here today is that we met the expectations of our previous plan one year in advance.
The good news is that we are one year in advance, but it means that we have to come up with a new guidance, and this is the topic of today. At the time we had promised average organic growth of 4%, we delivered 6.5% over the period. We're aiming at a margin at at least 6.7%. We are now at 7.2%, so 15 basis points ahead. We did EUR 1.7 million of acquired revenue over the period. And we were advertising, as always, cash conversion of 100%. We delivered an average of 109% over the period. In terms of value creation, the annualized total shareholder return over the period since our 2022 CMD stands at 22.1%. It's better than the Spark asset. Looking ahead, we are really in a very interesting time for what we do.
Clearly, if you read the press, and even as recently as yesterday, there was a very large announcement from TenneT in the Netherlands. We have huge investment plans, EUR 40 billion in most of the regions in Europe, including France, by the way. Clearly, we live in a time where the energy of tomorrow is electricity. Moreover, the energy of tomorrow is low carbon electricity. We have a fantastic growth in renewable, moving now at 45% of the electrical production. We will see, especially in France, we have a very strong push for nuclear electricity. This is a world where electricity becomes the main energy, and low carbon electricity is at the forefront. Investment in these areas are huge, and especially in T&D. It is also a world where people try to save energy, and it is true for all areas. It is true for industry.
It is true for buildings. There's not one single offer in buildings or tech FM from SPIE where we don't have an energy efficiency component. It's really a major focus of the customer. Basically, all our customers embark on the scope one, scope two, scope three journey of reduction of these scopes. Basically, they turn to us. Scope one and two, it's the fleet, which has to become electrical. It's the buildings, which has to become more efficient. We are the answer to this. We are the solution to these problems. All this would not happen without digitalization. You need much more monitoring, much more sensoric. Clearly, much more data. We tend to use data storage, data security, data transmission with optic fiber.
At the end, they all end up in data center, which is a very strong area of growth going forward, especially in countries where the electricity is low carbon because data centers need a huge amount of electricity. You see the plans in France for the data centers to be built. In fact, it is the production of several nuclear reactors. It is a huge trend going forward. Again, energy efficiency is also a key element in this regard. Never been a better time to be an electrical engineer. We are very well posed to capture this mega trend. I mentioned T&D, which is now a very significant chunk of what we do. We are now seeing that with a lot of new electrical lines, new backbones, you also need to completely transform the grid.
It means new substations and new distribution networks. Industry, as I see, is a major shift to electricity. Replacing gas, or also trying to replace gas with hydrogen or replace gas with electricity. If you replace gas with hydrogen, it means you need electricity to produce green hydrogen. It does play exactly to where we are. Energy efficiency is key in industry. It is key in tech FM, as I just mentioned. We see also the same trend in building solutions with a lot of new insulation now with different sources of electrical supply, also for the heat and with a lot of heat pumps. We see our information and communication system are very much at the heart of all these transformations. Looking a bit more in detail into a few verticals.
We have now, we have on this chart the verticals which will display some growth in the years to come, as they account for 35% of what we do. We mentioned the building automation. We mentioned the optic fiber, which has still a lot of runway in some countries, less in others. Industry automation and in France specifically the nuclear. We have growth boosters, which are areas where we'll see a growth higher than average going forward. Clearly, in that sense, you see the grid. You see cybersecurity. You see wind, which is becoming an important vertical for SPIE. A bit later, you will see hydrogen. I mean, not just starting. Clearly, e-mobility is an area which is still fairly small, but which is enjoying and will enjoy strong growth going forward.
Organic growth, we'll discuss this, but clearly, we're looking at a good trend to support our organic growth. On top of that, SPIE's model is an accompanying model. M&A is a key pillar of what we do. Since 2007, I think we did 170 acquisitions. We have become extremely conversant in sourcing, in valuation, and in integration. A good example, by the way, is that three of our ex-core members have joined SPIE through acquisition. Markus is a Hortius, Evert with Worksphere, and Pavel with SAG. It is really at the core of the model of SPIE. Jérôme will give you a few more details of what it really means in terms of return on investment. Coming to the outlook, again, we take our guidances very seriously at SPIE. It is a strong commitment to deliver on what we promised today.
We're looking at the total revenue growth in the range of 7%-9% average per annum, of which 3%-4% organic. We're looking at further margin expansion and at least 7.7% by 2028. You know how margin is important for us. Really, at SPIE, the stance is margin over volume. The focus on margin remains absolutely essential. This is a commitment which we take very strongly. It will lead us to surpass the EUR 1 billion mark EBITDA by 2028. Free cash flow, we're going to generate more than EUR 2 billion free cash flow over the period. You've seen that we are now at a strong level of free cash flow. It's always based on the 100% cash conversion, which is something that we are going to stick to.
It is really something essential at SPIE because it is a testimony of the quality of the earnings. With this amount of cash, obviously, we'll look at continuing with our dividend policy. It's 4% payout ratio. We'll look at anti-dilutive share buyback because every year we have an employee share program, which creates some dilution. We want to compensate that on a recurring basis going forward. We'll see, we'll continue our policy of self-finance M&A. If you do the math, there is some cash left. Clearly, we'll be looking at it. It will give us a lot of flexibility, either for additional M&A if we have a good opportunity or further return to the shareholders. Our guidance would not be complete without an element of sustainability.
At SPIE, we're going to embark on a new roadmap for 2030, which Isabelle is going to describe to you. It's really an ambition across the board, and everybody at SPIE takes this very seriously. Again, it's part of our purpose. It does really give sense to what we do. I think it's a very good way also to value the contribution of 54,000 employees. With that, I will conclude this introduction. Before giving the word to Jérôme, we'll see the new corporate film of SPIE. Thank you for your attention.
At SPIE, when we say we're part of the solution, it's not just another corporate tagline. It really means something. It means working on the energy transition, implementing innovative technical solutions to help combat climate change day by day, project by project. It means increasing the amount of renewable energy available, reducing dependency on single sources.
It means installing smart technology in buildings to pioneer energy management systems, decarbonizing industry by electrifying production processes, deploying low-carbon mobility technology, and managing the flow of traffic in urban areas and cross-country, and increasing the share of our revenue derived from sustainable activities. It means designing, installing, and running today's technology while also playing a pioneering role in developing tomorrow's solutions. We believe in and deploy future energy sources such as green hydrogen and geothermal. We develop storage solutions at scale to help ensure a steady supply of energy during yield fluctuations from renewables. We transmit information faster and faster on networks which are getting safer, offering higher performance, and becoming more energy efficient. Being part of the solution also means setting an example and reducing our own carbon footprint by working on our transport operations, on our buildings, offices, and on our equipment.
It also means making a priority of diversity and inclusion and offering safe and stimulating employment opportunities to the 50,000 people working at SPIE. Being part of the solution means being the European independent leader at the service of our clients in all sectors of the economy. Together, let's take action today for the energy transition and for a responsible approach to digital transformation.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'm very pleased this morning to guide you through our value-creative growth model, to which, as you have seen yesterday, our 2024 performance made once more no exception at all. Just to put numbers on words, here on that chart, we basically express the outcome of such a growth model over the last three years from 2022, date at which we had and we hold our last Investor's Day. Let's start with sustainable growth.
Gauthier commented already on it, 6.5% on average over that period, very clearly evidencing the very strong and robust dynamic of our market, but also our strong positioning to capture those opportunities. Of course, 2022-2023 were years of quite high inflation, but make no mistake, margin-wise, it was clearly not a walk in the park. Talking about margin, we did deliver over that period, 2022 to 2024, an EBITDA margin expansion by 90 basis points from 6.3% to 7.2%. How we made it? Basically using pricing and pricing power in markets such as transmission and distribution, typically benefiting from a strong demand, we were able to uplift prices and to improve our margins. Always being positioned as a mission-critical service provider is also part of this equation. As always, at SPIE, permanent focus on operational excellence, including the quality of the execution.
That is what we call at SPIE, margin over volume approach. It is not exclusive and allows for decent organic growth still. There is not such a good performance without measuring our performance in terms of cash. You see over the last three years, an average cash conversion of 109%. That is very high. Cash conversion is obviously testifying to the very strong quality of our earnings, but as well as a very strong monitoring of our working capital all along. This has translated very naturally into accumulated free cash flow of EUR 1.3 billion over the last three years as just passive. What have we done with this EUR 1.3 billion? EUR 0.4 billion roundabout dedicated to dividend distribution, return to shareholders. EUR 1.4 billion invested into value-creative bolt-on M&A. This has allowed us to add on top of our top line EUR 1.7 billion of cumulated annual revenue.
All of that, EUR 0.4 billion plus EUR 1.4 billion, slightly higher than the free cash flow generated, but allowing, however, to maintain a very decent leverage ratio, not more than 1.6 times at the end of 2024. Just to close that loop, this additional EUR 1.7 billion annual turnover we acquired through M&A allowed for a 12.5% of total growth on average over the period. Later on in this presentation, Markus, Arnaud, Evert will give you some insights on the driving forces to the organic growth in front of us and how do we see our future in that respect, how strong are our market. Let me focus on EBITDA. We delivered and we posted 7.2% EBITDA margin in 2024. It's really good performance. It's even best in class in the sector, but there is still a clear potential for further uplift.
That's the reason why, as Gauthier just revealed, our commitment is at least 7.7% by 2028. Germany is already leading the way. Germany has posted 7.5% EBITDA margin as from 2024. How do we get from 7.2 to 7.7? Clearly, pricing power. Pricing power with higher added value services provided to our customers. Later on in this presentation, you will hear about energy efficiency solutions. You will hear about data center-related services, wind, wind installation, nuclear sector, all good drivers supporting our pricing power. Of course, also a favorable mixed evolution in our business. T&D, you've seen in a previous slide, T&D and Networks totaling more than 30% of our business and service portfolio. This will grow and probably grow faster than some other business lines within SPIE. You know we are playing with a very strong pricing power in this domain.
The demand is strong, and we are able to increase constantly our prices. This goes together with a permanent discipline observed with selectivity on project, with discipline on pricing, and of course, quality of the execution. I would not be accurate not mentioning a bit of cost synergies. Not all the time when we do M&A, but in some specific circumstances, Worksphere, typically, Evert will say a word on that, was a very good example on our ability to extract cost synergies from that. That is one leg, one leg on our project to expand our EBITDA in the next four years. The second leg, obviously, is the revenue growth. You will hear further today how do we see and how confident we are in such sustainable organic growth path for the coming four years.
Of course, contribution from bolt-on, plus a bit of cross-selling that we are able to develop on the basis of our bolt-on M&A. You factor the uplift of the EBITDA margin, that permanent total growth that we embark on, and you have our commitment to surpass EUR 1 billion of EBITDA in 2028. Of course, we have to talk about cash once more. SPIE has embarked on a clear cash generation step-up. We have a proven cash-generative model. 2017 to 2020, EUR 1.1 billion of cumulated free cash flow generated during these four years. This also on the basis of 115% of cash conversion on average. Next four years period, 2021 to 2024, EUR 1.6 billion of cumulated free cash flow. This on the basis of 107% of cash conversion. As I just mentioned, we are clearly now embarking on a cash generation step-up, and that's going to be massive.
First driving factor will be obviously the growing EBITDA we have just explained towards surpassing EUR 1 billion in 2028. Then, because it is a permanent commitment at SPIE, internally and externally, a cash conversion of 100%, at least 100%, but that is our commitment. That would lead us to accumulated free cash flow for the next four years above EUR 2 billion. EUR 2 billion of free cash flow to fuel our growth model. Our capital allocation for the next four years, as Gauthier has indicated, will be focused on value-creative M&A and shareholder returns, starting with a growing dividend year over year based on a steady 40% of payout ratio. Recurring anti-dilutive share buyback. We have already started in January 2025 with our first program. As Gauthier mentioned, it is, I think, fair compensation to the recurring share-for-you program.
That's our capital increase reserved to the employees with a discount and LTIPs for more than 300 managers. Human capital is and remain and will remain our core asset. It has to be well protected. Of course, the lion's share and our top priority in terms of capital allocation will remain the self-financing of our bolt-on M&A strategy. This being said, if you do the math with above EUR 200 billion of cumulated free cash flow over the period, and while delivering satisfyingly our program in terms of return to shareholders and bolt-on M&A as per our total growth guidance, it might be a bit of flexibility for incremental return to shareholders or, as Gauthier pointed out, additional M&A opportunities. Let's have now a focus on this value-creative bolt-on M&A strategy.
You know that it had been for years clearly part of the DNA of the group and had been instrumental in our development, especially the pan-European development of the group. Historically, and since IPO, again, that's what you see on the left-hand side of the chart, a very clear recurring flow of small and medium-sized bolt-on M&A. Seventy-one acquisitions since IPO, even more than 160 acquisitions since 2007. The second element, which is to be noted, is over the last four years, a clear slight increase of the average size of the target we acquired, with now, over the last four years, EUR 75 million of turnover on average. Two examples, acquisition of Worksphere in 2022, acquisition of Robur at the very beginning of 2024, roundabout EUR 400 million of turnover at the time of the acquisition for those two ones.
These are absolutely instrumental in our development and in our acceleration on the M&A side. Now let's talk about the value creation levers, because there is no good M&A if it's not value-creative. Everything starts, and it's not on that chart, but that's just stating the obvious, with attractive valuation. I think Markus has, but I don't want to spoil that, as a very good sentence to summarize what it means. Our valuation metrics are always the same from mid-single digit to high single digit EBITDA multiple, depending on the intrinsic qualities and specificities of the targets we are valuing. It is all about integration. We have developed a true integration expertise over the last years. We have even a toolbox that is systematically deployed locally by the teams in charge of the integration within an already existing organization within SPIE.
With those jobs, we don't just buy business for what they are. We are also able to develop on cross-selling. When you acquire a specialist in one domain, you acquire a new client base, and with that new client base, you can also develop further SPIE services, which are part of our total offering. Cost synergies, they are not systematic, but they do exist in some cases, and that's also one element of the value creation. Margin expansions. Again, we don't buy the business for just what they are. We also have a project for those businesses, and embedded into SPIE, they can perform even better. Markus will later show to you two examples, one in Germany, one in Austria, where we have been able to leverage on margin expansion. Last but not least, working capital improvement. At SPIE, we have our own model.
It's even patented with, obviously, a structurally negative working cap, the way we operate the business. Most of the case, we acquire businesses with positive working capital, and deploying our know-how, our processes, our discipline into that, we are able to turn negative those working cap going forward. All in all, it's a clear impact on our value creation generated from the M&A. These are concepts, but I would like to even go further and show to you what does that mean in terms of metrics and true value creations. At acquisition, it goes without saying that with the range of multiple we are applying, the return on capital employed for every single acquisition we do is above the weighted average cost of our capital. Sorry to be a bit technical, but in terms of value creation, that's clearly the floor. That's at inception.
We develop all our tools to improve that value. Here we have measured on the back of the last 15 acquisitions we have done in the period 2019 to 2022, what is the return on capital employed from those acquisitions. On average, three-year post-acquisition outcome is 17%. One leg is obviously the development of their organic portfolio, the second leg being obviously the margin expansion, on average 200 basis points. The third leg, the working capital improvement, which translated into valuation multiple is allowing us to reduce implicitly the multiple by one term. What is in front of us? Let me conclude my presentation with a comment on our rich and even endless pipeline for M&A, starting with a very clear statement. We do operate on a highly fragmented market. Why that?
I think it's inherent to the industry, to our technical services industry, operating systematically locally and in proximity with clients, and obviously addressing the needs from all economic sectors in the countries where we are. Such a pipeline is permanently fueled, starting with a proactive internal approach. We do capitalize on our local network to identify targets, to get into contact, to get to know, to track who are the experts in some domains which we believe can enrich our service portfolio. This is very, very powerful, as it also allows for bilateral and one-on-one discussions. The lion's share of the transactions we are making successfully are outside any auction process. Of course, we are known now on the market as a very serial compounder, and there is not one single week without a new teaser on our desk coming from M&A agents or bank.
What does our pipeline of M&A look like today? Twelve active M&A situations at the time we speak, and that's very consistent with what we have observed in the last years. In total, those twelve active M&A situations are representing EUR 400 million of annual turnover. If we look a bit more forward, fifty identified mid and long-term targets. Altogether, they represent EUR 3.3 billion of annual turnover. If we look clearly forward in the long run, an identified list of 150 targets which would fit really our criteria for good M&A, totaling more than EUR 6.5 billion of cumulated revenue. Of course, I'm talking about long terms, but we know and we have experience, for instance, with the acquisition of SAG, not really bolt-on, but it had been instrumental for Gauthier. It was years and years of close proximity with the management team.
At the time SAG came onto the market, we were just ready and knew what to buy. This is concluding my part. I thank you very much for your attention. Before I hand over to Markus Holzke, CEO of SPIE Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, let's discover a short movie on a high-voltage project in Germany. Thank you.
Thank you, Jo, for the nice introduction of myself. Yeah, the video already spoils where you have to be in Germany these days, and I'm quite happy to deeper dive with you into Germany, the powerful growth engine within the SPIE organization. Yeah, directly moving on to deeper take you into the German situation of today at a glance. Meanwhile, we look at a grown-up multi-technical service portfolio, including all the SPIE business lines being present in all our countries.
We have the T&D and Networks business line, yeah, being by far the biggest in Germany, closely followed by our technical facility management competencies. Of visible size and equal size, followed by building solutions, which we call internally building technology and automation business. Our information and communication services and our new industry service and wind activities. Our broad and long-lasting and very diversified client spectrum is being served by our close to 18,000 employees generating EUR 3.2 billion of reported revenues in 2024. With the full year contribution of those acquisitions being done in 2024, we already have a growth portion looking at 2025. However, on a good organic momentum, you see that over the period until 2024, from 2022, acquisitions play a major role. Eight acquisitions creating more than EUR 900 million of additional turnover being acquired within this period.
Margins and cash are key, as Jérôme and Gauthier pointed out. The margins, they stand for our competitiveness in the market. They also stand internally for our execution excellence, our execution capabilities of our operational business, and are giving us the strength of moving forward. We were able to permanently increase these margins to 7.5% in 2024. Looking at the slide, I would not say that we did that flawlessly within all the single actions, but in some, you can say that. It was not always the case, the size, yeah. This is why we can take a look back at the period before 2013, eleven and a half years ago. SPIE's presence in Germany was slightly smaller, with a company having EUR 35 million of sales volume, 270 employees spread across five locations.
Today, our 18,000, close to 18,000 employees are spread across a dense network of over 700 locations in Germany. We are very, very close to our customers, yeah, completely diversified in all the landscape of Germany, generating the said EUR 3.2 billion of revenues and making us the number two in the market of multi-technical services in Germany with a best-in-class margin of 7.5%. The real entry point, coming back to 2013, and Gauthier already pointed it out, of SPIE in Germany was in 2013 with the acquisition of the Hochtief Service Solutions portfolio. That was the first platform acquisition SPIE made in Germany. That was also my arrival within the SPIE organization. Since then, I have the pleasure to lead the business together with a strong team moving forward. Yeah, from day one, we implemented the SPIE business model very successfully.
That means that over the years, we extended and deepened our service range from being a pure facility management player as Hochtief Service Solutions was at that point in time to a real multi-technical service provider, being present in a lot of technical expertise fields in the business lines of SPIE operating in numerous markets. With having had the chance to build the business from scratch organically, we put margins over volume, went out of commodity into specialization, also into solutions for our clients, and developed ourselves into vertical markets, suiting our technical capabilities best on the one hand and providing us with higher growth prospects on the other hand. In the period, purely looking at Germany here, SPIE realized two platform acquisitions, Hochtief already mentioned in 2013, and SAG Group in 2017, also already mentioned by Jérôme. On top of that, we did 23 so-called bolt-on acquisitions.
On the back of the larger ones, we were even able to form new operational divisions like we did last year with the Robur acquisition. We founded our operational division, Industry Service and Wind, and made the first bolt-on acquisition with Otto LSE, now SPIE Life Science Engineering, already in that operational division. Our acquisition strategy works bottom-up and top-down both ways. We only focus on profitable and competitive businesses only, where we have a good cultural fit as well with the management teams. When it comes to manage the integration, we developed over the years and deployed a standardized PMI approach, always being customized to the special situation of the newcomers and orchestrated by a dedicated PMI team. Yeah, being a pure multi-technical service provider, we only have our employees and our customers. Thus, we permanently have to invest into our business.
Now I come to a few logos, which you can see on the slide as well. I would like to start with a statement that people like to work for SPIE. I just say people, not only employees, yeah, but I start with our employees. We are a great place to work. That is the red logo in the middle of the slide. A great place to work. We were awarded by this internationally recognized seal from our employees who give the statement that we are an employer of choice for them and an attractive employer. 74% of our employees rated their workplace as being very good. That is an excellent result, which is definitely confirmed by also our low resignation rate, which is one of the lowest in the industry.
We are also, and that is the logo next to the red one, Great Place to Work. We are also a Great Start organization. 500 young talents were hired by us in 2024. More than 500 young talents start their career with an apprenticeship within SPIE. That is also a great focus of us and a good statement. In total, we were able to hire 2,000, more than 2,800 employees in 2024, of which more than one quarter has been hired through our cooptation program, through our employees. This is what we really emphasize. Employees who want to work for SPIE, they already want other people to join SPIE. This is why I said people want to work for SPIE. If we are happy to have an employer of choice, me personally, I am happy to embark on other ones.
This is how it works. Yeah, furthermore, we had our focus also on investments in IT, for example, a strong ERP backbone, a scalable IT infrastructure, and resilient IT security framework. Sustainability and digital and innovation are for us key differentiating factors for us to differentiate in the market and from our competitors and doing benefit for our clients. In terms of sustainability, with our technical workforce, providing solutions, understanding the brownfield, we only have a small step to really bring a lot of benefit for our clients to decarbonize and embark on the future. This is automatically a field where we can differentiate very much. Internally, of course, we contribute in the terms of scope 1, 2, and 3 to the CO2 reduction of the group. Also we work on our green share all the period long, being accretive to the group's green share.
Digital and innovation leadership, if we are working close to our clients, providing them with a solution, a technical solution, understanding the brownfield of the client, automatically the client expects us to be the leader in innovation of what we do, the leader in digitalization. This is automatically what our employees are asking us to do. This is something what we strive for and have to strive for. The Arena 2036 and the Euref community are examples for platforms, research platforms, giving us a different horizon to embark on these challenges. Coming back down to earth and health and safety for our employees, over the period of the last 10 years, we were able to decrease our accident frequency rate by up to 60%, increasing the safety of our employees.
That is a remarkable result because with the growth story you see with the logos, we have to deal with a completely different maturity status of the health and safety culture of our newcomers. All of that, I think, is a great sign which arrives finally at our clients who also value our development over the past 11 years. They provide us good feedback in our annual customer satisfaction surveys. Yeah, we are quite proud that our net promoter score always grew over the years to an all-time high last year in 2024 to 54.2. All of that development is steered by a highly motivated management team, yeah, also having the highest ambition to move forward. Before we move forward into the future, into vertical markets, we take a look at two examples, what Jérôme already spoiled a little bit.
I would like to illustrate to you how the success of our compounder model works. The things you can read on the slide, I would like to take you with me a little bit behind the scenes of those two acquisition cases. Starting on the left side, OSMO was a case, a clear bottom-up bolt-on case. That means managers knew the company, knew the owner of the company being 85 years old, managing the company on top of his operational management team. We worked on this owner for one and a half years. We stayed tuned, convinced him that SPIE is a very good home for his employees, for his company moving forward. Finally, we were successful. Within the SPIE organization, you see that the company grew quite successfully and even more successfully was able to improve the margins.
Nowadays, we look at very solid high double-digit margins in a sphere of work, which is giving us, at this point in time, a better footprint in Germany, but also entering the traffic and explicitly the tunnel infrastructure market. Two years later, on the knowledge of the management of OSMO, we were able to acquire the competitor of OSMO, also from an owner being 75 years old, embarking on our management team, whether it would be a good idea also for SPIE Dürr, or not SPIE at this time, also for Dürr to be acquired and finding a home in the SPIE organization. This is what we did. We gave the responsibility to the OSMO management. Last year, the two companies were merged to a company with the name SPIE Building Technology Automation and Traffic GmbH.
We are not good at these finding names, yeah, but we have now a uniform presence in a great traffic and tunnel infrastructure market under the name and brand of SPIE with one ERP backbone and harmonized business processes. Not only financially, it was a success story, but also from the whole surrounding and what we learned. We learned to stay tuned, to identify, to stay tuned, to come to, in the end, to a signature under the contract, to integrate and even grow further on the back of this new acquisition. The SIA case was slightly different. It was a professional process, and it was one of the shortest acquisition processes we did. A professional process where at the beginning, we completely knew what the company was doing from what we were doing in Germany.
We knew that this could be a case to enter into the Austrian market. We could convince right in the first moments of the professional acquisition process, the sellers, the owners, and the management team that we could be the best partner. We achieved exclusivity. Within less than a month, we finalized the acquisition in 2019, giving us the first entry point into Austria. I would say it was for free because when you see that we managed directly after the acquisition to reduce the working capital by EUR 22 million in a very short period of time, the underlying EV of the acquisition was paid back by post-acquisition working capital reduction. That was what Jérôme pointed out in his section to the compounder model. Yeah, basing on the good development of SIA over the years, you can see the growth and the margin improvement.
We dared ourselves to do two other acquisitions, SPIE Chem in the following years and SPIE Dürr Austria. Dürr, that was the company on the left side for OSMO. Yes, it is the Austrian subsidiary. The company Dürr was equally split, the business, one in Germany and one part in Austria. On the back of these three legal entities, we founded our country organization in 2024 in Austria. If it comes to promotion of managers being acquired, you already heard that managers from acquisitions are able to work in the SPIE organization. Also here in Austria, it is the case. The CEO of SPIE Dürr Austria, the former CEO, is now heading our Austrian operations. The CEO of SIA, the company you see on the slide, is now our CFO in Austria. Great story, I think.
Not only pointing out the past, but also giving you some information and background, how much knowledge we gained and how much this is driving us, our experience moving forward to grow the platform and how the platform growth is working. Did I point out that Austrian business was already present in T&D business? No. If not, then this would be the point to hand over to Germany. If there is a point or if there is a place to be in the German market, it is the T&D business, which we can see and tackle now on this slide. Thanks to the acquisition of SAG in 2017, we are best prepared to benefit from the huge investments, predominantly from the energy transition in this market. We serve this market from two operational divisions. You can see the names on the slides.
That is High Voltage, an operational division called High Voltage. This is focusing on the transmission market, building the transmission lines, but also the substations to it, but being able to also do all the surrounding technical services, which you need to accompany the assets which are built across the life cycle, from the design to the service and maintenance, and in the middle, the erection and installation. The same does the City Networks and Grids division, focusing on the distribution part of the electrical grid. Both operational divisions, they contribute to the German revenues 37%. They also do some other activities, like fiber deployment and so on. Purely the electrical grid services, which we call T&D services, they're making up 30% of the German revenues.
Following the arrival of the two operational divisions in SPIE with SAG, the market gave us a little bit of time to prepare ourselves with integration. You might remember out of these times, the EUR 20 million run rate synergies, lifting up our EBIT with the combination of the existing SPIE organization. Also, afterwards, we experienced a very strong organic growth with an acceleration over the past years. This is why we are quite confident that we are reaching and very solidly the growth pattern above 10% KEGA until 2028, and I would say even beyond, which we have listed on the slide. Coming down to the transmission and distribution market, you have seen already the investment volume. The drivers are for both parts the same, for distribution the same, then for transmission. It is, on the one hand, the grid expansion investments.
It is the modernization of the grid. It is to make the grid more intelligent because of the more decentralized energy sources with the renewables coming into the grid. You need to monitor. You need to go to know what's going on in the grid to make the grid digitalized and thus more intelligent. These are the major drivers. The investment volumes, you see, they ramp up to EUR 14 billion on an annual basis in the transmission grid. That is said roughly from the four transmission system operators in this market and the German government, EUR 14 billion per annum. We reached a peak of last year's investments, reaching EUR 10 billion. You see, it will already ramp up quite a lot. The same we see in a different relationship in the distribution grid. We talk about EUR 10 billion annual spend until the period of 2035.
is enough volume to tap on and to fuel our organic growth and maybe also our inorganic growth in the future. T&D not only plays a role in Germany. We see the same pattern in all the countries where SPIE operates, especially in Europe. You see the investment volumes are, of course, slightly bigger, but also here, energy transition is the major driver. The grid expansion, the modernization of the grid is required with heavy investments to support that. The key drivers are, of course, the increasing electricity demand coming from the electrification, but also from the digitalization. AI is the major driver of the future. Bridging the distance from an offshore wind park, bringing the electricity down in the heart of Europe needs long-distance lines.
You can only achieve that with direct current lines, which we have listed here under the special tasks, not to lose energy in between. Renewables play also a significant role in the future. The capacity additions are huge coming from wind parks, not only offshore, but also onshore. Of course, PV plays a role as well. With all these decentralized energy sources, we need to have more intelligence in the grid. The grid needs to be digitalized. That is what we call smart grids, especially in the distribution areas. All that is happening in Brownfield with an existing old grid infrastructure, which needs to be modernized everywhere. Everett can give you some examples later on. I realized a spoiler yesterday. It is also attractive for us.
You can see how much volume we create within the SPIE organization in this T&D services market with 10,000 employees. We are creating and generating EUR 1.5 billion in revenues from nine countries. This leads me over to our group committees. I recently became the sponsor of the T&D group committee. When you ask the questions, how do they exchange best practices from one country to the other in the business lines and so on, our group committees are giving the answer. In these group committees, we try to do exactly that, to do action plans, how to exchange with each other on best practices, on process harmonization, systems harmonization, sales initiatives, and so on. I handed over my sponsorship for the technical facility management business to Evert and took over the sponsorship for the T&D activities.
Yeah, especially in the T&D activities for us, it is relevant to harmonize our processes, our HSE standards, our tools and equipment in order to finally be able to exchange capacities from one country to the other because this is how we also can capture growth. This is what also happens in Germany already with our Polish colleagues from Poland working and supporting our transmission line projects in the northern part of Germany and with our Slovakian colleagues in the southern part of Germany. We are very thankful for that exchange. This is how we can also capture more market growth. Yeah, T&D is a sweet spot, but it is not the whole world of businesses in Germany.
This is why I would like to point out three other vertical markets, which are also interesting for the SPIE organization, of which you have already heard from Gauthier and from Jérôme. Data centers, telco infrastructure, and pharma. Vertical markets which are extremely interesting for SPIE. Starting off with the data centers. The German Ministry of Economics pointed out that from 2010 to 2024, so in 14 years, the capacity of data centers already doubled to a value, an amount of 2.7 gigawatts. In the next six years, not 14, in the next six years, we are close to double again. It is an acceleration of growth with a solid double-digit growth also for us, what is interesting for us.
For us in Germany, which is by far the biggest and largest market for data centers in Europe, we look at an investment volume in 2024 of EUR 2.9 billion and thereof 75% for technical equipment, power supply or building technology equipment and the accompanying installation works. This is exactly where we want to be. Our focus in terms of data centers is not lying on the big hyperscaler data centers, but rather on data centers on-premise for enterprises and for co-locators. This is where our technical capabilities are best suited and where we can grow the most. As a multi-technical service supplier, you have the charming situation that with all our business lines, we have data center expertise. From all those mosaics of logos, what you have seen on the slide of our growth path, we can build a picture, a solution for a client.
That means in terms of the data center vertical market, we are able to accompany a data center from day one, the first thoughts of a customer wanting to build a data center until the end, until renewal investments happen. From the power supply with our high voltage division and city networks division, building a substation also for a data center campus to the installation of a single data center, the design, the installation, the commissioning, and then handing over to technical facility management for the operation of the technical equipment. Of course, for the core heart of the business of a data center, our information communication services guys are best to do the business there. We understand the whole ecosystem for our clients and can provide a real differentiating factor and a lot of value for our clients.
Moving over from the data centers to the telco infrastructure with the two segments, FTTX on the one hand and the mobile infrastructure on the other. Starting with the FTTX business, EUR 8 billion market is a very big and attractive market growing with a CAGR of 10% until the period of 2027. We estimate a peak or studies estimate a peak at 2030 and then with the completion of the fiberization in 2035. You might say, they invest in a market which stops and ends. For us, that is absolutely not a problem because all the competencies you need to deploy fiber, you can shift them into the distribution grid and you are able to work in the distribution grid and capture the growth going forward. For that is a charming situation with the energy transition in Germany.
That is why we can invest in both in fiber and in the distribution energy transition grid. Moving over to telco infrastructure. One of you, one or the other might experience using a phone from London in the train from London to Paris, or even you might use the phone traveling with the Deutsche Bahn in Germany. And then you worry, why isn't it working? Yeah, because the mobile infrastructure is not fully deployed and the 5G network has really a lot of holes in it. We have a lot of potential of growth being estimated at a KEGA of 13% growth in this market. Especially the Deutsche Bundesbahn is a key client. There are estimations that 20,000 masts are needed for 5G deployment alongside the railway. If it comes to 6G, you even need 37,000 masts in order to digitalize alongside the railway lines.
That is a huge potential and customers fear which we want to grab on. With our existing business of SAG, plus a bolt-on acquisition which we have done in 2021 called Wir Lieben Kabel and even more with the acquisition of ICG Group last year in 2024, now being already renamed SPIE Telco Infrastructure, we are best prepared to be a reliable turnkey solution provider for our clients to capture this market growth. Coming to pharma. Pharma is the largest market in Europe in Germany. GDP portion of pharma is EUR 28 billion. Investments into R&D are EUR 12 billion last year. For us, it is relevant what is being built in terms of pharma and biotech GMP facilities and laboratories. This is the place for us to be. The market is so attractive because it has high market entry barriers.
You have all the GMP requirements to fulfill. A client who does not really find a lot of suppliers being able to build on the high standards and on a reliable basis, his new factories, his new laboratories. This is exactly where we tapped in with our Auto Life Science Engineering acquisition in 2024. This is not the only business we have already in the pharma business. We already work for well-known blue chip customers like Boehringer, like Siemens Healthineers or Baxter with our technical facility management business or with our BTLA businesses. Yeah, also here we can make a difference and capture market growth in a very attractive market. Yeah, all that brings me to my last slide. Gauthier pointed out that certainly we are going to strive for the number one position in Germany. That is certainly true and is definitely our ambition.
You also heard that the market is completely fragmented and the number one position in a very fragmented market will definitely not be the end. There will be chances beyond that for further growth and further margin expansion and so on. I would like to give you four good reasons why we are best prepared on the one hand to embark on the number one position, but also beyond simply on the future in Germany. The first thing I would like to point out is on the left side internally prepared. I would like to start with our employees. Years back, we put with an initiative our employees in the middle of everything. You saw the result with a great place to work with our cooptation ratio, also with our low resignation rate. That is absolutely key for us to embark on this further.
Our one SPIE culture is essential for us. We do not have so much of a problem with an overloaded organization. With that heavy growth, we always struggle with keeping up with the organizational growth. We automatically are more lean than fat and have a more efficient organization. For me, it is important that this organization is able to share and to collaborate internally, but also to the clients. That is very important. The management team is an experienced one, highly motivated, but also has been permanently being adapted to the size and growth of the organization. A lot of the managers are coming from the acquisitions. Gauthier pointed out that this is with me the case. Pavel is the case with Evert.
The two Austrians are there, the manager of OSMO, my manager of high voltage division, city networks and grids division, technical facility management division, and I could go on and on. All these managers know exactly how the market works, how the business works. They grew through the ranks and they are completely in love with SPIE. They like the values, they like the SPIE model, and they have proven that they can develop even further. Strong organic growth ahead. Our customer reputation is excellent, as I pointed it out. Our client base is completely diversified, long-lasting, and very broad. As Jérôme said, with each acquisition, we also acquire a new client base.
This is offering us as well to open the door to our other business lines for our existing, sometimes very local, sometimes the German Mittelstand client is opening the doors and is happy with SPIE and to do more business with SPIE. That is definitely offering us a lot of potential. Tier one positioning to the customer is key. To be able to provide a more general and more broad solution for the customer and holding the direct contract is giving us more benefit. Focus on growth markets. That is what I said, benefiting from long-term drivers of the energy transition, the digitalization, infrastructural investments, and other dedicated vertical markets with high market entry barriers where our technical capabilities are best suited, are giving us a lot of growth prospects. This is directly leading me over to further margin increase.
Capturing the growth in attractive vertical markets with high market entry barriers is also giving us a better position for margin increase. Our value to our clients is much higher than in commodity businesses or areas where there's no growth. Permanent operational improvement of our existing business, that is key for us. Mastering the project lifecycle, having a transparent, healthy, and very positive failure culture is absolutely necessary. It is not the case that no failures happen. They happen every day. It is just a question how transparent, how fast you are going to discover them, how you discuss it, how you are going to find solutions. That is key. This is something what, from my perspective, we master over the years. This is also helping us to increase the margins in the existing business. That is meant with the stickiness of margins.
Maybe to answer a question you might have, is it possible to increase even the margins in Germany? I would answer that I came with a business where the margins were around 3% and below. In that period of time, we increased and reached a level of 7.5%. If you would have asked the people, in 2013, would 7.5% be possible? Everybody would say, no way, we will never achieve it. Margin increase goes step by step by step. There is a lot of work where you need your two hands and permanent work on the topic. Of course, I am confident to increase the margins. Will it be possible to reach 100 basis points more next year? No. It will be a steady work on the margins. Of course, an increase is further possible.
We all do that in a market which is huge, which leads me to the last pillar, the consolidation opportunities in a market EUR 110 billion of size where the top five players are only tapping on 10% of the market share. You have numerous players inside, very small ones, medium-sized ones, big ones. You have specialists, you have more generalists. A lot of opportunities to further grow via acquisitions, but also organically. Our pipeline is rich, as Jérôme pointed out. It works bottom-up and top-down. We benefit from the experience of all our managers coming to us with their knowledge and their network. We have a proven track record over the years with a lot of experience, how things work, how we can make a difference in M&A processes.
When it comes to integration, we made a lot of experiences, some good, some lessons learned, and all that is flowing into the next integration approach. This is the key to move forward for us. Yeah. Being eleven and a half years within the SPIE organization, I think the whole journey has been tremendous. We now look at a platform which is really valued by our employees, by our customers, by our newcomers. I am very proud that I could be part of the story and drive the business forward. I am confident to move forward into the future. I would like to adapt the statement of Gauthier at the beginning. It is a good time to be an electrical engineer, of course, but it is even a better time to be an electrical engineer in Germany.
Yeah, now I have the pleasure to hand you over to a video pointing out our industry service and wind activities. I introduce you to a break, 15-minute break where we can discuss about Germany if you wish, or you can have a spoiler on the French presentation because Arnaud is, after the break, the first presenter for France.
Thanks a lot.
Since ancient times, the only constant has been change. One thing's for sure, change just keeps speeding up. With the exponential change in computing power over the last 70 years, our world is transforming, well, exponentially. The pressures of digital transformation, automation, and carbon targets keep business leaders awake at night and aren't exactly the recipe for a peaceful life. How do we manage that and invest in the people we need to get the job done?
Transforming your business, looking after your people, and the environment is not impossible, but it is hard. Every industrial transformation brings more specialists, more challenges, and technology always seems to be a moving target. Knowing what calls to make, what innovations to invest in, is more than one leader, one board, or even one industry can grapple with. That's what we're here for. SPIE Industry Service integrates the expertise you need, transforming your operations for the challenges of today so you can keep transforming in readiness for tomorrow. From planning and realization to maintenance and operation, to relocation and decommissioning, from digitization and automation to enterprise asset management and data insight, from 5G to cobots and AGVs. SPIE Industry Service delivers more.
We help you navigate change by helping you to maintain assets that are always ready for it so you can deliver on your business goals ethically, sustainably, profitably, and get some sleep at night. SPIE Industry Service, bringing you peace of mind.
Good morning, everyone. I will make my presentation in French, so there is some headset for some of you who need a translation.[Foreign Language] . Hello, Born and All. I'm very happy to be with you today. Very happy because I'll be talking you through what SPIE has done in France. We'll look at our dynamics. SPIE is very dynamic on its markets in France. To start with, where are we? What have we done? I suppose you have seen the figures before. In France, we've reached EUR 3.4 billion in revenues, as you can see on the slide.
We've constantly improved, and in 2024, we reached a level of 7.1% for EBITA. This will still improve in the future because we contribute to the group's ambition for 2028. We have a number of opportunities we're thinking about to improve, as you will see in the coming slides. We have a strong historic position in France. We cover five business lines, and as you will see, this is one of our assets in terms of our strong positioning in France. What's more, as Jérôme was saying early on, the French market is more consolidated than elsewhere in Europe. If you look at the top five companies in France, they represent something like 45% of our revenues. Yet, we have made six acquisitions since 2022, and we've been working on other possible acquisitions.
We have quite a lot of them in the pipeline, and we think that we're going to have interesting further acquisitions in the future. As I was saying, SPIE truly is well rooted in France, which means that we have assets, and we can therefore cover the French market in a solid manner. First, look at our footprint. We have more than 300 sites in France, which is something that really matters for SPIE because we're close to our customers hand in hand. That's part of our DNA, which means that on a daily basis, we can support our clients when they roll out their projects about renovation, extension, or other projects in industry, for the public sector, for the commercial sector. This is one of our many assets. In addition to this, as I was saying before, we have a good coverage.
We cover all of the business lines, as you can see on the pie chart on the right-hand side. We cover industry. We have a very good footprint there, but also we cover the ICT business plus technical FM. This is one of our strengths to cover the different markets that have different dynamics depending on the years. With that, we come up with more complex offerings for our clients. We combine the different skills we have in the different business units to provide packaged, integrated offerings for our clients. I'll be showing a number of examples in a minute. SPIE in France works with many customers with different profiles: the private customers, all types of customers in all areas, but also the public sector.
We have a wide portfolio of historic customers, which means that we have a very solid footprint and basis in France from which we're going to grow in the future. There's another thing that I think I must talk about, which is that for years and years, SPIE in France has been creating value for the customers. It's in our DNA. We provide different solutions to our customers. We work on their businesses, on their transformations. This has been a tidal wave for several years. The technical aspects are more and more important for the customers, which means it's a strategic asset for them and for their development. As far as that is concerned, SPIE is showing the way. It's leading. In France, we support our customers through their transformation. For instance, the data centers. That's something that everybody talks about today.
We know that this market is going fast, and the outlook for that market is really good, as Markus was saying. In Germany, that's the case, and it's the case in France as well. SPIE has been operating on that market for years. We've been working on data centers for more than 10 years. We work a lot with the banking industry. We also have clients in national defense. That's still for data centers. It's a small world, a world of experts, which means that today, SPIE can guide you through the development of your business. SPIE also thinks about the sovereign aspect of things, that is, sovereign management of our clients' assets. We've been doing this for years and years. Example number two, AXA. For them, we have an energy performance contract.
SPIE is a key player in multi-technical maintenance, and for years, we've been developing tools thanks to which we can monitor power. We can manage the assets in the hands of our clients so that they, in turn, can grow and develop in the future. We've seen how the cost of energy skyrocketed in the recent years, and customers realized that what was very important for them was to maintain their buildings, to optimize energy consumption, to abate CO2 levels connected to their assets. SPIE knows how to do this. We know how to manage the data, and therefore, we've come up with practical and concrete solutions for the customers. That's the case for AXA, but we have tens and dozens and hundreds of customers for whom we do this. We've gone from multi-technical maintenance contracts towards new value-added contracts.
We commit to the energy performance of the contracts that we manage. This is a win-win type of contract. SPIE provides genuine value-added to the customers, which means that we can constantly improve our margins as well. At the same time, the end users save money. The example here is AXA, but there are many more. The third example is that of the American hospital in Paris. We've had that client for years and years. That's for managed services in French, Infogérance. We were supervising part of their networks, IT infrastructure, and also part of the PCs and the workstations. Given the fact that we all know that cybersecurity is something very important, by the way, that was particularly the case in the field of health, and some hospitals had to almost shut down because there were some cyberattacks.
This hospital came to us because they trust us, and they said, "Could we perhaps develop new skills? Could we work hand in hand? Could you try and help us protect our hardware?" Rather than what we did in the past, just management of their infrastructure. We provided the cyber layer. This is something that we developed over time on the basis of trust, thanks to which we've developed this relation. Year after year, SPIE has shown that it is knowledgeable and has supported this key activity for a hospital. The EDF partnership that started in 1952, I suppose that most of us were not born in 1952. We have been working with them for more than 70 years. From the word go, if I can say, when the first nuclear power plants were being built, we were there.
Recently also, we were the best bidders for a tender on the future EPR tools, which really shows that this partnership is robust. There is trust between EDF and SPIE, and their installed base has changed over the years. There are new safety and security constraints. We have feedback loops whenever there is an incident, for instance, Fukushima. We also support EDF to lengthen the lifecycle of their nuclear power plants. We do this for power, electricity, HVAC, air conditioning. We have strong links that are lasting and solid with EDF. I am certain that we will continue and support them with the future EPR tools tomorrow. Here again, this is done on the basis of our historic footprint with our customers. This is our strength. This is not done to the detriment of our fundamentals, as Jérôme said earlier on.
We've always had this culture, you see, to focus on margins rather than volumes, which means that we're very careful when we choose our contracts. That means that when we get a contract, we think about the services we can provide, and we look at the value we can create for our customers so that they would pay a fair price for the services we're going to deliver for them, which means we have to have a clear strategy and businesses where we create value and market segments and clients for whom we can provide growth, which means we have to analyze risks and opportunities. When you do that for a client, you have to think about things ahead of time, which means that we rigorously analyze risks and opportunities. SPIE also focuses on reasonable projects.
We'd rather have quite a lot of these smaller projects with one client rather than having a massive or major project. We're here to stay. We support our customers over the long run on the basis of these smaller projects. Sometimes these customers have larger projects. In this case, we have a validation process, and above the mark of EUR 7 million, I have to check these projects. Above the mark of EUR 15 million, the projects are handed to Gauthier so that he has a look at them. We are very selective in the projects we choose. As Gauthier was saying before, cash is something that's pervasive in the company.
Much so that for years and years, we've had a tracking mechanism to keep an eye on our cash in a very operational way so that everybody can understand what we're aiming at, and each project manager at SPIE can keep an eye on the cash level for their projects, for their clients. There's an incentive, that's the variable pay, which is based on the correct management of cash position for each project. We also keep an eye on the working capital requirement at the level of each subsidiary, which is a tool for us to incentivize all those in the SPIE group to have a variable pay. It's part of our culture at SPIE. This is something that we've been deploying day in, day out in all of the French entities. As I was saying, we've been in France for years and years, of course.
We have this very strong regional presence in France. Okay, that's one thing. Yet we still innovate. We're on the move. We seize all opportunities because our objective is to find a solution to all the problems that some of our customers could have. Look at the slide. Here's an example with GSK. We've been working with them for years. Their problem, their difficulty was a strategic difficulty. They didn't have much time, but they had to build a plant to produce the new ventiline products. They were very polluting in the past. There is a fierce competition between the key players because everybody wanted to have a non-polluting ventiline that would be produced at quick notice. There were two options for them.
Either they would take their time, they would go around, do their own company shopping for the best supplier, or to work with a trusted partner to co-develop their solutions, which is what they did. We started from a blank page, or we had just sketched something on an A4 paper. I can tell you that this is the truth. After this, we extended a production line for them. At the end of the day, the total amount for the project was EUR 20 million, and SPIE supported their technical development. That was done so quickly, which really shows that there is trust between GSK and SPIE, but also it shows that SPIE can innovate and take part from the design phase and then support and guide the customers to the end of their project.
Now, the second example is a bit of a more general example, but then SPIE decided to also work on the energy transition, as you know. Earlier on, I talked about our facilities business, but also when it's power generation or the energy mix, we have know-how as well, not just in the nuclear business. So photovoltaic business is a business we know well. We have a marked presence for photovoltaic panels, but also the wind farms at sea or offshore and onshore. We also invest a lot in the storage of energy. There are many projects mushrooming in France, and that's very positive. Look at the number of players. There aren't that many players, and this really is something that's going to be fruitful for SPIE in the years to come. There we are. As you can see, the market is quite dynamic.
It's very dynamic, I should say. A lot of people are saying there are headwinds at present in France. That is true. Some of our markets are a bit sluggish. For instance, the developers, the property developers, or the public sector players, they did not have budgets that were ready. Yet, as I said before, we have a good foothold. We cover all business lines. For instance, for property development, we did not wait for yet another crisis to ask ourselves the question. The question was, how can we react better when there is a property crisis? Now, for years and years, we have decided that what we should focus on is the renovation of buildings because the built structure is already there. This sector is suffering less than the new construction sector. That is one thing we decided to do.
As I said earlier on, the public sector in some areas is the slow mover. For years now, we've been earmarking our resources to develop in more buoyant industries. For instance, the national defense operators. SPIE, several years ago, decided to take strong positions throughout France. Today, the choice we made, I'd say, was quite consistent, very much in sync with the global trends. On the right-hand side, as you can see, we still have markets that are very dynamic. I talked about energy a minute ago. Now, you've probably realized that data centers are very dynamic. Decarbonization of industry, as Gauthier said earlier on, is developing fast with automation as well, which is something very interesting. Of course, there's electrification of vehicles, electrical vehicles, EVs, and SPIE is installing charging terminals everywhere in France. All of these topics are very positive.
The grid and the lines, we do less in France than elsewhere in Europe because the grid we have is perhaps more mature in terms of distribution of power. Yet RTE, the French Transmission System Operator, decided they will launch major programs. We are working with the French RTE because we have multi-annual contracts. We would like to know which resources will be working for them because you need to have qualified operators. These are interesting opportunities, you see, for SPIE for the years to come. This will last because this is not work that is done in one year. You need to look at the midterm and long term, and the opportunities are quite positive. That is all as far as I am concerned. Thank you very much for your attention.
Now, I'll hand over to the next speaker who's going to be talking about the Netherlands. Thank you.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Evert Lemmen. I'm proud to present the Netherlands for you today. Let me introduce myself a little bit more because I'm 35 days already the Managing Director of SPIE in the Netherlands. I joined SPIE three years ago with the acquisition of Worksphere. I was the former Managing Director of Worksphere in the Netherlands. My background is an electrical engineer. I heard from Gauthier Louette this morning that it's a good starting point for my presentation today. Let's move to the Netherlands at a glance. Here you see that we in the Netherlands end up in 2024 with EUR 1.6 billion revenue, which is 16% of the revenue of the total group from SPIE. It's coming out from five business lines.
The biggest business line in the Netherlands is everything regarding buildings. That is the TEGFM business and the building solutions business. Also, the industry environment, as well as the T&D environment, are really big contributors to the Netherlands and are huge divisions in the Netherlands. We are a multi-tactical player in the Netherlands, also offering services within bridges, locks, the telecom sector, the indoor connectivity sector, etc., etc. This having been said means that SPIE in the Netherlands is an essential link in the field where we work, where we live, where we stay, and where we travel. We had a broad portfolio of customers, as you can see, with more than 3,600 customers. That means that we have good risk diversification. We did, since 2022, five acquisitions with a revenue of EUR 500 million. That is including the Worksphere acquisition, for your information.
We ended up last year at 7% EBITDA. We did that, last but not least, with 6,000 employees. They were all very proud to be part of the SPIE organization, I can tell you. Before I go to the coming years, let's go back in time to the year 2022 with the acquisition of Worksphere because there was a kind of a tipping point in the Netherlands where the scale of our organization began to function like a flywheel. What we achieved with the acquisition of Worksphere is presented here. First of all, we organized a new building solution division. It is the largest division in the Netherlands at the moment, as I already told you. Furthermore, cross-selling and our competitive position was very important. We were able to increase the cross-selling to a high level.
More than 60 clients we moved in, other services from SPIE, what is really giving us a good competitive position. You see some names on the slide, like ASML, Philips, etc. At the same time, we were integrating. We did four bolt-on acquisitions also in the Netherlands since 2022. As Jérôme mentioned, in this case for Worksphere, the synergies were a part of our business case. We achieved EUR 9 million synergies within 18 months. You have to think about merging offices and merging the staffing organization of both organizations. What I liked when I came to SPIE was the secret how they have a performance-based way of looking at results and cash management. We achieved an incredible better working cap, as you can see here. We extracted EUR 25 million of working cap from this acquisition.
If you look at the key, the most important factor, the critical success factor of the success of this integration, then it's the perfect cultural fit. That means that we have no turnover as a result of the integration. Because we are a people business, of course, this is a very important achievement. Last but not least, our value creation delivered is at 18%. What we achieved with this M&A, with the Worksphere M&A in the Netherlands, you see on the right. We are now the undisputable leader in the Netherlands' multi-technical services. We had a year-over-year organic growth in the last years of 10%. That's especially with the focus on the cross-selling, as I already mentioned. Of course, we bettered our margin with 130 basis points. We strengthened our cash generation with nine days.
I can tell you all the people in the Netherlands are very proud of this performance and very proud to be part of this SPIE organization. On my next slide, I will give you some foundations for the coming years for the future growth. First of all, it's our brand. SPIE is a very strong brand, well known in the Netherlands, as well within our customers as in the labor market. Of course, a national coverage. With 6,000 employees, we have a lot of vans, cars. The Netherlands is not a very big country. When you drive from the south to the north, it's impossible nowadays to ignore SPIE anymore. That's the good news. We are very visible in the Netherlands. We have a market share of 6%. Also, the Netherlands has a lot of local and regional companies, so a very fragmented market.
There is a consolidation going on. I think this will give us a lot of opportunities for M&A in the coming years. I already mentioned our portfolio. It's a well-balanced portfolio, as you can see on the top right. I think important here is that there are also in the Netherlands two important strategic pillars. That is the digitalization. That is, of course, the sustainability. I will come back on that. Because also in the Netherlands, SPIE is leading the way to a more sustainable Netherlands. Of course, we do that by offering a lot of sustainable technologies, PV panels. We install heat pumps, etc., etc. What we also did is we trained our staff in green awareness, so especially scope 1 and 2. That makes them valuable partners for our clients so they can make choices together regarding the roadmap of sustainability.
Also, the transition from a linear to a circular economy in the Netherlands is full swing focus. What we do is we are trying to extend the lifespan of assets. We do that by offering smart maintenance. There I go to the right bottom part because therefore you need to be ahead in digitalization. We try to be the conductor of the data in and around our assets and the places where we work. You see here an example in the facilities area where we as SPIE developed Pulsecore. Pulsecore is an IoT-based platform. We gather the data. Via algorithms, we can predict the behavior of the assets. That's nice because with that, you can hire the availability, of course, from the assets. You can better the energy efficiency, of course.
Nowadays, more than 93% of the maintenance contracts in the Netherlands are connected to the Pulsecore platform. That gives us also a very strong competitive position. Another thing is the energy transition, also in the Netherlands, a strong outlook over there. My colleagues already presented a lot of details about this. I can tell you there is one thing different in the Netherlands. That's the net congestion. The net congestion means that the capacity of our electrical network of energy lacks capacity and flexibility to accommodate the demands for sustainable energy and, for example, more electric cars. I can tell you last week I was in a very big city in the Netherlands. The good news is the Netherlands has a lot of electric cars. The good news is there are charging points everywhere.
The bad news nowadays is you do not receive electricity anymore because of the net congestion. This is one example. I can tell you if you have a new-built house in the Netherlands and you want to connect it to the net, you can wait for six and sometimes 12 months. There is a huge sense of urgency in the Netherlands to do investments to the network. That means huge investments from the TSOs. In the Netherlands, there is only one TSO, and that is Tennet. TenneT is the biggest customer for SPIE in the Netherlands already for many, many years. We have a strategic partnership with TenneT in the Netherlands. Also, the DSOs are investing in the coming years a lot of money to better the infrastructure in the Netherlands.
Over there, we are focusing on, as you can see, the mid-voltage infrastructure cabling markets. We are at the moment building strong new teams, qualified, experienced, and with the right authorizations to enter this market in the coming years and to gain from the investments over there. On the right, you see that it's not only about CapEx. We are also focusing on the OpEx side of the business. We always try to work around the design, build, maintain, and operate circle. I think that's important to be at the entire lifetime of the asset available. Of course, it fits very well in the recurring business model of SPIE. A little bit more about the digital transformation because implementing the digital transformation means also implementing new digital services, which leads to more sustainable solutions and efficiency.
I think this is also a good enabler for us for additional work within all our customers. Two examples on these slides. If you see the industry, digitalization, process optimization enhanced the production efficiency by using automation and AI. Of course, if you look at the utility side, it enhances the energy efficiency and sustainable resource management. If you look at the TEGFM business, there we are more and more measuring the utilization of buildings, not only the historical data, but also we can predict the utilization for the coming months, days, weeks, and hours. That gives us the opportunity to enhance the energy demand of the building. Two examples where we are entering full swing, the digital solutions. If we talk about digital solutions, then it's talking about data. That requires a secure environment to store all your data.
That brings me to the ICS data center market in the Netherlands. If you ask me the question a year ago and I talked to my customers, most of the customers have a cloud-only policy. They store all their data in the cloud. Now, if you look at all the things which are happening in the world, we see that it is not only a cloud-only policy anymore. It is more a hybrid solution where they choose for as well an on-premise enterprise solution as well with co-locators and sometimes hyperscalers. For the same, as Markus already told for Germany, we are not focusing on the hyperscalers. I think this development will give our data center market in the coming years a boost because there is more demand for enterprise and for on-premise solutions.
With this presentation, I aim to give you an impression of the opportunities and the focus areas for the Netherlands. I am looking forward to the coming period with a lot of confidence, I can tell you. Nothing of this is possible without people. After my presentation, I will hand over to Séverine Mazeur, Head of HR. First, we are going to look at the movie Stronger and Greener Together. Thank you very much.
Today, there is a serious alert from the largest system that concerns every one of us, our planet. The climate warning light is on. If we do not act very quickly, this light will stay red and it will be too late. SPIE's objective is simple: to be part of the solution.
As a specialist in technical systems, we are strengthening our action in favor of a less energy-intensive society that limits global warming and contributes to our energy independence. We're helping our customers to reduce their energy consumption and carbon footprint in all the European countries where we are established. We're doing this by modernizing buildings and facilities with high-performance technical and energy management systems and carrying out efficient maintenance, extending and strengthening electricity networks, and directly providing our customers with access to low-carbon energy, implementing responsible digital services, installing charging stations for electric vehicles, modernizing public transportation, and delivering traffic optimization solutions. We also ensure that these virtuous approaches apply to ourselves by reducing our own carbon footprint thanks to the rapid electrification of our large vehicle fleet and collaborating with our suppliers on climate action.
This is part of the company's sustainability roadmap, which includes two other long-standing priorities within SPIE: the protection of human safety and promotion of gender diversity. Awareness of environmental and social issues is growing on all sides. Coalitions of interests, including customers, suppliers, and investors, are following this same path of transformation. We are only at the very beginning. Alongside them, SPIE employees are working and innovating day to day to deliver energy transition solutions for a more sustainable Europe now.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I am Séverine , Group HR Director for SPIE, and very pleased to be with you today to exchange and talk about our greatest asset. Indeed, our employees are our first asset. The growth of the workforce has followed the growth of the group, with 54,000 skilled and committed employees at the end of 2024.
In the past years, SPIE has demonstrated a strong ability to recruit in a context where the talent demand stays high in all the markets where we operate. We've implemented solid initiatives to attract talents, with over 6,000 employee recruitments on permanent contract per year since 2022. Apprenticeship is as well a key lever of our employment policy, with over 4,000 apprentices recruited since 2022 on a level of more than 7% in France or Germany, for example. Through apprenticeship, SPIE aims to develop skilled professionals, to anticipate some market evolutions, and to build with our apprentices a strong relationship with the goal to keep them afterwards in the company, what we succeeded last year at more than 70%. We consider as well that our employees are our first ambassadors.
We have built strong referral programs, co-optation programs in all our countries, recruiting more than 4,500 employees through this channel since 2022. With those programs, we are able to attract high-quality candidates while rewarding our employees for their contribution to the growth of the group. It is as well for us a demonstration of the employees' satisfaction and their willingness to recover SPIE as a great company to work for. Attracting and recruiting is key. Even more important is then to retain and develop our talents. At SPIE, we are committed to creating an engaging and supporting working environment, fostering employee loyalty, and decreasing voluntary turnover. We have a long tradition of employee shareholding at SPIE. Our employees are our first shareholders, and we are very proud about that, with 9.6% owned by employees and managers.
In 2024, we renewed with success our shareholding program, Share4U, with a participation rate of over 45%. I would underline there as well that in our recently acquired companies, the participation rate was over 32%, which is for us as well a strong signal of the high quality of the integration. Employee shareholders matter to us because it shows the trust and the commitment that employees do have in the company. At our executive management level, it's an important responsibility which commits us as well in developing SPIE in a sustainable and successful way. Our action plans on retention and developing talents are paying off in all the countries. As you can see, we managed once again to decrease the voluntary turnover in 2024, reaching a level of 6.6%. We aim to be in each country an employer of choice. Markus mentioned the topic.
It's really our goal to be recognized everywhere as an employer of choice. For that and to monitor the engagement and the well-being of our employees, we've launched and developed several surveys with independent institutes like Great Place to Work. We are very proud having been indeed recently labeled Great Place to Work in Germany and Austria. We renewed as well top employer in Belgium. You can see here as well the Top Four Women label in Germany, which recognizes companies who are offering equal conditions to its workforce. Those labels and KPIs you can see on the screen are illustrating the focus SPIE is putting on its workforce with a strong attractivity and offering the ability to have career and skill development opportunity. SPIE is really a great company to work for.
This long-term trust with our employees is key in offering to our clients a sustainable relationship with skilled and committed employees at the core who are ready to embrace the next challenges. I thank you for your attention, and I will hand over to Isabelle.
Hello everybody. Yesterday, you might have heard of our 2024 results. I was very pleased at that moment to present the good progress that we've made on climate action and on protecting and developing our people. We are still staying fully committed to reaching our 2025 sustainability targets, of course, but we are preparing for the next wave of sustainability challenges and action. It is my pleasure to present you with what we've come up with. There are no changes in the fundamentals and in the key stakes of our sustainability roadmap.
When we discussed with our external stakeholders a few months ago, when we completed the double materiality analysis for the CSRD, for instance, they told us climate action remains at the forefront of their expectations. That is why we are keeping, in terms of climate action, our contribution to a low-carbon economy first. There, our commitment is to stay above a threshold of 50% of green share in our jargon, so revenues that are contributing to a low-carbon economy according to the EU taxonomy and that directly fight climate change. Last year, we were at 49% in this regard. This climate action for clients, which is better represented with the EU taxonomy, is also being enhanced for our own carbon footprint. I will be commenting that more in detail with this slide.
We have an obligation of results on our direct carbon footprint, and we have been validated by the Science-Based Target Initiative as a company contributing to a 1.5-degree scenario since 2021. Our 2025 goal is to deliver minus 25% in direct emissions. For us, these are the emissions stemming from our large vehicle fleet. Evert was mentioning the cars in the Netherlands. I think you have a fleet that is electrified by around 33%, 34%. That is great. At the scale of the company, every fourth car is now electric. Last year, to give you an example, 70% of our renewables were made into battery electric cars. This is the driving force behind our rapid, I mean, behind our carbon footprint reduction on scope one and two. Buildings do contribute as well, but they represent a much smaller share.
Between 2025 and 2030, what are we doing? We are still committed to the same ambition, but we are even accelerating. Our ambition is to reach minus 50% by the end of 2030. The greatest challenge for any company is to tackle its scope three, of course. For us, scope three represents more than 90% of our total emissions. What is new in our commitment is that we are transitioning from an obligation of means. We used to have, and we still have, sorry, a commitment to have 67% of our suppliers committed to reduce their own carbon footprint in an ambitious way. Now we are moving to an obligation of results. We want our scope three carbon footprint to decrease over time and, to be more specific, to be reduced by 55% in intensity. Why intensity for SPIE?
You have heard it all this morning. We are growing all the time by the means of acquisitions. That is why this metric is more pertinent to our business model. What is new in our commitment as well is that we are also tackling now our downstream emissions, the ones that stem at our clients' sites from the use of our products and services. How will we be doing that? We have already started well with a very vivid supplier engagement in the past years that has led us to 57% of suppliers with whom we work who are engaged to reduce their carbon footprint. Now we are moving forward. This engagement also is happening with our employees. Some of you mentioned the way employees are being trained on climate change, on speaking the scope one and two languages.
There are already excellent engineers in energy efficiency, but when they tackle their clients' decarbonization roadmaps, they need to understand what is scope one, what is scope three, where do I act, where do I make a difference. Last year, we have trained 10,000 employees with our SPIE Climate Academy on those aspects. Last but not least, we are engaging all the time, but now more in depth and with better tools to discuss with our clients the type of decarbonization that we can bring to them.
We have internal tools such as the scope three calculator that enables our project managers to propose low-carbon alternatives to their clients and to say, "Okay, if you take this HVAC system compared to this HVAC system over the whole life cycle, you'll be saving so much CO2." That was for the new carbon footprint ambition, and I hope you can appreciate that it also better aligns us with the interests of our clients overall. Now, going to the social part of our sustainability roadmap, we're keeping the same spirit in terms of safety, the same focus. The focus is on preventing, of course, fatal and severe accidents first. The difference with the previous roadmap is that we are expressing it now in terms of a rate that better caters also to our growth model and to the acquisitions joining us instead of expressing it in absolute terms.
There, the ambition is to reduce the severity and the frequency of the severe accidents by 30% over the forthcoming period. In terms of gender diversity, we are also changing the KPI, but not with the rate instead of an absolute figure. It is more that we are broadening the panel of positions where we want to increase gender diversity. We used to have the top 250 in our current sustainability roadmap, sorry. We used to say we want to increase the proportion of women holding top managerial positions. Now we are tackling a much broader scope with the middle management positions being added on top of that. We are moving from a top 250, sorry, to the top 2,000, where we want to increase the proportion of women in these top 2,000 positions by 20% over the period.
With that, I'm at the end of the presentation of our sustainability objectives. Ready to hand over to Gauthier Louette for the summary.
Thank you, Isabelle. As you see, it is an ambitious roadmap, but which is very dear to our heart. It's really something we'd like to commit to, and she's again very consistent with our purpose. It's really something again that we take as seriously as the financial guidance, and you know how seriously we take the financial guidance. Coming back to this financial guidance as a conclusion, it's been really a joint exercise of the ExCom, and again, based on the strategic plan, which was done bottom up. It's really something which is extremely well substantiated at all levels of the organization.
I think that with the descriptions that you've been given of our various markets and how they evolve today, it shows that this plan has a lot of substance. We are extremely committed to that plan, extremely confident that we are going to deliver. We are really, as a team, absolutely focused on delivering on that plan. It has a lot of ambition, but it is also extremely realistic. As you know, at SPIE, we tend to take our promises very seriously. That will be my conclusion. Again, thanks to all the team for the preparation of this exercise. I think they did very well, and now they'll be happy to go back to their daytime job. I think we have a lot ahead. As a final word, lest you forget, it's a very good time to be an electrical engineer.
Thank you. We have time for questions, and maybe I will ask the speakers of this morning to join me on the stage. Obviously, if you have questions for those of whom who did not speak this morning, do not hesitate as well.
Good morning. Thank you very much for taking my question. I'm Christophe Chapuis-Fromodo. I've got three, please. The first one is on France. I would like to come back on the RTE investment plan of EUR 100 billion on high voltage and transmission. What is the addressable market for SPIE? Because in this figure, I assume that there is some cable, for example, which are provided to you. What is, let's say, the potential at the end of the day? The second one is on page 22. You gave the pipeline of bolt-on acquisition and above EUR 800 million abusely.
It's not a bolt-on anymore. I'm just curious, how many targets above EUR 800 million have you identified? And that could be an opportunity for the group. The last one is at the end of 2028. Of the roadmap, my calculation is between a net debt to EBITDA between 0.5 and 1 time. Is it a fair assumption? Thank you so much.
Maybe starting with France. Globalement, sur les 100 milliards d'investissements. Out of these EUR 100 billion announced by RTE, we would say EUR 20 billion is for companies such as SPIE, which means 20% would be for our type of business. Here again, this is for the line business. For substations, it's not that clear-cut because the private players will be investing as well. By the way, we're investing a lot in this type of business.
All the substation business for us is something very interesting, and it will be in the hands more and more of the private players, which is a great opportunity for us. The market we are looking at would be EUR 20 billion for the 15 years to come with a number of competitors, which would be to the tune of seven competitors. Of course, each of us would have some share of that, but that will give you an order of the type of growth we are looking for for the future. I think you read correctly. We provided EUR 800 million as the maximum or the bigger size of targets we have identified. I would not be too precise on how many, otherwise you might discover who are they. Obviously, we would love to stay quite confidential on this.
The truth is that the lion's share of that pipeline you've seen, and if you divide the total cumulated turnover by the number of identified targets, that would corroborate very strictly the EUR 75 million turnover size on average that we have realized so far. It may happen that one or two bigger targets are in the pipeline. As Gauthier said already, we would just consider for what it is with obviously no obligation to succeed on it. Regarding the fact that there might be a bit of cash left at the end of the period, I think we gave already a quite detailed guidance. Don't ask us to guide you through the leverage ratio at the end of the period.
Just not to escape from that question, I think it is fair to consider that at the end of the period, we are not necessarily at a two times leverage ratio. We would be below that. That is the reason why, in full transparency, we clearly represent the fact that there could be, there would be flexibility for incremental returns. Yes, Simona?
Yes. Good morning. This is Simona Sarly from Bank of America. I have three. The first one is going back to your organic growth target of 3-4%. If I look alone at the Netherlands together with Germany and the growth opportunities that you have there, you are pretty much already at the bottom end of your guided range, which potentially would imply no growth for the rest of the business. What are the underlying assumptions here?
It's just you trying to be conservative, so moving parts, if you can give a little bit more color. The second one, you talk quite a lot about the structural growth opportunity in grid expansion and modernization. Can you remind us for this market, what is the revenue model, typical contract size and structure, the risk associated with these contracts, and how different they are to the traditional technical facility management contracts? Lastly, on cash conversion, you have a very nice slide where you show historically that your cash conversion has been substantially above 100%. Now you're getting for 100% with a cumulative EUR 200 billion plus. Again, is that being conservative? Is there any reason that it might prevent you from sustaining what you have achieved historically? Thank you.
Maybe we start with a question regarding transmission and distribution.
I would ask Markus to describe what type of contracts we are dealing with.
Yeah, I'm happy to do so. Generally, you cannot compare technical facility management contracts with installation contracts in the transmission grid. Yeah, the one with a tech contract, you change the mic. You operate over a period, it's a three years contract, and you have a lot of small works going there, and it is often a lump sum contract, whereas when you install a line or you install a substation, it is a construction project for this installation. The project size, depending on the size of the substation, you have bigger ones, you have smaller ones, especially in the wind power connection projects, you are more on the lower end of the substations.
For us, it is key to always manage the risk of maybe a bigger line's construction to make it smaller. It is not only that the contracts contain more risks, they have the same contractual patterns than before, but it is also risk for us getting stuck with our capacities in a project which might be claimed for, or citizens do not want to have this line and whatever, and the project is delayed. We try to work with partners, go into joint ventures, and to make the risk smaller for us in terms of capacity utilization and so on. These are the patterns how we deal with the tendency to larger projects or the energy transition. Regarding organic growth, we make a plan, obviously, to the best of our knowledge.
Yes, there are lots of moving parts, especially this year, as Arnaud presented, we have good areas of growth in France. We have also areas which are more constrained. We also have a tough comparator compared to last year. We have described areas where we're going to grow, areas which are more stable. If I think of health or education, it's probably areas which give us a very solid and resilient base, but there are no specific drivers there right now. That is how we come to this guidance. We'll see as it goes. It's not like we consider that it is a hockey stick thing. It is clearly something that we consider to be fairly consistent over the plan. That is where we are. Maybe about cash conversion, Jean-Leon.
Yeah, it's true that historically we have demonstrated, obviously, that we were able on average to be above 100%. However, I would like to remind you that historically we have been quite very constant in our commitment vis-à-vis the market, saying that our target is always and will remain 100%. That target is something we apply to ourselves internally starting on January 1 of every year. Just to put that a bit into context, if you just look at the business industry or the environment, who has been able to deliver 100% cash conversion with such a strict definition of cash conversion as we did? I just do not know them, or they do not disclose. We are, from that point of view, best in class. Our target for the coming four years remains 100%.
If it happens that in some years we do overdeliver, that would be great.
Bonjour. Laurent Rinecicco. Hello. Laurent Rinecicco. I have two questions to ask. Maybe you want me to switch in English. First of all, the really tremendous, enormous plan, which is fenced by Germany, can you help us do a little math and see to what extent it can add on your assumptions in Germany as far as T&D is concerned, especially? I guess there could be also some indirect positive impact to your business in Eastern Europe. Second, is it possible to also, looking at nuclear energy for the whole group, not only France, bearing in mind that many, many countries currently are switching and are pushing green lights to nuclear energy, to what extent can also add more to your sales, especially in Eastern Europe and not only in France?
Maybe we start with the second part of your question. Maybe, Pavel, you want to shed some color on nuclear power in Eastern Europe? Very shortly, we are present. We are present in this business in Slovakia, and we'll continue it. We help also to enter services in the nuclear industry in Czech Republic. If we are talking about Poland, I would say this is future. Let's see if our nuclear project will start. If it is, we will be present. This is what we can say, what is the fact, is our activity in Slovakia and perspectives in Czech Republic. Maybe a word to that in France, Arnaud? Non, en complément. To pick on that, I would say that in France, the market was, how should I call it, disorganized for maintenance at the end of COVID.
We knew that it was difficult for EDF with all of the corrosion problems they had. EDF is now structuring everything. That is positive, and that is for France. Today, sometimes EDF wants us to support them and help them abroad because they have commitments abroad. We do this in some specific cases, specific business lines. We are not going to go to all countries for nuclear power projects. We do this mainly in France because in the midterm, the outlook is really good.
Marcus, what about the Schulte Bremse story in Germany?
Sorry, I did not get it.
What about the new plans in Germany, which have been announced?
Yeah, okay. You were referring to the discussions of the last days with the huge infrastructure investment, huge infrastructure investments going ahead in Germany.
The potential, I can also speak up, the potential new coalition has made a plan to invest EUR 500 million in infrastructure projects. Energy transition would be part of it, and also other infrastructure investments would be covered by this plan. First of all, I think that's great. It's great news on the one hand that the politicians are able to decide fast and then together from coming from different sides. The amount of investments, I think it's a clear sign also for the German industry that the energy transition and the so-called Netzentgelte, the money you pay for using the grid, is not rising, it's lowered. The energy costs will be lower, and this is giving all reasons for the industry to stay in Germany and to invest in the German sites.
I think we will see, first of all, whether this will be approved and they come through with the plans, and then definitely it is giving us a better situation than before.
Can I just quantify a little bit? I've been reading very talented economists saying that by 2027, this plan could be adding 2% of GDP. I guess the multiplier, as far as you are concerned, is far higher. How much it can add in terms of like-for-like growth to your goal? Can it be to the tune of 4% looking at 2027 after you guys have implemented all the plan? We didn't make the mess yet transferring GDP growth into a potential growth with just something which has been announced three days ago. Sorry for that. Yeah, definitely it's a positive sign.
I think for the investment amount regarding the energy transition, this is simply money being taken over from private investments to state investments. They will decide also how they are going to do that. The energy transition is going to happen anyway. It is just not on the cost of the industry which has to pay that. This will more fuel the industrial sides where we are awaiting more investments from our industrial clients and thus industry business being boosted and not so much the energy transition. This is going to happen anyway. That is decided, no way that you can stop it. For the rest of the infrastructure investments, we already enjoy a lot of public spendings in tunnels, in general infrastructure. This is definitely being fueled, but we did not do any math.
Hello, Augustin Sand from Stifel.
I've got three questions if I may. The first one is on your target of the margin targeted of 7.7% in 2028. Would it be possible to detail where you think you can get on your current perimeter? Or in other words, how much you think bolt-ons will contribute to that margin? Second question is on your revenue breakdown by division on slide seven. It looks like France could lose about 5% of the group weight. I was wondering what that would be driven by. Is it driven by other divisions having very strong growth and France being low single digit? Or actually, could we see some revenue being lower in France over the next few years? Finally, my last question is on labor. We've been talking about labor scarcity for many years now.
I was wondering how that will evolve going forward in your view and whether that could have an impact on your pricing power. Thank you very much.
Maybe Séverine, you want to give a word on labor going forward?
Yeah, with pleasure. Labor scarcity is there. I know the markets, as I mentioned. That's why we've got strong action plans everywhere. We quoted the cooptation, the apprenticeship. We've got other levels on this attracting action plan. We are quite confident we manage in all our countries to find the right resources.
I think on margins, there is a main effort on the organic progression of the margins, clearly. And bolt-on acquisitions, as they come, usually they're a bit relative, sometimes not. If they're small, it doesn't make such a difference. If they're larger, obviously, like a Worksphere, it makes a difference.
Worksphere was dilutive by the time we bought them. Everton and Steve have managed to have done a tremendous job to bring the margins to the average of the Netherlands in a very short period of time to the current average of the Netherlands. Bolt-on acquisitions do not play a significant role. Clearly, the assumption for margin increase is not deriving solely or even is hardly at all deriving from the assumption that bolt-on acquisition will be relative. It is clearly, first and foremost, the view we take on the growth, on the margin expansion of our organic business. That is clearly the main driver. Obviously, it will not be the same from one area to the other, but it also has to do with the activity mix in the various countries where we are present.
Then coming to the proportion in France, with the plan we have and with how we see that evolving, yes, we do see more organic growth outside of France for the reason we mentioned. I think Evert and Markus have been quite clear about these various drivers. Probably also a bit more bolt-on outside of France. These are two factors that would play to that. However, France is a very good business to us. It is a very strong business. If we find good opportunities for acquisition in France, we'll definitely go for them. Just what we have shown, this is just some sort of modeling. Again, there's no exclusivity. [
Foreign Language] . Rémy Grenu de Morgan Stanley. I've got two questions, if I may.
The first one is on the nuclear activity, especially in France, or if we could have a little bit more details on the pipeline from here and if we could think about different phases. When are the tenders going, more tenders going to come through, ramp up of contract, and when do you expect some revenues to start to hit the PNL and quantifying a little bit the opportunity there? The second one is elaborating a little bit on the margin question. Not a lot made in terms of assumption for M&A improvement coming from M&A. If we keep the concerned perimeter, if you can help us understand the assumption you've made on the 50 basis points improvement, because it seems to me that what you're saying about double-digit growth in T&D alone, the evolution of the mix could probably give half of that.
Yeah, the building blocks to get the 50 basis points over the next few years.
I will start with that and then we'll hand over to you. Clearly, as Jean has shown, we work all the time and we pull all the registers in order to improve our margins. Yes, there's an impact from the activity mix. There's an impact from the operational excellence. There's an impact from our pricing power, which we have shown has been extremely strong along the years. It's a lot of levers we have to increase our margins. Some bolt-on will bring some margin reductions, some others won't. It's the whole plan which is geared into that direction. I can tell you the focus on margin improvement is constant in every part of the organization and on a constant basis.
It is really something that we have been able to demonstrate all over these years. The plan is no different from what we have done so far. Regarding nuclear, Arnaud? Oui, alors nucléaire, plusieurs choses peut-être.
There are several things I can say about the nuclear business. If we look at the installed base to start with, because as you know, there is one thing which is the large projects with all the EPRs. Now, the first nuclear power plants were built a long time ago, and now we have new EPRs, but we have always been working for EDF, for others, but also for EDF. Back to the existing fleet of nuclear power plants. We do not have just one contract with EDF. We have many contracts with EDF, and therefore we cover maintenance activities.
That is, we are present with maintenance jobs on all the nuclear power plants, but also transformation when they modify the existing plants, because the life cycle is growing and there are more security constraints. Therefore, EDF has to work with us because we have the knowledge. Less than a year ago, we renewed a contract with EDF for electrical adjustments. It is an eight-year contract. Therefore, we are in charge of studies and works to carry out adjustments on their nuclear power plants. That is one example. We have this wave of activity which seems to be growing at present. What we think is that EDF is going to continue and massively invest in that area in the years to come. As I said before, after COVID, EDF was a bit disorganized. Corrosion under constraint was one difficulty.
EDF today is better organized, and therefore they can now take care of the existing nuclear power plants, which is good news for us. In parallel, we see the nuclear players that are acting as well, like Orano. They're investing massively. They made announcements recently about their investments, and we work with Orano. We work with Framatome as well, and the French CEA, the energy agency, the nuclear energy agency. We do not just work with EDF. As far as the outlook is concerned, if you look at the CEA and their civilian activities, we are present as well as in the military activities. That's something important. The EPR2 reactors, as you know, the first question is to finance the program. Yet EDF is on their way. They're signing contracts with some companies, which was the case for SPIE and some of our partners last year.
For instance, backup generators for which we have won a nice contract, and there are coming tenders and other tenders for which we're bidding at present. We have good hopes that we'll be gaining a significant market share from EDF in the months to come, years to come. That's for a program that's going to cover probably 15 years after that. It is not something you can do in a year.
Yes, hi, this is Alexander Peter from Bernstein. I just have a couple of questions. The first one is on the pipeline of your midterm M&A opportunities, the 50 and the EUR 3.3 billion that you highlighted. Could you give us an idea of the geographic breakdown of these targets in broad terms so we know where you will direct most of your M&A efforts going forward?
The second question is on your 3-4% organic growth objective, which is, would you qualify that as being fairly conservative given the growth drivers you outlined? If you could give us an idea of the price versus volume component within that. Thank you. Regarding the landscape of acquisitions, what Jean has described is our acquisitions within our current geographical perimeter. As we said, we have opportunities in all countries where we operate. Obviously, we've done acquisition last year in many countries of SPIE, and we're targeting more in all the countries where we operate. There's no exclusive in this regard. The breakdown does not really is meaningful because we see that the size of the various economies also induce a number of opportunities, plus the fact that some geographies, as we did show, are more fragmented than others.
Regarding organic growth, I think I will not add to the answer I've given. This is our plan. We have lots of moving parts, and we look at it as a realistic assumption. The impact of price, I think it's twofold. You have an impact of pricing power, which is independent from inflation. You have an impact of inflation, which is reducing compared to a few years ago.
Yes, hello. Eric Lemarie from CIC. I got three questions, if I may. The first one, you mentioned smart grid, and I was wondering what is the percentage of the grid today in Europe, which could be considered as smart or the penetration rate, if you prefer.
Second question on the fact that you talk about opportunities a lot this morning, and we can understand that, but I was wondering if you could share with us what could be the key risk for SPIE in the coming years. The last question on the G of ESG, actually. Actually, it's a question from Mr. Louette. I was wondering if you have started to think about your succession as the age limit for the CEO position is 65, and I think you are not too far from 65. I know you will remain certainly chairman, but I don't know if you have started to think about it. Thank you. I mean, to answer this question, first, obviously, it's part of my task, and I've been looking at and doing succession moves all over the past 20 years.
I think this executive committee is a result of this constant work preparing the future. Obviously, it's also a task for the board. At some stage, which is not now, which is probably sometime in 2026, the board will come up with a recommendation to the General Assembly. I would like to remind just one thing, for those of you who are familiar with Asterix, it's like the Roman Galley. I'm doing the drumming, but this guy is doing the rowing. Now to come back to what could derail the plan, I think it's mainly a geopolitical situation. We are not immune to major crises. That's something we have to be wary of.
I think apart from that, the drivers are here to stay, and you might have fluctuation and sometimes some market weaker for a given time, but nothing serious enough to derail the whole plan. The smart grid, who would I like to Markus, you want to?
I think due to the regulation formula in Germany, which was purely avoiding investments of the transmission system or distribution system operators, they were not forced to make any grid smarter. That means that most of the part of the grid is definitely not smart. That means we are only just at the beginning to create smartness in the grid. It's definitely less than 10%. We've got a question from the webcast, and it's on Belgium. Elia, the national grid operator, has just announced that they raised more than EUR 2 billion capital.
How big is it of an opportunity for SPIE in Belgium?
Thank you for the question. It is good news. Elia is one of the biggest customers in Belgium for SPIE Belgium. We have more than EUR 200 million in tender phase with Elia. This investment will accelerate probably our business with Elia. It will have an impact on our development in Belgium. All right,
I think we're coming to the end of this question session. There is more. In that case, thank you all for the preparation of this work and also to the IR and communication team. Thank you all for your attendance, for the interest you bring to SPIE and for your continued follow-up of the company. I see faces here which have been following us for many years. Thank you very much for this loyalty. Have a good day. Thank you.