Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for our first quarter revenue call. I am with Markus Holzke, the CEO of SPIE Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Jérôme Vanhove, our Group CFO, and Alexandra Bournazel, our Head of Investor Relations. As you know, Markus will become Group CEO as of April 30th, and I'm very pleased to welcome him on this call. On the M&A front, SPIE has made a strong start to 2026. Underlying trends remain fully intact and are even strengthening, as the current geopolitical crisis further highlights the urgent need for Europe to transition to low-carbon electricity. Let me start with safety, which remains a core commitment for the Group. Next Tuesday, on April 28th, SPIE will hold its Safety Day 2026. Safety workshops will be organized all across our sites in all our countries. Safety is a continuous training effort.
Our health and safety code and its 10 life-saving rules apply to everyone across all trades and activities. Making sure that every employee returns home safely each day is at the very heart of our commitments. Next, I would like to share a few recent contract examples that reflect our strong positioning. In Germany, we have been mandated to install five new substations for transmission system operator TenneT, a long-standing client relationship built on sustained trust. The framework agreement runs for around eight years. Implementation is scheduled to begin in summer 2026, with safe commissioning continuing through to the end of 2033. The award of this contract highlights the expertise as an implementation partner for complex grid infrastructure projects and demonstrates how this structural approach is helping to accelerate grid expansion and the energy transition.
In France, we built on several years of successful collaboration with ALK, a Danish pharmaceutical laboratory, covering both maintenance operations and clean room construction. We completed an electrification project for their plant located in Vandeuil, in Marne. We replaced gas equipment with electrical solutions, installing heat pumps and new electrical infrastructure, allowing the site to reduce its CO2 emissions by nearly 305 tons per year, while also improving its energy performance. This contract illustrates the ability of SPIE's team to combine their skills to offer bespoke multi-technical solution, while supporting both performance and decarbonization objectives. In the Netherlands, we entered in a new multi-year maintenance contract for Hutchison Ports ECT in the port of Rotterdam, a site where we've been leveraging our expertise over many years.
The contract covers all electrical maintenance activities at the ECT Delta and the Euromax terminals, including inspection and high voltage servicing of more than 200 cranes, as well as the installation of seven strategically located EV charging hubs to support the energy transition across the port area. With this contract, SPIE reinforces its role as a trusted partner to support the energy transition, valued for its ability to incorporate sustainability requirements into maintenance operations. Now, moving on to the key highlights for the quarter, on slide eight. Total revenue grew by 1.7% at constant FX, including -0.9% in organic growth and 2.7% of M&A contribution. We made an exceptionally strong start to the year on the M&A front, with four bolt-on acquisition in Q1, representing approximately EUR 667 million of acquired in year-over-year across our core geographies.
With a solid balance sheet, continued focus on operational excellence and financial discipline, we reiterate our strong confidence in achieving our 2026 guidance. On the first quarter, organic growth was hampered by stronger than usual impact from seasonality, which was more than offset by the contribution from acquisitions. Both Germany and Northwestern Europe faced a very demanding comparison base, with organic growth of 7.2% and 7.5% respectively in Q1 2025. Central Europe, as well as Germany, were also temporarily impacted by adverse weather conditions during the first weeks of the year, but will gradually catch up over the coming quarters. During the quarter, the internal transfer of the former ROBUR non-German operations from Germany to Global Services Energy and Central Europe had no impact at group level. Overall, this performance once again demonstrates the resilience and balance of our multi-local, multi-technical model.
In Germany, revenue grew 1.2% year-on-year, and organic growth was flat against a high comparison base of 7.2%. Outdoor activity, in particular, high voltage and City Networks and grid, were affected by adverse weather conditions at the beginning of the year, but we have secured operational capacity to ensure that we catch up on this over the coming quarters. Beyond the short-term seasonality effect, the underlying momentum in Germany remains very strong, driven by sustained demand for energy efficiency solutions and solid positioning in fast-growing segments such as data centers, cybersecurity, or cloud and managed solutions. In industry services, our performance was supported by recurring maintenance operation and our pertinent exposure to attractive end markets such as automation, logistics, food and pharma.
The PIK and Cyqueo acquisitions completed last year contributed +6%, with integration progressing well, and the internal relocation of the former ROBUR non-German operations to Global Services Energy and Central Europe at the -1.4% impact, with no impact, obviously, at group level. France on slide 11. France delivered a solid performance in Q1 2026 with 1.9% total growth, of which 0.6% organic. As expected, City Networks and Building Solutions continued to weigh on overall growth. City Networks remain impacted by the slowdown in mature fiber optic rollout programs, while Building Solutions reflect both the degree of macro-related customer caution and our disciplined selective focus on high-value projects. The other four divisions, Technical Facility Management, Industry, ICS, and Nuclear Services, continue to perform well, supported by long-standing client relationships and a diversified sector exposure.
In particular, industry benefited from the fast-growing renewable and battery storage markets, where ICS leveraged strong positions in cloud, cybersecurity, digital workplace solutions, data and AI. Lastly, nuclear services performed strongly, driven by high-quality execution of maintenance programs, notably the Grand Carénage. The Artemys acquisition, completed at the end of January 2026, contributed 1.3% to the growth. Northwestern Europe. The total growth was slightly positive at 0.3%, despite a -0.9% organic growth against a demanding comparison base in Q1 2025 of +7.5%. The organic decrease was more than offset by the 1.6% contribution from the 2025 acquisition of Rovitech and Voets & Donkers. In the Netherlands, project-driven activity and Building Solutions reflected the degree of seasonality, with several larger contracts recently launched and set to contribute more meaningfully as they ramp up over the coming quarters.
ICS delivered strong growth, capitalizing on its strengthened position in data center services and the contribution of recent acquisitions. Industry services remain resilient, driven by energy storage and advanced technologies, despite structural pressure in the petrochemicals. Belgium also had a slower start to the year against a high comparison base, notably in high voltage services, while the order book continued to show strong momentum. In Central Europe, total growth reached +7.5%, while organic growth was -8.2%, as adverse weather conditions in the first weeks of the year weighed on outdoor activities such as high voltage, telecommunications, and transport infrastructure. The disruptions were, however, short-lived, and production is expected to catch up progressively over the next quarters. The backlog continues to build up, supported by strong investment dynamics linked to the energy transition.
Bolt-on acquisition contributed to growth by 13.2%, reflecting the sustained M&A activity of last year and also the internal transfer of former ROBUR operations located in Austria, which contributed to an additional 1.4%. Finally, Global Services Energy. It was down -4.4% year-on-year, including -4.1% organic. In an already challenging backdrop for oil and gas activities, operations began to be affected in March by the outbreak of the conflict in Iran, which did lead to the suspension of certain ongoing maintenance contracts in Qatar and in Iraq. In wind activities, momentum remained strong. The business was expanded through the internal transfer of the international wind operations, formerly ROBUR Wind from SPIE Germany. It brings around 600 new colleagues and approximately EUR 14 million of annual revenue, broadening the offering across the full life cycle of wind assets and adding maintenance capabilities for wind turbine generators and blade repairs.
Regarding M&A, as I said earlier, SPIE kicked off the year with an outstanding level of M&A activity, announcing four acquisitions and adding EUR 667 million annual revenue. In Germany, SPIE signed agreements to acquire ROFA Industrial Automation Group and SGS. Markus will elaborate on this. Executed at a high single-digit EBITDA multiple, both acquisitions are expected to be accretive to adjusted EPS from the first year of consolidation. SPIE also expanded its footprint in Central Europe through two acquisitions, contributing a combined EUR 57 million of annual revenue. BLOCK Group in the Czech Republic is a recognized specialist in clean room design, engineering, procurement, and construction. INVISO in Slovakia is a provider of building security systems and smart technical solutions.
All these four acquisitions will be self-financed, in line with SPIE's disciplined financial policy and commitment to maintaining a sound leverage profile. This acceleration of our M&A activity reflects the Group's continued focus on high-value technical services and its proven ability to execute selective high-return bolt-on transactions. Now I will hand over to Markus for a deep dive into the German acquisition.
Thank you, Gauthier, and good morning, everyone. ROFA Industrial Automation Group is a leading player in industrial services in Germany, with EUR 430 million in revenues in 2025 and a sustained high single-digit margin. ROFA brings leading capabilities in industrial automation, conveyor systems, and intralogistics, with more than 1,200 highly qualified employees. This acquisition will enable SPIE to move further up the industrial value chain while adding a resilient, diversified customer base across automotive, food, healthcare, logistics, and pharmaceuticals, providing significant cross-selling opportunities for SPIE. At the bottom of the slide, you can see a selection of well-known blue-chip customers. Moving over to the acquisition of SGS Industrial Services. SGS will strengthen the Group's expertise in electrical and mechanical installation for power facilities and industrial plants. The company generated EUR 180 million of annual revenues in 2025, with an EBITA margin slightly north of 10%.
SGS employs 800 skilled employees who can be deployed flexibly to meet project-specific requirements. Together with a diversified client base, this broadens SPIE's value chain and creates additional meaningful cross-selling opportunities. ROFA and SGS will significantly reinforce SPIE's industrial services platform, building on the successful integration of ROBUR in 2024. As Gauthier mentioned earlier, both acquisitions are expected to be accretive to adjusted EPS from the first year of consolidation. The closing of these two acquisitions is expected before the end of June 2026. With that, I will now hand over to Jérôme.
Thank you, Markus, and good morning, everyone. Let's move on now to the revenue bridge, which provides a breakdown of our 1.5% total revenue growth in Q1 2026. Our bolt-on M&A activity contributed +2.7%, or the equivalent of nearly EUR 65 million. This reflects, on the one hand, the contribution from the 2025 acquisitions, most notably SD Fiber in Switzerland, Voets & Donkers , and PIK AG. On the other hand, the two months contribution from the 2026 acquisition, Artemys in France, following its closing end of January 2026. The -0.1% disposal impact reflects the sale of the small non-core elevator service business in the Netherlands, which represented an annual revenue of circa EUR 7 million. The former ROBUR non-German operations, previously reported within SPIE Germany, were internally reallocated into two blocks. First, the international wind activities, representing approximately EUR 40 million of annual revenue, were transferred to Global Services Energy.
Second, the industrial activities based in Austria amounting to around EUR 10 million were transferred to Central Europe. This internal reallocation is of course, and as said already, neutral on the total group revenue. Currency effect had a marginal impact of -0 .2%, mainly driven by the euro-US dollar exchange rate and partially mitigated by the appreciation of the Polish zloty against euro. Thank you for your attention. I now hand back to Gauthier.
Thank you, Jérôme , and moving on to our outlook for 2026. We do fully confirm the 2026 outlook that we shared at the beginning of the year. We expect strong total growth driven by further organic growth and active bolt-on M&A, which will contribute significantly from this year onward. We have no doubt that the EBITA margin will continue to expand. The proposed dividend payout ratio will remain at 40% of adjusted net income attributable to the Group. Today marks my 44th and last presentation of SPIE performance, and more than ever, it is a good time to be a European electrical engineer. Following our AGM on April 30th, Markus will take over as the new CEO of SPIE. We have worked closely together for more than 13 years. I am fully confident that he will lead the Group to great successes.
I would like to thank you for your continued interest in SPIE and for the quality of our exchanges. Thank you for your attention. Now Markus, Jérôme, and I are happy to take your questions.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad to enter the queue. If you wish to withdraw your question, please press pound key six. The next question comes from Rémi Grenu from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Good morning, Gauthier, Markus, Jérôme. Thanks for taking my question. Just three on my side. The first one would be on the impact of weather in Q1. If you could potentially help us a little bit quantify what was the impact so we can try to assess what was the underlying business momentum, and maybe as part of that discussion could be helpful to hear a little bit about the organic growth in March and the exit rate, which I get was probably less impacted by the weather. That would be the first topic. The second one's on France. It seems to be doing a bit better. Where are we in terms of growth within Building Solutions? Is it back to kind of flattish trend or still negative? And on the fiber rollout there, when do you expect the drag to completely disappear?
Then the third topic, just taking maybe a step back. I think, Gauthier, you made some comments back in 2022 and 2023 that higher oil and gas prices were pushing clients to invest in energy efficiency, electrification, and back then, SPIE was benefiting from that. Given the current context, is it something that you would expect to happen again? Do you have any discussion with clients that would support that view, basically?
Yeah. Well, thank you, Rémi Grenu . Regarding weather, well, it was during the first weeks of the year, particularly in Germany and in Central Europe. We've seen in Poland, people told us it is the worst winter in 10 years or more than 10 years. It also had some impact elsewhere, but to a lesser extent. It's obviously linked with the proportion of the works we do outdoors. Typically, high voltage distribution works are impacted, but also when you have areas where civil works contractors get delayed, and then we have to come after them, as you see, they create some postponement to them as well. Well, it's something that is you see behind us and coming to your point, we did see a distinctly really stronger March, that's for sure. The important thing that we were able to save capacity by way of holidays, training.
We managed to save productive man-hours for later, which will help us catch up on this delay at the beginning of the year. That's something that has been done very efficiently in all countries where we operate. Regarding France, there's still a drag from optic fiber, and it's going to be less than last year, but it will further create a drag this year, and it's possible that it will plateau next year. We're not sure yet. Regarding Building Solutions, we are in negative growth territory, and we are very selective in terms of order intake, and this was the case we see last year, with an impact on the revenue this year. When we are selective, it means we target interesting projects, a bit more sophisticated, with more demanding customers in terms of quality and intricacy of what they do.
It means it's a better margin also. I think that's the important message for Building Solutions that we managed to protect, if not progress our margins further. I think it's good that you mentioned the trend, and clearly, well, the war in the Gulf is a stark reminder of how important it is to move to electricity. As you have seen in France, the government has issued a plan to foster further electrification of the country, and we still have a very significant usage of fossil fuels. It's a trend that we see with all our customers, so it is only further reinforced by the current events. If we look at the customer moving from gas fired furnaces to electrical ones, we see a lot of work with regard to heat pumps, et cetera. It's a major concern.
We see quite a surge now also in electrification of fleet with an impact on the recharge point network. It is very positive trend, which will only be reinforced by the current events. That's something which will really create a tailwind for SPIE going forward.
Thank you very much, and just congratulations on the fantastic job you've done at SPIE over the last few decades. Thank you, Gauthier.
Thank you, Rémi It's always a team effort.
The next question comes from Alexander Peterc from Bernstein. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, and thank you for taking our question, and I'd also like to send my congratulations to you, Gauthier, for your excellent stewardship of SPIE over the years, and great success here. Just a couple of things from me. The first one, I'd just like to come back to France. We had this nice surprise with the return to year-over-year growth. Was there anything outstanding in the first quarter that showed this outperformance, or should we now model growth for France at the like-for-like level more confidently in positive territory for the rest of the year? The second question, just on the recently announced acquisitions, there's quite a lot of them. Can you tell us if they all together will have a positive contribution to Group EBITDA margins, or this year or next year? Thank you so much.
With regard to France, there is nothing really outstanding in terms of the peak in a project or something for the start of the year. It is a really normal course of events. We mentioned the parts which have been helping, such as technical facilities, such as nuclear as well, which sees a positive trend. Well, the year is still young, and so I will not make any guess on the organic growth for the whole year. We see, as I said, positive trends in some areas, but we see also on other areas, customers with an element of cautiousness. Early to say how the whole year is going to shape up. With regard to acquisitions, they all together, they do create some margin dilution. We will have to see when it happens over the year, depending on the exact timing of closing.
Specifically, the last year acquisition in Australia, Worley Power Services and which we plan to close hopefully by the middle of the year. This one is dilutive. It's dilutive to grow, but it's also dilutive to the oil and gas or the GSE segment. Overall positive impact.
Great. Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Christophe Chaput from Oddo. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for taking my question. Again, I wish you the best, Gauthier, for the coming month and the coming years. The first question is on EBIT margin. Your guidance is obviously an improvement for the full year, but would you say that H1 is going to improve as well? Because it probably depend in a certain extent on the level of catch-up in Q2, you are going to make regarding the weather condition because the high voltage, let's say, could create a kind of negative mix on profitability, in H1, I assume. I just wanted to check that. By the way, regarding the weather condition, I'm not sure you quantify in terms of million euros the impact on top line regarding the Q1. If you can help us, let's say, in that respect, it could be great.
The last one is regarding the live pipeline of M&A. Obviously you sign a lot of deals year to date. Usually the live pipeline represents an amount of sales of EUR 400 million-EUR 500 million. How much it represents, let's say actually after, again, the fantastic deal you sign in H1. Thank you so much.
Thank you, Christophe, and thank you for your kind words. With regard to EBITDA margin, even with this impairment we had on the first quarter, we were not worried about margin progression over the year. As you have seen in the past, it tends to be fairly continuous over the year. We do not expect H1 margin to be affected by the slower start to the year, definitely not. Yeah, I didn't quantify weather conditions because it's not easy to do. Again, I think the main thing is to see this ability to catch up over the rest of the year, thanks to the capacity saved. That's something we're very confident about. Maybe for the pipeline of acquisitions, Jérôme, you'll say a word.
Yeah, there was definitely a strong start to the year as you noticed, Christophe, but not making our pipeline empty. Not at all. It does not pertain only to what we could do for the rest of the year 2026. We also have in the pipeline some very interesting targets that might generate concrete realizations for 2027 and beyond. Again, we still benefit from the heavily fragmented nature of our markets constituting all along the year, new opportunities to come.
Okay. Thank you so much.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Allen Wells from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Hey, good morning, gentlemen. Just two quick ones from me, please. Firstly, maybe just in France, you've talked about obviously being selective, given the challenges in the Building Solutions business for a while.
Can you remind us, the negative growth seen in the first quarter, is that sequentially an improvement or is that still getting worse versus maybe what we saw in the second half of last year? I'm just trying to understand if this is getting better, if it's getting stable, or if we're still seeing headwinds in that market. Secondly, just in the energy business, could you just maybe expand out what the exposure is to the Middle East within that business and how you think about the potential impacts for the year? Maybe linked to that, is there a chance of catch-up in that business as we move through the year should the conflict end, or are there capacity limitations that may prevent that? Thank you very much.
Well, thank you. With regard to Building Solutions, again, as the quarterly organic growth for a given division has its limits in terms of meaning. Yeah, we see an improvement compared to where we were for the whole year last year in this first quarter. Again, it's on the back of the work we did last year to refocus on interesting contracts, and we didn't have a bad order intake at all at the end of the day last year. It's a gradual improvement so far compared to last year, definitely. With regard to Middle East, our overall exposure is in the range of EUR 100 million. It is in Qatar, in Iraq, in Saudi, and a bit in Abu Dhabi. We have demobilized fairly swiftly, with good understanding with the customers.
First we are paid on standby, and then we did demobilize some of the sites. Nobody has been hurt at SPIE, which is also obviously very important. We are in talks with customers. Some of them, they want us to stay, and for instance, in Iraq, we work for Total, and we are staying, working at preparing some works or doing some sort of maintenance right now. In other areas, like in Qatar, we did demobilize the site. It will have an impact on the top line, at least in H1, obviously. Then it's early to say what's going to happen next now. We are following this, obviously, on a day-by-day basis. It will be difficult to catch up per se, I think in this range, in this field, compared to what we had for the winter in Europe.
I think what is lost is lost because it's maintenance, so you tend to do the same amount of maintenance with the same amount of people. There might be a bit of need to restart the operations to a bit more people, but it will not be very significant. In terms of margins, this is not the best area for oil and gas activities, Middle East. The margins tend to be in the mid-single- digit compared to the whole of oil and gas. The EBIT margin is not significant at all. The EBIT impact, sorry, is not significant at all.
Very clear. Thank you.
The next question comes from Eric Lemarié from CIC CIB. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, good morning. I got four questions, if I may. The first one on weather. I was wondering if you have been over-pessimistic regarding the impact from the rain, notably in Germany, the consensus expected -2% inorganic, and it was flat. Actually, I was wondering whether you had any positive impact from the weather for some of your activities. At least it was visibly the case for VINCI, as the group mentioned last night. I've got a second question on GSE. Could you tell us maybe the split between oil and gas, wind and solar, and the trend for this market in Q1? Because you mentioned notably a strong momentum in wind activities, but maybe you can tell us an idea of the growth there in Q1.
Third question on the German stimulus package, I was wondering if you have any new comments on the way you see the potential impact of the German plan on your business. The last question on Markus, I was wondering what will be your priorities and what will you do differently compared to Gauthier, in your view. Thank you.
Well, it would be helpful to find a positive impact of the weather conditions. I think it's not that we've been over-pessimistic about the weather impact. I think we have been positively surprised by the strength of catch-up at the end of the quarter.
Okay.
Mainly that, and that's as an overall picture. Oil and gas and wind and renewables, the split is roughly 90/10. 90 oil and gas, 10% renewable, which is mainly wind. We have a few operations for maintenance of solar plants in Qatar, but it's mainly wind. Yeah, the start to the year has been good in our wind connect activity. The former Correll acquisition, we had a good start to the year, which is linked to the schedules of the various projects where we're involved in. I won't give an organic growth by subsegment, but we had a definitely good start in wind. Maybe for stimulus package, I will hand over to Markus.
Yeah, thank you, Gauthier. Well, the stimulus packages, they are supporting the sectors where we already work in. For us it is always hard to identify is it an additional project or is it a regular budgeted project? The authorities, they do not necessarily tell us. We see an increased pipeline in these sectors and also an increased number of new orders. We already see some effects within this year.
Okay.
I take the fourth question right away regarding priorities and what am I going to do differently. First of all, I'm completely honored to be able to take this role, and I have a deep respect for what Gauthier has done over all these decades. Working 13 years together with Gauthier, he has been a great role model to me, and I am a child of this compounder model of SPIE. What I've done over the last 13 years is visible in Germany and Central Europe and Switzerland and Austria. The priorities you can see as well from this period. For me, there is no reason to change. That is the first fact. From the priorities, I got a good view on the territories I was touched on in the past.
Now for me, it is to get a very detailed view on the geographies where I had less exposure so far.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
There are no more questions at this time. As a last reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please dial pound key five on your telephone keypad now. We will wait a few seconds to give you the time to participate.
All right. If there are no further questions, thanks a lot for your attendance this morning. Thank you for your interest in SPIE. Do not forget, it's never been a better time to be a European engineer in electricity. The best is yet to come. Thanks a lot. Have a good day.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. That concludes our call.