Welcome to the SPIE 2026 Half-Year Results Presentation. For the first part of the conference call, the participants will be in listen-only mode. During the questions and answers session, participants are able to ask questions by dialing pound key five on their telephone keypad. Now, I will hand the conference over to Markus Holzke, CEO, to begin today's conference. Please go ahead.
Good morning, thank you for joining us for SPIE's 2026 half-year results. I'm here with Jérôme Vanhove, our Group CFO, and Alexandra Bournazel , Head of Investor Relations. This is my first half-year results call as Group CEO. I'm pleased to be opening it on the back of such a very strong first half-year performance, marked by further margin expansions and excellent M&A strategy execution. It also reflects broader long-term trends, particularly around Europe's accelerating drive towards energy and digital sovereignty, which will continue to create attractive opportunities across many of our end markets. I will also start with a few projects to illustrate this. In Germany, we are building the FRA7 AI-ready data center for Firstcolo in Rosbach vor der Höhe . The project will provide 16 MW of IT capacity and is scheduled for phased delivery through to the end of 2028.
We're carrying out 75% of this project ourselves in-house under our One SPIE model, covering all critical systems from power distribution and cooling to fire protection and building automation. The facility is designed to meet very high energy efficiency standards and will run on renewable electricity. This is exactly the type of project where being present across the full value chain makes a difference. Investors who joined us for our data center site visit near Frankfurt at the end of June saw it firsthand on another project. We see more and more opportunities of this kind as demand continues to grow for integrated energy-efficient data center solutions. In France, EDF has entrusted SPIE, present on the Bugey site since 2011, with maintaining the highest level of cybersecurity for the strategic systems that monitor and manage nuclear waste processing.
Three SPIE entities are working together on this project, combining nuclear, industrial, and digital expertise. I was able to see this myself during my recent visit to SPIE's nuclear operations in Gravelines. It was my first visit to a nuclear site as a CEO and a great opportunity to witness the depth of expertise with our teams and how the One SPIE model brings together complementary skills to deliver critical services to our customers. This example in Le Bugey with EDF is a good illustration of both the trust our nuclear services franchise has built over more than a decade and how our One SPIE capabilities are becoming an increasingly important differentiator for SPIE. In Belgium, we're delivering the full electrical integration of a large-scale battery storage facility, including 180 Tesla battery units and a new substation for a project worth more than EUR 100 million.
Battery storage at this scale, with several hundred megawatt hours of storage capacity, is still relatively rare in Europe, and this highlights our strong positioning in energy transition infrastructure. It also demonstrates the strategic value of the European framework agreement we signed with Tesla in 2025, with several ongoing negotiations for additional projects across Europe in different stages of development and of various sizes. More broadly, battery energy storage systems are becoming a key market for SPIE across a broad range of customers and technologies. Moving to Central Europe. Over the past few years, our acquisitions have significantly expanded our capabilities in Central Europe, enabling us to deliver increasingly complex integrated projects like this one in Poland.
Here, we have deployed a full telecommunications and building management system for the new academy in Poland, including fire detection, voice alarm, CCTV, access control, intrusion, and gas detection, all on a single-digit platform.
The project was delivered in a particularly demanding environment with around 100 acoustically insulated rehearsal rooms requiring bespoke installation solutions. Now, moving to the key H1 highlights. Revenue growth accelerated with organic growth rebounding as expected in the second quarter. Our EBITA margin continued to expand. Working capital management was outstanding. We kept a dynamic pace of bolt-on M&A, and we are today confirming our full-year guidance. This is a very strong first-half-year performance, building on the record results achieved in 2025 and confirms that our positive momentum continues in 2026. More specifically, looking at the key figures of H1, revenue reached EUR 5.157 billion, up 3.6%, including 1.2% organic growth, + 2.7% from acquisitions. EBITA was EUR 321 million, up 6.9%, with margin expansion of 20 basis points to 6.2%.
This is a very solid trajectory in line with our permanent commitment, gradually increasing our margins year on year. Our leverage ratio increased only moderately by 0.2 x versus H1 2025, despite more than EUR 640 million of cash out for M&A since the beginning of the year. Let us now focus on revenue growth. Revenue grew 3.7% in H1 at constant exchange rates. The rebound in Q2 confirmed the progressive catch-up scenario we had outlined following the weather-related disruptions at the beginning of the year in Germany and in Central Europe. Germany grew by 4.6%, despite a demanding comparison base of + 15% in H1 2025, and Central Europe was up 13.9%, supported by sustained M&A activity in 2025. France grew by 1.2%, a resilient performance overall, which deserves a deeper dive later on in this presentation.
Northwestern Europe returned to positive organic growth despite a demanding comparison base of 8.1% in H1 2025. Global Services Energy continued to operate in a more selective market for oil and gas activities and was further impacted by the Iran conflict. Overall, this performance underscores the strength of our model with its well-balanced geographical footprint and diversified multi-technical expertise. M&A activities. In H1, we announced five new acquisitions representing around EUR 670 million of combined annual revenue. In Germany, we significantly scaled up our industrial services platform with ROFA Industrial Automation and SGS Industrial Services, adding together EUR 610 million in annual revenue. The closing of SGS is expected in Q3. We also completed three targeted bolt-on M&A in Central Europe, adding together around EUR 60 million of revenue. BLOCK Group in Czech Republic, INVIZO in Slovakia, and nimeg ag in Switzerland.
As usual, all acquisitions are expected to be accretive to adjusted EPS from their first year of consolidation. Meanwhile, the integration of all 2025 acquisitions is progressing well and according to our plan. Looking ahead, we continue to see a robust and well-diversified pipeline of bolt-on acquisition opportunities across all our territories, enabling us to densify our footprint, further move up the value chain, and create more value through the deployment of our One SPIE approach. Looking to our EBITDA margin. We delivered a further 20 basis points expansion to 6.2%, following the 40 basis points increase achieved in 2025. Germany and France contributed positively with margin expansions of 20 and 10 basis points, respectively, while Northwestern Europe delivered an exceptional 90 basis points increase. These three segments represent together 90% of the total EBITDA in H1. In Central Europe, we expect to catch up in H2.
At Global Services Energy, the margin evolution was entirely attributable to the dilutive impact of the former ROBUR Wind activities, while the underlying business remained resilient in a selective market environment. Once again, this margin expansion reflects our unwavering focus on rigorous contract selectivity, pricing discipline, and a high quality of delivery, as well as a favorable mix across the group. Looking at the segments and starting with Germany. Germany delivered a remarkable performance in H1, despite a demanding comparison base with organic growth accelerating to 7.3% in the second quarter. This was driven particularly by high voltage and city networks, confirming the progressive catch-up scenario we had outlined following the weather-related disruptions flagged at the start of the year. Beyond this catch-up effect, underlying activity remained very strong, notably in technical facility management.
Building solutions continued to benefit from sustained demand in data centers, as illustrated by the project example I shared earlier in this presentation. ICS strengthened its cybersecurity and audiovisual offering through recent acquisitions, while industry service delivered another solid performance across automation, logistics, pharmaceuticals, and LNG. Acquisitions contributed 2.2% to this growth, reflecting the acquisitions of PIK AG and Cyqueo in 2025, while the acquisitions completed in 2026 are expected to support growth further in the second half of the year. EBITDA margin increased by 20 basis points to 5.8%, reflecting continued operational discipline, rigorous contract selectivity, and our pricing power. France. Strong dynamic in four main activities. Good resilience overall. Revenue in France increased by 1.2% in H1, driven by a 1.9% contribution from the Artemys acquisition, while organic growth was slightly negative at 0.7%.
Looking more closely, four out of the six divisions continue to deliver dynamic growth, while the slowdown in mature fiber rollout programs and the selective market environment in building solutions continue to weigh, as expected, on the performance. Technical facility management maintained a strong trajectory while industry proved resilient, fueled by demand in solar PV and battery energy storage systems. ICS continued to grow at a healthy pace in cloud, cybersecurity, and data management, and nuclear services delivered a strong performance, underpinned by a high level of maintenance activity in the frame of the Grand Carénage program . The ten- basis points EBITDA margin improvement to 6.2% is a clear illustration of the strength of our business model and the quality of its execution. Northwestern Europe delivered a strong performance in H1 2026.
Organic growth was 1.9% against an exceptionally high comparison base, with momentum building to 4.7% in the second quarter. In the Netherlands and Belgium, T&D remained a key growth engine, driven by substations and power distribution networks. Growth also benefited from continued expansion in data center services and battery energy storage systems, as illustrated by the project at the beginning of the presentation. EBITDA margin expanded by an exceptional 90 basis points to 7.8%. This reflects continued operational discipline alongside a favorable mix effect in the first half, especially in energy transition services. Central Europe delivered total growth of 13.9%, mainly driven by a 12.7% contribution from acquisitions, reflecting sustained M&A activity in Poland, Switzerland, and Austria in 2025. Organic growth rebounded strongly in Q2 with 7.3%, initiating the anticipated catch-up and fully compensating the weak Q1 impacted by adverse weather conditions.
The order book continued to build, providing strong visibility. Poland and Slovakia saw continued strong demand and high voltage, supported by grid expansion and energy transition investments, and tunnel infrastructure projects continued to underpin activity in Austria. The 90 basis points decline in EBITDA margin reflects the more seasonal profit recognition pattern and the temporary impact of unfavorable weather conditions in Q1, amplified by smaller scale of the countries within the segment. Global Services Energy. Revenue declined by 4.6% in this semester against the more selective market environment for oil and gas overall. Operations in the Middle East were further impacted by the conflict in Iran from March onwards. Wind activities, on the other hand, continued to grow, supported by the successful integration of the international wind operations transferred from Germany.
While the EBITDA margin on the historical parameter remained stable, it decreased by 40 basis points in H1 2026 due to the dilutive effect of these wind activities' transfer. Thanks a lot, very much, for this first part. I will now hand over to Jérôme.
Thank you, Markus, and good morning, everyone. Let me start with our income statement highlights for this first semester. Revenue grew by 3.6% to EUR 5,157 million. EBITDA reached EUR 321 million, up 6.9%, at a combination of a 20-basis-Point margin expansion, as said, to 6.2%, and the total growth. Adjusted net income increased by 11.9% to EUR 187 million. Reported net income rebounded sharply to EUR 112 million, which I will further comment on. I'm now moving on to the revenue bridge, which provides a breakdown of our 3.6% total revenue growth in H1 2026. As already pointed out, organic growth contributed + 1.2%, including a significant rebound to 3.1% in the second quarter, following a weaker Q1 at -0.9%.
Our bolt-on M&A activity contributed 2.7%, or approximately EUR 130 million revenue, driven primarily by acquisitions we completed in 2025, such as SD Fiber in Switzerland, with a smaller contribution from the acquisitions such as Artemys and Invizo that we closed in 2026. The main acquisitions we announced in 2026, namely ROFA, SGS, Worley Power Services, or BLOCK, were neither consolidated as of June 30th, nor did they contribute to our H1 reported results. Please note that in the case of SGS, we are still contemplating a closing before the end of the third quarter. Not done yet. The 2026 pro rata temporis contribution from these acquisitions, namely ROFA, SGS, and Worley Power Services, will be reflected in our H2 results.
The internal transfer of former ROBUR non-German operations was recorded as a disposal for the German segment and, conversely, as an acquisition for both Global Services Energy and Central Europe, obviously absolutely neutral at the group level on the top line. The disposal of the small elevator business in the Netherlands had a negligible -0.1% impact, and currency movement had a modest -0.2% impact, mainly reflecting the euro-US dollar exchange rate. Moving to slide 21. At EUR 186.5 million, our adjusted net income was up 11.9% year-on-year, primarily driven by the increase in EBITA. This progression also reflected a slightly lower cost of net debt and material other financial charges decrease. This reduction is mainly due to a rather normalized net FX impact, which was largely unfavorable in the first semester of 2025.
Our normative tax rate increased slightly from 29.2% to 30.2%, reflecting the gradual changes in our geographical mix and the applicable corporate income tax rate, notably the growing taxable profit contribution in Germany. Turning now to our usual bridge from adjusted net income to reported net income, which includes the main non-cash IFRS items, as usual. Reported net income rebounded sharply to EUR 112 million compared with an exceptional loss of EUR 13.4 million in H1 2025. This is mainly explained by the change in fair value of the convertible bond, ORNANE, derivative component, which, I remind you, is a non-cash accounting item and did hit significantly our P&L last year.
The accounting treatment remains absolutely unchanged, but the impact amounted to EUR 19.7 million in H1 2026 compared with EUR 162 million charge in H1 2025, and this was as a consequence of the very strong appreciation of our share price over that period in H1 2025. The decrease of the amortization of intangible assets is due to the completion in 2025 of the amortization of the intangible assets recognized in connection with our SAG acquisition in 2017, and those were amortized over nine years. The increase in other costs mainly represents acquisition costs, which is IFRS 3, in line with our very active M&A activity during the first half. Turning to working capital, which remains a very structural strength of SPIE's business model. As you know, we consistently operate with a structurally negative working cap, and this has been the case throughout the year.
Last year's outstanding improvements reported as at the June end have been finally maintained in 2026 with a continuing focus on entire working capital management. That was our commitment. - 28 days of revenue, representing nearly EUR - 800 million, is another outstanding achievement for a first half. Overall, our continued focus on early invoicing and disciplined cash collection contributed to this excellent pattern alongside a favorable mix of activities. Moving to our free cash flow. Operating cash flow reached EUR 163.5 million compared to EUR 25.3 million in H1 2025, benefiting, of course, from the EBITDA increase and from the improved change in working capital requirement. As a consequence, our free cash flow turned positive at EUR +25.7 million for the very first time in a half year, with an obviously EUR 133 million improvement year-on-year.
In line with our commitment to protect shareholders' interest, we completed a EUR 59 million anti-dilutive share buyback program in the first quarter of this year at an average share price of EUR 47 per share, representing the same number of shares bought back last year, meaning 1,250,000 shares. Overall, net debt increased by EUR 822 million over the first half, reflecting, of course, our very dynamic self-financed bolt-on M&A activity. Moving to leverage ratio. Thanks to our outstanding operating cash flow performance in H1, the leverage ratio increased only moderately from 1.9 x at the end of June 2025 to 2.1 x at the end of June 2026, following the nearly EUR 640 million cash out for M&A over the H1 period. Our track record clearly demonstrates the strong deleveraging capacity of our business model, with leverage increasing only temporarily following significant value-creative acquisitions during the period.
We intend to pursue our dynamic bolt-on M&A while strictly observing our disciplined financial policy. The achievement of investment grade status from Fitch in April with a BBB- rating and a stable outlook marks a very important milestone in SPIE's history, reflecting on our strong free cash flow generation, disciplined leverage profile, and increased scale. Building on this, we successfully issued a EUR 600 million sustainability-linked bond in May with a five-year maturity and an associated coupon of 3.875%, extending our debt maturity profile to 2031 and maintaining a consistently high level of liquidity. This was the case at the end of June 2026, with a total liquidity of more than EUR 1.5 billion, supported by EUR 562 million in net cash, as well as EUR 1 billion of undrawn revolving credit facility.
SPIE's entire debt profile remains fully sustainability-linked in line with our long-term ESG strategy. 86% of our drawn debt is at a fixed rate at an attractive weighted average cost of circa 3.7%. I thank you for your attention, and I now hand it back to Markus.
Thank you, Jérôme. Based on these strong H1 results, we confirm our full-year outlook. We expect strong total growth driven by further organic growth and a very active bolt-on M&A. We also expect continued expansion of our EBITA margins. Also, as every year, we intend to maintain a dividend payout of around 40% of adjusted net income. Thank you very much for your attention this morning. As we like to say at SPIE, it remains a great time to be a European electrical engineer. With Jérôme, we are now ready 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 Aleksander Peterc from Bernstein. Please go ahead.
Good morning, and thank you for taking my questions. Congratulations for another set of solid results. I have three questions, if I may. The first one is on the Q1 weather-related miss. Could you give us an idea how much of that was caught up in the second quarter? Is it more than half or three-quarters or 90%? Just kind of a ballpark. Second question on France: can it still grow this year? If you could explain why we had this relapse into negative territory again in terms of organic sales growth. We had a bit of a bounce into positive, and now we're down again. I'm just wondering what the direction of travel is from here.
My third question would be , isn't it reasonable to expect that second-half margin progress year-on-year will be as strong, if not better, in the second half versus what you had in the first half? That's the 20 basis points you just printed. I think the businesses you added are margin accretive, and they're quite sizable. My thinking is maybe there should be an acceleration actually in H2. Thanks.
Thank you very much. Tackling your first question, the idea of the catch-up in Q2. The second quarter was, as expected, very strong. The majority portion is expected to be caught up, but the rest gradually will be caught up until the end of the year. You're right. France rebounds back to negative growth. We communicated that quarter one is not expected to fully go through until the year-end. Business is seasonal, and we see an ongoing decline in the fiber activities and the selective market environment of building solutions. We can expect a year-end being better than last year. EBITA margin, 20 basis points. We tend to deliver what we increased in H1 also at year-end. I think we are fully confident in showing the 20 basis points improvement at year-end.
Maybe one more with respect to the accretion from M&A. Bear in mind, Aleksander, that M&A is definitely what we've done in H1, definitely accretive on a full-year basis when it comes to contributing on the pro rata temporis basis in the first year. Let's see what happens. Back to Markus' point, 20 basis points being insured for the full year. Let's see, with respect to M&A, effective accretive impact in the first year.
Very clear. Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Rory McKenzie from UBS. Please go ahead.
Morning, everyone. It's Rory here. Just to follow up on the France trends. Can you just quantify where we are at in terms of that drag from the fiber ramp down and what we should expect as we head into next year? Some of your wording sounds a bit stronger in terms of the segments, such as Tech FM and ICS or Nuclear. Are you seeing a bit more kind of divergent trends within the French market, where spending is being reallocated? Secondly, I wanted to ask about the kind of European data center market where I think we are seeing accelerating projects across many countries. I know that historically you focused on maybe more mid-size projects where you can self-deliver the majority of the contract, I guess, as on your slide three today.
How much of that market do you think you can capture with that strategy? Would you ever think about evolving your kind of offering here to address more of that?
Okay. I might ask you to repeat one or the other question. Starting with France and fiber and the situation in the French business. I traveled extensively in my first three months in France and made myself familiar with the French business, and I think the perception has to be really changed. We suffer from the decline in fiber, as we said; four of our activities are really experiencing strong growth. This is ICS, this is a resilient industry, it's a strong facility, and it's a very strong nuclear business. This is a dynamic that cannot fully compensate for the decline in fiber. We stayed with our policy to be very selective in the building solutions market.
Well, this being said, we see that order intakes in data centers and order intakes in battery energy storage systems will help us in the future to be able to compensate for a further decline in fiber, which is going on, but also not keep us busy for the next years. We see that we more and more reach the bottom line, and, well, we will see at the end of the year where we end up. I'm fully confident that this effect will phase out over the near future. Data centers. Data centers are, for us, a key market. To remind you, we are not the fans of the very big projects with hyperscalers. We focus more on medium-sized, smaller projects and the overhaul of the existing data centers. The maintenance portion within plays a significant role for us.
This is a key market where we want to grow and emphasize this in all our territories. Which question did I not answer?
No, that's perfect. Thank you. Markus, maybe just a follow-up in terms of the approach to the kind of contract size and selectivity. Now you're Group CEO, and obviously we appreciate you said you're Gauthier's disciple . In terms of the contract review limits at a group level and the kind of size that you focus on, do you envisage making any changes to that approach? Maybe particularly as Europe starts to scale up in some of the larger investment programs that have been spoken about for a while.
Well, first of all, I did not tend to change the rules internally within the first three months but rather to make myself familiar and experienced. I had a busy period and reviewed over 90 projects within the first three months. Well, this is certainly a ramp-up of our activity, which is good. You directly feel it. Also, it brings us the connectivity to the very bottom of our organization, to the project managers. You exchange with them regarding terms and conditions, client perception, and all such things that are really worth discussing. Of course, with the growth of the group and also the managers growing as well in my team, we might take a look at that. For me, the disciplined approach and the focus of managers in the very first phase of the lifetime of our projects is a very essential one. This will not change.
Okay. That's all really helpful and very good to hear. Thank you very much.
The next question comes from Eric Lemarié from CIC CIB. Please go ahead.
Yes. Hi, good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I got three, if I may. First, a question on the regular improvement of operating margins. I was wondering, do you reckon this gradual improvement is somewhat linked with a higher risk, higher operational risk for SPIE, or maybe a project with a larger component of risk? It's my first question. The second question on this EUR 644 million in your cash flow statement for the acquisition investment in H1: could you remind us if the equivalent revenue acquired in H1 is to compare with the EUR 644 million? Out of the revenue, the EUR 670 million of revenue was acquired. A last question on hyperscaler. You mentioned you are not a fan of a very large project with a hyperscaler for data centers. Could you explain why you are not a fan of this project?
Happy to take questions one and three, and Jérôme to take the second one. On the margin improvements, the short answer is, it does not come along with taking more risks. It's absolutely forbidden. It's exactly the opposite. We keep our risk profile and have it fully under control. Margin improvement is happening across all the measures you can draw on. It's operational discipline, being closer to the risk of the project, having a different business mix, having better client selectivity, and all such things that I could mention to this. Tackling the hyperscaler. Hyperscaler projects are very large. Often procurement is fully in the hands of the client and is done across several projects. It's out of our value creation. The design is often very standardized. Our engineering know-how, which we can bring in, is limited. Also, value creation is not so good, and margins tend to be thus less attractive for us, whereas the risk profile on those larger projects is increasing. This is why we tend to be there where our know-how as a technical service company is better valued, also coming along with less risky project profiles. That's the reason. For the second question, I hand over to Jérôme.
With the corresponding turnover we acquired on an annual basis with what we have signed so far and already announced, this is the EUR 670 million of equivalent annual turnover. In terms of expected contribution pro rata temporis to the year, including as well the impact from the 2025 acquisition. I think above EUR 600 million in total of contribution from M&A on top of organic for 2026 is a good proxy.
Thank you.
The next question comes from Tim Ramskill from Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning. Three questions from me as well, please. I just wondered if you could spend a few moments on Germany with regard to the Q2 acceleration in organic growth. Just trying to understand how much of that was sort of weather influenced or if you can sustain growth at a similar level to Q2. Related to that, obviously lots of positive commentary about the Book of Business. Again, does that help us sustain growth at a similar pace into next year, or could you see a further acceleration in Germany? The second question is margin-related. You call out in Northwest Europe that the strong margin performance in the first half was partly a function of mix. Obviously, when you were talking about margins a moment ago, you referenced that obviously business mix has an influence.
I just want to understand, is that sustainable, or is there any risk there that in the second half or into next year, those margins in that region start to sort of mix back the other way, if that makes sense? The final question is just on cash flow. Very strong performance in the first half. Is there anything at all as you look out into the second half that might reverse, and see that strength in free cash flow generation year-over-year lessen? Thank you.
Yeah. Thank you, Tim. Also here, I would like to share the questions also with Jérôme. I would like to take the question for Germany. Well, acceleration was really there. We said that we are going to catch up in Q2, and this was explicitly visible in our high-voltage and city-network divisions. In the end, the divisions working outside are being affected by the construction sites from the harsh weather conditions. Well, we expect further organic growth, and we are prepared for more. If more is available, then we do our best to catch it. Also with the tailwind ahead of the German investment packages, which should be more visible beginning in 2027. I'm very confident that we are there. Well, Northwestern Europe, 90 basis points. We pointed out exceptionality.
Maybe Jérôme can point out a bit more details, then for the cash flow, you can also make the question.
Absolutely. Well, the direction of travel in Northwestern Europe very clearly is well set in H1. When we mentioned that it does include a bit of exceptional effect, it was especially with the completion of certain projects in the domain of high voltage with some very good projects and rather very decent margin recognition on those projects. No mistake, for the whole of the year, it would stay with a very impressive progression in comparison to last year. Our intent was to specify that it's not necessarily up to + 90 basis points for the whole segment, but it would definitely stay with a remarkable progression in comparison to last year for the whole of the year. That is a very sustained profit recognition and a sustained level of EBITA performance.
To your third question with respect to the free cash flow, there is no adverse effect or impact to be expected in H2. The remarkable performance in H1 was especially the fruits of our permanent focus on working cap management every single day in the year and at every single month, with the aim to gradually reduce the seasonality impact entirely. What has been reached at the end of June will definitely make us very comfortable with the fact that our permanent objective of 100% cash conversion for the whole year can be reached. We are heavily confident in that respect so as to deliver for FY 2026 a free cash flow, very likely, higher than the one of last year.
Great. Can I just squeeze in a fourth question, with apologies for being a bit cheeky? You've obviously had a couple of questions already about hyperscalers, and you've been very clear on the kind of why that may not be the best piece of business for you to win. I'm just interested in your thoughts as to whether that level of data center investment activity in the marketplace does bring you indirect benefits. Even if you're not going after that business, does it help with the, particularly in the French market, with some of the characteristics that are a little challenging, does that uptick in activity bring you some indirect benefits?
Well, the indirect benefit is that the larger competitors are moving on to these larger projects and giving us more room for the projects we emphasize with co-locators , and yeah, that's the direct benefit.
Okay. Thank you.
There are no more questions at this time. I hand the conference back to the speakers for any closing comments.
Well, thanks a lot for participating in our H1 results presentation, my first results presentation. I'm happy to be the CEO and part of the team of SPIE and happy to hear from you next time. Thanks a lot.