Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the HOCHTIEF 2025 results conference call. I'm Moritz, the call operator. I would like to remind you that all participants will be in a listen-only mode, and the conference is being recorded. The presentation will be followed by a question-and-answer session. You can register for questions at any time by pressing star and one on your telephone. For operator assistance, please press Star and zero. The conference must not be recorded for publication or broadcast. At this time, it's my pleasure to hand over to Mike Pinkney. Please go ahead, sir.
Thanks, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks very much for joining this HOCHTIEF First Half 2025 results call. I'm Mike Pinkney, Head of Capital Market Strategy, and I'm here with our CEO, Juan Santamaría Cases, and our CFO, Chris Andreschi, as well as the Head of IR, Tobias Loskamp, and other colleagues from the senior management team of HOCHTIEF. We're looking forward to your questions, but to start off with. As is traditional, our CEO will run us through the details of another strong set of HOCHTIEF numbers and provide you with an update on the group's strategy. Juan, all yours.
Thank you, Mike, and Dean, and welcome to everyone joining us for this results call. HOCHTIEF has delivered an excellent performance during the first six months of 2025, with significant growth in revenues, profits, and orders, as well as a solid cash flow result. In addition to achieving a strong financial performance during the period, we have made further important progress on this strategic front. We are increasingly harnessing our geographic footprint and engineering know-how on a group-wide basis to achieve additional growth and value creation for all our stakeholders as we continue to deliver on HOCHTIEF's growth strategy. Our growth trajectory is supported by a solid balance sheet, a strong order book, and a strongly cash-generative business. Let me give you an overview of the key highlights of HOCHTIEF's performance during the first six months of the year. The group has seen an acceleration in its top line.
Group sales increased by 25% year-on-year to EUR 18.4 billion, or 29% if exactly. This is mainly driven by strong organic revenue growth and was accompanied by solid margins. Operational net profit rose by 18% to EUR 355 million at the top end of our guidance range for 2025, with an increase of up to 17%. If we adjust for forex headwinds, the underlying profit growth rate was even higher at 22%. Nominal net profit of EUR 481 million includes net EUR 126 million in one-off gains, mainly reflecting the non-cash Q1 2025 flat-iron revaluation impact. The quality of our profits is underlined by solid cash generation performance. Looking at cash flow during the last 12 months, the strong performance is driven by a sustained high level of cash conversion with net operating cash flow of EUR 1.3 billion.
The first half of the year incorporates the characteristic impact of society during the first quarter that shows an increase in net operating cash flow year-on-year adjusted for factoring. The movement in the group's net debt position since December 2024 was driven by strategic investment decisions and their consideration effects, as well as effects impacts. Considering the last 12 months and adjusting for capital allocation, dividends, and effects, net cash would show a strong EUR 1 billion year-on-year increase. The new orders level of EUR 26.1 billion represents a very substantial rise of 26% year-on-year adjusted for effects movements, with all operating segments reporting increases. The work includes important project wins in our strategic growth markets such as data centers, critical metals, energy, as well as other core infrastructure markets.
At the end of June 2025, the group's order book stood at EUR 69 billion, up by 15% year-on-year effects adjusted. Let's take a brief look at our performance at the segment level. In terms of order growth and indeed other metrics, Turner has had another standout performance. Very strong sales growth of 41% to EUR 12.2 billion was organically driven. 37% effects adjusted, with operational PVT nearly 60% higher at EUR 392 million. This remarkable rise in profits was also a consequence of the positive margin evolution, which increased by 30 basis points at PVT level to 3.2%, driven by Turner's successful strategy of focusing on advanced technology projects. New orders were another highlight, with a 23% rise to EUR 16 billion, including a doubling in the level of data center work.
We expect Turner will continue its strong growth driven by, firstly, its strong position in advanced tech, including rapidly expanding data center market globally with Durnan growing in Europe. Secondly, further margin progression as the share of advanced tech projects steadily increases and aided by SourceBlue's supply chain services offering. Thirdly, the structural long-term growth in several of its key markets such as healthcare, education, airports, and sports stadiums. We reaffirm our guidance of EUR 660 million-EUR 750 million operational PVT for Turner in 2025, an increase of between 16% and 32%. Moving on to CIMIC, revenues were stable, adjusting for the timing effects of the fiscal consideration since Q2 2024. The business achieved solid growth in strategic market segments, particularly across the data center, social infrastructure, and energy transition markets, offsetting the winding down of large transport projects.
Operational PVT was 4% higher on a comparable basis at EUR 232 million. Cash flow exhibits the effects of seasonality, the ongoing working capital profile adjustment, and higher factoring during the first half of 2024. On a comparable basis and adjusting for factoring variations, net operating cash flow shows a EUR 101 million improvement year-on-year. CIMIC ended the period with a robust order backlog of EUR 23.2 billion, which is 5% higher year-on-year on an effects-adjusted basis. Operational PVT guidance for CIMIC of EUR 480 million-EUR 510 million implies an increase of 7%-13% for 2025. At our engineering and construction segment, sales of EUR 800 million were 14% higher year-on-year on a comparable basis, adjusting for the impact of the deconsolidation of our North American sealed business following a flat-iron drawdown transaction.
Operational PVT showed an 18% comparable increase to EUR 40 million, and cash flow also improved on the same basis. A key highlight here was the strong rise in new orders to EUR 3.4 billion, 64% higher year-on-year. Our engineering and construction guidance range for operational PVT in 2025 of EUR 85 million-EUR 95 million implies sustained strong growth of up to 24% on a comparable basis. Looking at Abertis, the toll road company continues to perform in a solid manner. Operating revenues rose 6% on a comparable basis to EUR 3 billion, with EBITDA similarly higher at EUR 2.1 billion. Operational net profit per EPPA of EUR 383 million compares with EUR 402 million in the first half of 2024 and includes the adverse France tax impact. The operational contribution to HOCHTIEF for the six-month period of EUR 36 million included positive second-quarter growth.
As a consequence of its solid cash flow performance, Abertis distributed a total dividend of EUR 600 million in the second quarter of 2025, in line with the previous year. We anticipate Abertis will deliver a similar operational result in 2025 to EUR 81 million of 2024. Let me provide you with an update on HOCHTIEF's strategic development. As a global infrastructure leader, HOCHTIEF's strategic delivery has continued in the first six months of 2025 against a background of unprecedented multi-year demand for infrastructure investments, driven by the mega trends of digitalization, graphics, defense, deglobalization, and demand for energy. From a strategic perspective, the best way to look at the group is on a global sector basis. HOCHTIEF has positioned itself as a leading global digital advanced tech infrastructure and services solution provider to meet a strongly rising demand.
This is being achieved by expanding our presence in the value chain with our construction engineering know-how complemented by the group's equity investment and R&M expertise. We are one of the world's leading providers for the development and construction of data centers, with around 60 GW of successfully implemented projects. The group's approach combines comprehensive expertise in planning, financing, and construction operation. According to several sources, the global data center CapEx market could grow at close to 20% annually until at least 2030. HOCHTIEF has secured several notable project wins in data centers during the period. Turner has doubled the value of new orders booked, underlining the group's strong presence in this rapidly expanding market.
In the Asia-Pacific region, the CIMIC joint venture is delivering the first tranche of a multi-phase data center development project in the Philippines and has recently delivered projects in Malaysia and Singapore, while in Germany, we launched as developers, contractors, and operators our fifth edge data center project, this time near Munich. Earlier this week, CoreWeave, the AI hyperscaler, announced its intent to commit more than EUR 6 billion to equip a new state-of-the-art data center in Pennsylvania, purpose-built to power the most cutting-edge AI use cases. The initial 100 MW data center, with potential to expand to 300 MWs, represents one of the first large-scale data centers of its kind in the region and will be constructed by a Turner JV .
As part of the group's broader strategy to establish a pan-European network of sustainable decentralized edge data centers, HOCHTIEF is looking to expand the businesses into other European countries, including Austria, Switzerland, and the U.K. We previously created a joint venture, Yorizon, which enhances HOCHTIEF's YEXIO data center with innovative cloud computing solutions that support digital sovereignty. The first data center will open in Germany this summer, and sites for several additional centers are being developed. The group is also advancing in the semiconductor area, where strong demand for artificial intelligence and increasing digitalization is boosting investment levels. Global sector sales in this market are expected to reach $700 billion in 2025, with double the growth expectations going forward. Together with the reshoring trend, this is driving a rapid increase in semiconductor-related construction work.
This is a strategic growth market for HOCHTIEF, and we're actively analyzing a very sizable pipeline of potential projects. Recent project awards include a significant construction contract for the expansion of an assembly and test facility for chip lithography machines in the U.S., an important semiconductor project in Malaysia, and a semiconductor-related construction facility in Germany using clean room technology. Another priority for HOCHTIEF is its strategically vital critical metals in natural resources sector, where we have been developing a leading global position in recent years via a combination of organic growth and M&A. Global mega trends are driving strong demand growth for metals such as copper, aluminum, and nickel, but also critical new economy and battery minerals, including lithium, cobalt, and rare earths. The global metals and mining market, currently worth EUR 1.2 trillion, is expected to reach over EUR 1.7 trillion by 2033.
HOCHTIEF, through Sedgman, is a leader in engineering for critical minerals and mineral processing with expertise in copper, high-purity aluminum, vanadium, lithium, cobalt, rare earth, uranium, and nickel. During the period, we have started work on a new innovative critical minerals processing plant in Queensland for vanadium and other rare earth metals, and has also been awarded a five-year gold project contract extension in Western Australia, as well as another gold project in the region.
These latest awards come in addition to several important projects we're executing in this sector, including a major lithium extraction plant in Germany, the process design and product implementation for a copper sink plant in Western Australia, a three-year nickel and copper full-service mining project in Ontario, Canada, a four-year contract to deliver underground services at a copper mine in Queensland, and the provisions of mineral processing services as part of a major Australian iron ore contract. Furthermore, we're currently working on a number of lithium projects in Portugal, Brazil, and Canada. In addition to our engineering expertise, HOCHTIEF is also a leader in the natural resources sector via Thiess, which provides the full suite of mining, asset, and rehabilitation services across Australia, Asia, and the Americas.
The company is steadily expanding its metal and minerals capabilities via its strategy to continue to diversify its commodity portfolio and geographic footprint, as well as expanding its services offering. Last month, Thiess won an AUD 2.3 billion contract extension in Queensland to continue providing full mining services at Lake Vermont, where it has been working since 2007. This project win highlights the recurrent nature of the business, which supports Thiess's solid cash generation. Looking forward, Thiess is very well positioned for sustainable growth within the evolving global resource sector. As you will be aware, HOCHTIEF has been a global leader in transport, infrastructure, and sustainable mobility for several decades. The outlook for the sector is very positive due to several infrastructure stimulus packages in key geographies.
In Germany, for instance, the EUR 500 billion infrastructure investment package approved by the Bundestag Parliament offers enormous opportunities to accelerate the modernization of the country. The plan is focused on transport, energy, and social sectors, including healthcare, education, R&D, and digitalization, with EUR 400 billion federal and EUR 100 billion state-level investment. HOCHTIEF is well positioned to benefit due to the scalability of its business model and its core expertise in bridges, tunnels, and rail. Even before we see the benefits from this infrastructure investment boost, already during the last few years, order book for German projects has doubled to over EUR 5.3 billion. During the first six months of 2025, HOCHTIEF was awarded a EUR 170 million rail infrastructure contract to modernize a section for Deutsche Bahn as part of the integrated plan to upgrade the country's rail network.
The HOCHTIEF joint venture was also recently awarded a major contract for the construction of the second main line of the S-Bahn rail network in Munich. Another significant European transport project win was secured during the second quarter with a DACH highway project worth initially EUR 1.2 billion. In addition to the planning and construction, the PPP contract also provides for the financing, operation, and maintenance of the road until 2051. In North America, a Flatiron drawdown JV was awarded a EUR 1 billion contract for Long Bridge North rail infrastructure project, which will modernize critical transportation links between Washington, D.C., and Virginia. In Australia, a CIMIC JV has been selected to build a Logan and Gold Coast fast rail project, with work scheduled for completion ahead of the Brisbane 2032 Olympics. HOCHTIEF continues to command a leading position in the biopharma health and education infrastructure sectors.
Driven by demographics, including our urbanization, as well as digitalization mega trends, significant structural demand growth for healthcare and education infrastructure is anticipated. HOCHTIEF has a strong record and industry-leading expertise in the healthcare sector, where, for example, in the U.S., Turner renewed its pole position in healthcare being once again named the number one construction manager. The group has delivered award-winning major hospital facilities across the Asia-Pacific region. During the first half of 2025, CIMIC signed a letter of intent to construct the new Dunedin Hospital in Patients Building in New Zealand. In the education sector, where Turner is a leader, the company is building the College of Veterinary Medicine in South Carolina, with completion planned for 2026. In Germany, HOCHTIEF secured a contract to build a new research building at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Investment in defense is expected to strongly increase in our key markets.
HOCHTIEF is well positioned globally for higher defense spending, given our sector presence in Europe, the U.S., and Australia, supported by our key security credentials. At the end of June, the group had around EUR 2 billion of defense-related work in its order book. During the period, CIMIC was awarded an AUD 700.317 million contract to upgrade infrastructure and facilities for the Royal Australian Air Force in Queensland. In the U.S., a Flatiron drawdown joint venture is in the construction of a dry dock at Pearl Harbor. The project is part of the US Navy Shipyard Infrastructure Optimization Program to modernize government-owned and operated shipyards. We are very well placed to participate in major multi-year defense investment plans in Germany, with opportunities in defense-related capital works. New or renovation projects, infrastructure buildings, etc., and potentially via the PPP model. In energy infrastructure, HOCHTIEF is playing a key role globally.
For example, in Australia's energy transition, by leveraging our global expertise and local capability and footprint to deliver significant projects. Strong growth is being driven by the increasing demand for energy in general and, in particular, for clean energy. UGL and Sedgman are pioneers in delivering engineering-led integrated solutions for clients in energy, mobility, and natural resources. During the period, CIMIC won several contracts to expand electricity infrastructure in Western Australia, as well as eight major projects in the LNG sector. In Germany, HOCHTIEF Engineering has been awarded a planning contract for four high-performance onshore 2 GW converter stations, which will be key to bring wind power-generated energy to the world area. Elsewhere, it is worth underlining HOCHTIEF's long-standing leading position in the commercial and general building sectors, including airports, sports stadiums, and offices.
In the second quarter, Turner was named the lead builder for Republic FC's new 12,000-seat stadium in downtown Sacramento. In addition, a Turner joint venture was selected for the first phase of a $3.7 billion convention center project as part of a multi-billion dollar investment in the future of downtown Dallas. Let me now briefly turn to capital allocation, a key pillar of the group's strategy. In January, HOCHTIEF closed the approximately EUR 400 million for the acquisition of Dornan, the rapidly growing advanced tech engineering business headquartered in Ireland. This acquisition is a major milestone, which will enable the group to accelerate Turner's European expansion strategy. Abertis, where HOCHTIEF holds a 20% stake, announced earlier this year that it would acquire a majority stake of the A63 highway in France, a strategic corridor between Spain and Northern Europe.
Investment in a concession with 26 years of remaining life enhances Abertis's portfolio duration and financial strength. We continue to develop and invest equity in greenfield infrastructure projects in strategic growth markets, where we see significant value creation opportunities. In Australia, for example, we are further leveraging the group's capability and leadership position in data centers after the acquisition last year of a site to develop a data center with 200 MW capacity. CIMIC also is investing in and developing renewable assets, transmission lines, grid enablement infrastructure, and battery energy storage systems. In Europe, we continue investing in core infrastructure via PPPs, as highlighted by the Dutch highway project win I mentioned earlier.
Overall, at the end of June 2025, we had committed equity investments of close to EUR 800 million, of which over EUR 400 million are in strategic growth markets including data centers, renewables, battery energy storage systems, electric vehicle charge networks, and critical metals. The group's focus on environmental, social, and governance priorities remains on track. On this front, it is notable that HOCHTIEF has been awarded prime status for its ESG performance and achievements by ISS, International ESG Consultant and Rating Agency. Let me wrap up. HOCHTIEF's H1/2025 results show an excellent performance with an 18% increase in operational net profit at the top end of our guidance and backed by strong cash conversion.
New orders have strongly increased, up 26% ex-adjusted to over EUR 26 billion, with a period-end order book of EUR 69 billion, up 15% year-on-year, and with over 85% of this backlog lower risk in nature. We are increasingly harnessing our geographical footprint and engineering know-how on a group-wide basis to continue leveraging our competitive strengths and delivering on HOCHTIEF's group strategy with a growth trajectory underpinned by a solid balance sheet. Looking forward, we continue to deliver on our strategy by focusing on the strategic growth markets we have identified. HOCHTIEF is increasing its presence in the value chains via equity investments, and we are expanding our opportunities to create value in markets where we have leading positions. We reaffirm our 2025 guidance to achieve an operational net profit of between EUR 680 million and EUR 730 million, an increase of up to 17% year-on-year.
Thanks to everyone for listening, and happy now to take questions.
Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their telephone. You will hear a tone to confirm that you have entered the queue. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Questioners on the phone are requested to disable the loudspeaker mode while asking a question. Anyone who has a question may press star and one at this time. One moment for the first question, please. The first question comes from Louis Pieto from Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, everyone. Louis Pieto here. I have three quick questions, if I may. The first one is if we should expect any acquisitions similar to Durnan in Europe in the near future.future. In this respect, if you have any comments on press reports on potential interest in defense investments, I would assume both HCS and HOCHTIEF levels if there is anything to it. The second question is if you can give us an idea of what sort of land investment there could be at HOCHTIEF level for data center development, if any. The third one is, taking advantage of Juan, you have been here, could you give us an idea, HCS's view on the remaining fleet float of HOCHTIEF at the moment? Thank you.
Thank you, Louis. Starting with Durnan. Certainly, Durnan has been a very, very good acquisition for us, for HOCHTIEF and for Durnan. Not only strategically because it's giving us a very strong performance in Europe and the potential for Durnan's expansion in Europe, but also because financially the sales in the first half of EUR 642 million of Durnan is, I mean, it's almost doubled last year. It's developing very, very well. I think that it's going to develop even better. Obviously, when you look then at the acquisitions we did previous years, especially all the bolt-on acquisitions on critical metals, you remember Noel Pro, Crescentia, Minsold, or Sedgman, that has given us, it's a change of game, right?
If you look at what I just went through in my presentation, you can see that through Sedgman, which is our engineering, critical metals, and natural resources processing plants, has gone from almost a few years ago doing coal to right now pretty much working on all kinds of critical metals, from cobalt to copper to gold to lithium to rare earth, uranium. I mean, it's very, very well diversified. More importantly, from working almost only in Australia to working all over the world, right? In Americas, in Europe, in Asia-Pacific, in Australia. That will continue growing. In summary, our investments are working very well for the group, right? Yes, we're looking at other possibilities. Yes, our goal continues being having energy, industrial, high-tech, digital, engineering, and construction capabilities in all geographies. We're continualizing what we can grow organically and what do we need inorganically to enforce the group.
At this stage, we haven't identified any objective, but certainly we see that there's value in continuing pursuing our strategy because it's being paid off. In terms of land investment at HOCHTIEF level, you see the edge strategy that we are following. We are running right now five edge low-latency data centers across Europe. We started in Germany, but we are moving forward Europe and potentially North America and Asia-Pacific. That's one strategy. Then you saw, for example, the project in Australia where there was an acquisition last year and we've been developing. At this stage, HOCHTIEF is not pursuing further big land plots opportunities in the data center space. The edge at the end of the day are small land plots. In terms of HCS view of the free float of HOCHTIEF, as I always said, we will be opportunistic. That's all what I can share about that. From an HCS perspective, I'm changing hat for a minute.
Excellent. Thank you very much, Juan.
The next question comes from Philippe Leiter from Kaiserbank PPI. Please go ahead.
Hi, hello everyone. I have two questions, if I may. The first one is actually a clarification on tax because tax rate in this quarter was so high, close to 30% when in first quarter it was just close to 20%. If you can explain the reason for this significant increase in tax rate. Second question on CIMIC. If we exclude Thiess, the sales remain flat both in first quarter and second quarter. If you can clarify the reasons for CIMIC ex-Thiess not growing this year and your expectations for the remaining of the year.year. Last one on Thiess put option, just if you can give us an update on the agreement and when should we expect the acquisition of the remaining stake, if it could happen this year or only next year. Thank you.
Okay, Philippe. On the tax, it's just quarter variation. Nothing in particular. In the case of CIMIC ex-Thiess, what we're seeing in Australia is that there is a big wave of energy projects, including transmission lines, substations, renewables, projects around gas, LNG. We're seeing a lot of that coming into the pipeline. On the other side, the last two years because of changes in elections, because discussions around debt, a lot of those projects have been delayed and a lot of the civil projects have been unwound, right? Without renewal. All of that is stopping, in our opinion, Australia growth momentarily, but we remain comfortable.
It's also true that that situation of growth in the market has been affecting us not just in terms of the backlog, but in terms of the unwinding of some of the old projects and not being able to replace them with the new ones. Also, because of our strategy to go for low-risk contracts, we haven't been going to a lot of EPCs or big design builds. That's why you see Australia in a situation where some of the cash flows are unwinding and some of the growth is not happening. I believe that it's going to be temporary. On the put option, at this stage, I can only speculate, but if I had to speculate, I would believe that the put option will be exercised by the end of 2026, which is the contract period, and probably to be effective at the beginning of 2027.
Okay, perfect. Thank you.
The next question comes from Graham Hunt from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Yeah, thank you very much for the questions. I'll ask three if that's okay. First one, just on Dornan and the European data center outlook. The acquisition, as you say, has been extremely good for HOCHTIEF. I think originally you were discussing around $20 billion pipeline of data centers that was visible to you. Has that outlook changed, improved? You know, how are you seeing that market today given the performance has been so good? Second question, a bit longer term on data centers. You spoke to 20% growth annually out to 2030 in sort of the overall market, but my understanding, which is a basic one, but this also comes with a bit of a shift towards more of the inferencing demand from the hyperscalers away from training.
I just wondered if you had any thoughts on, does that change the economics at all from these projects' perspective for Turner and the HOCHTIEF group? Third question, a straightforward one. You maintained your full year guidance, but the half year obviously was right at the top end of that. Maybe just talk through your thinking there in terms of how you're seeing second half and what you're holding back a little bit, perhaps being conservative. Thank you.
Okay, thank you, Juan. Starting with Dornan. Let me talk in general about data center market, right? The data center market continues to grow significantly.
It's not just that when you add up all the hyperscalers and all the clients and all the investments announced, you get up to pretty much the 62 GW capacity right now to 257-260, even 300 GWs, depending what you include in the announcement in the next 10 years. This is around $2 trillion US dollars investment. Now, a big part of that is in North America, but a big part of that is in Europe. In Europe, what we're seeing is, in general, first is that the pipeline continues being big, and second, we are not seeing a change in the metrics because hyperscalers move from one type of data center to a different type of data center. That would be in summary. When we get into the $20 billion that we announced in Europe, every time we're talking about $20 billion, it's not just data centers, right?
It's data centers, it's a lot of industrial manufacturing, biopharma projects that require mechanical leg expertise in advanced buildings as Turner is used to perform. We believe that that's growing significantly even above the $20 billion. We are very confident in Europe in general on Dornan, but we're also very confident about the German market for HOCHTIEF infrastructure. I mean, we're still working around the $500 billion announcement and or the $800 billion, if you take into consideration everything, we're still trying to figure out specific projects, but we're seeing that in, I mean, recently we have doubled our backlog in Germany and the prospects are very good. We see a lot of investments in Germany and we want to make sure that we are prepared to capture a lot of that growth. Then on the guidance.
You saw that yes, we're on the top end of our guidance and we're aware that the market consensus for the end of the year is that we remain on the top end of the guidance. The uncertainty we have right now is FX, right? FX ended in US dollar, euro ended in 1.17. And the question is, what's going to happen? Is it going to continue to the trade rate, which is our potential assumption? That's why we prefer to be cautious. We prefer to continue in the guidance. We are comfortable at this stage with where we are, but let's monitor the FX before we do anything. Understood. Thank you very much. And just to add, I mean, we're expecting this strong performance to continue in the business, by the way. Turner will continue. We'll see very good quarters and years ahead of us.
We see we're optimistic about Europe. We also believe that the Australian situation will improve as soon as all this energy and big jobs will start coming to life.
Then the next question comes from Nicolas Mora from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.ahead. Mr. Mora, your line is open.
Sorry, for the use of mute. Just coming back on the data center scene, you stated that the order intake at Turner had doubled over the period, so I suspect it's at the first half. But you put in the order intake in Q2 at what, around the shy of $5 billion, if I'm correct. Just would like the confirmation there. I mean, it looks like a huge step up from even what we saw in Q1. And number two, outside of data centers, what are you seeing in the U.S. non-residential market?
I mean, there's an ample debate in the street as to whether things are improving or worsening. What are you seeing in your core verticals just to help us understand a little bit what's ahead of you? Considering you have 9-12 months visibility. And just last one on CIMIC. When we look at the projects winding down and your order intakes, it still looks there is a bit of a cliff fall coming into 2026. Would you say today that there are any large projects that will continue to struggle into next year? Just trying to understand a bit where, how to calibrate the models in the next year. Thank you.
Thank you, Nicolas. Let me start with the data centers in general and the rest of North America. I mean, in data center, there's two things happening.
The first one is what I explained before, market is booming, but the second one is projects are more complex, more complex in terms of size, in terms of gigawatts, in terms of energy requirements, in terms of cooling systems, in terms of energy, in terms of logistics, in terms of they're in remote areas because they are bigger. The bigger, larger, and complex they get, the better for firms like Turner or for Light & ACEA or for UGL or for HOCHTIEF, basically, right? That continues being a good market for us where we can continue providing value. That is why when you look at the data center backlog in the first half of 2025, right now it represents 32% of Turner. Yes, it is a step up, but we believe that it will continue to grow, right? The prospects are very good.
When you look at overall North America and Turner, we are seeing improvements in a lot of different areas, not data centers. In biopharma, for example, in the order backlog, it has pretty much increased versus 2025 by 100%. Or in new orders, 295%. When you look at the industrial and manufacturing market, it is growing at 16%. I am just referring to the U.S.. In the education market, it is increasing 13%. In the case of sports, it is increasing 12%. In hotels and our commercial building, the new orders are growing 100%, right? We continue being bullish in the North American market. The other thing that I would say about the North American market is we are expecting to see the results of the beautiful bill that is being published, basically on the extent of tax.
There is a potential, as a consequence of the bill, a reduction of tax rates. That would have a very direct benefit in Turner and therefore HOCHTIEF. We continue being very, very bullish and we are very comfortable with the North American market. Although, as I said before, Germany, we are expecting an important growth in Germany. Now let's move into Australia. I mean, there are a lot of things, and I said part of that in, I mean, talking about CIMIC, right? Before I spoke about energy projects, civil projects, but I would add one thing. Thiess has been underperforming for the last two years. Thiess has been underperforming for the last two years, and this is not because of operational issues. This is basically natural resources, commodity pricing. This is about exports. It is a macro thing. We are seeing that recovery.
There was a very, I mean, a bad 2024. A bad Q1 2025. The prospects are good moving forward, with good prospects for 2026. That's on this, which is an important part of CIMIC. We see good evolution in Asia, very good evolution in Asia that will continue in 2026. UGL, as soon as right now it's steady, but it's steady not for a long time because as soon as the energy projects will go up. And then CPV, which is the one suffering the unwindings. I mean, we expect to hopefully finish the three projects right now being unwound in 2025. And we have 2026, and therefore should be, I wouldn't say that it's going to grow, but it's going to be steady, right? Versus 2025 on the P&L side and more stable on the gas.
That's what I would say about CIMIC, but it's not that there's any underlying problem. We have one job in 2026, which is stopped. I mean, that's the one that I would mention. We are talking to the client about different ways to sort out the underground conditions. That's the M6 in New South Wales, Australia. Right now that job is stopped. Besides that project, the rest is the unwinding typical at the end of the works.
The next question comes from Alvaro Lente from Alantra Equities. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks for taking my questions. Just a couple. The first one would be on how concerned are you on execution risk with all the growth you are seeing in Turner? I don't know if you have any capacity constraints or whether you see the ceiling to continue to take in new orders. Also, you mentioned that projects are now becoming more complex in terms of size and cooling and all the other stuff. I don't know if that represents an additional execution risk. My second question would be if you could run us very quickly on the FX exposure and not just on the P&L, but also on the balance sheet, how much are your debt balances with your business exposure? Thank you.
Okay, when I talk about complex projects, I always say in a positive way, right? For us, complex means larger, and for us, larger is an opportunity. The more commoditized the job, the more we face the risk of things going to tier twos and tier threes. The bigger and more complex, the better chances it comes to a firm like us. From that perspective, it's a positive. Now, execution risk. We're not concerned about execution risk.
One of our advantages, and this is what I mean, and this is not just in the U.S., but in general, is to be able to capture, I mean, and to mobilize people and to mobilize engineering resources. That is why the big jobs, when they are really, really big, and I will put the example in the Louisiana job, the mega job in Louisiana, which is huge, a huge percentage in equivalent terms as the Manhattan Island in the middle of Louisiana. Those jobs require large or a lot of work in terms of logistics and mobilization. That is where we can make a difference and where we can generate value. From that perspective, we are very, very comfortable. In other words, we are not concerned about execution risk. On the contrary, the other thing is that these jobs take a long time to develop.
Once we announce a project, typically it is because we have been one year and a half working on the engineering design, mobilization, people with the clients, right? They are very long in the making. There are a lot of jobs that we are right now on that engineering phase and design phase and mobilize and working on potential resources to mobilize before they come to us. That is why typically we do have a long-term visibility about what is coming next for us. When I say we are comfortable, it is not just because of macro issues. It is because we know what we are currently working with our clients that eventually we will end up in signing a contract, right? We are not concerned about the execution and we are comfortable with the pipeline.
When it comes to FX, obviously, again, we do not want to change guidance because we want to see how FX evolves. The business is going to continue overperforming. What I can say as a minimum is that we are comfortable that any FX continued iteration is going to be offset at large by the overperforming of the business. How much? It depends on how much the FX goes, right? That is where I want to be careful not to speculate or to give numbers. Certainly, the business is going very well and we believe that we can offset the FX. We will look at the FX before we can announce anything different. Thank you. Just a quick follow-up in terms of capacity.
Do you have any, see any, in terms of, I do not know if you have any bottlenecks in terms of talent acquisition, especially with the specificity of the large projects that you are executing? Are you facing any bottlenecks there or could you continue to increase your order intake from current levels? We are good. I mean, just to give you an example, in the US, we have 40 persons in 47 states with an average of 20 offices per state. We are very, very much mobilizing in the states. But in general, throughout the scope, and this is one of our biggest advantages, right? I mean. I open parentheses because this is not so much related to your question. One of the key, one of the biggest advantages and strengths we do have at the business is our global presence, right?
I mean, what I just said on the 47 states in the U.S. and 20 offices per state, our presence in Europe, our presence in Asia-Pacific. From India to Hong Kong, our presence in Australia and New Zealand, our assets in South America. That is what gives a lot of confidence to our clients because they are all global. Hyperscalers are global. Semiconductor companies are global. Battery companies are global. The big industrial partners are global. Defense is global, et cetera, et cetera. That is why we provide value. That is why we are so much focused on increasing the value added, our knowledge, our engineering capabilities, our systems, AI, to make sure that not just with our global presence, but also with our knowledge and systems and engineering capabilities, we can serve our clients.
The big advantage we have is exactly that, that we can deliver, and it comes back to your question about execution, that we can deliver and mobilize people in a lot of parts in the world. It is usually, and typically we have time to do it, right? Because the process during the design takes time and we can use that time to deliver. Answering your question, we are good with execution at these states.
Thank you.
As a reminder, anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one at this time. It seems there are no further questions. I would now like to turn the conference back over to the company for any closing remarks.
Thank you so much, everyone. Once again, thank you for your time, your questions. If you have any questions that have not been answered, please give us a call.call. We will always be happy to help. Thanks again.
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