By Diana Mandia
(Reuters) -French construction-to-telecoms conglomerate Bouygues said on Thursday it aimed for higher sales this year and next for recently acquired Equans, after reporting a jump in annual operating profit driven by strong performance in all business segments.
The October acquisition of Equans, a former services unit of power group Engie, is a strategic shift for family-owned Bouygues that is already present in civil engineering, construction, media and telecoms sectors and wants to grow in energy transition and services.
The group targets a slight sales increase for Equans in 2023 and 2024, before accelerating organic sales growth to align with market peers from 2025.
It aims to increase the unit’s current operating margin from activities to 5% by 2027, from 2.3% last year.
Shares in Bouygues were up 3% at 0841 GMT.
The group said it expected 2023 total sales to be close to those of last year, citing an unstable environment marked by inflation, rising interest rates and currency volatility.
It reported sales of 44.32 billion euros ($47.01 billion) in 2022, up 18%, or 8% higher with the fourth-quarter contribution of Equans excluded.
The company, which reports first quarter, half-year, nine-month and full-year results, did not separately break out its fourth-quarter results.
It said its 2022 current operating profit rose 15.8% to 1.96 billion euros.
Excluding the contribution of Equans the operating profit was up 8.9%
With proforma sales of 17.7 billion euros last year and 90,000 employees, Equans became Bouygues’ biggest business segment by revenue following its merger with the group’s Energies & Services arm, ahead of road-building unit Colas.
Bouygues, which operates in more than 80 countries and has around 200,000 employees, later on Thursday hosts a Capital Markets Day dedicated to Equans.
($1 = 0.9427 euros)
(Reporting by Diana Mandiá in Gdansk; Editing by Milla Nissi and Tomasz Janowski)
