PARIS (dpa-AFX) - Shares of Bouygues SA were gaining around 6 percent after the French telecommunications, media, and construction company reported Tuesday higher profit and sales in its fiscal 2023, driven mainly by contribution from Equans. Further, the company announced higher dividend, and said it targets slightly higher sales and current operating profit from activities for fiscal 2024.
Olivier Roussat, CEO of the Bouygues group, said, 'All Bouygues business segments reported very robust results for 2023 with the exception of Bouygues Immobilier, whose performance was affected by the extremely challenging market conditions in France. . Each business segment has measurable, quantified targets relating to our key challenges. On the climate front, our decarbonisation targets are now documented and endorsed, while Equans is currently going through the endorsement process.'
Going ahead, the company expects Equans will continue to improve its results in line with its strategic Perform plan.
In 2024, Equans' sales figure will be close to that of 2023. From 2025 onwards, Equans is aiming for an acceleration in organic sales growth to align with that of market peers. In 2025, a current operating profit from activities or COPA margin will be close to 4 percent, and in 2027, it will be of 5 percent.
Further, the company said its Board of Directors will ask the Annual General Meeting on April 25 to approve a 2023 dividend of 1.90 euros per share, up 10 eurocents from the previous financial year. The payment date is set at May 3.
In its fiscal 2023, Bouygues' net profit attributable to the Group increased to 1.04 billion euros from last year's 973 million euros.
Operating profit was 2.11 billion euros, higher than 1.87 billion euros a year ago. Group COPA was 2.41 billion euros, up 19 percent year-on-year, and up 11 percent from the full-year 2022 proforma figure including acquired Equans.
The margin from activities was 4.3 percent, representing an improvement of 0.3 points from 2022 proforma.
Group EBITDA after Leases grew to 4.55 billion euros from prior year's 3.94 billion euros.
Group sales climbed 26 percent to 56.02 billion euros from prior year's 44.32 billion euros, driven mainly by Equans' contribution. Sales grew 3 percent from full-year 2022 proforma figure including Equans.
Like-for-like and at constant exchange rates, sales increased 4 percent.
The construction businesses reported sales of 27.34 billion euros in 2023, up 2 percent year-on-year, driven by Bouygues Construction and Colas.
Equans posted sales of 18.76 billion euros, an increase of 6 percent compared with a proforma figure of 17.7 billion euros for 2022.
TF1 group reported sales of 2.30 billion euros in 2023, representing an 8 percent decrease year-on-year. Bouygues Telecom Sales were 7.73 billion, up 3 percent.
On a regional basis, sales from France climbed 15 percent year-over -year to 27.75 billion euros, and the growth was 40 percent in international sales to 28.27 billion euros.
In Paris, Bouygues shares were trading at 35.87 euros, up 5.6 percent.
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