Engie / Equans: Bouygues signs a promise to purchase, aims for a margin of more than 5% – Boursorama

PARIS (Reuters) – Bouygues announced on Saturday that it had signed a promise to purchase with Engie to acquire the Equans subsidiary of the French energy company for which it expects an operating margin of over 5% and synergies that could represent up to ‘to 200 million euros per year.

In a press release, Bouygues indicates that the multi-technical services company it wishes to buy on the basis of an enterprise value of 6.7 billion euros will aim to achieve, in the medium term, a margin operating current above 5%.

To achieve this objective, the construction giant plans to deploy an operational efficiency plan within the new group.

“The potential for synergies linked to the transaction is estimated, at full speed, between 120 and 200 million euros per year, depending on the scenarios,” writes Bouygues, adding that these synergies are largely linked to purchases.

The transaction with Engie, including the debt, amounts to a total of 7.1 billion euros, making it the largest acquisition in Bouygues history.

This operation, which is expected to be finalized in the second half of 2022, will be financed according to Bouygues by the resources currently available to the group and by “a fully secured bank loan from partner banks”.

According to Bouygues, it will make it possible to create “a major global player in multi-technical services, anchored in France, which will benefit from strong geographical and technical complementarities, as well as from a strengthened capacity for innovation”.

The group controlled by the Bouygues family won against two competing offers (Eiffage and the American fund Bain Capital) by disbursing a sum exceeding the estimates which were circulating recently, that is to say between six and seven billion euros.

THE GOVERNMENT AND CAREFUL TRADE UNIONS

The acquisition project constitutes a strategic shift for Bouygues, which is already present in the construction industry, construction, media and telecoms and which could thus grow in the energy transition and services.

For its part, after having already sold its block of shares in Suez to Veolia as well as part of its shares in GRTgaz, Engie intends to take advantage of this new sale to refocus on renewable energies and network activities.

“This is a major step in the construction of the new Engie. We are giving ourselves the means for our growth thanks to the 9 to 10 billion euros of disposals planned between 2021 and 2023”, declares the boss of Engie, Catherine MacGregor, in an interview with the Journal du Dimanche.

“This allows us to focus on our key businesses, to achieve industrial excellence in low-carbon infrastructure and renewable energies. This sector is extremely competitive, and Engie has the ambition to become the undisputed leader. It is therefore necessary to be competitive to achieve this, ”she stresses.

Created this summer, Equans brings together a wide range of installation and maintenance services outside Engie’s power generation activities.

The company is present among others in electricity, heating, ventilation and air conditioning, refrigeration, mechanics and robotics, digital technology and general services (facility management).

In a press release, the CFDT said it took note of the decision of Engie’s board of directors to sell Equans to the Bouygues group at the end of its extraordinary meeting on Friday.

The union organization adds to register “now in the negotiation process with the buyer in order to facilitate the integration of all employees in this future entity”.

The CFDT warns, however, that it is against a cut-sale sale of Equans and job cuts for at least five years.

While the French state is the largest shareholder of Engie with nearly 24% of the capital, the sale of Equans, which employs 27,000 people in France, is closely followed by the government a few months before the presidential election.

The gas and electricity supplier had set among its selection criteria the soundness of the industrial project, the quality of the social project, the proposed valuation and the risk of execution.

To convince Engie and its unions, Bouygues has made a particular commitment not to proceed with any forced departure in France and Europe for five years and to create 10,000 net jobs over the same time horizon.

(Report Gwénaëlle Barzic, with the contribution of Sophie Louet, written by Claude Chendjou)