This is the morning show on Radio Classique with David Aber. It's time for Les Voix de l'Économie, as it's 7:14. Our guest is the CEO of Bouygues. Hello, Olivier Roussat, hello and welcome to Radio Classique. You've just presented your annual results. Bouygues posted a profit of 1.58 billion euros last year. We'll come back to that in a moment. First, a few words on the current context. As a business leader, are you worried about the geopolitical, trade, and potentially military tensions?
On the geopolitical front, the important issue we're experiencing right now is the end of free trade, with customs barriers rising everywhere. It turns out that this is not a very troublesome issue for us, since our production is essentially local. On the other hand, it clearly complicates life a bit. We now have to plan in contracts that these things can change from Monday to Tuesday, which is something we didn't know until now. That said, when we look at the order books we've built, we have fairly strong visibility because, despite everything, there are huge infrastructure projects in the world and we are quite well positioned to win them.
But could you increase your investments in the United States, as CMA CGM or Stellantis have done?
Clearly, that's something we're considering for two of our activities: roads on one hand, and energy and services on the other, because these are activities that are performing very well in the United States with all the relocations and the reinvestment the Trump administration is making in roads for Americans' daily lives.
Let's talk about your different businesses. Germany has announced a gigantic investment plan to modernize its infrastructure. What does that represent for you in terms of opportunities in the construction sector?
Germany is a country where we are quite underdeveloped so far. We are present in railways, a little in the energy field, but not really in construction. So it is a sector we want to develop in the future. We had decided to strengthen in North America, in Northern Europe, and in Germany. It turns out that in Germany we are really underdeveloped, so this could be an opportunity to push our pawns in Germany.
The construction sector for you is still very dynamic. Your order book for construction activities exceeded 32 billion euros last year, a record level, up 13% year-on-year.
Yes, and that is something to note: it is rising both in France and internationally. The image we have of construction in France is that it's not doing well, but our 2024 revenue is higher than 2023 revenue in France, and order books are growing by 9% for building activity and 8% for road activity in France. So these sectors are still very dynamic, and it's quite counterintuitive when you listen to the general atmosphere.
And how do you explain publishing dynamic figures in construction when, as you said, things aren't going very well in France?
Because in fact the areas we work in are, on one hand, fairly complex structures—hospitals, renovations of public buildings—and on the other hand, we have a whole range of works done by local authorities to increase soft mobility. So all these sectors are ones we are in, and there is obviously a lot of international activity. You employ nearly 10,000 people on the Hinkley Point site in Great Britain, and you've also signed a major contract in Australia.
Indeed, a contract we will execute in Adelaide. At peak, we will have 5,500 people in Adelaide during the project. Let's also talk about your telecom activity. Bouygues Telecom attracted 600,000 new fixed-line customers last year and 2.8 million additional mobile customers through the acquisition of La Poste Telecom.
Effectively, and in fixed line, this is an activity that is growing strongly because we have opened a new customer segment: users of simple internet, no landline, no television, which is a fast-growing sector in France that we have just opened up.
