France's Bouygues tops profit forecast on strong energy, construction biz
Adds details on orders in paragraphs 3-4, CFO comment in paragraph 8, telecom unit results in paragraphs 9-10
By Michal Aleksandrowicz
July 26 (Reuters) -French construction-to-telecoms group Bouygues BOUY.PA posted half-year core earnings above expectations on Friday, as strong performances in its energy arm Equans and its construction unit helped offset a sharp decline in the real estate business.
Bouygues acquired Equans from French power group Engie ENGIE.PA in late 2022 in a bid to grow in the energy transition and services.
It said Equans had booked orders from the navy, nuclear, transport and building sectors in France, and from data centre projects, solar farms and smart factories abroad.
That supported a broadly stable order backlog for Equans, while the construction unit's order book grew by 1%.
The real estate business meanwhile continued to be pummelled by the weakening property market in France, with a 25% year-on-year drop in its backlog.
Bouygues had said in April it planned to lay off more than a fifth of the struggling unit's staff in the country.
Results from the first phase, which prioritised voluntary redundancies and internal redeployment, were expected to become visible in late 2024, it said.
Finance chief Olivier Roussat told reporters in a call that Bouygues was adapting to the weak real estate market, and the question was whether the future French government would decide to "revive" it.
Bouygues also said rising competition was weighing on its telecoms unit, which booked 76,000 new mobile plan customers in the first half, compared with 109,000 a year earlier.
Average billing per user remained stable at 19.7 euros per month, as some customers migrated to cheaper plans, but the group warned it could fall by the end of 2024.
Bouygues' current operating profit from activities rose to 747 million euros ($811 million) in the first half, beating analysts' consensus of 721 million euros.
But its shares fell 1.7% by 0935 GMT after its half-year sales came slightly below expectations at 26.52 billion euros and net profit slumped more than 17%.
The group confirmed its annual financial targets announced in February.
($1 = 0.9210 euros)
Reporting by Michal Aleksandrowicz in Gdansk; editing by Milla Nissi
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