(Reuters) – Bouygues reported on Tuesday an unexpected return to positive current operating profit from activities in the first quarter but is experiencing a difficult environment in real estate in the face of inflation and rising interest rates.
On the Paris Stock Exchange, the action of the conglomerate fell 2.1% to 31.09 euros at 08:18 GMT, showing the largest decline in the CAC 40, down 0.04% at the same time.
The construction, telecommunications and media group posted current operating profit from activities of nine million euros in the first quarter, against a loss of 66 million euros a year earlier.
Analysts polled by the company expected a loss of two million euros.
The group took advantage of the acquisition of Equans last year and the price hikes undertaken to counter high inflation.
This acquisition, made in October from the Engie group, marked a strategic change for the family business Bouygues, which wishes to develop in the energy transition and services.
The price increases helped push quarterly sales up 46% year-on-year to 12 billion euros, above the consensus forecast provided by the group at 11.74 billion.
However, Bouygues Immobilier’s order book is down 20% year-on-year, penalized by the wait-and-see attitude of customers in the face of inflation and the rise in interest rates.
“Bouygues Immobilier has chosen in particular to postpone the launch and the offering of certain projects, impacting the stock available for sale and reservations a little more”, indicates the group.
In the telecoms subsidiary, the operator Bouygues Telecom recruited 27,000 subscribers in mobile and 46,000 in fixed over the quarter, figures deemed “a little weak” by analysts at JPMorgan.
Bouygues, present in more than 80 countries and with around 200,000 employees, confirmed its outlook for 2023 for the group as a whole, with turnover close to that of 2022 and an increase in the current operating profit of its activities.
(Report Diana Mandiá and Michal Aleksandrowicz in Gdansk; Gaëlle Sheehan and Blandine Hénault, edited by Tangi Salaün and Nicolas Delame)
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