Bouygues’ historic purchase of its large multi-technical services entity Equans from Engie was finalized Tuesday, the two groups announced, allowing the conglomerate to expand strongly in the buoyant energy transition market.
The construction giant will have paid 6.5 billion euros for this acquisition, or 6.1 billion Equans shares, plus the assumption of the company’s debt to Engie (800 million euros), minus 400 million euros of positive cash flow, he explains.
Engie says that “this operation (allows it) to reduce its net debt by about 7.1 billion euros”.
The agreement was reached between the two groups in November 2021.
This acquisition, the largest by its amount ever made by the company Bouygues since its creation in 1952 by Francis Bouygues, allows it “to become a world leader in the buoyant market of multi-technical services whose activities are at the heart of environmental, industrial and digital transitions,” he said Tuesday in a statement.
The new entity, which will keep the name Equans and also integrate Bouygues’ Energy & Services division, will represent approximately €17 billion in sales.
It will bring together about half of the Bouygues Group’s 97,000 employees (including 75,000 from Equans) in more than 20 countries, in services including electrical, HVAC, mechanical, information and telecommunications systems, facilities management and
the “smart city”.
“The acquisition of Equans is a major step in the history of Bouygues. We are becoming a global leader in multi-technical services, and strengthening the group’s resilience,” commented Martin Bouygues, chairman of the board of directors, quoted in the release.
The Bouygues group’s total sales have thus risen from 38 billion euros to nearly 51 billion euros. Its workforce will reach approximately 200,000 employees in more than 80 countries.
Historically known for construction, Bouygues had already diversified into telecoms (with Bouygues Telecom) and media (with TF1). However, its fourth division, “Energy & Services”, remained relatively modest with revenues of 4 billion euros.
For French energy giant Engie, “the completion of this sale is a major step in the refocusing of Engie, and allows the group to invest in the growth of its core businesses to continue to accelerate the energy transition,” commented its CEO, Catherine
MacGregor, in a separate release.
Facing Bouygues, other candidates for the acquisition had presented themselves, including the construction company Eiffage and the American fund Bain Capital allied to the financier Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière via his holding company Fimalac, as well as Spie.
“Bouygues’ offer was the best in terms of all the criteria retained by Engie, including the financial aspect,” explained the energy company, 23.64% of which is owned by the French government, in November.
