Hello, and welcome to the SPIE Full Year Results 2021. My name is Courtney, and I'll be your coordinator for today's event. Please note that this call is being recorded, and for the duration, your lines will be on listen only. However, you will have the opportunity to ask questions, and this can be done by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. If you require assistance at any time, please press star zero, and you will be connected to an operator. I will now hand you over to your host, Gauthier Louette, Chairman and CEO, to begin today's conference. Thank you. Yeah. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for attending SPIE's Financial Year 2021 Conference Call. Before starting my presentation, I want to warmly thank Michel for his contribution over the past years in strengthening our financial structure and improving further the quality of our financial communication. Jérôme Vanhove will be our new CFO. He has been with us nearly 15 years in charge of strategy and M&A, and he knows the group and our business intimately. I'm also very pleased to welcome our new IR manager, Audrey Bourgeois, who brings a strength of experience to the group. As usual, I will now start with a few examples of what we have done for our customers in 2021. On slide three in Belgium, SPIE is taking part in the installation of the largest battery farm ever connected to the high-voltage grid. The site is a former coal power plant, and the project is to build a 100 MWh battery-based energy storage. We are in charge of cabling, transformers, switchgear infrastructure, video surveillance, and lighting. As we further build our renewable energy capacity, grids face new challenges in terms of regulating the power outcomes, and SPIE can address these challenges, thanks to cutting-edge solutions. Another example on slide four. This is one about energy efficiency for Bordeaux Métropole. It is a long-lasting customer, and we recently had to extend further our relationship with this customer. We signed a six-year contract covering the operation of energy facilities at 110 schools and daycare centers and at 36 cultural facilities. Our mission covers monitoring and maintaining heating, air conditioning, hot water production, and ventilation equipment. You will see this work is key in achieving energy efficiency. Our work contributes to save 12% of emitted gas per year for the period 2015-2021. On slide five, we're moving to Eemshaven in the north of the Netherlands. It is host of a strategic energy hub, a 380 kV compensation and filter station run by TenneT. Several power stations, wind and solar parks, and the Gemini offshore wind park are connected to this station. In addition, Norway's NorNed cable, as well as Denmark, are connected to this station. Studies show that without mitigating measures, too high harmonic distortion could occur, so we had to design and work on harmonic filters to safeguard the voltage quality and its distribution. It does take a lot of know-how to deal with this intricate high voltage issue. On slide six, in Germany, we completed the full-scale implementation of a new data center in the city of Frankfurt for a major operator with Interxion, and Interxion has been a long-lasting customer for us for the past 19 years through eight successful projects. We had to draw upon our expertise as a comprehensive service provider because this data center also included a 110 kV substation, which has been done by the teams of SPIE SAG. On slide seven, an example regarding e-mobility, and this is in Paris. We are deploying 340 electric vehicle charging points in Paris, and it has to be completed by 2023. The customer is TotalEnergies, and this network is now called Bélib'. We have to remove and recycle 343 stations. It is the old Autolib' network for people familiar with the Paris network. We will connect 180,044 new so-called bollards, so recharge points, which are connected and intelligent, and we have to assist with the commissioning. Really, a large project, one of the first awarded under the stimulus plan to lead Europe towards the energy transition. We're looking at many more to come. Finally, in France, SPIE ICS gained the label Institut du Numérique Responsable, which recognize digital responsibility, and we are one of the first digital services company to be granted this certification, again highlighting our very committed approach to digital commitments, technologies that are inclusive, ethical, and considerate of the environment. All these examples are a good illustration of how SPIE is part of the solution when it comes to energy transition and digital transformation. Now moving to our financial highlights for the year. 2021 is a strong delivery of the SPIE model. Indeed, we do show a strong rebound leading to revenue in line with 2019, and an EBITDA margin higher than the pre-COVID level. It is another year of outstanding cash generation. Our leverage ratio is at all-time low. We also had a very good year in terms of bolt-on M&A with eight acquisitions, and on top of that came Worksphere. We see our focus on sustainability remain unabated. Overall, in 2021, we demonstrated once again our strong fundamentals. Looking at the figures, again, we saw solid results and best-in-class cash generation, and once again, we did deliver on our guidance. 2021 organic revenue growth was at +3.2% compared to 2020. Total revenue grew 4.9%, and as expected, our revenue is back in line with 2019. Our EBITDA margin was 6.1%, up 100 basis points compared to 2020, and up 10 points compared to pre-COVID level of 2019. Net income up 38%, a sharp rebound to EUR 243 million. We intensified the M&A activity. It does enrich our skills, it further enhance our growth profile, and it accelerates value creation. EUR 277 million occurred through eight bolt-on acquisitions and more than EUR 400 million revenue with a strategic portfolio in the Netherlands. We generated EUR 268 million of free cash flow, and our leverage reached an all-time low of 1.8x at the end of 2021. We will propose a dividend of EUR 0.60 per share at our next AGM, and this is up 36% compared to 2020. Looking at slide two, all together in 2021, our revenue grew 5% at constant ForEx. We had a strong rebound in France with over 9.6% of growth. In Germany and Central Europe, we experienced steady growth with over 7.1%, and our oil and gas and nuclear branch was also up 3.2%. Western Europe was the only segment to be down, but you will see later that margin has strongly recovered thanks to our successful performance initiatives. All in all, organic growth for the group was over 3.2%, while acquisition contributed on top 1.8%. Organic growth for all segments except Northwestern Europe. Looking at quarterly organic growth, obviously in Q2 we had a strong rebound compared to the very depressed Q2 2020. As for Q3 and Q4, these two quarters were somewhat impacted by the last waves of COVID infection. In addition, Q4 specifically was impacted by two adverse headwinds, supply chain disturbance, especially in our ICS areas, and the lack of a large data center contract in the U.K., so altogether 2.7% organic decline. Q1 2022 will definitely see a return to organic growth as we start the year with a record backlog. The first two months of 2022 definitely point in that direction, and combined with the record backlog that I mentioned, they are supporting our 3% organic growth guidance for 2022. Looking at Q4 2021 margins, we achieved a very good performance, up 20 basis points compared to Q4 2019. Let me first remind you of our quarterly trend. In Q1 and Q2, EBITDA margin was in line with 2019 level. We started to accelerate in Q3 with a margin up 20 basis points compared to Q3 2019, and this was confirmed in Q4. The main driver came from Northwestern Europe. In Q4, EBITDA margin was up 160 basis points compared to Q4 2019, thanks to our performance initiatives in the Netherlands and the reorganization in the U.K. Q4 EBITDA margin was up 20 basis points in France. It was back in line in Germany and Central Europe, but already up 10 basis points in Germany alone. In oil and gas and nuclear, it was down compared to Q4 2019. This is due to oil and gas. But it remains at a very good level with a double-digit number overall, and we expect further progress in 2022. Based on acquisition, as you know, we operate on very fragmented markets, and we have many opportunities to enrich our competencies and our customer portfolio. This is key to our growth and value creation model. In 2021, it is a good illustration in this regard. We are very active during the year with eight acquisitions totaling EUR 277 million in full year revenue, well above our target of EUR 200 million. Germany and Central Europe alone accounted for EUR 202 million of revenue, with six acquisitions in key segments such as automation system, telecom networks, HVAC and tunnel systems. In France, we acquired EUR 75 million of revenue with two acquisitions, one of them being a significant acquisition in data center infrastructure. Overall, as you know, we remain very disciplined in terms of multiples. 6- point 8x EBITDA on average. This is stable compared to previous year. Most of these are done on a one-on-one basis on the back of our intimate market knowledge, excellent integration track record, which gives us a strong reputation on the market, and a clear pure player strategy. On top of this bolt-on, we acquired Worksphere, and the closing has taken place in January 2022. It's a significant acquisition, 1,900 employees. Revenue in 2021 of EUR 415 million. The company is a leading specialist in smart and sustainable building services, with a strong expertise in data-driven energy efficiency solution. With this acquisition, we are now the largest multi-technical services provider in the Netherlands, with revenue of EUR 1.2 billion. We are the partner of choice for over 2,500 customers throughout the country, with a unique employer brand, resulting in increased attractiveness for technical talent. With the integration, which is now well underway, we're anticipating at least EUR 9 million of cost synergy to be delivered over the next 18 months. As we expect this new Dutch perimeter will reach the group average EBITDA margin within two years. This acquisition was fully financed with the group's own financial resources, and it will result in a high single-digit EPS accretion as soon as 2022. You see, besides our strategic growth on deals, the acquisition of Worksphere illustrates the relevance of mid-size, highly synergistic and low-risk transaction to drive growth. Going forward, such deal will continue to be part of this acquisition strategy. Now moving to our activity by segment. In France, a sharp rebound in revenue and EBITA, 9.6%, including an 8.9% organic growth and 0.7% growth from bolt-on acquisition. Margin recovered from 4.6% in 2020 to 6.2% in 2021. Q4 2021 is 20 basis points above 2019 level. Technical facility management fared fairly well, even very well. It was driven by growing customer needs in energy efficiencies and digital solution. Commercial Services was resilient and started to address projects related to the stimulus plans for public customers. As an example, the Cité Administrative d'Albi, so local authority, will reduce the building energy consumption by 56% and carbon footprint by 79%, thanks to the new installation we are providing. Telecom Networks and Smart City Services continue to be overall dynamic. Industrial Services, they did remain below pre-COVID levels, primarily due to aeronautics and to a minor extent, our exposure to automotive sector. Information and Communication Services were impacted in Q4 by supply chain delays. As you have seen, Arnaud Tirmarche has been recently appointed Managing Director of SPIE France. He brings his intimate knowledge of the market and his strong business development skills. On slide 18, Germany and Central Europe, revenue increased by 6%, including a robust 2.3% organic growth, and this against a very resilient 2020. Growth from acquisition was 4.8%, and currency movement accounted for -0.3%. EBITDA margin was at 5.9%, recovering from 5.1% in 2020. It was 20 basis points below 2019 level, but as for producing, Q4 EBITDA margin was back to Q4 2019 level. In Germany alone, revenue grew strongly by 3% on an organic basis and 6.5% including acquisition. Transmission and Distribution Services continued to be fueled by energy transition investment, with a 9.5% growth in transmission, with excellent margin. Technical facility management delivered strong performance, benefiting from its positioning as an energy efficiency partner for its customers. Again, Information and Communication Services suffered somewhat from the exposure to the corporate event sectors and also from supply chain delays. Building technology and automation enjoyed a strong activity in data centers. As shown previously, EBITDA margin in Germany was already 10 basis points above its 2019 level in Q4. In Switzerland, we recorded a strong rebound in revenue despite supply chain pressure in Q4 for the information communication system. In other Central European countries, we had strong revenue growth thanks to acquisition, while revenue in Slovakia was down organically due to some contract postponements. Looking at Northwestern Europe, we have achieved a very strong margin improvement, up 70 basis points compared to 2020. This is significantly reducing the gap with France and Germany. Margin was up 140 basis points compared to 2019 over the full year, and even up 160 basis points in Q4. The region is really on a strong trajectory to catch up with the group's performance. In the Netherlands, the EBITDA margin increased significantly for the second year in a row, resulting from performance initiatives started in 2019. Revenue was slightly down in 2021 because of some shifting revenue in Telecom Services, but this has shifted into 2022. It is not lost. Industry Services had a slow start, especially petrochemical, but it did stabilize during the year. Infrastructure Services are buoyant, fueled by public investment in energy transition and the so-called wet infrastructure. In Belgium, the market environment was contrasted. Trends were good in energy and transport infrastructure, whereas the building sector remained subdued. Information and Communication Services were impacted by supply chain delay in Q4. EBITDA margin was in line with pre-COVID level. As I said, in the U.K., revenue was hit by the lack of a large data center contract. We usually get one every year, except this year. EBITDA margin and cash generations saw the steady improvement resulting from the subsidiary's recent organization. Finally, Oil and Gas and Nuclear. We recorded a 3.2% organic growth. Under improved market context, Oil and Gas Services returned to growth in the second half of 2021, and EBITDA margin remained at a very good level. In addition, a strong commercial performance translated into a high order backlog for 2022. As for Nuclear Services, it did recover despite the ongoing workload reduction at the Flamanville EPR contract, which is now nearing commissioning. We had a very good EBITDA margin, as always, and as you have seen, the recent decision of the French government bode well for the future of this industry. Altogether for the segment, EBITDA margin improved 10 basis points compared to 2020. I will finish this part of my presentation with a word on our shareholding structure. As you have seen, we are very pleased to welcome Bpifrance as a shareholder through its recently launched Lac1 fund. Bpifrance has a strategy of being a long-term, stable, and value-engaging shareholder. I would also like to highlight the importance of our employees and management shareholder base, representing now 8.2% of the group. Last December, we finalized our new employee sharing plan, Share For You 2021, which was met with very strong support. Around 11,000 employees from 13 different countries subscribed to the plan, and 3,500 employees subscribed to the plan for the first time. We are proud that more employees decide to become a shareholder and part of SPIE future, and we are obviously very grateful for the support and dedication to the group. I will hand over to Michel, who will comment on our financial performance. Thank you, Gauthier. Good morning, everyone. As Gauthier said, this is my last conference call as CFO of SPIE. I have really enjoyed these past two years, busy years. It was hard work with the teams, but a real pleasure. I have no doubt that the handover to Jérôme Vanhove, who knows the company in and out, will be an easy one. Of course, I will remain a great supporter of SPIE as a shareholder, modest shareholder. Let's move now to the key figures of the income statement. I'm on slide 23. We achieved a strong rebound in our key figures in 2021. The group revenue reached EUR 6 billion and EUR 971 million, which means a total growth of 4.9%, in line with our guidance to catch up with 2019 level. EBITA was EUR 437 million, up 25.7%, and the EBITA margin was at 6.1%, up 100 basis points compared to 2020 and up 10 basis points compared to 2019, in line with our guidance. Adjusted net income was up 38% to EUR 243 million, and net income was at EUR 169 million. On this slide, we see the revenue bridge and 4.9% revenue increase that takes into account 5% increase at constant ForEx, of which 3.2% is organic growth. The scope effect from acquisitions amount to 2% originating only from bolt-on acquisition, and we remind you as well on this chart, the impact of the sale of the U.K. mobile maintenance activity is completed in March 2020. On slide 25, show you the adjusted net income and the increase of 38%, which is directly linked to the strong increase in our EBITA. Our net interest charges were slightly reduced as due to our lower debt and, our adjusted tax rate was slightly down at 31.7%. Worth to note that our adjusted net income is above 2019 level, up 6.6%. On slide 26, our reported net income amounted to EUR 169 million. The restructuring costs are close to zero in 2021 compared to EUR 24 million in 2020. I remind you that last year, restructuring costs were related to reorganization made in the U.K., in Oil and Gas Services, in the Netherlands, and more generally in activity sectors particularly impacted by the sanitary crisis, like aeronautics, logistics, events in France and Germany. Other non-recurring costs were around EUR 20 million. This amount includes acquisition costs and other costs related to long-term incentive plans and employee shareholder plans. I remind you that it in 2020, the number that you see, EUR 57 million of cost, included the impact of the disposal of the U.K. mobile maintenance activity for more than EUR 40 million. Let's move to the cash flow. In 2021, Gauthier highlighted already, we achieved really a best-in-class free cash flow generation. As you know, it is a strong focus of the group at all levels. The free cash flow reached EUR 268 million in 2021 with a cash conversion rate close to 100%. I'm sure you realize this is a very strong performance given the full payback of the social charges and taxes that were deferred from 2020 and that we had to repay this year, EUR 141 million. This chart shows that, excluding this, our free cash flow would have reached more than EUR 400 million, a record level. You can see also on this chart that the cash conversion and the free cash flow since 2015 have been really strong. Since our IPO in 2015, the cash generation has been steady and solid. We have generated more than EUR 1.8 billion of free cash flow in the years, demonstrating the strong business fundamentals and the strict financial discipline. This came with, of course, a significant improvement in working capital. Over the past 12 months, we have continued to strive for strict working capital management, key pillar of our financial model. Our structure in negative working capital represented 43 negative days end of 2021, December, which means six days improvement compared to the underlying basis at end of 2020, which was 37 days when we exclude the impact of the social charge and taxes that were deferred. You can see on this chart the evolution and the progress made on the working capital, improving from -21 days at the end of 2015, the year of our IPO, to -43 days in 2021. An improvement of 22 days in seven years, 11 days over the past two years. This is a significant achievement, thanks to the day-to-day hard work of the teams and the efficient processes implemented in all layers of the organization. Our net debt decreased by EUR 52 million in 2021 and amounted to EUR 874 million at the end of the year excluding IFRS 16 here. As you can see on this slide, our operating cash flow amounted to EUR 411 million. We have paid EUR 118 million of taxes and interest, 67 specifically for the taxes. We had cash expenses on restructuring plans that were launched in 2020, so these are included in the EUR 25 billion, which includes also the due diligence cost for Equans. This leaves a free cash flow of EUR 268 million, as already mentioned. We paid EUR 159 million for acquisition, EUR 92 million for dividends, and the last positive number, EUR 35 million, is mostly related to the cash received in relation to the employees shareholder plan. The debt at EUR 874 million before IFRS 16 at the end of the year means a leverage of 1.8 You see the evolution of the leverage and on this chart, decreasing strongly in 2021 from 2.4 to 1.8, which is an all-time low at the end of 2021. You see that at the time of our IPO in 2015, the leverage was 2.6. It was 3.3 in 2017 after the acquisition of SAG, and of course it has decreased significantly since then to the all-time low now. Today we have a strong financial position, and we intend to stay at this level at the end of this year, even after having acquired Worksphere and additional bolt-ons. We ended 2021 with a sound financial structure. We have no debt maturity before June 2023. Our liquidity is very strong, EUR 1.8 billion, of which EUR 1.2 billion in net cash. Our credit rating remains unchanged, BB rating from Standard & Poor's and Fitch. As mentioned, excluding IFRS 16, our net debt was EUR 874 million and IFRS 16 impacts amount to EUR 390 million. You see it on the bottom right of this chart, and the impact of IFRS 16 represent 0.2 on the leverage. To be noted, thanks to the improvement of our leverage below 2x EBITDA, the cost of our term loan will decrease from Euribor + 1.4% to Euribor + 1.25%. You see it on the upper right side of the chart. The same will apply to the revolving facility from Euribor +1% to Euribor +85%. As Gauthier mentioned earlier, given our strong financial reserves and position, the group will recommend EUR 0.60 dividend per share at our next shareholders meeting. This represents a 40% payout ratio in line with our dividend policy. We already paid EUR 0.30 as an interim dividend in September 2021, and we will pay the remaining EUR 0.47 on May 24 th. In September, we will pay as usual an interim dividend amounting to 30% of the approved 2021 dividend. Since our IPO, our capital allocation policy has been driven to deliver enhanced value to our shareholders. As you can see, besides the two years hit by the pandemic, the value of our dividends has been steadily growing. This concludes my part, and I will now come back to Gauthier. All right. Thank you, Michel. Now, a word about something which is really at the heart of our business model, our corporate social responsibility. In 2021, we continued to make good progress in aligning our business to CSR regulation, and specifically 42% of the group 2021 revenue is now aligned with the European Union Taxonomy, so it is up 1% compared to last year. I can say with confidence that we are a front-runner in this matter. We have been calculating our score for three fiscal years now, starting at 35% in 2019, with nonstop progress since then. We have set the objective of reaching 50% of our revenue in 2025. Beyond the EU Taxonomy, we also calculate that 66% of what we do mitigates climate change, and we do this using the NEC methodology. We are identifying all of the activities that contribute to the shift to decarbonize and electricity production, better energy efficiency of building cities and industry, and the shift to a sustainable mobility. We have made the NEC familiar at our last Investor Day, so I'm sure that you will remember the methodology from there. We have also announced our CSR objective. Scope 1 and 2, reducing the carbon footprint by 25% until 2025, and 67% for Scope 3 and also working on health and safety and diversity with an increase of 25% of women in key management positions versus 2020. These targets have been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative, so they've been validated by this institution, which is an important step which we managed to achieve towards the end of the year. Where are we today? We are starting. Our direct carbon footprint down 2% compared to 2019. At constant perimeter, it would have been 5% as the impact of the acquisition. You see that our building-related emissions decreased by 7%. We see an important way forward is electrification of our fleet. We are working hard on it, and this will be the main driver. Valuing our people is key to our business. I will not cover all the figures in this slide. I mentioned already the employee shareholding plan. I'm pleased about the fact that we managed in 2021 to reduce the voluntary turnover. It has gone from 8% in 2019 down to 6.8% this year. This is very important, and talent attraction and talent retention is key in our business. I was really pleased about this evolution in the context of skills scarcity. All our thoughts are reflected in the rating by the various ESG rating agency. I just want to mention that with a rating at 15.7 with Sustainalytics, we are among the top 5 companies rated by Sustainalytics. Now turning to the outlook, just a short reminder of who we are today. We are the independent European leader in multi-technical services and ranking all together number 3 in Europe. We have built a strong position in a number of important countries, and we have now three countries generating more than EUR 1 billion revenue. Thanks to the acquisition of Worksphere, we are number 1 in the Netherlands, and the Netherlands is a very sound country for our business. I'm really pleased that we managed to establish a very strong position there. Just a short reminder on our business model, and we choose to look at our performance since 2015, which was the year of the IPO. You see that since December 2015, the business model of SPIE, as we have described it to you several times, has been delivering. We had EUR 1.7 billion free cash flow. We paid EUR 0.5 billion dividends. We managed to reduce significantly our debt, and we spent more than EUR 1 billion in acquisitions, EUR 0.5 billion in bolt-ons and then SAG. Really, this model works, it delivers, it is very resilient, and it is able to deliver growth as well. Now to the outlook 2022. In organic growth, we are looking at least 3%, which will be an increase compared to the pre-COVID levels of 2%. We are looking at the continued EBITDA margin progression. We plan to step up bolt-on M&A, looking at a total full-year revenue in the order of EUR 2,060 million acquired from bolt-on M&A, and obviously this is excluding Worksphere. As Michel mentioned, we're looking at a broadly stable leverage ratio, including Worksphere and bolt-on acquisition. Obviously, this outlook doesn't take into account any major impact related to the Ukrainian crisis. I should even say the Ukrainian war. At SPIE, we have no employees, no business in Ukraine or Russia. We are closely monitoring any potential consequences on our customer. The proposed dividend payout ratio will remain at 30% of adjusted net income attributed to the group. I really want to mention that we are deeply touched by the tragic situation in Ukraine, and we do express our support for the affected people. At SPIE, we have 60 Ukrainian employees that are working in Germany and in Poland. Now, some of them have returned to their country to fight, and I must say this is extremely distressing. We are obviously trying to help their families. Finally, we are pleased to announce our next Investor Day, which will be dedicated to SPIE's medium-term perspective, which will take place on the 29th of April in Paris, at the time where we will communicate our Q1 results. Please save the date. Thank you for your attention. This concludes our presentation, and Michel and I are now ready to take your questions. Thank you. As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question on today's call, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Please ensure your line is unmuted locally, and you will be advised when to ask your question. Our first question comes in from the line of Simona Sarli, calling from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Yes. Good morning, gentlemen, and thanks for taking my questions. I have three, if I may. Starting from the first one, if you could please provide a little bit more color on your organic revenue growth guidance of above 3%. What are the building blocks from that? How much are you assuming, for example, from the tailwind from green investments? And also in your press release, you mentioned that you had some revenues from ICT that shifted from Q4. Can you please try to quantify the revenue impact from supply chain disruptions in Q4, and when we should expect them to come back in 2022? I will go one by one with the questions. That's the first one. Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Simona. Regarding the impact of supply chain, as you know, our first supplier for the group is Cisco. We have quite an amount of work in the information and communication system in several country, and with being Netherlands, France, Belgium to a certain extent, and Switzerland. The delay in this sort of equipment accounts for roughly half of our organic decrease in Q4 compared to last year. Then the other significant impact is from this lack of a data center. Last element is both in France and the Netherlands, some impact due to phasing of FTTH contracts. These again are not just and you see there some doing with the various operators. There's some shifts from one quarter to the other. This we will retrieve in Q4 in Q1 this year. The supply chain delays altogether, the main impact has been ICS. We have some minor impacts elsewhere, but really the most significant one is in ICS. We see the situation not normalizing, but stabilizing. It means that what we have not been able to supply last year, we'll be supplying this year, so we do not see any further degradation linked to this supply chain. It is in a way the delay is now contained and we're pushing it through. It will help in Q1 this year. Thank you. There was also the other part of the question related to the organic growth guidance of 3%. How much are you implying in this growth guidance related to green investments? Well, you know, it is, I mentioned during the call that for instance, in transmission business in Germany, we are experiencing a growth of 10%. Transmission business is completely linked with renewable energy and energy transition in Germany as an example. Similarly, I mentioned the good level of activity in commercial maintenance. It's true in Germany, in France, in the Netherlands as well. We have an organic growth in this area, which is above average. Again, it is linked with energy efficiency concerns of our customers. A lot of spend in this regard. The last bit we mentioned is, again, we see a good sign for in this regard. Well, on top of that, all this is supported by a lot of digitalization. We do see in Q1 this year a good rebound in our ICS business, especially in France. Thank you. Regarding the other questions, a quick one on your leverage guidance. Just to clarify, flat year-over-year at 1.8x, does that include your guidance for bolt-ons that will be contributing EUR 250 million? I guess that is like a spend of EUR 95 million-EUR 100 million. Thirdly, if you could give a little bit more context on the reasons for the management changes that you announced this morning. Thank you. For the leverage, this is, I think you have understood that it's after the bolt-on acquisition. As you know, with the strict financial discipline that we have, bolt-on acquisition are not really, or, or the dilutive sorry, in terms of leverage or the impact is very limited. Our objective is to offset the impact of the acquisition of Worksphere, which is not a bolt-on, it's a bigger acquisition. We're talking about EUR 200 million acquisition price to offset it with the cash flow generated. This is how we intend to stay at 1.8x in terms of leverage. Yeah. As for management changes, well, we, as I said, Michel has done a good job. Well, he thought it was time to move on and we have a very good successor with Jérôme, who, as I said, has been working nearly 15 years directly with me, and he's has intimate knowledge of our business. The other changes that pertain to regarding France, I wanted to give a new boost to the activity. As you know, management is not a marathon, it is a relay course. After a period of strong organization of our French business, which has been done very successfully, now I want somebody with a strong focus on business development to go forward. Thank you. The next question comes in from the line of Ebrahim Homani, calling from CIC. Please go ahead. Hello. Thank you for taking my question. Two questions if I may. The first one about the acceleration of the EBITDA margin in Q4. The second one about the level of free cash conversion ratio to expect in 2022. Thank you. Regarding margin, well, we basically had to adjust with the impact of COVID. We have lost a number of very profitable customers, for instance, the trade fairs in Germany. We see where to refocus, find new customer, adapt the structure. It has been done in every country. Now we are reaping the fruit of all this, you know, minute measures which have been taken everywhere at every level. We also do see in some area some leverage on price, and due to economies of scale and high demand of our customers. We are able to leverage the prices. There is all these combinations which have allowed us to beat the 2019 margin everywhere in Q4. It bodes well for the margin expansion that we are targeting for 2022 and beyond. Concerning the cash and the cash conversion for 2022, our guidance is really focusing on the leverage. I can give you some information to better assess the performance we are expecting in 2022. The first goal would be to try to keep the working capital performance as it is because I think at -43 days, this is a stunning performance. Our first priority would be to try to, of course, improve, if it's possible. First I would be a bit modest, and I would say keep it at this level would be already a great performance. The cash conversion, we always try to aim at 100%. So this year, despite the reimbursement of the social charges and taxes, we were close. I'm not saying this is something we will guide for next year, but keep in mind that it's always the goal to try to be at 100%. Now, I have to warn you on one element of the free cash flow for next year. It's the tax payments. Why? Because this year we paid EUR 67 million of taxes. Okay, these were based, you know, when you pay in France and in Germany, you pay this year, like, let's say in 2021, we paid our taxes based on our... You pay tax advances based on your 2020 results. Okay? 2020 results were low because they were impacted by the COVID. Okay? In 2022 we have to pay the difference between the advances paid and the actual calculation. Okay? There will be a true-up and will be a cash impact. In 2022 we also pay our cash advances on tax based on 2021 results, which is higher than the 2020. Just to tell you that the taxes in cash will almost double next year, okay? If you compute the math, you will realize that it means that we could have a free cash flow in the same range than this year, despite this increase of taxes, and digest the acquisition of Worksphere and the acquisition, and reach the same level of leverage than this year. Thank you very much. The next question comes in from the line of Rory McKenzie, calling from UBS. Please go ahead. Good morning, three from me, please. Firstly, following up on the cash flow, I wanted to ask about the EUR 108 million increase in accrued invoices. What drove that? Was that related to the tax things you've just discussed? And is that sustainable? Secondly, I was a bit surprised by the EUR 9.2 million exceptional cost for Equans due diligence. Is it fair to say that suggests that your M&A capabilities aren't generally prepared for larger deals? Would you be reluctant to enter a similar process in the future? Lastly, I wanted to ask about the potential risks for SPIE, given that financial markets are currently worrying about inflation reaching levels we haven't seen in Europe since the 1970s. I appreciate that even you, Gauthier, weren't at SPIE back then. Obviously you've got a good track record at passing on inflation. But do you think SPIE will find it harder to protect margins if clients suffer from 8%-10% cost inflation, rather than just low single digits? Thank you. We first answer on the working capital. Yes, there is an increase of accrued income. In terms of days, the dimension you are highlighting are correct, of course, but in number of days, it represents about six days of revenue. You have to look at this in relation with the advances received. Because in Germany, as you know, we don't invoice like in France, the contracts. You invoice most of the time at completion of the contract, so you get advances as a counterpart. Due to the high activity. That we have in Germany and that we enjoy in Germany in the second half, it's normal that you have an increase of accrued income, and as a counterpart, you have the advance received. Overall the one is offsetting the other, okay? There is no real cash impact. For Equans, this was already disclosed at end of September results. It's EUR 9 million due diligence cost because this was an exceptional project, of course. You realize the size of the project and the effort that has been put in place with advisors, bankers, auditors and so on. These are external costs that are one-off of course, because these type of projects are quite extraordinary. Yeah. You see, there was some significant strategic interest for Equans, and also we want to buy the cat in the bag. There was a huge effort in due diligence to try and understand the business, which led us to the conclusion that we didn't want to pursue the opportunity. I think this was a worthwhile spend in regards with the discipline that we need to show this sort of year. Rory, coming to your question regarding inflation. Well, first, as you know, salaries account for roughly slightly less than 40%, exactly 39% of our cost base. You see, we have managed to remain very disciplined in terms of salary increases this year. More in the range of 2.5%, 3% across the board, which we see as an important element. As you mentioned, we have always been able to pass inflation in the past. We have indexation clauses in our contracts. We have a fast rolling of our contracts, so we do include the new prices in our tenders, and we also manage with customers to really firm up the final bid just before the order and then we place the main orders and protect ourselves against further inflation. A lot of discipline is exercised in this regard. We had the question several times with us across the different years, as you have seen, it has never an impact on our margin expansion. For me, the question is more towards indirect effect of a high inflation on the whole economy. That is why we mention that we have perceived some uncertainty deriving from the Ukrainian war. This is not the issue of passing the inflation to customer. It is more the impact on customer behavior. Again, the high inflation, as we mentioned, a good part of it is linked to energy, and you will see that our energy costs are not very significant. To give you an order of magnitude, the whole cost of fuel within SPIE for our vehicles, trucks, et c., is in the range of EUR 50 million, and in the past it was always very easy to pass this cost to the customer. Okay. That's helpful. Thank you very much. The next question comes in from the line of Oscar Val, calling from J.P. Morgan. Please go ahead. Yes, good morning, Gauthier and Michel, and good luck in the future, Michel. Thank you. I have three questions. I guess the first one going back on inflation. You talked about wage inflation you saw in 2021. Could you give us a sense of the wage inflation you think you will see in 2022? That's the first question. Then the second question is around employee scarcity. In the past, it's been an issue of finding electricians. Is that still an issue in some regions? Then the third question, again, is going back on M&A. First of all, just to understand, was the Worksphere acquisition competitive, and who were you bidding against? Then the second question there would be, when you look at your pipeline, are they mostly bolt-ons, or should we think about some medium-sized deals as well potentially coming in? Thank you. Well, regarding inflation. We have negotiated with our workforce. For now, we have established the salaries for this year. Clearly, during the course of the year, we'll also start negotiating for next year, et c. We expect that with the current environment, there will be some higher demands than before. We'll have to deal with that. But again, this year we have budgeted some salary increase, clearly. When we budget for 2023, we also budget with salary increase accordingly. Again, you know, we have indexation clauses, et c. In many instances, the pass through to the customers is extremely fast. In other cases, as we mentioned during COVID time, where the COVID costs linked to protective equipment, et c., and we have also ad hoc negotiation with the customer. Again, I don't think you have seen a lot of impact on that in the past on our margins. Scarcity of employees, it remains true all over the area. Well, especially technicians, as you say, engineer, HVAC engineer, automation, information and communication system. Well, these are hard to get, that's why it's very important to keep them. That's also why we are very adamant about employee shareholding, because it is a very good way to create a midterm link with our employees. Then we do focus a lot about training. That's also why we try to increase the number of women in our organization, because it is another reservoir to tap from. We have launched a number of initiatives for attracting people and training them from other skills to be able to join SPIE. Also we focus a lot on the apprentices. We are dealing with this with all our means. It is a very important focus. The fact is customers are also aware of skill scarcity, and it makes them cautious when it comes to renewing the contract because they know what they lose, they don't know what they get. In many instances, they don't take the risk, and they stick with us. Regarding Worksphere, yes, it was a competitive process, clearly, which we had to deal with. At the time, we were also dealing with accounts. I can tell you it has been a busy time. We did win because we clearly got the preference of the management, and we were able to convince the management by the fact that we're creating the number one in the Netherlands, and we were a pure player. Instead of belonging to a construction company structure, they were very happy to join a pure player and to be core business within SPIE. Having said that, we remain disciplined on price, and the whole deal has been done at a very reasonable multiple, you know, looking at the size of business and the strategic interest of the business. As I said, integration is progressing very well. I met again a few days ago the management team, and they're very positive about the arrival within SPIE and the way integration is being prepared and now deployed between the two teams. Going forward, yes, there are a few deals of a significant size. Difficult to talk about timing, but we know of a few assets of a significant size, of a similar size, which could be very interesting for SPIE going forward. Thanks, Gauthier. Very clear on M&A. Maybe just a quick follow-up on the inflation. It wasn't 2023, it was 2022. Should we think about 2022 inflation, or cost inflation on the wage side as being locked in already with the employees? Well, it is. Yeah, you could look at it as being locked in. Well, it doesn't prevent, you know, the one local negotiation here and there or specific issues we might encounter. Basically, the broad pieces are locked in. The next question comes in from the line of Charles Scotti. Please go ahead. Hello. Good morning, everyone. I've got three questions. If I may. The first one on your profitability target for 2022. You said you are expecting a further improvement, but can you help us quantify this expected improvement or at least give us more color on the moving part, for example, the impact of the Worksphere acquisition, which might be dilutive up front. My second question regards the nuclear and oil and gas business. Can you tell us if you expect any massive tailwinds from the new emphasis on the nuclear power plants in France and also the recent spike in oil prices for those two activities? Finally, coming back on the data center contract in the U.K., are there any other sizable contracts in the U.K. that might be at risk? Thank you very much. Good. Thank you. Thank you. Regarding margin 2022, yes, we mentioned at the time of the Worksphere acquisition that there was a slight dilutive impact of Worksphere. Clearly, it will not prevent us from further growing our margin in 2022. Well, as I've mentioned that midterm target is to be, I mean, midterm meaning not too far away, and reaching 6.5%. Clearly, we think that 2022 will be a stepping stone in this direction. Regarding nuclear, I think people have not started to realize how massive the new nuclear program will be in France. We are talking six new EPRs, and we're taking a number of smaller reactors. I mean, smaller, you know, an EPR is a range of 1,000 MW, and the smaller ones, which have been mentioned, are in the range of 170 MW. It's not a backyard unit. It's something significant as well. Overall, this new program, which has been announced by the French government, it's roughly half of the historical nuclear program of the 1970s. Meaning long-term, mid-term and long-term perspective for the nuclear industry in France are huge. The EDF is also very aware of the difficulties caused by some loss of industrial skills in France, which affected the EPR program. It will clearly have an impact, direct impact on our nuclear business, but also a direct impact on our industrial business as a whole. I'm not saying it will happen overnight, but it gives very strong mid-term and long-term perspective for the nuclear business. Now turning short term, something which will happen even earlier is the fact that, in the frame of this program, the lifespan of the existing nuclear plants will be further extended. You are familiar with the Grand Carénage. It now appears that there will be more work, part of the Grand Carénage or Grand Carénage 2.0, to further extend the lifespan of the nuclear plants. Really, going forward, it is an excellent perspective for the nuclear industry and then for SPIE. Maybe it is worth mentioning, since we've been addressing taxonomy this way, that European institutions have now decided that nuclear will be part of the green taxonomy. It would have an impact for our business of maybe on our green share of maybe 2%, so maybe a bit more, but it also helps a lot in terms of financing this program. Very positive news regarding nuclear in France and some positive noises also heard from other countries right now. Regarding Oil and Gas, well, we had already enjoyed a better level of the oil prices. So more in the range of $70-$75 a barrel. In the last year, the oil companies have drastically reduced their breakeven cash points regarding oil production, which is now probably below $40 or closer to $35 dollars barrel, where they start to be cash positive. Obviously the existing situation will in the first instance encourage them to spend adequate money to ensure that production is not decreasing. It will help our OpEx activities clearly, and we start to see that. Altogether it is a positive for our markets in oil and gas going forward. Regarding U.K., in fact every year we have one large data center contract with a recurring customer. This year, we had a disappointment. A lot of people changed at the customer, and so they were bought by another company, so senior change, management change, and they decided to try somebody else than us to do their data center. Maybe it will come back, I don't know. This is one instance of a major contract, which was altogether the impact on 2021 was in the. Around 2020 of such a contract was in the range of EUR 40 million. Clearly, well, this was a very specific type of contract. We have nothing of the kind left, so no worries in this regard. Altogether, I can say that our U.K. business has stabilized, and we had a positive year in 2021. Also, slightly positive cash flow. As the beginning of the year has been good, we are beating forecasts in U.K., which it doesn't happen often, so not too bad a start. Thank you. The final question comes in from the line of Nicholas Tabor, calling from Stifel. Please go ahead. Good morning, gentlemen. Thank you very much for taking my questions. The first one would be to try and have like a comparison of trading update between what you saw in the beginning of the year, maybe. Maybe you start seeing the catch up in ICS on the ground. What are the latest news you received from your teams over the past week? I mean, we see we received news from other companies that supply chain disruptions are increasing more and more with Ukraine, with following the semis and so on, and then discovering that a lot of truck drivers in Eastern Europe were actually Ukrainians, with snowball effect. Do you see some pressure at your client's facilities? That means that they will need less, increased installation and so on, and therefore will slow down your activity. Do you see this kind of risk at the moment, or you don't get any feedback from your clients for now? A second question would be on Worksphere. There was a slight revenue decline in 2021 versus 2020. Why is that? What kind of growth do you expect in 2022 for Worksphere? Finally, in terms of the Green Deal's first impact, what are you seeing in terms of rate of new tenders? When do you see the first material impact on your revenue growth? Thank you very much. Regarding, you know, the impact of the Ukrainian war on the supply chain, we haven't except for the major increase in some prices that we're seeing right now. It's early to say. I couldn't mention one example of something which has gone badly wrong in terms of supply because of this crisis. I'm not saying it's not going to happen, but the impact as of today, I have not had any specific feedback. We're also dealing with a number of customers, talking to all of them and wanting to find out if there will be some impact on the investment programs. Again, so far I've not received any bad news from the battle. Regarding Worksphere, yes, there's a decline compared to the figures reported in 2020. As you know, the dynamic of Worksphere, those 80% are small projects or 85% are small projects and maintenance contracts. The maintenance contracts are somewhat large, sometimes large because they have a really outstanding customer base. I think the customer base of Worksphere in the Netherlands for maintenance is really on a par with the quality of what we have in France and in Germany, with large authorities, large private customers, long-term contracts, et c. This was the main attraction for the deal, obviously. There is an element of larger projects which is under separately with a dedicated unit with an excellent track record, and I've reviewed recently all the track record and the project going forward. I was really impressed. One large project which was planned to be produced in 2021 has been postponed for permitting issues, so it is only starting now. It is bad news for the 2021 revenue, which doesn't belong to us. It is good news for the 2022 revenue, which belongs to us. Then the Green Deal, well, I think I already gave some elements in this regard. With the effects of the stimulus plan, I mentioned one example for public infrastructure in France. You might be... I mentioned the contract with TotalEnergies, with CityNetworks, which is also fostered by the Green Deal in France. I might mention a major tender we are dealing with now in Germany. It's called Deutschlandnetz, German network. This is a certain location of fast charging points for electric vehicles in Germany with. This tender has been kicked off by the stimulus plan, and it is something that we are working on right now. We have several examples of the kind. Yes, the stimulus plan is happening. Going forward and then looking more midterm, clearly all the impact of the war in Ukraine, I think will be major in terms of energy behavior in Europe. Actually, it can only lead to a decrease of fossil fuel dependency and especially from Russia. The only way to address this is to accelerate renewable probably reenergize nuclear in certain countries, and obviously work on energy efficiency and e-mobility to use different source of fossil fuel. I think midterm and I hope, again, this war is extremely sad. Midterm for our kind of business, it will have positive impact. Thank you. That was the final question in the queue. I shall hand the call back across to yourselves for any concluding remarks. Well, thank you very much for your attention this morning and your interest and for taking the time. We'll be working very hard to tackle new challenges. Now we had two years of COVID, and now we have to tackle different sort of challenges. I think we have always proved how resilient we can be. We have also always shown that we're able to grow even in difficult times, and we'll be working very hard to further demonstrate this ability in 2022. Thanks a lot for your attention. Thank you for joining today's call. 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