Alten (Euronext:ATE) Q1 2026 Earnings Call

0:01 Hello, everybody. Hello. I would like to thank you for being with us for our conference, and we will talk about the figures by end of March twenty twenty six. A first quarter, which has revealed an activity in half notes, not really good. The figures you will see have improved for some of them and others are still decreasing. By the end of March twenty twenty six, we had EUR 1,700,000,000 turnover, which is a decline of 0.8% compared with the same period last year. In France, we progressed by 1.3 and out of France, a minus 1.3%.

0:48 We had bad conditions in terms of exchange rates, And we have managed to come back to an increasing organic turnover by 1.6%, which is stable out of France. For this quarter, we have no calendar effect and the activity is almost identical to the one last year, and it had it is at the stable perimeter. At the same constant perimeter, we have improved the turnover, thanks to acquisition. Alten was having 54,000 people working for this company.

1:37 We are

1:41 we have altogether we have 154,000 altogether, of which 51,851 engineers. The acquisition have contributed thanks to the increase of the engineers part. At constant perimeter, we have a better progression out of France. According to the different geographical zones, this is what the activity looks like and it has developed the following way. In France, the activity is stable, plus 0.3% year to year. The automobile sector is not decreasing, but by minus 1.9%.

2:35 Aerospace, security, defense are increasing slightly. However, for living sciences, tertiary, telecoms, this activity has decreased. In the Iberic Zone, 85% for Spain, the rest of Portugal, the growth is still very positive. We have an increase of 6% apart from the automobile sector, thanks to SEAT and a slight decrease in the bank sector. In Italy, the activity has slowed down. We have 0.2% decline apart from the bank and finances, which is declining more, but all the other sectors are increasing, including the automotive activity.

3:26 Germany, we have performance, which with the turnover is decreasing, in particular, because of the automotive sector, we had already the same phenomenon in 2024 and 2025. It seems that as we had indicated during the last communication that the activity is getting stable in Germany year to year minus 2%. In the sequences, we will have a look and take a close look at that during the next quarter, but it seems that the activity is going back to stable. The automobile is decreasing by 30% year to year, but at the same time, the whole activity is slowing down in this sector. The aerospace representing 22% of the German turnover is at plus 2% year to year. Same for safety and security, it represents now 7% of the turnover and is increasing by 1%.

4:28 Still in Germany, the activity is from a qualitative point of view has strongly increased. That's quality. We have started the sectorial development, but this policy really reveals to be fruitful. We have we are hopeful and we hope that the activity is going to stabilize completely and will turn back to growth by the end of the year. U. K, the activity is stable for this quarter. The automotive sector is representing 10% and aerospace civil is still declining both activities, but defense is increasing by more than 1% that represents 10% of the turnover, the same for energy.

5:15 As regards to public sector, that represents 40% of the British turnover, the decline has stabilized now. Benelux, the activity is still declining, but is improving by and by. In Belgium, the activity is stable, but it declines in The Netherlands because of the half semiconductors for KSNL. In Eastern Europe,

5:48 a decrease in activity of 5.6%. Poland represents the three quarter of the zone declines by 3%. Romania is losing 3%, like because of the tertiary sector. Nordics, it remains the only geographical zone where the decline is still very important. In Nordics, the activity has known a drawback by 6% even if we know that overall, it tends to reach the minus 5%. And still the same reasons, automobile, life science and office activity.

6:33 In Finland, it's a little bit better, close to zero for tool machines. North America, the activity has decreased by 5%, but we think that it's going to increase in the coming quarters. The United States represents of America represents a decline by 10%, but that's because of automobile industry and life science. It is stable progressively and stabilizing in Canada at plus 7%, thanks to aerospace and bank and finance. Then Asia Pacific, is back to growth this quarter. The activity is stable in China, one third of the zone, increasing more than 10% in India, another third and 6% growth in Japan.

7:26 And Korea decreases strongly because of the automobile industry.

7:35 Considering as we usually do, if we consider the activity by sector, the automobile industry represents 13% of Alten. However, it declines and it goes on by 2.6%, a little bit less in sequence in sequential analysis. OEMs are declining too. And hopefully, by the second quarter, we will reach the balance, maybe at the third quarter. Rail, as we had indicated during the last conference, rail needs to tackle modernization. Growth is back during the first quarter, which is represents 10% of this activity in a sector that should progress further on in 2026 over the whole year. We hope that the problems of Alstom, as you could read in the press, is not going to bring them about to decrease their investments.

8:39 Aerospace has confirmed the growth of last quarter last year. Even aerospace

8:48 has really reacted very well. Defense, security and naval goes on to progress very strongly. We have almost 10% increase year to year. Energy, 10% of the overall turnover has progressed, thanks to nuclear energy. Life sciences are declining and go on declining, only 7% of the turnover. Industrial equipment and pharma is also declining by 7%. That's no, sorry, that's still life science. Industrial Equipment and Electronics this time as well as Semiconductors is declining by 8%.

9:35 In the overall industries, we have minus 6%.

9:41 The activity tends to stabilize by and by, and we hope it will turn stable at the second or even third quarter. Telecoms, that's the only field of activities which is really at minus 18, a very strong decrease. It is a decline that has to be split up between operators and telecom. Then we have parent finances, insurance. Last quarter was positive of 25%, but now it slightly decreases at the during the this first quarter because of France, Italy, Spain and Southern Europe in general.

10:27 But there is one activity that has increased in other geographical fields where bank finance insurance is important. It is Portugal, Poland as well as North America or Canada.

10:41 And then it has to be pointed out, public service and retail. This was decreasing over the last quarters, but during the first quarter twenty six, it has rebalanced and we have a slight decrease only. We hope it's turning back to stability and we hope we will grow again during this year of 2026. So you see that globally, apart from the telecom sectors, all the activities are coming back to growth or are stable. This looks much better for all our activities than one year ago. And for and as well as for this first quarter, that tends to confirm the stabilization of our activities.

11:38 As M and A is concerned, we have signed but not completely closed. It will happen in the coming days, a company

11:55 for which have communicated about its clinic. We signed two point five months ago. They have EUR 60,000,000 turnover. A company that has four seventy consultants, many external people working for this company. They are working on data, IT, cloud, software development. It's a company that reinforces our critical size in IT in France, in particular, of Paris, Southeast Of France, but not only.

12:43 Our forecast for the year to come, macroeconomic, geopolitical context is of a high uncertainty. And so it is extremely difficult to have a forecast. However, in this given environment, we are working in environment which is not taking into account deterioration that could happen because of the war in Iran, we

13:10 forecast an organic growth between zero and minus 0.5 for the whole first half year. And according to this hypothesis, the operational margin should increase compared with the one that we achieved in 2025. We have no precise guidance for this time. Of course, we talk about operational margin of the activity. We do not expect an explosion. The increase of margin is going to happen by and by and will be strongly

13:51 marked by what we are hoping for and the different sectors back to growth. But we thought that the margin at 8.6% during the year 2025, well, this margin is going to be higher in 2026.

14:09 And now I am going to hand over to you, participants to this conference. If you want to raise questions, you're very welcome, and I will answer your questions. Thank you very much. So we open now for the question and answer. Nicolas David has a first question.

14:31 He has raised his hand, and you have the floor, Nicolas David. Here I am.

14:49 Hello and hello, Bruno. I would like to come back on the guidance. I understood that it does not take into account a degradation even at the bottom. But I'm surprised because when we hear the comments, we hear a lot of increase or stability, automobile, but also within Germany, if there is an increase, if there is an improvement, then do we have countries who are going to deteriorate? It is just to add or countries or activities.

15:36 Is it possible to find out if it has a link with Iran? This is my first question. Well, data is being published on a year to year basis. Now you have to understand that there is a business dynamism. We have a first quarter, which is quite acceptable from an activity point of view. But this can be explained by two different things. First of all,

16:16 we had first and second quarters of twenty five, which were not good with the coming back to growth by the end of the last quarter. And then at the beginning of the first half year, '26, it degraded again a little bit because you know that's how it is. It's the beginning of the year. We have projects that do stop on the December 31, and then it goes up again. And during those activities and expansion periods, we, again, come to a crossroads with the loss that we had at the beginning of the quarter, which is going to be mixed with the growth that has been generated.

17:08 Now this year,

17:14 I mean, this has come true again. For the first half '26, we have lost a certain number of projects, and now we are still trying to catch up, but we have not reached yet the end of twenty five. It it's going to happen. It was not done before. I think it is going to be achieved in '26 except if we have a real degradation of the of our activity. But the level of activity for the first quarter and even half year is going to be no, first quarter is going to be higher compared with the first one of twenty five, but we're not back to the situation end of twenty five. So to be clear, even if there is a certain dynamism, which is okay and others which are less okay, I mean, we have countries that still decline and even sectors of activities that decline.

18:14 We also have the contrary that goes into the good direction where we are going to be to reach a certain stability even if we do not go beyond, but we will reach This the zero is why the uncertainty is about how is it how will we regain projects and what about the amount of projects we're going to lose. But this has nothing to do, if I may say, with the economic context that we are in. It has to do with the this kind of cycle of our activities usually. It has always been laid down. So will see what happens by the end of the first quarter, and this will be the first trend, if I may say so. But we have to wait.

19:15 I don't know if this answers your question. But to be even more precise, and what about the minus 0.5%? Well, first of all, you understand that the gap I mean, we have not put minus 2%, plus 2%. We have a gap which corresponds to our convictions today to what we are hoping in and what we observe on the market. There is a growth dynamism, which is very sensitive, in particular as regards aerospace, defense, and this should not be destroyed because this even if things are better in the automobile industry, I mean, it has dropped so much that at a certain point, you reach the bottom. But there are other sectors that decline and decrease.

20:04 So what we can say today is that the war in Iran has so far no consequence on the dynamic of our customers.

20:19 It is a zero effect. There is no effect. There is no consequence. But we do not know because even our own customers are not able to deliver any kind of indication. We don't know if the consequence is going to be deferred in time, maybe summer, after summer or never. And according to what already happened, we will we we have to wait to see the possible consequences. However, we can't say what is going to happen there. Maybe there is going to be a major oil shock. However, again, we do not know anything about the consequences. So we have no worst case. It is a worst case at, let's say, roughly around 0.5%. And we are absolutely unable with this war in Iran to say anything better than that.

21:13 That's quite clear. Thank you. Plus, it's far away, a lot of uncertainty. So for the SPE, there is this open fight that it's logical. For the

21:34 For the second second quarter, '25 the second half year, five even. We had a sequential worsening of the situation.

21:53 No, it is the second quarter twenty twenty five. I can't even understand how the year to year T2 quarter of this year at 26% could be better. Because minus 20%

22:11 would mean a scenario of strong degradation. I I can't observe that. The minus one for the second quarter is careful, prudent. There will be a sequential degradation because the second quarter is always lower than the first quarter. And then the question is, is this the result because we have less days working days or is it because we have an additional decrease because of the internal functioning of our company.

23:03 We also had a slight stop of projects by the end of the first quarter this year, a little bit more important than last year, but we are catching up with it. So

23:17 it hindered a little bit the whole mechanisms. We took that into consideration, and we will see by the end of the quarter what we do. Organic growth, the second quarter will be identical or slightly inferior to the same quarter but last year. And in the worst case, we would have a minus one, minus 1.2. It's extremely difficult to proceed to a forecast at this detailed level at the beginning of this quarter.

24:02 And the drop in headcounts, does that reflect the degradation? Yes, yes, exactly. However, the activity levels are still okay. I mean, we have we do not anticipate on the loss of contract for the second quarter, okay? And a last one before I hand over to others. How do we explain the decrease in electronics and semiconductors? How do you explain that? Is it specific to Alten? Is it specific to the market?

24:53 Could really go back to growth? ST Microelectronics have are going back to growth. This is an excellent question. We have exactly the same kind of question, by the way. And, yes, we would like to understand. And for reasons for reasons that we all know it is an expanding sector. So either the sector is less externally organized and the investments are about production and less on subjects that we are working on, like SML.

25:43 SML, we know very well.

25:47 What we know, we can't speak for all the sector, but for SML, we know despite a backlog with a very positive year and investments the investments will start again. But for the time being, the subcontractors do not profit from it. So nor do we nor do the competitors. So is it possible to extend out the whole sector? I don't know and I'm not sure. In the sectors of semiconductors, we have ASML, Samsung, micro STMicroelectronics, etcetera. So what is surprising is that on all of those accounts, we have a degradation of the turnover.

26:41 So either it is a dynamic that has to be broken down sector by sector or we are bad and we do not have the right same strategy to develop those accounts.

27:01 They and they are still very important for Alten. So we will have to investigate a little bit to better understand. I I I understand the question. I do not have the answer.

27:20 I think it's probably better to remain quite cautious at this juncture anyway. We don't really have the comfort of the settlement visibility in order to be particularly confident at this stage. Okay. Thank you very much. You're welcome, Nicolas. Thank you. Now let's move to another question. Over to you. Hello. Good evening, Bruno.

27:54 I have three questions. The first is related to the aeronautics section, which is slightly better after the last few quarters. But you see what's happening with regards air traffic. Well, do you have any concerns about an eventual slowdown at the end of the year? You know, what have you heard from Airbus, etcetera? That'd be interesting to know. And my second point, when we're talking about margins, increasing margins, I just wanted to make sure that we were still on this dynamic salary versus price with the increasing strength of AI.

28:39 And thirdly, I want to talk about the acquisition that was announced. If you could share with us the profitability levels expected and see if the price paid is within, you know, standards, I suppose. Well, yes. The last question, yes, we're within the traditional standards. It's not going to be any burnout in this company.

29:02 We have paid sums which are similar to other acquisitions in the past. In terms of profitability of the company, it's 7%, 7.5% of operational margin. Bearing in mind that this is a company for which the brute margin, the gross margin is pretty good. And that means what? It means that there will be a potential potential improvement to 10 fairly quickly. And when I say quickly, I'm talking about 2027. For margins overall, well, the dynamic is interesting, but let's bear in mind that we have less and less activity in classic time and material.

30:00 And the challenge therefore is to really maintain the margins for our projectors to ensure the internal production is up to par in order to and even improve it so that the clients and calls have calls for tender, and they're going to consider the technical offer, but they're also going to look at the budgets that are allocated. But overall, we are managing to stay afloat and to hold our our gross margins in a fairly satisfactory fashion. It's always a mixture, isn't it? There are areas where it's less less good than others. But at group level, the gross margin is holding up. With regards to aeronautics section, well, this is why I haven't really made any specific commentary on Iran because we really don't know what's going to happen.

30:56 We haven't got much feedback from the field. However, in head, I believe, I I have some ideas. And I look at 2024, for example, where we had no warning or very slight warning before any crisis, and then suddenly we're face to face with a work stoppage, project stoppages one after the other, and that was in October 2024. Our clients,

31:28 the traditional ones, people working in the field, don't have much information currently, which would allow us to anticipate any slowdown before the end of the year. Now you know how it works. When the cash flow isn't there, the clients might very well decide to walk and to invest elsewhere from one day to the next. And it's not easy to predict this kind of information. Direct clients are not necessarily informed of what's happening. Now today, we can see that the last two and a half years, we are changing. We're moving in an environment which is much less sure in terms of prediction because our own clients are often as unsure of what's happening as we are, particularly in terms of their budget.

32:27 So similarly, as in 2024, we were caught off guard, and we weren't the only ones. Let me tell you. In 2025, when we published our first quarter, first semester, we're trying to anticipate a recovery of their aeronautical industry in 2026, but actually, we've gone much quicker than we expected. Even if the client the clients have been faced with certain problems because budgets fell after summer. So, overall, it's generally satisfactory, but today, we just don't have any slowdown included in our predictions for Airbus for the end of the year. But we're not exactly forecasting an enormous expansion either. We have to remain focused measures, but we haven't forecast a slowdown in our decline in activity.

33:24 If we thought that the war in Iran was going to change everything, we would be obliged then, of course, to change the way we interpret all of the information we receive. But today, I think it would be gratuitous to do that because we just don't have the information. And the acquisitions are going to be consolidated at the beginning of q two? No. No. No. So it will be at the beginning of q three if they are within the scope. And by that, I mean, they're able to provide what's necessary to get into those figures. Failing that, it will be the October 1. Have you got many deals which have made great deal of headway? Yes. Yes. We have deals on the table.

34:14 It's not major deals, but we do have deals there. We have deals in Asia, in North America, in Europe. Quite a few, which are taking a long time to be developed perhaps because of legal implications from the salespeople or because of the negotiations and some who are waiting because the results in 2025 weren't quite what were announced. And they'd like to prefer they would like to wait and see how the first quarter fare how they fare in the first quarter rather than getting involved in any kind of embedded vision.

35:02 We have two fairly advanced deals, which are practically finished, and we've got more than five deals under way. That's for the new deals. But if you look at the files that we have, we have deals that are signed. We've got more than 10 of them, which are in the wings. So it's much like February last year. Yes. Exactly that. Okay. Well, thank you very much. You're welcome, Now let's move on. The next question. Over to you, Derek. Hello. Good evening, Bruno. I hope you can hear me.

35:52 Laura, my first question is how we can reconcile the performance the first quarter with this embedded growth that you outlined at the end of January. The second question is why in H2? Why is that equivalent to H1? If you're going to continue to increase our staff hiring, the basis is going to develop at least in the third quarter. And the third question is related to the auto contracts in Germany. Can you give us a clue some information on the major framework that you've won or lost or which are underway?

36:39 And how you view as I suppose what's your hypothesis surrounding these deals that are one or hopefully going to be one when you look at the organic growth of 2025. And with regards to semis, in the hypotheses which you have announced when you look at commercial performance, etcetera, they haven't relaunched investment. Is there an offshore option? Because this is usually a part of deal for the deals for semiconductor clients. Are there any particular deals that you are aware of that are traditionally onshore, which are now being sent offshore?

37:27 Right. Well, if I take your question one by one, embedded growth. It's annual. Okay? So how have we managed to reconcile it with the figures from USH1S? Well, you're talking about cure? We're not talking about the same standards. What we were saying what I was saying anyway is that the principle of embedded growth is if the year that's starting, so let's say 2026 is a year which is particularly flat given the situation of 2005 '25, then we're going to be less than two two.

38:26 That's what we estimated anyway. And and then you are taking the ratio you're you're you're looking from December to January. What are you talking about? Are you looking at the cut in this 02/02? No. I I I'm not concluding the cut. You were looking at annual performance. We're not just looking at the first quarter. How do we compare q one to the q one last year? We're not looking at not using the same standards when it comes to comparing the two things. So it well, it should be worse then because we were up we were above minus two two, weren't we? Yeah.

39:12 This is an average, a yearly average based on last year's average. But last year, we fell, remember, the beginning to then climb back up. We recovered. So at the end, we were higher. So what you have to do now is compare what? You have to compare the situation or average activity for the first quarter two thousand and twenty five with with exactly the same period in 2026. You look at the current situation which will consider the cut, which will include the cut. So it's kinda like internal control. You just have to compare what's comparable. But it first one right It doesn't work in a direct fashion, so to speak. It's not simple because we're comparing two standards or two modes of reference that are not the same.

40:12 Then you say h two equivalent to h pardon? Can you restipulate your question? Why do we say it was equivalent? Is that was that your question? Why is there no improvement compared to h two and h one when your basis for comparison was that it was going to improve the further along you get in the year. And if you continue to look at positive staffing in q two, well, or Q3, you're going to bring along growth, which wasn't included before that. So that gives you two good reasons to consider organic growth in ASH two, which you didn't have in ASH one, I believe. Well, in the event the hypothesis that we had, ASH, h two in 2025, if you consider the period from September, the last the last quarter, then you have a basis comparison, which is very high.

41:15 Because that's where we had the strongest amount of growth and we haven't we still haven't recovered. We're still not there at the level of to the end of 2025. So we're going to compare the two h twos. We can have organic growth in h two twenty twenty six. We're to have to have recovered not only the growth that we saw in h two twenty twenty five, and we're not there yet, we're still underneath it. So our hypothesis is it's going to come back, but we're not there yet. But we believe we're going to get go beyond it even. So the hypothesis adopted is that we're going to be at zero if if everything goes well.

42:06 And that's why we communicate on zero and minus 0.5. This means that we have to continue growth throughout 2026. And if you look at the situation today, it's not contradictory with the hypothesis that we held before. We haven't reached there yet, but we're looking at q one in 2026. And we're going to catch up with what I managed to get the few 100 engineers that are missing, I suppose, lacking, and but we are going to recover that level throughout the course of the year. So when you look at the figures, it's not very easy to understand because you're looking at q one, q two three to q three, q four in 2025.

42:53 You look at negative staffing over the four quarters. Is that right? Yes. So if you were stepping down a staircase, for example, in 2025, you have to try and stabilize in 2026. How does it work? No. Hold on. Stopping is one thing. People left the company last year because some projects some projects were slowing down, But we've maintained a certain level of activity with a turnover in the the last four quarters, which was well above what that which was anticipated.

43:42 Today, is purely mechanic. Today, we're still missing a few 100 projects or engineers. When I say projects, it's the number of engineers that work on these projects, obviously. A project might involve five people, 10 people, etcetera. So a a measure a unit of measure is an engineer working on a project. So today, we it's still below the average in the last quarter of two thousand and twenty five. Okay. I didn't see it like that. I didn't look at it like that, actually. When we look at the total headcount, that's the figure we have. So we we don't necessarily see the number of staff allocated to each individual project.

44:34 And, of course, there are also, you know, subcontractors and external factors. We have the Phoenix effect. Over time, we've lost quite a lot of turnover in in Europe, and this has been substituted by turnover generated elsewhere. Now when it comes to Germany, in reality, when you look at the contracts, these are contracts which are framework contracts. And within those framework contracts in using the guidelines, the OEM in Germany Oh, I'm sorry. Once we've signed them, and we could be asked to, you know, carry out jobs for to the tune of a €100,000,000.

45:26 It doesn't mean that this that you're going to see turnover. Immediately, we're looking at perspectives in Germany. And I think the fact that we've signed a set number of contracts with, for example, BMW, Volkswagen, etcetera, today in the turnover, this allows us to answer calls for tenders, to be a reference candidate. And we try to win those contracts with the people in place. For or or the people working for us, for example, in in the most part in India. But it doesn't surprise me to take it doesn't give me any certainty that that turnover is going to be made largely by the OIMs. So a couple of months ago, you didn't know what you'd made, what you hadn't made.

46:15 There was certain affairs pending. Is that right? Yes. Well The some that we did not win others which we won. When I say we won, once again, I'd like to mention the fact that I'd like to be very clear. These are framework agreements. There's no client commitments on stacks of three hundred to five hundred million euro. The data has you know, the data has to come once the the turnover is there. So they can play with the money. We've adopted certain hypotheses regarding stabilization in the stability in the automotive industry in Germany today.

47:09 It's Time and material activity in BMW, for example, where the gross margins was very, very low. Well, there, for example, we're still referenced, but we're not really competitive anymore. You have to understand that in Germany, if we maintain the automotive activity, we have to adopt a dynamic of of changing the mix, you know, getting out of projects where the margins are very, very low, very weak. BMW, for example, has tightened its prices. We had to wonder, should we say or should we go? But we also could have decided quite simply to abandon this because there is turnover but very little margin.

48:05 And this could actually have a negative impact on the margin for these client counts. We remained. And I think the client understands the economics of it, but I think he would might have reproached us for leaving and for maybe not responding to calls for tender on work packages or projects, which are slightly more exciting. So in Germany, we had to adopt a double hypothesis, maintain the auto activity as it is today, which is not bad actually, because it's still slowing down. And the other hypothesis, of course, has been this idea of modifying the mix, changing the mix, a gradual exit from activities which have a very weak margin at the time and material, for example, and try and boost activities related to work packages, whether it's going to be a stronger margin with these clients, but there are extra costs which we have to assume.

49:12 Oh, okay. One or two perhaps that you've lost, but can you quantify the number that you've won, that we've won just so we can have an idea of Commercially speaking, we've done the job, and the doors are now open to us. Or are there still things where there's a great deal of uncertainty when not everything has been concluded and some doors are still shut? Well, the calls for tender, for example, come in slowly. Well, what about frameworks? Did you win the framework agreements that you won? We can okay. We can use one or two, but they're not that many of them out there. It's not when you talk about loss, it's not neutral.

50:05 There's there's not one cofitend of OIM. I'm not talking about individual projects. I'm talking about calls for tender. You can have many calls for tender in one OIM. There are always, you know, calls for tender for hybrid engines, electric engines, some for different software. You have calls for tender for different parts, different pieces of the software, some for platforms, some for engineering, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. It's not per client. No. No. No. No. It's not per client. Okay. Okay. Okay. Thank you. So I I want to know you anymore with that, says the gentleman.

50:54 Now activity offshore. We haven't seen I don't know. Maybe we're not seeing the switch to selling activities offshore. Other people are going directly offshore looking for resources to local service providers, perhaps. Again, we have to really investigate that in order to understand, but we haven't been called upon as we might be in in the automotive or air industry by our clients on any way to see if we could help them to produce. So offshore, their clients have their own activities. Well, they most of the clients have their own contacts. Perhaps. Yes. It's possible. But I I I couldn't really see, to be honest. It's a it's it's a real topic that has to be discussed, though.

51:41 There is a market trend which is very counterintuitive with the business dynamic. Thank you. Thank you, Bruno. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for that question. Thank you for that debate. Are there any other questions? I don't see any other hands raised. If you don't have any more questions then, I'd like to thank you for having participated in this webinar. Perhaps some people are on holiday. I don't know. I know that for the Paris District, people are on holiday.

52:30 We shall meet again. I'm always available. If you have any questions, don't please don't hesitate to send them to me. Failing that, I think the next publication is going to be the July 28, and then we'll look at the first semester, the first half of the first half of the year and the results and the activity. We'll talk about the economic and main context. And perhaps I will be able to I should be able to be a little bit more precise in our vision of the operational margin and what we see as good what we potentially see anyway between July and December. Have a a lovely evening, and I shall see you soon. Bye bye. Thank you.