Impacts of COVID-19 on the Bouygues group

Press release - Paris 01/04/20

Impacts of COVID-19 on the Bouygues group

• WITHDRAWAL OF 2020 GUIDANCE FOR THE CONSTRUCTION BUSINESSES, TF1 AND THE GROUP
• SUSPENSION OF BOUYGUES TELECOM'S 2020 GUIDANCE MAINTAINED
• MODIFICATION OF RESOLUTION SETTING THE DIVIDEND
• ARRANGEMENTS FOR PARTICIPATING IN THE COMBINED ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF 23 APRIL 2020 
  
  

The Covid-19 pandemic has spread very quickly to many different countries. Wherever it is present worldwide, the Group’s business segments share the same priority of protecting the health and safety of their employees and their families, as well as that of all other stakeholders (customers, subcontractors or suppliers) and of ensuring compliance with the measures implemented by the competent public health authorities.

The Group is also taking part in initiatives to fight this pandemic by providing one million European-standard surgical masks to the French health authorities, as announced in a press release on 21 March 2020. These masks will be supplied in the next few days.

To help get through this unprecedented crisis, which has now hit a very large number of countries, the Group is drawing on its strengths, namely the commitment of its 130,500 employees, the diversity of its business activities and its particularly robust financial structure.

The Group enjoys a very substantial cash surplus.
Group net debt is low at €2.2 billion at end-December 2019, equating to a gearing¹ of 19%. The debt maturity schedule is evenly spread and none of the debt contains financial covenants.
Bouygues also has a very substantial cash surplus. At end-December 2019, available cash stood at €11.6 billion, of which €3.3 billion in cash and €8.3 billion in unutilized medium/long-term credit facilities that contain no financial covenants.

All the Group’s business segments are working hard to ensure that business continues when possible. They are rolling out action plans to reduce the impact of this crisis on their sales and profitability.
Although the impact of the crisis differs from one business segment to another, they are all implementing major action plans. In terms of the workforce, a number of exceptional measures have been taken, such as the widespread implementation of teleworking, and, in France, short-time working and the signing of a collective agreement allowing employees to take their paid vacation during the lockdown period. Expenditure is being kept under tight control whilst maintaining core projects. Drawing on the Group’s experience in Hong Kong, all business segments are now working on restarting their activities as soon as this is possible, without even awaiting the end of the lockdown, whilst ensuring optimum health and safety conditions for their employees, and in compliance with all governmental measures. To this end, the business segments are coordinating with the public authorities, customers and with their supply and subcontracting chain. Major orders for masks and Personal Protective Equipment have already been made.