Solutions 30 SE

PAR:S30

Earnings Call Transcript 2020-Q3

[Operator]

Hello, and welcome to Solutions 30 2020 Q3 revenue. My name is Val, and I will be your coordinator for today's event. Please note, this conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand you over to your host, Gianbeppi Fortis, CEO, to begin today's conference. Thank you.

[Gianbeppi Fortis, Co]

Thank you very much, and thank you, everybody, for being with us today. I am assisted by Amaury Boilot, our CFO; and Nathalie Boumendil, Investor Relations. So let me take you through the presentation. I'm going to Page 3.As you have seen, we've had a pretty good third quarter. Last time we spoke, it was July, and I told you that we had a very strong month of June, where there was very likely a catch-up effect of activities that were not done in March and April. But the tendency was confirmed over the month of July, and we were expecting a pretty good third quarter. And it has been the case. So we have had a very strong performance during the third quarter. The main driver was telecommunications, as I told you in July, reason being that we are all at home. So we need an Internet connection. We need computer and peripherals. And that means more service for us.So we had a very strong performance in France, driven by telecommunications, but also good performance in the other geographies. In Belgium, we also had a good sales performance with negotiation that is almost concluded with Fluvius, a utility -- a local utility, for the deployment of smart meters. We are waiting for the last news, but we are quite positive. We believe it's going to be an important project for us in that geography.We also signed new contracts in the IT space. So after the drop related to COVID, the IT activity was stabilized and began growing again. And then we had also good news coming from the telecommunications sector with initiatives on fiber by Proximus, by Telenet that is discussing a joint venture to deploy fiber with Fluvius, and also other fiber co that are present now in Belgium. That's the fiber, neurofiber.Also good news in Spain, where the activity we began for 5G is continuing. We signed a new client, which is Cellnex. Now we are talking to Cellnex to follow them in other European countries in their deployment of 5G infrastructure. In Poland, we signed a small but nice contract, interesting contract for the deployment of 5G for Orange. And then Italy and Germany, nothing special to highlight, except the fact that we now see signs of investment in telecommunication infrastructure beginning in 2021. In Italy, with the agreement signed between KKR and Telecom Italia and now Telecom Italia working the details of a quite aggressive deployment of fiber in 2021 and also the conversion between the activities of open fiber and Telecom Italia that are progressing. So we expect positive things in Italy next year. And it's the same in Germany, Germany that is quite late in the deployment of fiber. There has been recent announcement that make us optimistic for 2021 with a complex -- total, sorry, a budget of about EUR 14 billion that does been voted by Deutsche Glasfaser, Telefonica and other fiber co that are now ready to deploy fiber in Germany. So all in all, good news for us for 2021.In July, we also told you that all the M&A activity was put on hold because of COVID. Now we are resuming this activity slowly because COVID is still there. So we have to be careful. Within brackets, our activity is considered essential. So we are operating in all of our geographies. And the current measures are less strict than the ones of the first wave. So for example, in March, April, we have to stop the deployment of smart meters in France. Now the deployment is continuing, and we do not believe it will be stopped. And also certain shops were closed, including shops of the telecom operators, and it's not the case now. So at the moment, we are operating just normally. And we do not have, at the moment, negative signs.So I was saying M&A was put on hold. Now we are resuming it. So it is very likely that in the last quarter of this year, there will be, again, some deals -- some M&A deals that we are likely to close, being very careful and very selective to avoid taking too many risks. So given the fourth quarter, given the fact that October has been an excellent month and now we are in November with volumes that are pretty good, we are expecting a good year 2020. Let me then leave the floor to Amaury for the comment of our figures for the quarter.

[Amaury Boilot, Group CFO & Member of Executive Board]

Thank you very much, Gianbeppi, and good afternoon, everyone. Well, at the end of this first -- this third quarter 2020, the group generated a total revenue of EUR 576.3 million in comparison with EUR 484.1 million at the end of September 2019. As you can see, the maintenance activities, which are regarded as recurring revenues, still represent a large part of our total revenue, accounting for 59% of the total revenue. So the growth remains very dynamic. It represents 19% over the first 9 months of 2020 with a strong push coming from organic growth, which accounts for 12.7% of the total growth, and I would say especially in France since, as you can see on this slide, France generated an additional EUR 52 million revenue in an organic way this year. And on top of that, the M&A operations that we closed in 2019 generated 6 points of growth over the first 9 months and represent approximately 1/3 of the total growth.On this slide, well, you have a view on the evolution of the quarterly revenue over the last 3 years, and you can notice that the group keeps its track of strong growth despite the lockdown measures that occurred in April and May, which also generated a slowdown in Q2 because the activity actually recovered very fast as from the end of the second quarter. And we -- the group performed very strong Q3 with revenue amounting to EUR 212.6 million, up by 28.6%, of which 24% organic in comparison with the Q3 2019. Actually, this strong growth mainly results from the very good performance that we recorded in telecom business. But I will have the opportunity to elaborate in details on this a little bit later.If we now look at this growth across all the geographies, what we can notice on this slide is that actually, all the geographies recorded double-digit growth with a large contribution of organic growth everywhere. In France, the growth accelerated during the Q3 and reached 32% and is almost 100% organic. In Benelux, where the impact of COVID was a bit lower than in the other geographies, the activity is growing above 10%. And in the other countries where the activity remains extremely dynamic, growing by 30% on a year-to-date basis and even by 34% on the last quarter.If we now deep dive into the dynamics of the business lines in the different geographies and start with France. Actually, the acceleration of growth in France was mainly driven by the telecom activity, which grew by 46% during the last quarter, reflecting, first, the acceleration of fiber deployment in the country; and two, the increase of the group's market share in this segment.At the energy business, well, the group is back on track -- is back on track of growth. This is mainly explained by the restart of the rollout of smart meters in France, which was totally stopped during 2 months during the first half of 2020. And regarding the other activities, well, the recovery has been more progressive over the third quarter. But activity levels were back to normal at the end of the third quarter. And the sale activities remain quite good during the period. We even signed new contracts, very interesting contracts, notably with NextiraOne for the IT deployment -- for the deployment of IT equipment, notably in large French banks. We also signed an interesting contract with Ingenico in order to install POS equipment in the supermarkets Auchan in France. So we are very positive. And even if we follow carefully the situation and the new lockdown measures in France, we are positive, and we think that the activity will remain very strong in the fourth quarter.Now looking at Benelux area. Well, the telecom segment is still very dynamic. Revenue grew by 12% in Q3. And in this area, we have currently very concrete discussions with the main telco operators about the acceleration of the fiber deployment, about the start of the 5G rollout. And of course, this could be very beneficial for the group in the future.On the energy segment, well, the activity was still at its early stage at the beginning of 2019, with the first small projects starting in 2019 in Benelux. We actually consolidated our capabilities in the energy sector in Benelux in the second half of 2019 with the acquisition of IPG. And now we have been able to leverage on these capabilities since we announced recently that we were shortlisted by Fluvius for the rollout of smart meters in the Flanders area. And this rollout should start beginning of 2021.Regarding other activities, well, actually, we launched new offers in this -- in the field of IT assistance especially in order to address especially the remote workers. This activity is starting but is actually not able to compensate the drop in volumes regarding the demand for office assistance. However, good news are coming from the sales side as well. We just signed a new contract with Dell, notably in Benelux. And we expect this contract to bring additional volumes in the coming months.Now looking at the other countries. Well, first, Germany, well, the revenue over the first 9 months are still growing by 11% in a pure organic mode. This is mainly explained by the nice increase of volumes which are coming from Vodafone and Unitymedia. We also started some fiber activities in Germany. Volumes are still low for the moment, but we are following closely all the announcements that Gianbeppi was mentioning at the beginning of the call coming from companies like Deutsche Glasfaser or the joint venture between Allianz and Telefonica.In Spain, the revenue amounted to EUR 27.8 million on a year-to-date basis, growing up by 35% and even up by 42% over the last quarter. In this country, fiber activities keep being very dynamic, especially with Masmovil. We also won recently additional activities with the Spanish subsidiary of Virgin. And regarding 5G activities, well, this business is also doing well. We have just been awarded additional activities from Cellnex, as we said in the intro. And so the telecom business is going well, explaining most of the growth in this country. Regarding the IT assistance business, well, things are a little bit more complex since we -- the volumes are still affected by the shutdown of offices in this country.In Italy now, where the group has the highest exposure in terms of IT assistance business, well, the revenue is still affected by 2 elements, I would say. The first being the drop in volumes in the IT business since the recovery is a bit slower in this country. And the second element is the scope effect due to the sale of the DXC activities in December 2019. However, we have good news in this country as well. CFC, the company that we acquired in October 2019, is performing well. So that is good news. And we are also receiving very good signals from the telecom operators. Stimulus plans initiated by the Italian government should drive significant investments in the telecom and energy network. And in addition of that, Telecom Italia and OpenFiber finally signed an agreement in September in order to build one single fiber network in Italy. So based on these elements, we are now very positive, and we think that fiber deployment should finally start in 2021.Finally, Poland. Well, Poland is doing well. The revenue is actually in track with our expectations, even with our forecast before the COVID. We have actually a good team in Poland. They did a great job to integrate Telekom Uslugi and the Elmo, the 2 acquisitions we made at the end of 2019. And then they are now focusing on developing the business. We recently announced that we won a new contract with Orange for the deployment of 5G equipment in Poland. So that is very good news. This contract is also the beginning of our diversification towards the mobile activities in this country. So yes, so we are very positive for Poland and for the next future.I will now leave the floor to Gianbeppi that will elaborate on the perspective that we see on our markets for the next months and years.

[Gianbeppi Fortis, Co]

Thank you, Amaury. I pick it up again. So I'm going to Slide 13, where basically as a summary, I just wanted to highlight that COVID has been a good crush test for us, and we think we have proven that we were able to scale down the business quite quickly without losing money and without a big impact on our margin. But then also, we were capable to scale it up again quite quickly. So it's been a very useful exercise that has proven that we have a model that is robust.The other good thing is that the main verticals in which we operate, in particular, telecommunications and energy, are proven to be very strong. And it's very likely that after COVID, it will be verticals in which there will be a lot of investment in the coming years.We have had a good performance in the first 9 months without doing any M&A. But now we are resuming the M&A activity, and it's very likely that in the last quarter, you will see again some M&A deals of the time that you have seen already in the past, so the usual bolt-on acquisitions. And also, we have had quite good sales activities, as I said before, as in France and also in other countries. And now for the future, what we believe is that the main sectors in which we will see growth, strong growth for several years, is always related to smart meters and smart grids, the infrastructure used to charge electrical vehicles and in telecommunication, fast Internet with fiber and also 5G. And then another topic that is important for us. It is going to be more important for us after COVID when certain large companies will work to reduce their costs and optimize their organization is outsourcing deals like the ones we did in the past with Telenet. So with all of that -- all of that, we are quite confident for the rest of the year for 2020. That will be a very good year. And also, we confirm our target in the midterm of reaching EUR 1 billion of revenues.With this, we have finished our presentation, and then we'll let you go ahead with your questions. Thank you very much.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] And the first question comes from the line of Julien Fouché from Societe Generale. Please go ahead.

[Julien Fouché, Research Analyst]

Just 3 question on my side. The first one is on the revenue consensus for the full year. The consensus was around EUR 780 million before the publication, which would imply around 5% growth in the fourth quarter. So going into the first quarter, how do you position yourselves in light of this consensus? My second question is more on your EUR 1 billion revenue target. Could we expect [ this to be achieved ] in 2021? And my last question is on the U.K. market. Could you give us an update on your plans to enter this market?

[Gianbeppi Fortis, Co]

Okay. Thank you for the question. Let me begin with the last one, and then I will leave the first one for Amaury. So concerning the U.K., as I said already in July, we are very, very close to beginning operating in the U.K. Now the question for us is really COVID. We wouldn't like to begin a new geography in the middle of a lockdown with problems to travel. So basically, I would say, with a little bit of luck, we could begin U.K. around the end of the year. If we are not lucky, we will try not to take risks. And then the beginning will be first half of 2021. In any case, we are very close.Concerning the second question, which is when we'll reach the EUR 1 billion target, I would say that, that also depends on how it goes next year. We are going to -- it's very likely that we are going to see COVID in the first half of '21. So I would be cautious that we not guarantee that we can reach EUR 1 billion next year. But if it's not going to be '21, it's going to be '22. We're very close. We're getting very close. I'll leave the first question to Amaury.

[Amaury Boilot, Group CFO & Member of Executive Board]

Yes. Thank you. Julien, yes, your question was about the consensus. Well, as you can see, the results and the revenue that we posted for the Q3 are very, very high. The activity is actually remaining very strong over the beginning -- for the beginning of the Q4. So we think that Q4 should remain very dynamic. In any case, the activity will not stop. The only thing that we may have some uncertainty on the level of revenue for the end of the year is the restriction -- restrictive measures become a little bit more strict in December. But overall, we are comfortable with the consensus.

[Operator]

There are currently no further questions in the queue. [Operator Instructions] And the next question comes from the line of Patrick Jousseaume from Societe Generale.

[Patrick Jousseaume, Head of Mid and Small caps Europe Research]

Can you hear me?

[Gianbeppi Fortis, Co]

Yes.

[Patrick Jousseaume, Head of Mid and Small caps Europe Research]

Okay. So sorry to take the monopoly on the question. But I guess that maybe there are no other questions from other houses. So I just wanted to ask about the double-digit growth that you mentioned for 2020. First of all, is it organic? Is it including inorganic growth? And second, even if I consider it as, let's say, all included, well, double-digit just means for the low end of the range that you might have a Q4 down. So could you be a bit more precise?

[Gianbeppi Fortis, Co]

Yes. I can take this, Amaury. As you have seen in the first 9 months, we are up almost 13% organically. And then as I said, October has been a very good month. And now we are just at the beginning of November, and volumes are normal. So I would say fourth quarter at the moment is also a good quarter of growth. The question we have is December and COVID. So we do not know now if the current measures will stay in place until the end of the year or if there would be something more stringent that will be put in place in December. So basically, we have an uncertainty over the month of December. This is why we cannot be accurate as you probably would like to. But in any case, it's going to be double digit. If we are not lucky, low double digit or high single digit. I'm talking organic. And it all depends on the month of December.

[Patrick Jousseaume, Head of Mid and Small caps Europe Research]

You mean Q4? I mean...

[Gianbeppi Fortis, Co]

No, over the year, over the year. Yes. Yes. Over the year, it's going to be most likely double digit, low double digit. And if we are not lucky, it was going to be high single digit. It depends on the month of December.

[Operator]

The next question comes from the line of Yann de Peyrelongue from BNP Paribas.

[Yann de Peyrelongue, Financial Analyst]

Yes. Maybe can you help us on your U.K. entry on maybe a range of sales required? That's my first question. And my second question is about the dynamic you experienced in October and beginning of November, especially in France. Did you see any movement, thanks to new lockdown, I mean, new offer, stuff like this in telecom?

[Gianbeppi Fortis, Co]

Okay. So U.K., now U.K., the starting point for us now is getting clearer and clearer. It's going to be a small acquisition. We need to have something to then be capable to continue our growth. And the acquisition is there. We keep it on all basically waiting to see what happens with the COVID measures in the U.K. We will take a decision in the coming weeks.Concerning France, as you -- I don't know if everybody has seen the release of Orange concerning the sales of fiber connections in the third quarter. They've been very strong. And that, of course, is business for us a few weeks after the sales they make. So we have begun a month of October with very good traction in telecommunications because of that. We have not seen any new initiatives related to the new rules of a lockdown. But at the same time, we have not seen any drop in the volumes. It's also because I think the main difference between the measures taken now and the measures taken in the second quarter was the shops of Orange that are an important sales channel remained open. So now the shops are open. And basically, people can buy their telecommunication services as they did before COVID. So at the moment, no negative impact on volumes whatsoever.

[Operator]

[Operator Instructions] And the next question comes from the line of [ Henrik Long ] from [ Erasmus ].

[Unknown Analyst]

Three questions on my side. First of all, I think it's quite impressive that the strongest organic growth comes from France, which is the country where you're the biggest. So I just have to have your view and any comments on that. Do you think that it's because you're already pretty big in this country that you managed to get more orders and more new customers in this country? So I would like to have your view on that.Second question, I'd like to have an update on competition and if you see any particular new player in the countries where you're operating. And especially in the U.K., I will be interested in knowing more about competition there.And the final question, you mentioned the outsource of noncore activities as a potential growth drivers. I would like to have more color on that, especially as you identified some new technologies or new potential outsourcing that could be a source of growth for you in the future.

[Gianbeppi Fortis, Co]

Okay. Thank you, [ Henrik ]. Okay. First question is what explains the growth of France. It's actually pretty down to earth. What happens in France is that people are working from home, and we are adding our [ phone calls ] from home. And France had already in place a quite aggressive program of deployment of fiber. So basically, it's very easy for a country when the program is in place and the country is already delivering 2 million, 2.5 million connections per year to push on the button and spin that up. And since we are one of the main players in this field, and we have a very large market share in fiber connections, basically, have been pushed by this drive towards fast Internet. It's been extremely fast, put in place by the operators. We have seen it happening in June, and then it continued July, during the summer and then September, October. So that's the main reason why we grew with France.The good news for us, in our opinion, is that we are going to see something similar in the other geographies next year. This is why I was saying that the fact that Italy and Germany is putting things together and Belgium as well is putting things together is good news because we should see something similar in the other geography in the beginning in '21. So that's the reason why we're growing in France.Concerning competition, it's pretty much the same as last year. So the markets -- in every country, the market is quite fragmented. We are not seeing leaders emerging. Even in the U.K., we see a market that is quite fragmented. When we have done our scouting to look for opportunities of external growth, we run into literally hundreds of small companies that operate in this market. So I would say no strong competition yet, and the U.K. is the same. And then concerning the last question, which is what about large outsourcing deals, the opportunity is clearly there. The thing is that now our large clients, these large organizations are really struggling, putting together remote work for their employees. So the discussions that we were having before COVID are frozen basically at the moment. These companies are struggling with different problems. And we will resume the discussions concerning large outsourcing deals when the situation will be more stable.

[Operator]

We do have another question, and that comes from the line of Remi Grenu from Berenberg.

[Remi Grenu, Analyst]

I just have 2 questions on my side. The first one is on the cost. I think that you said during the first lockdown that additional costs related to COVID were partly offset by price increases that clients were paying for this cost. So is it still the case going into the second lockdown? And the second question is on working capital. This had a positive impact over H1 because they are going into lockdown as well, your clients tended to support their service providers by paying early. Are you expecting to experience something similar during the second lockdown?

[Gianbeppi Fortis, Co]

Amaury, you want to pick this up?

[Amaury Boilot, Group CFO & Member of Executive Board]

Yes. Yes. Well, regarding your question on cash and working capital, well, we had a very strong cash position at the end of the first half of 2020, mainly because our working capital improved a lot under the influence of the acceleration of payments that we received from several customers. I would say that this cash position allowed us to finance the significant ramp-ups that we had in the different countries, especially in France. Cash is still under control. We have -- we implemented new practices in terms of cash management during the first COVID, and they have remained effective today again. So we are confident.Regarding our cash position, I'm not sure -- or for the moment, we have no signs that the clients will accelerate the payments at the end of the year. I think there are some pressures to demonstrate the strong cash position. But we -- our working capital is still at a good level. It's still under control. We don't see a standard, very significant deviation for the moment.And regarding your question on the costs related to COVID, I would say that most of the costs during the first COVID were not anticipated. There were some confusion coming from clients, and some of them had to compensate some measures like the stop of some activities. For the moment, we don't see this kind of costs occurring in our countries. All our technicians now have masks. So that is part now of the recurring business that is taken into account by our customers and in the prices. So we don't see an impact of the new lockdown measures on our profitability.

[Operator]

Thank you. We have no further questions coming from the audio line. I would like to hand now over to the webcast questions.

[Gianbeppi Fortis, Co]

Okay. We have a first question. You said you are enjoying a good sales activity in Italy despite the low level of activity. Could you give us an indication about how big the Italy will be in 2021? EUR 30 million, EUR 40 million more? Do you think we'll have to wait at least new year to see things really moving in this country? Okay. I think I've not expressed myself very well. When we said dynamic sales activity, we were more referring to Belgium to Spain to Poland. What I said in Italy is that the positive note was a serious process engaged now by Telecom Italia after they signed with KKR. We are seeing Telecom Italia preparing to deploy fiber seriously in 2021. That's a positive note. So this is why we are positive in Italy. At the same time, it's a bit early to assess the potential over the full year 2021. It all depends on when the deployment will really start. It's going to be early '21. It's going to be late '21. We still do not know. The good news is that it's beginning. So we are going to see in Italy, something similar to what we are seeing in France today in 2021. Then exactly when in '21, we do not know. Another question is, what can we expect from the energy business next year? Will the growth of EV charging points and other businesses offset the decline of smart meters? Amaury, I don't know if you want to comment on this.

[Amaury Boilot, Group CFO & Member of Executive Board]

Yes. Yes. Obviously -- well, actually, we expect our revenue in the energy business to grow next year notably because of the start of the smart meters rollout in new countries and notably in Benelux with a large tender offer that we mentioned during the call with Fluvius.And regarding the EV charging business, well, the business is definitely starting. It is still a low share. It's still representing a low share of our revenue in 2020, but it will grow in 2021. And even that, it should compensate just a decline of smart meter activity in France, yes.

[Gianbeppi Fortis, Co]

Okay. We have another question. One, it is directly for you, Amaury. What is the current holding of share of Amaury?

[Amaury Boilot, Group CFO & Member of Executive Board]

Well, that's a good one. My personal holding of Solutions 30 shares is actually above the threshold that we set in our remuneration policy. So more than 1 year of revenue.

[Gianbeppi Fortis, Co]

And then you are one of the largest beneficiaries of the long-term incentive plan that has been set up a couple of years ago.

[Amaury Boilot, Group CFO & Member of Executive Board]

Yes. Actually, no, I remain -- I think that the stock options plans are a full component of my compensation. And actually, I did sell some of my shares in October. And that was the first time that I sold shares for other reasons and tax reasons. But I remain fully committed towards Solutions 30 and very positive with respect to the perspective in terms of the business, yes.

[Gianbeppi Fortis, Co]

We all count on it, Amaury, of course.Another question. How much 5G and EV charging activities should represent in terms of revenues in 2021? So EV charging, we said it. Concerning 5G, so as you know, we are doing it in Spain. And as I said before, we won the first tender offer in Poland. I didn't say it before, but we have begun small activities on the mobile network in Belgium and Benelux with Ericsson. And I'm pretty sure we will begin working on 5G also in Italy next year. And then we are working to have a similar situation in all the other countries. As I said before, we are in talks with Cellnex to follow them all across Europe. So perspectives are good. Amaury, I don't know if you can give more color on the revenues that we can expect in 2021 concerning 5G.

[Amaury Boilot, Group CFO & Member of Executive Board]

Concerning 5G, well, it will present several millions euros. The activity will continue to develop in Spain in comparison with 2020. It will start in different countries. And we are currently discussing with our customers, but you will have significant revenues coming from other countries, especially in Poland and Benelux.

[Gianbeppi Fortis, Co]

Okay. Then another question. Does the possible M&A in Q4 will be the previous you mentioned entering the U.K.?Not only. So the one in the U.K., we may or may not do, but then we have other things that are, I would say, more concrete in Continental Europe. And this is why I'm saying it's extremely likely that you are going to see some deals in the last quarter of the year.What would be your priorities, size, place, specialization for acquisitions? How do you intend to finance them? Well, priority is going to be a mixture of geographies in place. So we are going to do acquisitions in places where we see there is potential to growth and where we need an acquisition to increase the coverage of the country. And the other one is activities. We have spoken a lot about 5G. For us, it's something new. So one of the type of targets we are trying to chase is company specialized in 5G. So it's going to be a mix of geography and type of business. How do you intend to finance them? We are going to finance them with our own cash and then a complement of bank debt like we did in the past. Another question in French fiber, have you already benefited from deployments in rural areas? What was the share of fiber sales? What's your target? And then another question. Given your outperformance in France that seems to continue through H2, can we expect higher profitability from the group in H2 2020 versus H2 2019? So first question, benefiting of deployment in rural areas. The answer is yes. The main cities, I mean, there is still work to do in France, in the main cities, but a lot of the activity now has moved towards the countryside. And yes, we are active there. And as a result, we have seen our average price of installations going up because we are moving towards the countryside with more individual houses than apartments. So yes, we are seeing an impact of that.And then what was the share of fiber sales? And what's your target? That I'm not sure I understand the question. If the question is fiber sales -- revenues could come from that activity compared to the rest? Yes?

[Amaury Boilot, Group CFO & Member of Executive Board]

If that's the question, then fiber sales represent 6 -- almost 60% of the French revenue.

[Gianbeppi Fortis, Co]

Okay. If not, the person who asked the question, please provide some details.And the second part is profitability, Amaury. Are we expecting, because France is growing stronger than last year, in 2020 better margins?

[Amaury Boilot, Group CFO & Member of Executive Board]

No. Absolutely, as the revenue have grown over the Q3, then for us, that's the opportunity to improve our margins. The margins were back to normal, and that allows to compensate part of the drop we had in profitability during the first half. So yes, you can expect better margins on second half of 2020.

[Gianbeppi Fortis, Co]

Better margins compared to first half or compared to second half 2019 because I...

[Amaury Boilot, Group CFO & Member of Executive Board]

Sorry, compared -- I was talking in comparison with the first half of 2020. We are trying to compensate the drop that we had during the first half. But we -- it will be hard to compensate totally the drop that we had in profitability during the first half. So I would say that we will probably be at the level -- the second half of 2020 will be at the level of the second half of 2019, sorry. But at the end of the year, on a full year perspective, we'll probably be a bit lower than last year.

[Gianbeppi Fortis, Co]

Okay. Clear. This objective of EUR 1 billion of revenues, what is the profitability that we can expect with this type of activity level in terms of EBITDA or EBIT? Well, what we can say is that profitability will improve because it's very visible in our reports. France has the highest profitability of the group. And now Benelux that has a good size for the size of the country is getting close. So we are seeing a 15% EBITDA margin. And the other countries are smaller. So the more we grow, especially the more we grow in the other geographies, the more we are close to the 15% or 16% EBITDA margin, which we believe could be a good target once we are above EUR 1 billion of revenues for the group. What explains the drop of turnover in others in Belgique and in Italy in Q3? Amaury?

[Amaury Boilot, Group CFO & Member of Executive Board]

Yes. Well, for Belgium, actually, that is mainly related to the COVID and the lockdown because the drop mainly concerns our IT assistance and retail businesses. And this business is impacted by the closing of the offices and all the shops. So we have a drop in volumes. And as I was explaining, we are launching new offers addressed to remote workers that we are not able to compensate for the moment. There's a drop in volumes on this business because of the closing of offices for the moment. So that is for Belgium.And for Italy, well, it is basically the same reason. Italy is a country where we have the highest exposure in terms of IT assistance business. And this is a business where the recovery is the slowest and especially in Italy.

[Gianbeppi Fortis, Co]

So on top of that, we deconsolidated DXC as well. So some impact, right?

[Amaury Boilot, Group CFO & Member of Executive Board]

Yes. You're right, yes.

[Gianbeppi Fortis, Co]

Okay. And the other question, how do you compare to Alfen in the e-mobility space? Well, Alfen is a client. Alfen is a manufacturer of e-mobility solutions. So basically, we provide services to Alfen outside Holland because in Holland, where it's their home country, they provide services themselves to clients. But outside Holland, they rely on us and other service partners to install, deploy and maintain their equipment. So Alfen is a client.And we have -- so it's concerning the previous question concerning fiber in France. I meant what's the share of sales done in rural areas versus cities. Who -- I don't know if we have that on the spot. Amaury, do you have any idea how much we are doing...

[Amaury Boilot, Group CFO & Member of Executive Board]

It's a bit difficult to provide you with a very accurate answer. The only thing that we can do is that rural areas represent a growing share of the installations that we are doing in fiber, but I don't have the fiber -- the figure with me. Sorry for that.

[Gianbeppi Fortis, Co]

Okay. Other question, do you have a date for scaling up the deployment of 5G and EV chargers in France?Well, EV chargers is ongoing. And we are just increasing the number of clients we have in the EV charger space. It's getting quite dynamic. Now there is a big push from the government because they want to see a certain number of charging stations in public places. That's 100,000, pretty fast. And then usually, there is 10x more charging stations in private places. So we are seeing a market that is very dynamic. So that activity is increasing.Concerning 5G, we are at the very beginning. The auctions have been done just months ago. So things are just beginning now. We are going to see some 5G activity in France in '21 as well, like in Italy and the other countries.Would you easily cope with the simultaneous scaling up of several businesses in these several countries? Well, the answer is yes. This is what we have done for the past 20 years. Our model is quite decentralized. So we have country managers that have to take care of their ramp-ups. And of course, we are capable to manage more than one at the same time. It's just what we have done for the past 15 years or so. Absolutely.I think we have done or we have covered all the questions. There is no additional questions. So I thank you very much for your participation, and I look forward to seeing you soon or to hearing from you soon in the coming months. Thank you very much.

[Amaury Boilot, Group CFO & Member of Executive Board]

Bye. Thank you.

[Operator]

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