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Teleperformance SE
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Hello, and welcome to the Teleperformance Q3 revenue. Please note, this conference is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] I will now hand over to your host, Olivier Rigaudy, Deputy CEO of Teleperformance, to begin today's conference. Thank you.
Thank you. Good morning, good evening, everyone, and thank you for all your presence today for those who are in [indiscernible], I'm happy to have you online tonight.I'm very happy, of course, to be with you through this call to comment on Teleperformance group revenue as of September 30, 2021, outlook for the full year. I'm hosting this call from Paris with the Investor Relations team. Quy Nguyen, our Head of Investor Relations, has preliminary comments to make before starting the presentation.
Thank you, Olivier, and hello, everybody. Financial press release related to the third quarter 2021 revenue has been published today at 5:45 p.m. Paris time. Slides of the presentation are available on Teleperformance website in the Financial Publications page of the Investor Relations section.As usual, Olivier's presentation will be followed by a Q&A session. I remind you that a replay of the conference call will be available tonight by dialing numbers mentioned in the invitation to the presentation.Today's call contains looking -- forward-looking statements that address our expected future performance and that, by their nature, address matters that are uncertain. These expectations are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. For a detailed description of these factors and uncertainties, please refer to the Risk and Control section in our 2020 universal registration document available on Teleperformance website.Now I hand the floor to Olivier.
Thank you, Quy. Okay. So let's start with the first, I would say, slide of this presentation that gives you highlight for the figures that we have just released. Two or 3 things to tell. First of all, we are continuing to deliver strong revenue growth, up 31% like-for-like for the 9 months of 2021 and up 20.8% like-for-like in Q3 2021.We continue to deliver an exceptional growth in this quarter, even if it's a little lower than before, given the comparison basis mainly. This strong sales momentum is driven by accelerating market digitalization. I know you heard that for some quarter in a row now, but this is always the same story, and it's happening, this is continuing.Third point, this growth not only is solid, but also is responsible. We continue to develop an efficient, responsible hybrid model -- business model working up -- in the meantime, work-from-home and on-site solution. Still today, 70% of our group employees are working from home.Just a point that need to be noticed, we have been named one of the 25 world’s best place to work (sic) [ World’s Best Workplaces ], sorry, across all industry by Fortune magazine in partnership with Great Place to Work. I just wanted to highlight that we are the only French company to be listed here, and of course, the only BPO company, too.And we have also set new ambitious carbon emission reduction targets that have been just approved early September by the Science Based Targets initiative called SBTi. Once we say that, we have also -- we are committed to an increase of -- to raise our revenue growth and margin targets for the full year. I'll come back in a minute to that.So let's move to the following slide. This is a slide on Page 4, the quarterly information. Again, a few things to tell. Strong underlying growth in Q3, EUR 1.755 billion versus EUR 1.4218 billion (sic) [ EUR 1.428 billion ] last year, which is a very good growth today and on a full -- on a 9-month basis, 31% like-for-like growth.We know that the growth is less exceptional in Q3 than it was before, but it's still astonishing. And we know that we have a higher basis of comparison in H2, and we have a lower contribution from COVID contracts as expected. Let's go to the next slide.If we want to analyze much more in detail the growth on Page 5, we still have a currency effect of EUR 153 million, which is negative. I just wanted to highlight that here that is exactly the same that we had in H1. In fact, what is explaining, showing that dollar is starting to be positive for us. And we'll have, again, an impact in Q4, notably on translation, but maybe also on transaction.You have the like-for-like growth, EUR 1.220 billion, [ EUR 120 million ] more for the first 9 year (sic) [ 9 months ] and a small change in scope of EUR 31 million coming from Health Advocate that has been consolidated since 1st of July. So that are the main impacts to be noticed.If we now move on the following page, the quarterly information by line of business and by region, what you see. We see that for the first 9 months, a growth of Core Service is 32.2%. I would say things are continuing to be the same, strong sales momentum, benefiting from accelerating market digitalization, which is true in e-tailing, logistics, social media, everywhere; and consolidation positioning in the public sector.Again, like-for-like growth of Specialized Services is 21.7%, strong growth at LanguageLine Solutions and gradual recovery in the TLS business that is starting to make money -- that are starting to make money starting in July. So as a whole, very good growth.Just for you to know that without, I would say, COVID line or so-called COVID line, the growth would have been in the range of 14% to 15% in the Q3 and much more closer to 20% on the first 9 months, just to give you some insight.Let's move now to the analysis region by region on Page 7. Interestingly, the English world is now growing at 22% for the first 9 months or 19 -- close to 20% for the Q3. What we see is growth in offshore business, notably in Philippines, with a gradual acceleration over the full period. U.K., very rapid expansion, notably in the public sector, with continued development of COVID-19 contracts even at a slower pace than before and solid sales momentum in other segments. And also in Asia, very good growth, notably in Malaysia, as already mentioned in the past.Let's move to the what I call the [indiscernible], which is Ibero-LATAM where you don't have any COVID at all. The growth is close again to 20% in Q3 and close to 30% for the first 9 months. Everything is growing fast, with e-clients, e-tailing, online entertainment, consumer electronics, financial services segment. And the best performer are Colombia, nearshore operations in Mexico, Dominican Republic, El Salvador and also Peru, Argentina and also Portugal. And today, we are entering high comparative in Q3. So that explains the smaller -- less important growth -- exceptional growth that we had in Q3 versus 9 months.CEMEA, sharp LFL growth coming from 19-COVID (sic) [ COVID-19 ] contracts, but also fast expanding business with multinational clients in the e-tailing, consumer electronics and logistics. Of course, growth in Q3 was mechanically less brisk versus the previous quarter, as expected, due to the high basis of comparison in H2 2020, at the time we were starting to grow again, and notably related to the start-up of the COVID-19 contracts, but still a good growth.If we move now to Specialized Services -- sorry to D.I.B.S. to India, I forget to mention India, of course. India, offshore operations are still growing fast. We are growing at 6.6% in Q3. This is monitored as a whole. We manage precisely the growth there between the international and the domestic business part. But as a whole, we have a profitable and selective growth through high value-added service development. And work-from-home solution now apply to nearly 75% of the workforce.So again, we had also higher basis of comparison in H2 in 2020. But I just wanted to remind that this region is the best region in terms of margin achievement across the -- within Core Services.If we move now to Specialized Services, we have a growth of 20%, roughly the same for Q3 and for the 9 year (sic) [ months ]. Even what happened, in fact, LanguageLine continued to grow very fast, even if it's in front of a higher comparative in Q3, while TLS is growing faster, significantly faster since April and it continued into Q3, led by comparatives that are still modest -- that are still modest recovery in international travel to date. And we have the first consolidation of Health Advocate.All these good figures lead us to change our guidance for full year. I'm on page -- the last page, with at least a growth of 20% for the like-for-like full year revenue growth versus 18% before -- around 18% before. We also announced that we will be around 15% in terms of EBITA margin versus previously more than 14.5%. And we continue to believe that we will have a good growth in Q4, which will, however, be impacted by high basis of comparison and potentially reduced contribution for government assistance services that is difficult to predict. That's what I can tell you, and I'm, of course, open for questions.
[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Simona Sarli of Bank of America.
So you mentioned at the beginning of the presentation that you ended the quarter with roughly 70% of your workforce working from home. How much have you already seen in terms of benefit in your cost structure? How much still can be done in the future? And also how much can you optimize your investments?And secondly, related to this question, how are your discussions with clients going? So is this 70% sustainable? Are clients supportive of that? And also, if you can help us a little bit on what are the moving parts for 2022? And how should we think about it in terms of potentially organic growth momentum going into next year?
Thank you for this question. Coming first to the WAHA. So today, 70% of our people are working at home. We have between 40% to 45%, a little less than 45% confirmation of the clients that they will continue with us on work-at-home solution. But we are still -- this is still growing. There are still uncertainties. But today, we try to have more. But today, we are around 45, not exactly at this level, but close to. What will be the impact at the end of the year on a recurring basis?Tough to say, but at least we should at least reach 50%, maybe a little more. It depends. But I would assume 50% seems to me something that is achievable, reasonably achievable. I hope we can be -- can go beyond that, but it's too early to tell. On the impact, it's difficult to answer you now. We will answer you probably -- not probably, surely at the end of the year when the figure of the full year will be released because you have different issues that are happening. Of course, you are reducing the cost of running the site, even growing without putting site in terms of CapEx.And I'm sure you will notice later on that our CapEx ratio will be significantly lower than it was in the past, given most of the growth that has been done has been done with -- so far has been done with opening [indiscernible] new sites versus what was the case before. So that is the first point.So we are going to update you later on, but clearly, the impact is not immediate because you cannot release so quickly as you wanted. Most of the times, you have grants. So we start to work on that. We increased overall negotiations with landlords. We gave up some sites or some stayers or some places. So we will be in a better position at the end of the year to give you information.But clearly, it's available, no doubt, no doubt on that. While in the meantime, you're obliged to spend much more money to make sure that the link between the employees and the management is still there, that you are putting the right tools, that you are following precisely how you send and get back when people leave the computer, the information. And also, there are some costs associated with that linked to the security. So we will do something much more precise at the end of the year, but clearly [indiscernible].About 2022, of course, I cannot give you any figure as of today. What -- I have 2 things on which I'm sure. First, I don't see why the underlying growth of the recurring business will not continue. We have a good momentum. We have a clear advance. This is pushing. The pipeline is okay, no doubt on that.The other thing that I'm sure is that I'm sure -- and I'm not sure what we are going to have with the COVID-19. That is probably the most complex things to predict. I must confess that somewhere we were totally convinced that it will totally disappear in 2022. I'm not so sure it's going to disappear. There are still certain shot vaccination to be done. Vaccination of younger people to be done, still [indiscernible].I don't know exactly where we are now. So I'm not sure it's going to disappear from -- totally. It's difficult to predict. But that could be -- it will be a challenge to predict. But on top of that, we have been able to develop, I would say, a vertical that is -- that was mainly developed only in U.K., but now, we developed it much more and much more -- on larger way with government. And we do believe this is going to be a positive trend to pursue in the future. So as a whole, except that, we are, as you understood, reasonably confident for 2022.
And just as a quick follow-up, indeed, on these new verticals with the government agencies, can you maybe give us a little bit more details on what is the opportunity here?
The opportunity is simple that we have shown to some governments. We were already working with the U.K. government that was used to outsource a lot of [indiscernible]. But we have shown that to the French government, to the German government, to Netherland government, to other governments in other countries where we are able to, I would say, to give a good service and quick, good service, secure and solid service to cities.And that somewhere, I wouldn't say break the walls, but helps to improve the relationship with some governments that we're keen to outsource. And now some of them and, hopefully, more of them in the future have understood that they can rely on some people to make it happen. And that opens, of course, a field to plenty of staff, of course, documentation, range of documentation, information, also control a lot of things that are done at government level by civil servants that could be done are partially outsourced to us as an example.
The next question comes from the line of Anvesh Agrawal from Morgan Stanley.
I got 3 questions. First, like -- I mean just on the U.S., I mean, you're saying the situation is expected to sort of normalize by end of the year from a labor market perspective. I was just wondering have you seen anything already because the fed support has ended in September. So have you seen positive development already in October with regards to the U.S. market situation? And did it have any sort of impact on the growth in Q3?Then the second question is like we sort of noticed on your LinkedIn pages and website, you started to talk about BNPL, Buy Now, Pay Later market. Is that something that is a future opportunity for you? Or are you sort of already active in this space? Any color you can give? And finally, just to sort of model Q4...
I missed your second question, sorry. I didn't get your second question.
And the second question was like you -- we see some sort of articles or some stuff on your LinkedIn pages about Buy Now, Pay Later, BNPL market. And that's clearly growing very fast. So I was wondering if -- what sort of opportunity that is out there for you guys? Are you already active in that space? And then finally, are you able to tell us what was the COVID contribution in terms of revenue in Q4 last year so that it sort of makes it -- makes the modeling a little bit easier as we go into Q4?
Okay. On U.S. attrition, the situation start to improve, even if it's still complex. The difficulty there is much more -- it's not the wage inflation. Of course, it happened, but we are able to increase the price. Most of the people understood -- most of our clients understand and they have no choice than to follow. So this is not the major issue. The major issue is the disruption that you have when you have to recruit, train and launch somebody new. So the situation is a little better than it was.I think it's improving. There are still tension depending on the region, of course, depending a lot on the region in the different -- notably in U.S. But it has affected partially for domestic operation in U.S. I mean you understood that. But that's why also I'm sure you understood that the growth of the nearshore, offshore business, notably in Philippines, but also in Colombia is partially a consequence of this situation. That is a direct consequence.About the digitalization, because I understood it was the digitalization, we are absolutely convinced that there are plenty of opportunity ahead of us. There are plenty of opportunity. And I'm convinced that we are going to -- if it was the question, we are putting all the means in terms of marketing, in terms of sales, in terms of clients, I would say, attention to get more. And there are plenty of acceleration of new possibility.In fact, the question is now whole world is becoming digital. And the question whether it's a new client, it is no more a question. Everybody has to go digital. It's a must. So you cannot avoid that. So being able to attract that is clearly a solution. About COVID-19 in Q4, let me find -- it was, in percentage, just to be clear, very small. In fact, the difference between the growth of the -- it's not the right figure -- yes -- it was close to 6% -- 6% or 7% in the growth of last year.
So 6% to 7% of the full year growth or just the Q4 growth?
Q4 growth. No, it's much more closer to 7%, let's put 7%.
The next question comes from the line of Oscar Val from JPMorgan.
Just a follow-up -- sorry, 2 questions. The first one, a follow-up on the COVID-19 government contracts. It seems like they're running at, say, EUR 80 million to EUR 100 million in Q3. Could you just provide some initial thoughts on what the Q4 number should be for COVID contracts, i.e., what's the exit rate? And are you seeing benefits from things like boosters. And then...
I would love to be able to tell you properly. I would love.
Go ahead, go ahead.
Just to give you an example, we are set by -- marked by the clients a week or 10 days before the [ link ]. So just to give you the idea, it is difficult for us to predict even the end of the year, but also by nature, also 2022, as you can imagine. But your assumption is not totally wrong. And we might say that we are going to continue to decrease in Q4, but to what level exactly, I have hard time to tell you.
Okay. That's clear. The second question is on M&A. Clearly, Hexaware didn't come through at the end. Could you comment on just what you see and what the pipeline is and what you're currently looking at?
Let's put it differently. We have 3 possibility of M&A. The first one, of course, is to add another niche, what we call Specialized Services. The other one is to complement the cube of Teleperformance, and I'll come back in a minute to that. And the third one is to find a company that helps to digitalize much more in the process of everything. So there are some opportunities that are in the pipeline. By nature, it's difficult to tell whether they are going to succeed or not.But what I'm meaning by the cube? When you look to Teleperformance, especially the Core Services, you have 4 lines, 4 matrix. The one is geography. Of course, whether we are missing the geography, we can buy something in a geography. The second one is what we do, what kind of product we are offering. It could be content moderation, it could be sales, it could be the technical care, it could be technical support. For whom we are working? We mentioned the government, but it could be automotive, it could be whatever.And lastly, how you service? Is it voice, non-voice, video, whatever. When you combine these 4 dimensions, there are still holes in our [ liquidity ]. And we might find somewhere, I'm not sure it's going to happen, but a company that works with one of the holes. That is a third possibility.There are the 3 views: niche, Specialized Services, part of the cube and the utilization of the whole process. And we are looking for these 3 dimensions, and we are seeing a lot of things. But again, 2 steps. We need to -- what are the criteria to buy a company that works, that doesn't dilute our P&L, that we are paying at a good price versus what we are valued by the market with a good management and with a strategic fit. When you put that together, I must confess it's more complex than it was 2 or 3 years ago. But of course, we are looking to different topics, and it might happen.
Okay. And then my final question is a follow-up on what Anvesh asked on wage -- kind of wage inflation. Could you give a sense as to the magnitude of kind of price inflation versus just volume growth in your Q3 numbers?
I'm not able to do that because -- I'm not sure I'm able to because you should have -- you have to put the mix in the meantime. And that's probably something that is forgotten by most of the analysts that -- of course, most of the time, you are changing what kind of product you are serving. So what kind of company. So it's very, very difficult to follow that. And on top of that, you have offshore, and everything is never equal. So we don't follow that this way.What I'm telling you is that clearly, in Anglo-Saxon world, mainly in U.S., you have pressure on wages. We will not surprise you. To a certain extent, we are used to, it's not so easy, but we are used to pass it to the clients or to go to offshore or nearshore when not possible. But we are not going to serve market with low margin. We are doing that in India already. And we are going to do that in other countries. When it is not -- when the price is not sufficient to generate a good margin, to generate good salary to people, we prefer to back up.
The next question comes from the line of David Cerdan from Kepler Cheuvreux.
First of all, I would like to -- just to clarify your revenues related to COVID lines. What is the number for Q3? And what is the split between CEMEA and EWAP? So this is my first question.
What I told you is that without COVID, the growth would have been between 14% and 15%. So you made the computation easily. In terms of impact, the impact is mainly in Europe, as you can imagine, where you have probably close to half of the growth in CEMEA that is coming from COVID.
Okay. Just on the COVID lines, are you working with the U.S.?
No, not yet.
And what is the problem with the U.S.?
The problem is that we have not been able to get the clients, but we might react differently. So we are looking to this market. Of course, you're right. This is a good question. We are working on it.
Okay. And regarding your competitors, does it mean that your competitors have gained this contract or...
Some competitors have some contracts. In U.S., it's more complex because you have the federal contract, you have the state contracts. So there are different contracts, which are split differently across the different stuff. So you need to have an organization for sale, which is a little different than in a centralized state like somewhere U.K., France or your continental countries, Germany.And when you look, we have been better in centralized countries and in federal countries, Germany. It's lower than the other country. Because you have to deal with, I don't know, how much 10 lenders or 14 lenders. So it's not exactly the same story than to speak to only 1 administration or 2 administration.
Okay. Regarding your negotiation with your clients, this is my last question, do you think that there is now, I would say, a stronger pressure in negotiation just because the situation is more and more normal?
I don't know if it's stronger. I'm just telling. As a client -- keep in mind that the clients, of course, are looking to price, but they are looking more and more to, I would say, security of the data, [ CSF staff ], and there are plenty of other, I would say, competitors are not able to follow our approach. So it's a little more complex than price. Of course, the price is key here, I'm not mentioning differently. I do believe that bigger you are, better you are in everything. You should be aware of everything. It doesn't mean that you win everything. Far from that. But you should be aware of everything. That's what I can tell you.
Okay. Just regarding the profitability, so you expect to be around 15% this year. Do you think that in 2022, your margin, there is an upside? Or is it possible to improve, again, the profitability or to maintain this kind of level?
We'll see that, but there are good reasons for upside. [indiscernible] that should increase again with Health Advocate, with different stuff. So there are good reasons. But frankly, I'm not going to enter in this debate, but this is not -- we are not going to stay at this level, of course.
The next question comes from the line of Patrick Jousseaume of Societe Generale.
A few questions on my side. First, if I am not wrong, when you had this 18% organic growth guidance for full year, you mentioned that it was with the assumption that there will be no COVID-related revenue in Q4. Is it still the case?
No COVID, it's probably [indiscernible], but probably lower COVID...
No, I say when you had the previous guidance of 18%...
It's still at 18%. I didn't believe we were totally at 0. We could -- in Q4, maybe we could have been -- we could have thought that would be -- or maybe I said it this way. Clearly, we won't be at 0 in Q4.
So you have included some COVID revenue in Q4 in your guidance, in other words?
Yes.
Okay. Second, regarding the COVID impact and, just to be sure, if I may say, so you mentioned that in Q3, your organic growth would have been 14%, 15% versus the 20.2%. So this suggests something like, let's say, as one of my colleagues said, EUR 80 million to EUR 100 million of COVID revenue in Q3. And when you spoke about 9 months, you said 20% growth instead of 31%, which suggests something like EUR 400 million, EUR 450 million over the first 9 months of COVID-related revenue. Do you confirm these 2 figures?
Yes, it's not [ stupid ]. It's not totally wrong figure. But what seems important for you to understand on the COVID, maybe even [indiscernible], this is not one-off -- this is less one-off because everybody was thinking and even us. And maybe we have guided the market this way and say, okay, it's exceptional. It's going to be one-off, meaning that it's going to disappear once the pandemic is over. I don't know whether pandemic could be over in a day. But this is probably more complex than that. And -- but your figures are correct. That's what I'm trying to explain somewhere.Somewhere it start to be -- of course, 2021 has been exceptional, and we probably will not have the same level of, I would say, COVID business in 2022. But I'm not sure that in 2022, we will be at 0, far from that. And frankly, maybe in 2023 also, maybe less. But this is -- meaning that something is going to be -- part of it [indiscernible] That's what I'm telling you. How much and how long, I have hard time to tell you on the -- but from what I'm seeing, it's less and less one-off. That's what I can tell you.
Okay. And coming back to the non-COVID business, which is the bulk of your business, you mentioned a few minutes ago that you are convinced that there will be quite a strong underlying growth, let's say, in 2022. In fact, the organic growth ex COVID during the first 9 months was 20%; 14%, 15% in Q3. So, let's say, usual type of growth that we had in the past, if I may say, was, let's say, high single digit. What should we -- how should we look at 2022 on this for the underlying growth ex COVID?
Patrick, to try to give me -- to give you the 2022 figure. 2 things. 2021 is, by nature, complex because you are also on top of the COVID line, you have the basis of comparison, notably in first half. So probably it's complex. So that's the reason why you move from 20% to 15% or 14% or whatever. So that's something that is mathematic. And probably, we will have in the second part starting 2022 [indiscernible] of the COVID line, notably in the first half.So that's not a surprise, it's technical. But as a whole, the underlying business is going to continue to grow at a high speed. I would tend to believe, but I'm not sure today that this could be a little higher since 2 years. That's what we have seen over the last 2 years. So maybe it's going to continue. So it's too early to tell, frankly.But what I'm telling you, and I don't want to answer 2022 figures and 2022 guidance today because it's too early, is that what we see there is no reason why the group will not continue to grow at a high speed on this recurring business. That's the way I can tell you. Of course, of course it -- because that's what is important to understand. And okay, we can discuss quarter-by-quarter or whatever. But as a whole, the underlying business recurrently is going to continue to grow at high speed. That's what I'm seeing. Does it answer your question, Patrick?
Absolutely.
Not totally, but...
Not totally, but...
The next question comes from the line of Nicolas Tabor of Stifel.
The first one, very simple, as you say, robust sales momentum expected in Q4. So basically, it's likely, unless a major headwind, that it would be still positive organic growth in Q4 despite the high [ comp base do you try to think that ]?
Yes.
Great. And then on the Core Services, when we think about the margin in H2 this year versus H2 last year, it was very impressive last year already. As we see a phase-out of the COVID services and because you only have 1 week, 10 days of visibility and maybe you may have maybe overstaffed some of the times, should we think that the margin in the core business, the Core Services and D.I.B.S. should decline sequentially? Or you have such a, let's say, good optimization, a good discussion with the government and so on?
No, no, I don't see any decline.
Okay. Great. And then on the...
Of course, the base of comparison is higher, but...
So higher comp base, but no decline in margin versus last [ year ], that's the answer. Okay. And then looking at the Specialized Services, just trying to get a better understanding for LLS when you say strong growth and high comp base, is it more 10%, 20%? Which range should we understand when you give those comments?
No, we are much more in the range of 10% -- high 10%, but not 20%, clearly not. Again, we had also a base of comparison, which was very favorable in the first half in LanguageLine and LanguageLine was doing well. So it continues to do well. It still continues to do well. But most of the story of the Q3, if you're seeing [indiscernible], most of the stories in Q3, we continue to have an exceptional growth, less exceptional versus before because of the high comparison and the shrinking, probably less important than what people believe in COVID business. That's what we can tell to make it...
And therefore, if I understand...
It's true for India, it's true for Ibero. It's true for everywhere.
So if I look at the Specialized Services overall, I can assume that TLS had a quite strong growth quarter -- or year-on-year and maybe 50% to 100%, something like that on a very high -- low comp base, of course.
Exactly. Exactly.
Next question comes from the line of Nicole Manion of UBS.
I just wanted to ask a quick one on TLS. I know you've given some sort of qualitative commentary around that, but I wanted to get a sense of whether there's been sort of any improvement in the kind of the rates of recovery since April or whether it's still sort of kind of waiting to hit that level next year. And maybe if you could give us an update on where we are with that business in terms of breaking even, whether that's likely to be this year or into next year?
No, of course, TLS is significantly better. The second half is going to be positive, as I told you, in terms of EBIT, where we were making losses before and [ continued to have ] losses. Of course, we grew significantly in sales since April. As I told you, people start to travel again, partially, not all of them. There are some [indiscernible] different things were coming. We are still not yet at the level that we were before. Chinese people are not traveling so far.And we have still room for improvement to get back on the level of 2019. So there are still volume to be grabbed. But this is linked, of course, to the level of travel of the global population, let's put it this way. But I'm confident this is going to accelerate next year, at least for the first half. But we should have that for the full year, too. Let's take the last question, 2 questions. Mr. [indiscernible].
Do you hear me?
Yes.
Three quick ones for me. First one, could you remind us where you are regarding the visa contract in U.S.? This is supposed to contribute to the sales in 2022? Is there already some tender offer that you succeeded? So anything you can tell about that will be appreciated.The second one is you increased the guidance in term of EBIT margin at 15% or close to. Where is the consensus, if I may? Do you have the consensus already at 15%? And the last one is regarding the [ CSL ] approach. What is the share of the tender offer that integrate the [ CSL ] approach? And do you think you could then face lower competition because you are very well placed on that topic...
On the margin, I believe the consensus is a little below 15% from what I heard. The first question was linked to...
The visa contracts in U.S.
So I must confess, this is probably the most blurry situation that we have had. There are different tenders. Some of them have delayed. Some of them have advanced. So frankly, I have hard time to tell you where we are going to land in 2022. My guess -- I'm a careful guy, I'm from finance. My guess is not to take too much review in first half on this part. Because the U.S. administration is sometimes difficult to read. And things are taking time much more longer than we expected. So we are progressing, but there are 2 tenders that were supposed to be launched in October. There has been 1 in September, 1 in October that has been put now to November, maybe December.So we have hard time -- I have hard time to answer you precisely on that, to be honest. On the [ CSL ], what's happening? A lot of companies are asking you about inclusion, sourcing -- what they call inclusion and sourcing. Are you between brackets, I don't know, employing people that are in a bad situation [indiscernible] because they have [indiscernible] they are coming because they are refugees, a lot of that. So having such a program like that helps to some of our clients.I wouldn't say to tick a box, but also to say, okay, we are part of the story. All suppliers are supporting us. So it helps. Clearly, it helps. So far today, I cannot tell you that [indiscernible] as I told you the price, the ability to speak the language to be -- to train the people and to be able to have secure data. But this is clearly something that is increasing, notably in some [indiscernible], I would say.
The last question comes from the line of Suhasini Varanasi from Goldman Sachs.
Just one from me, please. Just wanted to clarify what the margins are like on the COVID contracts in CEMEA or generally? Because the CEMEA business did see a nice step up in first half. So are they higher than group average margins?
It might be okay, a little higher in CEMEA than the CEMEA business, but it's not totally true at group level, let's put it this way. So that's what we can say. But we will be clearer again when the figure will be totally released at the end of the year.
That's very clear.
Thank you to all. I hope it has been clear. What, again, I just wanted to tell is that we had a good Q3. We believe that we are going to finish a good year in 2021. Of course, there are still uncertainty for 2022, and I know you need to build your 2022, I would say, consensus. But it's too early even for us to give you something on that.But as a whole, the message I want to convey is a reasonable confident message, let's put it this way. I wish you a good night. Thank you. Thank you so much. Bye-bye.
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