French operator Bouygues Telecom held a capital markets day on 15 January, releasing its ‘Ambition 2026’ strategic goals. In the mobile segment, the company has recently overtaken rival Free to become the third largest network in terms of postpaid/prepaid connections, following the acquisition of MVNO EI Telecom. Its ambition is to accelerate customer growth and move into second place behind Orange, replacing SFR by 2026.
Celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2021, Bouygues said that its mobile network coverage will strengthen further, targeting 28,000 cell sites in 2023 and around 35,000 in 2026. By then, network capacity should also increase significantly to support an expected 4 million mobile customer net additions compared to end-2020.
In the residential fixed broadband market, Bouygues is targeting 3 million FTTH customer net additions in the six-year period, partly driven by a further expansion of its marketable footprint (from 17 to 35 million premises).
In the B2B fixed segment, the operator aims to double its share and gain 5 percentage points in terms of market share value, helped by an improved distribution network and sales force dedicated to SMEs. It will also seek to replicate its good performance in the M2M and mobile wholesale market by expanding its wholesale fixed offering.
Looking at the financial objectives, Bouygues’ service revenues should reach more than EUR 7 billion in 2026, from around EUR 4.9 billion expected in 2020. The company is guiding for an EBITDA after leases result of around EUR 2.5 billion, up from EUR 1.5 billion projected for 2020, while the EBITDA after leases margin is forecast to remain broadly stable at 31 percent in 2023, to then reach around 35 percent in 2026.
Bouygues anticipates that its 2020 free cash flow will stand at EUR 250 million, down from just over EUR 300 million reported in 2019. By 2026, this should increase to around EUR 600 million, partly thanks to lower capex-related costs compared to previous years.
