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| Bouygues plans to hire 18,500 new employees; 8,000 in France France-based Bouygues, one of Europe's top construction companies, said that it had another excellent year in terms of both sales and profit in 2006. Full-year 2006 sales amounted to 26.4 billion euros, up 10%. Operating profit rose by 8% to 1, 877 million euros. Net profit stood at 1,246 million euros, 50% higher than in 2005. Bouygues' three construction businesses posted a sharp increase in current operating margin. As forecast, the popular new Neo and Exprima offers, released on 1 March 2006, impacted Bouygues Telecom's EBITDA margin, which stood at 29.3%, down 2.6 points on 2005. TF1's current operating margin (down 2.2 points) was driven down by the costs related to the Football World Cup. Bouygues said the board will ask the annual general meeting of 26 April 2007 to approve the payment of a dividend of 1.20 euros per share, an increase of 33%. Bouygues' construction businesses reported very strong commercial activity in 2006. Bouygues Construction's order intakes rose by 38%, Bouygues Immobilier's reservations climbed by 31% and Colas' order book was up 18% at end-December 2006. Bouygues' sales target for 2007 is 28.6 billion euros, up 8%. The group plans to hire 18,500 new employees worldwide, including 8,000 in France, in 2007. write your comments about the article :: © 2007 Construction News :: home page |