The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.
(Questions from industry analysts are provided in full, but answers are omitted - download the transcript to see the full question-and-answer session)
Question: Sylvia Pavlova Barker - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst
: A couple of questions, please, on growth. Maybe, first of all around the French growth. Could you maybe just comment if there's any kind of large
installations flowing through in Q3, or if there's anything else that might be kind of lumpier at all? Or are you just seeing strong growth across the
(inaudible)?
(inaudible) in Germany, would you just comment, what is the price versus volume balance? And then final question on the U.K. You said you lost
around EUR 6 million in the first half. What do you expect the loss to be in the U.K. in the second half of this year?
Question: Sylvia Pavlova Barker - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst
: Sorry, just to clarify, that will be for the full year, you'll be going like EUR 2 million to EUR 3 million?
Question: Sylvia Pavlova Barker - JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst
: Okay. And the overall restructuring cost that you incurred this year?
Question: Nicolas Tabor - MainFirst Bank AG, Research Division - Analyst
: So the first one would be to have some more details on what you mean by amplified cost reductions in the U.K. I remember you were talking about
200 people layoffs, around 10% of the workforce. What is it now? What are the new steps you are taking to adjust the cost to the new revenue
base? And then in terms of the Ziut turnaround, why is it slower than expected? What's new there? And has the growth slowed in Q3 in the
Netherlands?
And then my third question would be on the Flamanville EPR contract, should we expect the phasing of the contract to be pushed back to a later
date on which you already have some visibility for us to have -- let's say, see the impacts in the modeling?
Question: Nicolas Tabor - MainFirst Bank AG, Research Division - Analyst
: Okay. And if I can ask one last question. Regarding the U.K., I think I remember you were saying that most of your clients were spending the lower
end of the framework agreements you have with them. Does that mean that the -- there is very little downside going forward since the acceleration
of the decline we saw in Q3 for next year? Or is there some moving forward, so we're not seeing that could mean that we could see some further
high level of decline next year?
Question: Peter Testa - One Investments S.A.G.L. - Analyst
: Three questions, please. The first one is just on Germany, if you could give some understanding inside your continuing operations, are you excluding
the disposed or to be disposed operations? What your hiring growth is like? And what sort of engineer hour utilization trend that you've seen
Question: Peter Testa - One Investments S.A.G.L. - Analyst
:
Question: Peter Testa - One Investments S.A.G.L. - Analyst
: And on the net hiring, can you give some understanding of what the net hiring has been like in the continuing operations year-over-year in
Germany?
Question: Peter Testa - One Investments S.A.G.L. - Analyst
: Okay. And then the second question was just on France. You have your municipal elections coming up in early 2020. And I was wondering whether
you'd seen any sort of negative impact of that prior or expected one early next year. And then looking after that, any positive impact, because I
know the municipal are important, local customers?
Question: Peter Testa - One Investments S.A.G.L. - Analyst
: And then the third question, please, is just on France again. You've been working on with a different organizational structure, more vertical
organizational structure nationwide. I was wondering if you could give some sort of sense as to what impact you see that happening on growth
rate or -- and/or pipeline as you go into 2020.
Question: Christophe Chaput - ODDO BHF Corporate & Markets, Research Division - Analyst
: Christophe Chaput from ODDO, 3 questions for me. Could you give us some insight about the leverage. I mean, the net-debt-to- [EBITA] ratio at
the end of 2019, please? The second one is acquisition in 2020. Should we expect as well as 2019 more or less EUR 200 million of sales acquired or
could it be a little bit more than that? And the last one is a follow-up on Laurent question. So you gave us, let's say, the 5G confidence, let's say, for
2020 and more than that, '21. Could you remind us for the 4G, for example, what kind of normative sales do you expect -- should you -- did you
experience, sorry, during the last year. I don't know if it's comparable, but just kind of a normative sales regarding this technology.
Question: Christophe Chaput - ODDO BHF Corporate & Markets, Research Division - Analyst
: And regarding acquisition in 2020?
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