The Bouygues Group, founded by Francis Bouygues in 1952, has been run by Martin Bouygues, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, since 1989.Initially focused on the building sector in the Paris area, the Bouygues group rapidly extended its scope to include property development and industrial pre-casting, operating throughout France via its regional subsidiaries.

The 1970s saw Bouygues' first listing on the Paris Stock Exchange, its break into the civil works market (Parc des Princes stadium) and the creation of Bouygues Offshore (energy-related service) and Maison Bouygues (catalogue homes).

During the 1980s, Bouygues consolidated its position as a contractor and embarked on an ambitious diversification strategy into service activities.

• Prestigious projects were carried out both abroad (University of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, Lagos thermal power plant in Nigeria, Bubiyan Bridge in Kuwait) and in France (Charles de Gaulle Airport Terminal II, the Orsay museum, Ile de Ré Bridge, the Grande Arche at La Défense).

• In 1984, the Group acquired Saur, a water supply company established mainly in rural France.

• In 1986, Bouygues became world leader in the Construction sector with the acquisition of France's largest roadworks group (Colas, Screg and Sacer).

• In 1987, Bouygues became operator of France's newly-privatised leading television channel TF1.

The 1990s witnessed the successful expansion of construction activities on the international front…

• In the Construction sector, the Group successfully redeployed its activities abroad, which now account for more than half of sales in this business area. Major contracts were signed in France (French National Library, Stade de France, Normandy bridge, Avignon viaducts) and abroad (Hassan II Great Mosque in Casablanca, Hong Kong Tung Tong Bypass, Stadium and Extension to the Convention Centre, Sydney metro, presidential complexes in Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, motorways in Croatia, Hungary and South Africa, Beirut Seafront Redevelopment, Groene Hart Tunnel in the Netherlands, Rostock Tunnel in Germany, various PFI contracts in the UK).

• Colas, the world's leading roadworks group, is pursuing its development strategy, principally in North America through the acquisition of several companies.

• The Property branch has been benefiting from the market recovery since the end of 1997

… and the growth of Service activities.

• Bouygues and Saur acquired the Saint-Gobain subsidiary Cise (1997), thus creating France's third-largest utilities management group.

• Bouygues Telecom, a company controlled by Bouygues and which brings together major French, Italian and German stockholders, launched its mobile phone services under the DCS 1800 standard (29 May 1996). It achieved nationwide coverage in record time and its offering is enjoying success unparalleled in Europe, with over 6 million customers.

• TF1, in association with major partners, launched the digital platform Télévision Par Satellite (TPS) in December 1996, which now numbers over a million subscribers. It is developing several reference thematic channels including Eurosport, the leading pan-European channel, wholly owned by TF1 since January 2001; LCI, the leading round-the-clock news channel, created in 1994, and Odyssée. In 2001, it is still Europe's leading general-interest channel in terms of audience.

Today, Bouygues is a diversified industrial group with a strong corporate culture. 

• Its business activities are Telecom-media with Telecommunications (Bouygues Telecom) and Media (TF1), Services with Utilities management (Saur) and Construction, embracing Building/civil works (Bouygues Construction), Roads (Colas) and Property (Bouygues Immobilier).

• Established in 80 countries, the Bouygues group has a total workforce of over 120,000. In 2000, its sales amounted to 19 billion euros, of which 7 billion euros generated outside France.

• Bouygues, listed on the Paris Stock Exchange - prime market - is included in the CAC 40 index. At 31 December 2000, its market capitalisation amounted to 16.3 billion euros.

Building is the core business of the Bouygues Group, created in 1952 by Francis Bouygues. In 1972, Bouygues successfully entered the civil works market when it built the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris, then the offshore market (Bouygues Offshore was started in 1974). After the acquisition of the Screg group (Colas, Sacer, etc.) in 1986 and at a time when Bouygues was branching into new service activities (Saur, TF1, Bouygues Telecom), the 1990s saw an upsurge in the building and civil works business, mainly outside France. High-prestige projects were completed abroad (e.g. the Hassan II Mosque in Morocco, the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Hong Kong, motorways in Hungary and Croatia) and in France (including the pont de Normandie bridge, the Grande Arche complex and the Stade de France stadium). In June 1999, the General Meeting of Bouygues SA stockholders approved the spin-off of the building and civil works activities, housed within Bouygues Construction. In December 1999, Bouygues sold 100% of the ETDE capital and 51% of the Bouygues Offshore capital to Bouygues Construction.

A world leader

Present in seventy countries, Bouygues Construction is developing through a network of subsidiaries that are well entrenched on their own markets (such as Bouygues UK, Losinger in Switzerland, Basil Read in South Africa, Dragages et Travaux Publics Hong Kong, etc.) and through specialist companies like SODEARIF and CIRMAD (packaged development), VSL (post-tensioning), Intrafor (special foundations). Its sales have risen by a third over the last five years, mainly as a result of internal growth, and are expected to reach over 9 billion euros by 2005. Bouygues Construction is implementing a growth strategy with two main thrusts: international expansion and the development of a stronger high-added-value offering.

International expansion

Bouygues Construction is established in five continents. Operations outside France tripled in ten years and have risen by 80% since 1995. They represented the greater part of sales in 2000 and are likely to account for 70% within 5 years. The group operates mainly in Asia-Pacific, the European Union, Central and Eastern Europe, and Africa. This forward momentum is generated by reinforcing local operations (e.g. the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Hong Kong, South Africa, etc.), gaining a foothold in new geographic areas, and forming partnerships with local companies.

Some of the largest projects now underway include the tunnels of Groene Hart in the Netherlands and Rostock in Germany, the Barnet and West Middlesex hospitals, the planned Home Office in Great Britain, a LNG import terminal in Spain, the STMicroelectronics technological centre in Switzerland, an oil terminal and pipeline in Russia, two tunnels, the headquarters of the television channel TVB in Hong Kong, the Girassol oil field in Angola, etc.

Development of a stronger client offering

Bouygues Construction is a global operator that offers its clients a full range of services all along the project value chain: analysis of needs, financial and technical engineering, packaged development, design, design-build, turnkey projects, construction, maintenance, operation, etc. Its full service offering takes advantage of the synergies between its five operational units. As part of close partnership with its clients, Bouygues Construction gets involved very early on in large-scale or complex projects of a highly technical nature involving tight deadlines, packaged development proposals, project financing arrangements or purpose-specific undertakings "starting from scratch". The annual average for the ten largest contracts has doubled in ten years (rising from about 75 million euros in 1991 to over 150 million euros in 2000), illustrating the capacity of its teams to manage large-scale projects.

Bouygues Construction, which has a workforce of 40,000, generated sales in 2000 of 6.2 billion euros, up 17%, and recorded an increase in orders.

*This information kindly supplied by Bouygues Construction

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