Bouygues S.A. is a French engineering group headquartered in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France. Bouygues is listed on the Euronext Paris exchange and is a blue chip in the CAC 40 stock market index. The company was founded in 1952 by Francis Bouygues and has been led by his son Martin Bouygues since 1989. Martin's older brother, Olivier Bouygues, is a board member.[3]
The group specialises in construction (Colas Group and Bouygues Construction), real estate development (Bouygues Immobilier), media (TF1 Group), and telecommunications (Bouygues Telecom).
History
The company was founded by Francis Bouygues in 1952.[4] In 1970 Bouygues became listed on the Paris Stock Exchange.[4] In 1985 and 1986, Bouygues acquired road construction groups Screg, Sacer, and Colas;[5] later reorganised as Colas Group.[4][6] In 1987 the company started operating the television channel TF1[4] and in 1988 Bouygues moved into its new head office, the Challenger complex, in Saint-Quentin en Yvelines.[4] In 1996 the company launched Bouygues Télécom[4] and in 2006 the company acquired 23.26% of Alstom.[4][7] In 2010, through its subsidiary Nerem Telecom, Bouygues also acquired HGT Telecom for $170 million from Henri Benezra and his brother Avi.[8]
In 2014, consecutively to Alstom's cession of its Energy activities to General Electric, Bouygues granted a call option to the French government, allowing it to acquire a maximum of 20% of Alstom, currently owned by the group.[9] In May 2018, the company purchased the Australian construction company A. W. Edwards.[10]
In December 2019, Bouygues became a shareholder in Flying Whales, a French company developing rigid-structure airships for heavy-lift transport as part of a consortium of industrial investors including Groupe ADP and Air Liquide.[11][12]
In 2021, Bouygues acquired the technical services business, Equans from Engie in a transaction worth €7.1bn.[13][14]
Business structure
The company carries out the following businesses:[15]
Construction
Telecoms - Media
Transportation
Technical services
- Bouygues Construction (100% share): construction, public works, energy & services, with a presence in 80 countries worldwide
- Colas Group (96.8% share): roadworks, construction, railways and maintenance
- Bouygues Immobilier (100% share): residential, corporate, commercial and hotel real estate and urban development, property development
- Bouygues Télécom (90.5% share): mobile phone and fixed line operator
- TF1 Group (43.7% share): audiovisual group; with TF1 and 9 other TV channels.
Financial data
Source : Bouygues[1]
Major construction projects
Bouygues has been involved in many major construction projects including
Head office
The Bouygues head office is located at 32 Avenue Hoche in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. The American architect Kevin Roche worked on this building, as well as the previous head office location, the Challenger complex in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. This complex, situated in a 30 ha tract in Guyancourt, is now occupied by Bouygues Construction, one of the group's subsidiaries.[41][42]
Group and values
Controversies
Bid rigging
In September 2023 Bouygues Construction Expertises Nucléaires (BCEN) was fined €6.2 million after the French competition regulator found them guilty, along with five other companies, of bid rigging over tenders for work at the Marcoule nuclear site.[45]
Bouygues (UK) Ltd. v Dahl-Jensen (UK) Ltd.
In this UK construction adjudication matter, the company's UK subsidiary had terminated the employment of its mechanical sub-contractor, Dahl-Jensen (UK). The adjudicator made a mistake in calculating outstanding payments due to Dahl-Jensen, which led to a Court of Appeal ruling in 2002 which stated that "... when an Adjudicator makes an error in calculating an amount payable to a party, the effect of which is to pay monies which are not due under the contract, that decision would not be void provided the Adjudicator had answered the issue that has been asked of him.[46]"
Flamanville
Further reading
References
- Annual Report 2021 Bouygues, retrieved 15 March 2022^
- Bouygues in brief Bouygues, retrieved 15 March 2022^
- Olivier Bouygues Forbes, retrieved 2023-09-27^