Earnings call transcript: Pluxee NV beats Q3 2025 revenue forecasts

Pluxee NV reported its Q3 2025 earnings, showcasing a notable revenue beat. The company achieved revenues of €310 million, surpassing expectations with an impressive 11.1% organic growth. Despite this, the stock experienced a slight decline, with a pre-market drop of 2.33% and a subsequent decrease of 0.96% in the latest trading session. The earnings per share (EPS) came in at €0.68, aligning with forecasts.

Key Takeaways

• Pluxee's Q3 revenue exceeded forecasts by 12.5%, reaching €310 million.
• The company's stock fell by 2.33% in pre-market trading.
• Strategic acquisitions and partnerships drive growth.
• Strong performance in Latin America contrasts with challenges in Europe.
• Fiscal 2025 objectives reaffirmed, with expectations for softer Q4 growth.

Company Performance

Pluxee NV demonstrated robust performance in Q3 2025, driven by strategic acquisitions and partnerships, including the acquisition of MyBenefits in Romania and ongoing integration efforts in Spain and Brazil. The company reported a total business volume of €5.7 billion for the quarter and €18.8 billion for the first nine months, highlighting its strong market presence. However, macroeconomic challenges in Mexico and parts of Europe posed some headwinds.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: €310 million, up 11.1% year-over-year
• Earnings per share: €0.68, meeting expectations
• Nine-month total revenue: €945 million, up 10.9% year-over-year
• Float revenue: €39 million, showing 10.8% organic growth

Earnings vs. Forecast

Pluxee NV's Q3 revenue of €342 million significantly outpaced the forecast of €304 million, resulting in a revenue surprise of 12.5%. The EPS of €0.68 met market expectations, maintaining consistency with previous quarters.

Market Reaction

Despite the positive revenue surprise, Pluxee's stock experienced a decline of 2.33% in pre-market trading, closing at €16.75. In subsequent trading, the stock further decreased by 0.96%, closing at €15.66. This movement contrasts with the broader market trends and may reflect investor concerns over future growth prospects.

Outlook & Guidance

Pluxee reaffirmed its fiscal 2025 objectives, targeting low double-digit organic revenue growth and a 150 basis points extension in recurring EBITDA margin. The company anticipates softer growth in Q4 compared to Q3, while maintaining its fiscal 2026 financial objectives. Continued focus on mergers and acquisitions is expected, with a disciplined approach to integration.

Executive Commentary

Aurélien Sonnet, CEO of Pluxee, emphasized the resilience of the company's business model, stating, "Our performance this quarter highlights the resilience of our business model." He also noted the multiple growth drivers benefiting the company and expressed confidence in achieving financial and strategic objectives.

Risks and Challenges

• Macroeconomic pressures in Mexico and Europe could impact growth.
• Regulatory changes in key markets like France and Brazil may affect operations.
• Market saturation in certain regions could limit expansion opportunities.
• Currency fluctuations pose risks to international revenue streams.
• Competitive pressures from other engagement solution providers.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts inquired about the progress of the strategic partnership with Santander, which now involves 20% of Pluxee's sales team promoting its solutions. Questions also focused on potential future M&A opportunities and the stabilization of take-up rates around 5%. Regulatory discussions in France and Brazil were also addressed, highlighting the company's proactive approach to navigating these challenges.

Full transcript - Pluxee NV (PLX) Q3 2025:

Conference Operator: Good morning. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Pluxee Third Quarter 2025 Fiscal Results Presentation. After the presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions by pressing star and one at any time. I advise you that this conference is being recorded today on Thursday, July 3rd, 2025. At this time, I would like to hand the conference over to Ms. Pauline Bireaud. Please go ahead, Madam Head of Investor Relations.

Pauline Bireaud, Head of Investor Relations, Pluxee: Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us today for Pluxee Third Quarter Fiscal 2025 Revenue Call. I hope you have all a great start to the summer season. I'm Pauline, Head of Investor Relations for Pluxee. Today, I'm joined with our CEO, Aurélien Sonnet, and CFO, Stéphane Lhopiteau. Before we begin, let me walk you through today's agenda. Aurélien will start with the highlights and the key figures for the third quarter of fiscal 2025, with an overview of our business performance, highlighting some of our key achievements of the quarter. Stéphane will then take you through our financial performance in detail. Before Aurélien comes back to conclude on our outlook for fiscal 2025 and 2026. With that, I will hand over to Aurélien.

Aurélien Sonnet, CEO, Pluxee: Thank you, Pauline, and good morning, everyone. I'm very pleased to be with you today to share the key achievements and milestones that Pluxee delivered in the third quarter of fiscal 2025. Let's start with our key highlights on the next slide. Q3 marked another solid quarter. We maintained a strong focus on execution and continued to consistently deploy our strategic roadmap across the group. Let's start with revenue growth. Performance came in line with expectations, both across regions and business segments, confirming the strength and resilience of our balanced business model fueled by multiple growth drivers. On the commercial front, momentum remains strong. Our sales engine has continued to deliver. We are seeing a steady pace of new client wins and a sustained net retention rate above 100%.

This reflects not only the attractiveness and relevance of our solutions, but also the strength of the relationships that we have built with our clients. Now, on the execution of our M&A roadmap. First, we are pleased to announce the signing in Romania of the acquisition of MyBenefits, a fast-growing company recognized for its innovative technology that supports flexible and personalized employee benefits solutions. We are also making solid progress on the integration of COBI in Spain and Beneficio Facile in Brazil. Lastly, the strategic partnership with Santander is now running at full speed. We see strong commercial traction and encouraging results from our joint go-to-market approach. All in all, the performance delivered in the first nine months makes us confident in delivering on our financial and strategic objectives for fiscal 2025. Let's now look at our revenues performance in the next slide.

In the third quarter, total revenues reached EUR 310 million, reflecting a solid +11.1% organic growth in line with expectations. This performance was driven by a rather strong in-operating revenue and slightly stronger-than-expected float revenue, despite a progressive deceleration quarter after quarter. Over the first nine months of fiscal 2025, total revenue amounted to EUR 945 million, up +10.9% organically. The performance delivered so far demonstrates our ability to generate consistent top-line growth while navigating and absorbing quarter-to-quarter volatility across geographies. This puts us on track to deliver on our low double-digit organic growth target for the full year. Let's now turn to our commercial trajectory, which continued to show strong momentum in the third quarter. Starting with new development, over the first nine months of the fiscal year, we signed EUR 1.1 billion in annualized business volume, in line with our full-year target of EUR 1.3 billion.

This strong performance reflects the relevance of our client value proposition and the effective execution of our go-to-market strategy across countries, with SMEs remaining a key growth driver. Moving on to net retention, it came in at 101%, consistently above the 100% target by fiscal 2026. This figure excludes the one-off impact from the purchasing power program launched in Belgium at the end of calendar 2023. I will come back later on the various drivers of the net retention. For now, I just wanted to highlight the contribution of the additional increase in sales value over the first nine months, representing approximately EUR 900 million, in line with the trend of last year. Altogether, this means that we have already delivered close to 75% of our EUR 3 billion cumulative objective for fiscal year 2024 to 2026.

Now, let's take a closer look at some concrete examples of how our commercial strategy is translating into strong delivery on the ground. In the third quarter, we have remained very active on the new client acquisition front, thanks to a combination of direct sales execution and the contribution of our strategic partnership. While some mid-to-large-size clients may have shown a tendency towards slightly longer decision-making cycles, business momentum has remained strong, with new client wins reaching EUR 1.1 billion over the first nine months, as previously mentioned. Let me share two concrete examples, starting with Brazil, where we made great progress in rolling out our exclusive distribution agreement with Santander. First, all integration and transition phases have been successfully executed, and the volume migration is now fully complete.

Second, the collaboration is running at full speed, with the share of Santander sales teams having sold the Pluxee solution rising from 14% to more than 20% in just one quarter. Finally, we are seeing a strong commercial ramp-up, particularly through joint key account wins and deeper SME penetration, further reinforcing our market leadership in the country. Now, in India, our consultative selling approach has continued to gain strong traction, powered by our compelling multi-benefit offering and disciplined commercial execution. As a result, we secured key B2B wins, adding over 35,000 new end users to our platform in a single quarter, which has allowed us to further expand our presence in this large and fast-growing market. Let's now focus on our net retention rate. Our solid business performance is also reflected in our net retention rate, which remains above 100%, excluding the PPP program in Belgium.

This is supported by, first, I mean, our high client retention, with a notable 20 basis points improvement year on year, and second, our effective client portfolio management, driven by a robust strength of increasing sales value over the first nine months. This strong performance enabled us to more than offset the impact of the macroeconomic environment on our end user portfolio growth, particularly in Continental Europe and Mexico. To illustrate the importance of strong client engagement, let me share the example of our long-standing relationship with Škoda in the Czech Republic. Since the very beginning of the contract in 2019, we've been constantly by our client's side, which has enabled us to unlock significant cross-sell and upsell opportunities. In response to Škoda's employee retention challenges, we have progressively implemented a broader benefit structure to address their evolving employee needs.

This includes solutions such as culture, travel, pharmacy, and even more recently, maternity support, while also advising the company on an attractive annual contribution per employee. Over the past six years, we have multiplied annual business volume by more than 40 times, and today, over 37,000 active users benefit from our tailored multi-benefit solution. This client journey is a great reflection of how we continue to grow and innovate alongside our clients, adapting our solutions to meet their evolving needs over time. To sum up, Q3 marked another quarter of solid commercial momentum and top-line growth, keeping the group firmly on track to achieve its full-year target. With this, I will now hand over to Stéphane to walk us through the financial figures.

Stéphane Lhopiteau, CFO, Pluxee: Thank you, Aurélien. Good morning, everyone. It's a pleasure to be with you today to present in more detail our top-line performance for Q3 2025, starting with the business volumes issued on page number 11. In Q3 2025, total business volume issued, or BVI, reached EUR 5.7 billion, bringing the cumulative figure for the first nine months to EUR 18.8 billion. Focusing first on employee benefits, we recorded a plus 6.7% organic growth in Q3 and a plus 7.8% over the first nine months, or plus 9.0% if we exclude the one-off effect related to the purchasing power program in Belgium. As expected, employee benefits BVI growth remained geographically more weighted towards Latin America and the rest of the world, while Continental Europe showed contrasted dynamics.

If southern Europe stood out with strong commercial traction, this was sampled, as Aurélien mentioned, by the impact of macroeconomic headwinds, notably on end users' portfolio growth in some other European countries. Looking now at other products and services, which temporarily weighed on BVI growth this quarter, this line of service BVI reached EUR 1.2 billion in Q3 and EUR 4.7 billion over the first nine months, compared to EUR 1.4 billion and EUR 4.5 billion, respectively, in fiscal 2024. Momentum in public benefit was restored, particularly in Latin America, following the recovery of a large contract in Chile, but this was temporarily offset by phasing effects in ordering from two major contracts in Belgium and Romania. Let's now take a closer look at the key drivers behind the growth in employee benefits BVI over the first nine months on slide number 12.

As we just saw on the previous page, employee benefits BVI increased from EUR 13.8 billion to EUR 14.2 billion, representing again approximately EUR 400 million over the first nine months of the fiscal year. The +7.8% organic growth in employee benefits BVI was driven by a combination of factors. First, net retention contributed around EUR 200 million, supported by both strong client loyalties and higher average sales value across regions. This growth was fully offset by the base effect from last year's one-off purchasing power program in Belgium. Second, new client wins added up to EUR 1.1 billion over the first nine months, reflecting Pluxee's solid development trend, particularly among SMEs. The BVI bridge disclosed on the page also includes a positive scope effect of EUR 500 million coming from the integration of the recently closed deals and a negative impact of currency fluctuation, mainly related to Brazil, Turkey, and Mexico.

This continued BVI positive momentum has translated into total revenues growth on page number 13. In Q3 2025, total revenues reached EUR 310 million, up +11.1% organically and +4.3% on a reported basis. This brings our nine-month performance to +10.9% on an organic growth basis and +6.2% reported. Q3 2025 was indeed impacted by adverse currency effect, which brought a -10.3% impact on our total revenues reported growth, primarily due to the currency depreciation of the Brazilian real and the Turkish lira. While our float revenue natural edge, which usually offsets negative currency effects through higher interest rates, has worked at full strength in Brazil this quarter, this has not yet been the case in Turkey, but it is expected to start playing out from Q4 onwards now that interest rates have been raised again in Turkey.

Such negative foreign exchange impacts were partially compensated by a +3% scope effect, mainly related to the acquisition of Benefício Fácil as part of the partnership with Santander in Brazil and to the acquisition of COBEE in Spain and Benefício Fácil in Brazil. Excluding these currency and scope effects, total revenues organic performance in Q3 was driven by, first, solid low double-digit growth in operating revenue reaching EUR 270 million, up +11.1% organically, supported notably by the easing of base effects in Employee Benefits as faced in Q2 2025, and second, slightly stronger than expected float revenue reaching EUR 39 million, up +10.8% organically. While this low double-digit organic growth of total revenues was more regionally balanced than in Q2, Latin America and the rest of the world continued to stand out as key contributors, as we will see later in the presentation.

Before that, I would like to take you through the underlying trends behind operating revenue by line of service on page 14. As just mentioned, we recorded EUR 270 million in operating revenue in Q3 2025, reflecting a +11.1% organic growth. This momentum was primarily driven by employee benefits, which delivered +12.8% organic growth this quarter. It resulted from a robust trend in business volume, combined with an improving take-up rate year on year, in line with fiscal 2024 full-year level. Operating revenue in other products and services showed a minor improvement in Q3, reaching EUR 36 million reported, up +0.5% organically. The positive trend in public benefit programs, notably supported by the regaining of a large public benefit contract in Chile, was partly compensated by the ongoing portfolio rationalization in the U.K. and the U.S.

Beyond this performance by line of business, let's now turn to geographic mix and explore how operating revenue organic growth was achieved across regions on slide number 15. As expected, operating revenue organic growth in Q3 and over the first nine months of fiscal 2025 was more weighted toward Latin America and the rest of the world. Starting with Latin America, Q3 2025 organic growth reached +13.6%, slightly increasing compared to Q2 and a clear improvement compared to Q1. This performance reflects notably the strong commercial execution in Brazil, further supported by the Santander partnership now operating at full speed and the recovery of a major public benefit contract in Chile. Meanwhile, Mexico's economic environment continued to face pressure stemming from the impact of U.S. economic policies.

Overall, this performance is fully aligned with the trend we previously highlighted, and we expect momentum in LATAM to continue in the coming quarters. Moving to continental Europe, Q3 2025 organic growth reached +8.8%, marking a rebound after +1.8% in Q2, in line with our anticipation. That said, we anticipate base effects to impact again the fourth quarter, given that Q4 2024 operating revenue growth reached +12.7% last year in the region. This should be considered when evaluating continental Europe's growth outlook for Q4, alongside the softening of macroeconomic conditions in the region. Lastly, in the rest of the world, Q3 2025 organic growth reached +11.0%, primarily driven by strong business volume momentum in countries such as Turkey, India, or the Philippines.

Turkey remained a key growth contributor, but the country is also facing increasing base effects due to the exceptionally high growth achieved in the recent years. Lastly, we have also continued over the quarter the repositioning of our business toward core employee engagement solutions in the U.K. and the U.S. Overall, in terms of operating revenue for all regions and after a strong performance in Q3, we anticipate a softer Q4. In fact, the pattern of organic growth between Q3 and Q4 is expected to mirror the phasing observed between Q1 and Q2 in the first half of the current fiscal year. Before I hand it back to Aurélien, I have also one last page about the still strong float revenue dynamics on page number 16. In Q3 2025, float revenue grew slightly ahead of expectation, increasing by +10.8% organically to reach EUR 39 million.

Over the quarter, float revenue organic growth was fueled by a larger float baseline on the balance sheet, supported by the continued increase in business volume issued and by an overall stronger investment yield year on year. Looking at the first nine months, float revenue has reached EUR 123 million, growing plus 14.3% organically. As expected, the organic growth pace has gradually leveled off compared to fiscal 2024 and compared to the first two quarters of this year. That is mainly because interest rates peaked last year in most of our markets, especially in Continental Europe. That said, we continue to benefit overall from higher rates in some countries, especially in Brazil and Turkey, as well as from a fragile and disciplined investment strategy tailored to local conditions. As a consequence, we now expect float revenue organic growth to land in the low double-digit territory for the full year.

Now, I will hand over to Aurélien for the final outlook section, combining our expectation in both operating and float revenue trends. Thank you, Stéphane. In summary, this quarter's performance confirms that we are on track to achieve our full-year ambitions. As such, we are confident in reiterating our fiscal 2025 key financial objectives, which are, first, low double-digit total revenue organic growth, and second, plus 150 basis points of recurring EBITDA margin extension calculated at constant fiscal 2024 exchange rates. In addition, we keep our fiscal 2026 financial objectives unchanged. To conclude, I would say that in an environment increasingly marked by macroeconomic challenges, our performance this quarter and more broadly over the past nine months highlights the resilience of our business model, supported by recurring revenue streams, a broad geographic footprint, and a disciplined execution of our strategy.

With that, we are now with Stéphane, happy to take your questions. This is the conference operator. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on the touch-tone telephone. To remove yourself from the question queue, please press star and two. Please pick up the receiver when asking questions. The first question comes from André Gillard of Deutsche Bank. Good morning. Congratulations on these solid revenues. First question about regulation. Could you give us some more visibility on what is going on in France with the recent announcement and where we are in Brazil? Second question, could you give us some more color about the dynamic on SMEs and big corporates and give us maybe slightly more visibility on the weight of these two segments? Third question about M&A.

You announced this morning the acquisition of a company in Romania. Could you give us some more color about the weight in terms of revenues, profitability of the recent acquisitions you've been doing, and quantify maybe the spending on M&A you've been doing this year and maybe give us some more color about what you plan to do in terms of re-leveraging? Thank you very much. Thank you, André, for your three questions. I will start with the regulation to give you an update. With France first. Last week, the Minister Véronique Louvalier announced the main measures for the meal benefits reform. First, at Pluxee, we have welcomed the government's roadmap.

We believe that it does support the modernization of the system by better aligning the practices and the expectations of the key stakeholders, starting with merchants and employees, while still preserving the core purpose of the meal voucher, which is to enable the employees to enjoy a healthy meal during the break. Coming on the main measures that were part of the announcements, there is a full digitization by January 2027, the continued eligibility of what we qualify as non-immediately consumable food products. On this topic, we will continue to engage with governments in order to try and introduce a dual spending limit that could be differentiated by merchant category. It would be a way for us to help restore a good balance between supermarkets and restaurants.

Another strong measure is the implementation of the transparency charter that will provide merchants with a common framework to clearly understand and compare the cost associated to the transaction. That is the main measure contained in the announcement. In terms of political calendar, for the moment, there is no clarity on the legislative vehicle nor the calendar for adoption. What was said is that the draft of law could be submitted to the Parliament either this fall or between this fall and next spring. This is for France. Now, Brazil, just to remind you, over the last months, the macro environment in Brazil has been marked by a re-emerging higher level of inflation. In this context, it puts the Lula government under strong pressure to find solutions to reduce the food inflation and the access to food for consumers.

In this context, we remain in constant dialogue with the government to discuss ways to enhance the employee benefit system in Brazil that could definitely contribute to address this challenge. Our main common objective, both for the government and issuers such as Pluxee, is really to ensure the sustainability of the system over the long term. To be more precise on the interoperability and portability topic, the decree required for the implementation is still pending. As you know, we are actively engaged in ongoing discussions to establish the appropriate framework. For the moment, nothing was announced. Regarding possible other measures, we are constantly monitoring the situation as we speak. This is for the regulatory part. In terms of development, you were asking about the development to give you a bit more of color.

First, with the EUR 1.1 billion over the nine months, our new client wins have remained very strong. Given the robust pipelines that we've developed, we think that we are well on track to reach our target of over EUR 1.3 billion of new business on fiscal year 2025. Interestingly enough, this momentum has been partly driven by an increasing contribution from SMEs. This is true across markets. After nine months, we have already surpassed the 30% target that we set for fiscal year 2026. Regarding mid to large accounts, as I mentioned, we've seen some loosening in the signing process in certain geographies that we associate to macro-related caution. Again, the overall pace of winning remains robust. Regarding M&A and the impact from the MyBenefits acquisition, Stéphane, and the total envelope.

The MyBenefits acquisition in Romania is a little bit like what we did with Benefício Fácil in Brazil. This is a bolt-on acquisition with a company that we have been partnered with for some years, so a company that we know very well, which means that the integration of this company, we have been able to anticipate for it. This company is going to bring us a scalable tech asset, which is going to help us to reinforce the personalized experience of our consumer and our clients in Romania. It is going to be a highly synergistic acquisition. We are talking here about a few million, in terms of financial stakes. This is really a bolt-on and a few million of additional revenue, but with strong synergies. This acquisition is going to be accretive to the EBITDA margin starting the first year.

Very, very much like what we did with Benefício Fácil a few weeks ago in Brazil. In terms of re-leveraging, considering that you have a comfortable cash net position? In terms of what you said? In terms of re-leveraging. You mean in terms of credit metrics? No, I mean the use of cash you have on your balance sheet. Could you consider some bigger acquisitions and/or some return to shareholders, to be clear? We have—sorry, okay, okay. We have a strong potential M&A pipeline, but still keeping a very disciplined and targeted approach. There might be some additional bolt-on or maybe a little bit of bigger size acquisition considered going forward, but nothing that is to be announced shortly, we will see. We are still working on this lever. This M&A lever for us is important.

This is a key complement to organic growth, being able to seize M&A opportunities so that we can then accelerate further in organic growth going forward thanks to synergies. Yes, we have a strong pipeline of potential acquisition of different sizes. Okay, thank you. The next question is from Pluxee Gondhale of Barclays. Hi, thanks for taking my questions. Firstly, on the net retention rate, it was 101% at Q3 compared to 103% at full year last year. Can you just help explain the moving parts of this gradual decline in retention, apart from understanding a part of that is coming from face value revisions, which are moderated, but the other two parts, which is cross-selling and then client churn? Can you just explain how that has trended over the first nine months?

And then secondly, you just suggested on Brazil regulation that topic of interoperability and portability, it is still pending. Can you please confirm that it is still under discussion, or it is just been sort of pushed back a bit given the other priorities the government has? Thank you. Okay, probably. Regarding maybe your second question, indeed, I think that the political agenda in Brazil has been a bit challenged recently, but for measures that have nothing to see with our business. I think discussions are still ongoing. I mean, anyway, it is not pushed back to any time. We are still expecting decision in the coming weeks, hopefully. Regarding your question on the net retention performance, again, I mean, I would like to insist on the weight of the end-user portfolio growth in this performance because, and you said it, the net retention remains solid.

It is fair to say that the end-user portfolio growth has been gradually weakening, showing for the first time this quarter a slight overall negative contribution. A bit, it is very limited in absolute terms. When we look more precisely on the trend, I would say that these trends mainly reflect the deterioration of the macroeconomic environment in certain continental Europe, as mentioned by Stéphane, for instance, France and Romania, where, I mean, we see some corporates starting to freeze recruitment and adopting a more cautious approach to hiring. We have a very similar situation that emerged in Mexico a bit earlier, where ongoing U.S. trade policy continues to weigh on the manufacturing sector.

Nonetheless, the improved client loyalty, the stronger PUA trend in face value growth, and the continued resilience of our end-user portfolio growth in countries such as Brazil and Southern Europe have more than offset the negative impact from the end-user portfolio contraction elsewhere. Thanks for the cutoff. That's really helpful. The next question is from Estelle Winegrod of JP Morgan. Hi, good morning. One question on other products and services. You mentioned both temporary phasing effects in ordering from two contracts in Belgium and Romania, but also some sort of business repositioning in the U.K. and the U.S. Could you just clarify a little more exactly between the two what's happening for other and also the expected timeframe for that? Would you mind just giving us also maybe a split, I mean, within your 3.6% scope this quarter, the split between the three recent acquisitions? Thank you.

Stéphane, you want to take the first session, which is? On other products and services, I don't know. Instead, if your question was just on the second part, I'm going to elaborate a little bit on the two phasing effects first and then go into the details for the U.S. and U.K. The phasing effects we are referring to in Belgium and Romania related to, in Belgium, one program on which we received significant orders earlier in the year. This means that for Q3, the ordering was lower compared to the year before because we had a significant upside in Q2. The other contract is one contract in Romania for which the ordering is postponed to a later period, either in this year or in the next year, and with potentially lower amount.

In the U.S. and the U.K., these are countries which are more on reward and recognition solution than the pure employee benefits as we deliver them in many countries. We are now refocusing more on pure core engagement solution for our clients, rather than seeing that we are more closer to pure reward solution. This led us to exit a few contracts which weighed a little bit on the organic growth. At the same time, we also made the decision to change the management team. These are two countries where the Country Managing Directors were changed in the last weeks. Regarding the 3.6% scope effect in the quarter, these are fully related to the acquisition we have referred to with the acquisition of Ben as part of the Santander partnership in Brazil, being the biggest one, followed then by Cobee.

Beneficio Facile will be recorded as part of scope effect in the coming quarter because right now in Q3, it was a very, very small part of this scope effect. Mainly two-thirds of it, this is related to the Santander, one-third, one small third to Cobee, and the rest related to Beneficio Facile. Okay, thank you. The next question is from Hans Littnor of Jefferies. Yes, thanks. Got a couple of questions as well. Maybe just because you made this acquisition in Romania, it seems like a small bolt-on acquisition. Maybe you can remind us how big your business is there in Romania. And then a couple of other questions are in you talked about M&A already, but maybe you can just talk about what appetite for larger M&A you have, or should we continue to think that you will do a series of small bolt-on acquisitions?

A question on the take-up rate. Take-up rate had been improving throughout last year, and kind of I think expectations were that it will then level out. Where do you see take-up rate progressing from here? Thank you. That's maybe a follow-up then. Thank you. Stéphane, you want to answer? We do not disclose, and sorry about this, but we do not disclose the size of our countries. We do not communicate, but I can tell you that Romania is a big country for us. We have a leadership position in this country, so this is important for us to reinforce this leadership position with this kind of highly synergistic acquisition like the one we are making with MyBenefits.

Leading with your second question regarding M&A, of course, we might consider at some point some large M&A, as I was saying, or M&A potential pipeline is strong with many things we are looking at, but in a very disciplined way. The objective remains the same, and with a strong focus to be able to complement and extend our offering with engagement solution for our clients, while we are already very strong in terms of employee benefits. Engagement solution to support our clients retaining, getting strong commitment from our employees is an important focus for us. In terms of take rate, this take rate has improved a little bit versus the year before. Year on year, for the first nine months, we are delivering a plus 19 basis point improvement.

If you look at our take-up rate over the last years, over the last four to three years, we have improved it a little bit, but on the back of improvement of client commission, while at the same time, over this four to three years period, the merchant commission has been slightly reduced. This is really by improving overall the client commission that we've been able to increase it to something close to 5%. We are considering that this is a fair rate taking into account all the value we bring to clients, consumers, and of course, merchants. We do not intend to increase it. There are some potential mixed effects depending on the mix of our products. For example, you have in mind that our take-up rate is higher for gifts than for meal and food, for example.

Depending on the weight of our business and the way our product offering is going to evolve over time, there might have some additional impact on this take-up rate. We do not have a target to increase the take-up rate as it is. We consider it fair right now. Okay, thank you. Just maybe a follow-up here on looking at FY2026, you maintained the margin targets this year. You upgraded it, and the upgrade was probably mostly on better float expectations. Now, float to get to your low double-digit growth for float means actually Q4 will drop to probably low to mid-single-digit float growth. How should we think about next year in terms of the margin progression and the moving parts between the different businesses? We are confirming today our objective for next year.

This is true that in terms of float revenue, we are in a global environment in the world where interest rates are going down. Now, there are other engines in order to improve the float, which is in order to improve the float revenue, which is the float baseline on the balance sheet. We expect to go on delivering some growth in terms of business volume in the coming years with all the growth engines that Aurélien has gone through in the previous question. We will see, but so far, our target remains the same. We will come back to you with further details when we release our full year numbers in the end of October for more details about what is going to happen next year.

Maybe just to add on, because of course, I mean, we are not immune against the macroeconomic context, but our model is quite resilient. This is because we leverage a combination of key strengths. I would mention our diversified footprint, both geographically. We are present in 29 countries. The nature of our client portfolio, we are serving public, private clients, small, mid, and large-sized clients, as well as the broad exposure by sector of this client portfolio. We benefit from multiple growth drivers. We do have this natural edge against inflation through the increase of the face value and the currency risk through the float revenue. Last but not least, the essential nature of our solutions, because for clients, it remains key to retain and attract talent, especially in times of economic slowdown. That is why also it makes us confident. Thank you so much.

The next question is from Julian Richer of Kepler. Good morning, everyone. A couple of ones for me, if I may. The first one, if you can come back on the comments you made on Q4 being softer than Q3. If I understand it correctly, you said that the difference might be more or less similar to the one you posted in Q1 and Q2, I mean, Q2 being lower than Q1. If it is the same magnitude, it means that Q4 will be around 4% growth. Just want to confirm that and have your view on what is going to happen in 2026 because the exit rate of this year will be high single digit and not double digit.

The second thing, maybe I missed it or did not understand it correctly, but can you please give us a bit additional color in the float revenue evolution for next year based on the situation you are seeing today? Thank you. Regarding the exit rate for the next year, I think first of all, this is, I mean, I said it, the Q4 growth on operating revenue is going to be softer compared to what we have delivered in Q3. If you look at the difference between Q1 and Q2, yes, this is likely to be in the same order of magnitude in terms of operating revenue in between Q3 and Q4. I'm talking about operating revenue, total operating revenue for the group. Now, it's not going to be as low as you are saying.

If you do the math, you will notice that the difference does not give rise to such a low number. On this growth, I would like also to point out something that you should consider when you or the analysts are working on your expectation in terms of delivery for the full year. This is the impact of the foreign exchange fluctuation. We are currently facing strong headwinds in this field, which is due to Brazil. This has lasted for a few months now, and there has been a new change in Turkey. In this respect, we are going to be able to benefit from, and this is a link to the second part of your question, we are going to be able to benefit from higher interest rates in these two countries.

In Brazil, it took a bit of time before the selling rate was increased by the local authorities. The current selling rate is up to 15%. If you look at it, a few months ago, it was a little bit higher than 10%. We have been able to benefit from a strong increase in the selling rate. This is also what happened very recently in Turkey, even though it took some time for the Turkish authorities to decide to increase again the rates, but the rates have been increased. You should consider when you look at the fiscal year 2026 outlook that in terms of float revenue, of course, we suffer and we have to face situations where the interest rates are decreased by the local authorities. There are other countries like Brazil and Turkey where the rates are increasing.

We are also benefiting from our discipline and the drive strategy. In the last years, we have extended the maturity of our investment, which now is reaching something close to 11 months in average at the time of the subscription, or 7 months in terms of residual length of maturity. This means that we benefit from the yield of this portfolio every time there are some changes in the market. Again, this float revenue will be supported in the next year by this existing portfolio of investment. Just on fiscal year 2025, just to conclude, all in all, as Stéphane explained, we expect a pattern of organic growth between Q3 and Q4 to mirror the phasing observed between Q1 and Q2. Still, we remain fully confident in achieving our full year total revenue organic growth guidance. Okay, thank you.

The next question comes from Justin Forsythe of UBS. Thank you very much. Good morning, Aurélien and Stéphane. A few questions here for me. I just wanted to circle back on the point around Europe operating revenue growth in the quarter. Thinking about the number, I know you had the really hard comparison in fiscal 2Q there. It seems like, what is that, about a five-point acceleration despite a kind of much easier comparison. Just to be clear on exactly what the impacts within Europe are, is the two contracts that you spoke about in other products and then a bit of employment weakness in France. Is there something else there? I think you talked about offsets on the other direction, but in other geographies. Maybe how we should think about Europe growth going forward in the context of all these moving pieces.

I think you also noted a higher comparison base in Q4 as well. I wanted to talk a little bit about the France regulation as well being proposed. I guess my curiosity here is this seems to be taking quite a while. I mean, this was initially raised with the prior government, the Macron government, back in 2023. This government's been in place for, what, now over a year, it seems like. We're talking about now getting into 2026. I guess I'm curious why this seems to be taking so long. None of these proposals seem to be all that new. Do you think there's an appreciation of the challenges that this uncertainty brings to businesses in the voucher space? One further question on the dynamics there. I think it calls for the abolishment of the CNTR, that central voucher agency.

Do you expect that to have any impact on the way that you engage with the broader voucher scheme in France? Thank you. I will start with the French regulation. Thanks for your series of questions. Regarding the French regulation, I mean, actually, the government has not been put in place one year back. It's much more recent. This new government started in January. They've been working actively to come out with their list of measures that they shared last week. Again, we are welcoming this move because it's a positive move. Do they realize that it brings uncertainty as long as we don't have the reform being passed? I guess so. I guess so. After, they need to go through the political process, which means that a law needs to be voted by the Parliament.

It has to be presented to the Parliament. The Parliament has many, they do have a quite busy backlog of bills to be discussed and approved. That is why it is taking time. Again, I think that the French government is moving quite actively in order to come out with a final bill that will be passed as soon as possible. Regarding the impact on Europe, maybe, Stéphane, you want to take this one? The acceleration of the growth in continental Europe in Q3 compared to Q2 is due to some impact on Q2 and not on Q3. This is really what happened in Q2 at the time of the release of H1 numbers. I think we explained that in Q2, we had to face two main effects in continental Europe.

There was the impact of this purchasing power program in Belgium the year before, which had generated—this was a one-off. These had generated strong growth in Q2 of fiscal year 2024, making the comparison base very high for Q2 2025. We also had a very strong gift campaign in 2024, raising the bar quite high. This gift campaign has been successful again in the Q2 of fiscal year 2025. To generate even more growth, that was really a challenge. We had also other programs, for example, Klima Bonus in Austria or Social Plus in Romania, which were with stronger volumes in 2024 than in 2025. Again, it's in Q2. Q3 of this year is with less impact.

The impact I was referring to and that you pointed out, which are these phasing effects, are more related to the business volume issued than revenue. I do not want to go into too many details, but when I was referring to one program in Belgium, what happened is that there was a change in regulation in Belgium in the calendar year, in the end of calendar year 2024, which was a reduction of the potential of the tax benefit from the Belgian citizens when they use what is called the titre service. This is a benefit that is available in Belgium, and the tax benefit related to this benefit was reduced. This led many of the Belgian citizens to order a bigger amount before the year.

This has no impact on the revenue because the related revenue, it is spread all over the next month. This had a phasing impact on the ordering and on the business volume issued. If you look at our balance sheet at the end of H1, you might see the impact because this led to a significant increase in the voucher in circulation by something close to EUR 500 million. At the same time, because we did not have the cashing immediately, there is a significant amount by EUR 500 million in the receivable. Yep. Got it. Sorry. I think that is super helpful. I guess what I am trying to understand is it looks like on a two-year basis, this is effectively the lowest growth of 2025 thus far, organically in operating revenue in Europe in 3Q.

I think you were talking about some impacts to hiring and such that was maybe also serving to offset there. Just trying to think of, and we have seen the growth rate kind of fluctuate in quite a volatile fashion across the year in continental Europe going back two years, really. Just trying to think about the jumping-off point for 4Q, taking into consideration the challenging comp that you mentioned in 4Q. Justin, as we said, the way we expect Latin America and the rest of the world to keep on driving more the growth of Pluxee in the coming months. It was the case. I mean, we expected it already a few quarters ago. We do expect that this trend will pursue again in the coming months. Regarding the CNTR, because I did not, sorry, I mean, I did not get the question straight ahead.

So indeed, I mean, one of the plans of the French government would be to evolve the governance of the system. Today, it is done through a public agency called the Commission Nationale. What will be the future of this entity, we don't know, but we consider it's good to keep an independent body helping us to ensure the right operation and the right governance of this so important system for the French employees. Thanks. Thanks. Got it. That's clear. Thank you so much. As a reminder, if you please go ahead, sir. Sorry. Please give the reminder, please. Okay. As a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, please press star and one on your touchstone telephone. The next question comes from Sabrina Blanc of Bernstein. Yes. Good morning, everybody. I have two questions from my part. The first one is regarding the partnership with Santander.

Can you provide a bit more color on how it goes and if you have any figures that you can share with us? The second question is regarding, I would say, the cross-selling between meal voucher and the other employee benefits products. Could we have also an idea of the development and how you are happy with that? Yes. Thank you, Sabrina, for your question. Regarding the partnership with Santander, we said it during the presentation. The integration phase is now behind us. I mean, all volumes from Santander were migrated on the Pluxee platform with a very high level of satisfaction from Santander's clients. It is fair to say that the feedback as well from Santander's sales engines has been very positive. That is why, I mean, it is a good driver.

It's a good incentive, I mean, to have them now sell our Pluxee solution. One number, I mean, that I'm pleased to share is the number of sales agents that have already signed one Pluxee contract, and it's more than 20%. And remember that Santander has a sales team of above 4,000 people. It's, I mean, looking at the size of our sales team, the dedicated Pluxee sales team, I mean, it's a big extension. That's why we are confident in the future. We are on track with the initial plan that we had. What I'd like to add is that we are signing both some very large clients, but we are also taking advantage of their huge SME portfolio to further penetrate this segment. Regarding the cross-selling contribution and the performance in cross-selling, it's a steady performance.

We do not see yet the full acceleration, but this is what we expect for the years to come. Thank you very much. The last question is from Pavan Daswani of Citigroup. Good morning, and thanks for filling my couple of questions in. I have got a couple. Firstly, I appreciate the color on the phasing of Q4 operating revenue growth. How should we think about the drivers of work to accelerate back to kind of low double digits in 2026? And then secondly, on Italy, I appreciate it is a relatively small exposure, but could you provide an update on the renegotiation process ahead of the CCAP, please? Okay. Regarding Italy, so first, let me remind you that our Meal business represents less than 3% of our total financial aggregate there.

As you know, the amendment capping the merchant commission at 5% came into effect for all new merchant contracts in January this year. It will be applicable for existing merchant networks starting September 1, meaning in almost two months. We are currently in the middle of our planned renegotiation campaign. Early feedback has been positive. Rebalancing is already underway on certain accounts. It should and it will help us mitigate the impact of this regulatory change, knowing that we said it and that we do not anticipate any impact on our ability to meet our financial objective for fiscal year 2025 and 2026 at group level. Regarding the drivers to accelerate the double-digit growth, a bit of color.

Again, when you look at the performance of Q3 and over the past nine months, when you exclude the one-off effects, our BVI growth continued to show healthy growth in Latin America and rest of the world. This relies on a robust development trend in new client acquisition. This is across regions, Continental Europe, Latin America, and rest of the world. It does contribute to EUR 1.1 billion, with a notable increase from SME. We also benefit from the solid net retention that continued to stand above 100%. This is thanks to the combination of a reduced churn rate, robust additional increase in face value that allows us to offset the recent end-user portfolio evolution. Last but not least, the M&A deals are helping us to deliver a progressive contribution through synergies and scope effects.

That's why we remain confident in our growth outlook, as reflected in the objective fiscal year 2026 that we have reaffirmed today. Thank you, Pavan. Thanks a lot. To wrap up, I'd like to highlight again that Q3 has been a solid quarter, both in terms of business momentum and financial performance. We are on track to deliver our strategic and financial objectives, which supports our reiteration of guidance for both fiscal 2025 and 2026. Now, with that, I wish you a very good day and look forward to connecting again at the end of October for the release of our full-year results. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining. The conference is now over, and you may disconnect your telephones.

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