Bouygues

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;^{[note 1][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 2021, Bouygues acquired the technical services business, Equans from Engie in a transaction worth €7.1bn.^[11]

The company carries out the following businesses:^[12]

Construction

• 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

Telecoms - Media

• 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.

Transportation

• BINA Istra (30.15% total ownership): Croatian joint stock company founded in 1995 to facilitate construction and subsequent management of an Istrian Y motorway^[13]

Technical services

• Equans

Source : Bouygues^[1]

Bouygues has been involved in many major construction projects including

Europe

• The Parc des Princes completed in 1972^[14]
• The Tour First in 1974^[15]
• The Musée d'Orsay completed in 1986^[16]
• The Île de Ré bridge completed in 1988^[17]
• The Grande Arche completed in 1989^[18]
• The Channel Tunnel completed in 1994^[19]
• The Bibliothèque nationale de France completed in 1995^[20]
• The Pont de Normandie completed in 1995,^[21]
• The Stade de France completed in 1998^[22]
• The expansion of Barnet Hospital completed in 2002^[23]
• The redevelopment of West Middlesex University Hospital completed in 2003^[24]
• The Brent Emergency Care and Diagnostic Centre completed in 2006^[25]
• The expansion of Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford completed in 2010^[26]
• The expansion of North Middlesex University Hospital completed in 2010^[27]

Bouygues is also involved in HS2 lot C1, working as part of joint venture, due to complete in 2031.^[28]

Africa

• The Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, Morocco completed in 1992^[29]
• The Henri Konan Bédié Bridge in Abidjan, Ivory Coast completed in 2014^[30]

North America

• The company also built the Port of Miami Tunnel completed in 2014.^[31]
• Construction of the Iqaluit Airport terminal in Nunavut, Canada, completed in 2017.^[32]

Asia

• The Gypjak Mosque in Turkmenistan, completed in 2004.^[33][34]
• The Singapore Sports Hub completed in 2014^[35]
• LRT Line 1 Cavite Extension due to be completed in 2025^[36][37]

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 hectares (74 acres) tract in Guyancourt, is now occupied by Bouygues Construction, one of the group's subsidiaries.^[38][39]

Social and environmental commitment

Since 2006, Bouygues has participated in the United Nations Global Compact.^[40] The group sponsors The Shift Project think tank, with several other companies such as EDF, BNP Paribas or Saint-Gobain, which promotes sustainable economic development.^[41]

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.^[42]

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.^[43]

Flamanville

Between 2009 and 2011, Bouygues S.A. was illegally employing workers from Poland and Romania exposing them to inhuman working conditions at the construction site of the Flamanville nuclear power plant in Normandy. The company was later condemned for their practices before the court in Cherbourg and was ordered to pay sanctions of between €25,000 and €29,950.^[44]

Cyberattack on Bouygues Construction SA

On 30 January 2020 a ransomware-type virus was detected on Bouygues Construction's computer network although operational activity on the construction sites was disrupted. The "Maze Ransomware Gang" claimed responsibility for the attack and posted a 1.2 GB file that allegedly contained data taken from Bouygues Construction.^[45]

• Dominique Barjot, "Bouygues, 1952-1989: From the building industry to the service sector", econ.upf.edu, Department of Economics and Business, Pompeu Fabra University; European Business History Association (EBHA), 2004 Conference, archived from the original on 26 September 2011

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