Revenue — no API Ninjas consensus estimate for this event
Verdict
Q3 sales of 5,452.9 million euros rose 14.6% as reported and 11.4% on a constant and same-day basis, the fastest quarterly rate since 2022, with growth in all three regions.
Full-year guidance went up for the second time this year: same-day sales growth to c. 7% from c. 5%, current adjusted EBITA margin to at least 6.4% from at least 6.2%, free cash flow conversion held above 65%.
The United States did the work, up 18.2% same-day with data centres growing in triple digits and now c. 13% of US sales; North American backlog above USD3bn is up 42% versus end-2025 and covers 3.4 months of sales.
Europe lagged at 4.5% same-day, with UK and Ireland at (0.1)% and France at 3.6%, and Asia-Pacific added 15.8% on Australian solar and Chinese industrial automation.
The one thing that matters: the two-point upgrade to full-year sales growth rests on a US data-centre book that is now c. 13% of US sales and growing in triple digits, and the margin target moved to at least 6.4% in a release that discloses no Q3 profit figure.
Key metrics
Metric
Reported
Prior year
Change
Group same-day sales growth
+11.4%
—
—
United States same-day sales growth
+18.2%
—
—
Europe same-day sales growth
+4.5%
—
—
Volume contribution to Q3 growth
+6.3% contribution
—
—
Digital sales as share of Group sales
36% of total Group sales
—
+256bps
North America backlog at end-September 2026
above USD3bn
—
+42% vs end 2025
Guidance changes
Item
New guidance
Prior guidance
FY 2026 same-day sales growth
c. 7%
c. 5%
FY 2026 current adjusted EBITA margin
at least 6.4%
at least 6.2%
FY 2026 free cash flow conversion
above 65%
—
Quality of earnings
Reported growth overstates the underlying run-rate by roughly a quarter: of the 14.6% reported increase, 11.4% is constant and same-day, with 1.2% from acquisitions, 1.2% from currency and 0.6% from the calendar.
Price is still doing a third of the work, and copper is why: volumes contributed 6.3% against 2.9% from cable and 2.2% from non-cable prices, with Q3 copper at 14,037 USD per tonne, 42% above a year earlier.
Gotchas & watch items
The margin target was raised without a profit figure to test it: current adjusted EBITA margin goes to at least 6.4% from at least 6.2%, while the quarter reports sales only.
Europe remains the soft side of the portfolio at 4.5% same-day growth, with UK and Ireland at (0.1)% and France at 3.6% in what the company calls an uncertain macro environment.
Growth is increasingly bought: acquisitions contributed 2.1% in the quarter before the Finland disposal, and the GCG purchase, the largest in more than 15 years, is funded by a 500 million euro capital increase that has yet to close.
Concentration is now explicit: data centres at c. 13% of US sales and c. 10% of Canadian sales carry the acceleration, against mid-single-digit growth elsewhere in non-residential and residential and negative trends at Talley.