Orange raises full-year targets on Spain deal and Africa growth

Orange raised its full-year financial targets on Tuesday, after posting record first-half growth and, for the first time, consolidating its Spanish business in full.

The French group now expects EBITDAaL, the after-leases profit measure that the industry watches most closely, to grow by more than 4% across 2026, up from earlier guidance of above 3%. It also lifted its organic cash flow goal for the telecoms operation to around €4.3bn, from roughly €4bn.

Two engines drove the upgrade, and both had been building through the year: fast expansion in Africa and the Middle East, and the folding-in of Spain, where a wave of consolidation has gathered Spanish operators under fewer owners.

The combination pushed first-half revenue up 3.5% to €20.9bn and EBITDAaL up 5.0% to €6.1bn, both records for a first half, according to the results release.

Net income reached €3.6bn, while adjusted net income, which strips out one-off items, rose 11.8% to €1.35bn. Group organic cash flow came to €2.2bn, up €497m on the same period a year earlier.

Africa and the Middle East did most of the heavy lifting. Revenue there grew 13.9% and EBITDAaL 16.1%, far outpacing France, where revenue edged up 1.2%.

It has become Orange’s clearest growth story, carried by mobile data and by Orange Money, its mobile financial services arm, which now runs across more than a dozen markets and fits a wider run of African tech momentum across the continent. The region has grown into a genuine counterweight to a mature and slow-moving European home base.

France, still Orange’s single largest market, moved more slowly but steadily, with EBITDAaL up 2.4% on the strength of fibre and convergent packages that bundle mobile and broadband.

The domestic business no longer sets the pace, yet it remains the group’s ballast, and its return to modest profit growth is part of what let management raise the full-year view with some confidence rather than leaning on Spain and Africa alone.

Spain is the newer part of the picture. Orange agreed earlier this year to buy the remaining 50% of MasOrange, the country’s largest operator, from the investment group Lorca for €4.25bn.

The deal cleared the European Commission in April and closed in June, so Orange now owns 100% of the business and reports its full results rather than treating it as a joint venture.

MasOrange was itself created in 2024, when Orange merged its Spanish arm with the rival MásMóvil, and it quickly became the country’s leading operator by subscribers.

That shift matters for the reported numbers. In June, the first month of full consolidation, Spanish EBITDAaL rose 2.2%, and a full year of MasOrange on the balance sheet will lift Orange’s figures deep into 2027.

The Spanish market had been fiercely competitive and heavily discounted before the merger, so the gain is as much about calmer pricing as it is about added scale.

MasOrange holds the largest customer base in the country, and as sole owner Orange can now book the full run of merger synergies rather than sharing them.

The trade-off is that some of the headline growth this year reflects a bigger business being brought onto the books rather than faster underlying trading, a distinction the group flags in its organic figures.

Elsewhere, Orange’s European operations outside France, helped by a strong showing in Belgium, grew revenue 4.1% and EBITDAaL 6.1%. Capital spending stayed disciplined at roughly 15% of revenue as European 5G networks mature and newer forms of satellite connectivity edge into the same market.

Chief executive Christel Heydemann said the record first-half results confirmed that the company’s ambitions were “rooted in solid execution”.

Orange confirmed a 2026 dividend of €0.79 per share, with an interim payment of €0.30 due on December 3, and reiterated an eCAPEX to revenue ratio of about 15% as it keeps network spending in check.

Whether the raised targets hold will depend on Africa sustaining its double-digit run and Spain settling into full consolidation, and the next read on both arrives with third-quarter figures in the autumn.