SETAO Narrows Loss in 2025 as Revenue More Than Doubles

AFRICAN STOCKS AND FINANCEApril 14, 2026 at 7:46 AM UTC

TLDR

SETAO, a Bouygues unit listed in Abidjan, showed significant improvement with a net loss decrease and revenue surge in 2025.
The company's path to profitability hinges on large public infrastructure contracts in Ivory Coast, driven by projects like the Félix-Houphouët-Boigny airport modernization.
Despite challenges, SETAO benefits from a credible project backlog from Ivory Coast's public investment program, but must address its thin equity base and accumulated losses for long-term sustainability.

SETAO — Société d'Etudes et de Travaux pour l'Afrique de l'Ouest (BRVM: STAC), a Bouygues Bâtiment International unit listed in Abidjan since 1998, posted a net loss of 96.6 million XOF ($172,400) for the year ended December 31, 2025, a sharp improvement on the 348.2 million XOF ($621,500) net loss in 2024, according to provisional financial statements published April 10, 2026.

The improvement came on the back of a revenue surge. Total income including other products and charge transfers more than doubled to 3.88 billion XOF ($6.9 million) from 1.79 billion XOF ($3.2 million), driven by the continuation of preliminary works at Abidjan's Félix-Houphouët-Boigny International Airport — SETAO's reference project through 2025. Despite that revenue growth, costs rose in tandem. Purchases and direct charges reached 3.72 billion XOF ($6.6 million), leaving a thin positive value added of 154.2 million XOF ($275,300), against a negative value added of 453.9 million XOF ($810,200) in 2024.

Personnel costs and net depreciation charges, however, pushed the operating result back into the red at negative 772 million XOF ($1.4 million), an improvement from negative 1.01 billion XOF ($1.8 million) a year earlier. A positive financial result and a 549.3 million XOF ($980,500) gain from extraordinary items brought the result before tax close to breakeven at 4.3 million XOF ($7,700).

The balance sheet contracted, with total assets falling to 5.45 billion XOF ($9.7 million) from 7.38 billion XOF ($13.2 million), as current liabilities fell and treasury remained positive. Equity declined to 356.7 million XOF ($636,700) from 453.3 million XOF ($809,100) a year earlier, reflecting accumulated losses.

No dividend was proposed. The company carried forward a cumulative loss of 1.5 billion XOF ($2.7 million) into 2026. Operating cash flow was negative, reflecting the timing of working capital movements on large contracts.

Key Takeaways

SETAO's path back to profitability is tied directly to the pace of large public infrastructure contracts in Ivory Coast. The company built its reputation on landmark projects — the third bridge in Abidjan, the Yopougon university hospital, and the CAP Sud shopping centre extension — but has reported consecutive net losses since at least 2022 as the pipeline of new contract awards thinned and costs remained elevated. The airport work that drove the revenue surge in 2025 is part of a broader modernisation programme at Félix-Houphouët-Boigny airport, which handles over 3 million passengers annually and is being upgraded to handle 6 to 8 million. Ivory Coast's government has committed to a public investment programme for 2025–2027 that targets infrastructure, urbanisation, and transport, including the Abidjan Metro — a 1.36 billion euro project led by a Bouygues-headed consortium whose metro stations were built by SETAO — expected to enter commercial service in 2027. That pipeline gives SETAO a credible backlog, but the company's thin equity base and accumulated losses leave it with limited room for further earnings deterioration before structural questions about its capital position arise.

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