Orange shares jump 4% as growth in Africa strengthens for the first half of the year and guidance increases

TLDR

• Orange stock rose more than 3% after beating first-half earnings expectations on revenue and EBITDA.
• Africa and the Middle East achieved record growth, with second-quarter revenues rising 15% year-on-year in the region
• Raised full-year EBITDA guidance to growth above 4%; The organic cash flow target has been raised to approximately €4.3 billion
• Net income was €3.6 billion, supported by a gain of €2.4 billion from the MasOrange consolidation
• Orange has signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly acquire SFR alongside Bouygues Telecom and Free

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Orange SA shares rose more than 3% on Monday, touching an intraday high of €17.19 in Paris, after the French telecoms group posted first-half results that beat analysts’ expectations and raised its full-year forecast for the second time in 2026.

Orange SA, Ren

First-half revenue was €20.95 billion versus consensus estimates of €20.76 billion. EBITDA of €6.13 billion also beat the average estimate of €6.11 billion.

The stock briefly beat Morgan Stanley’s price target of €16.50. The bank maintained its “equal weight” rating, noting that “the strength of the Middle East region and increased guidance” exceeds the weakness in Spain.

🚨 $ORA (Orange) H1 2026 update
The guidelines have been raised again…
But growth in Africa and the Middle East is the real story 👀

📊 Key metrics
🔹H1 revenue: €20.95 billion (exceeding consensus €20.76 billion) 🟢
🔹 EBITDA growth target for 2026: raised to >4% (from >3%) 🟢

👉Basic takeaway:
second… pic.twitter.com/M78RquzyYB

— Emmanuel – major investor in technology and artificial intelligence (@EmmanuelInvest) July 28, 2026

Africa and the Middle East were the obvious standouts. Revenues in the region jumped 13.9% during the first half, with the second quarter alone rising 15% year-on-year. The region added 10 million new mobile data customers.

Orange now expects full-year EBITDA growth of more than 4%, compared to the previous forecast of more than 3%. Organic cash flow guidance was raised 7.5% to around €4.3 billion – a figure the company says is 4.2% above its consensus.

European moves

France posted a modest win, with second-quarter revenues up 0.1% vs Morgan Stanley 1% decline forecast The bank noted that underlying growth in the first half, excluding one-time wholesale effects, was flat and below the company’s full-year target.

Spain was the weak point. MasOrange’s service revenue fell 2% and first-half EBITDA fell 3%. Orange completed the acquisition of Lorca’s 50% stake in MasOrange in June for €4.25 billion, giving it full control of the Spanish operator. The company expects performance to improve in the second half.

Net income reached 3.6 billion euros for the half, a jump of 3.7 billion euros year-on-year. This figure was significantly inflated by the €2.4 billion accounting gain from the consolidation of MasOrange and the reversal of restructuring charges in the previous year. Adjusted net income increased by 11.8% to 1.35 billion euros.

Net financial debt rose to €35.7 billion from €22.5 billion at the end of 2025, mainly reflecting the MasOrange deal. The ratio of net debt to EBITDA rose to 2.4 times. Orange has a medium-term target to get that back to around 2x.

SFR deal in progress

On June 6, Orange announced that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Bouygues Telecom and Free to acquire SFR from Altice France. Orange’s share of the total enterprise value of €20.35 billion is about 27%, or about €5.6 billion.

The deal will add approximately 4 million mobile customers and 1 million fixed broadband customers in France. Regulatory approval is required, and is not expected to be completed before the second half of 2027 at the earliest.

Orange also announced a joint venture with Morrison to develop data centers in France, targeting a capacity of 400 megawatts, supported by a 3 billion euro investment plan.

The company set a 2026 dividend of 0.79 euros per share, to be paid in 2027, subject to shareholder approval.