The French construction giant Vinci was carried by its infrastructure concessions. HJBC / stock.adobe.com
The group achieved a turnover of 61.675 billion, up 25%.
The French construction giant Vinci earned a net profit of 4.26 billion euros in 2022, up 64%, half of which was achieved thanks to the motorways, but also driven by construction or energies.
More than half of the profits come from motorways, or 2.2 billion euros (+15%), alongside the Construction and Energy divisions, all of which show marked increases, apart from Vinci Immobilier, which is down slightly. In total, the group’s turnover increased by 25%, to 61.675 billion. “In a particularly turbulent geopolitical and macroeconomic context, Vinci achieved a high quality overall performance in 2022“, commented its CEO, Xavier Huillard, quoted in the press release. “The strong increase in turnover and results is accompanied by a generation of record free cash flow“, he adds, noting that all his regions are doing well (and for the first time, Vinci realizes more than half – 55% – of its activity outside France).
Better than expected results
For Antoine Fraysse-Soulier, market analyst at eToro, “Vinci benefits from post-pandemic effects“, with “like many CAC40 companies, better than expected results“. Thus, the net profit from its infrastructure concessions almost doubled to 2.7 billion euros (i.e. +96.3%, compared to a negative post-Covid 2021 year for Vinci Airports).
The airport activity is indeed benefiting from a strong recovery in traffic, coming out of the red last year to garner more than 500 million euros: its sites welcomed twice as many passengers as in 2021, finding three quarters from their 2019 level.
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On the highway side, traffic is going upslightly“, in North America, Portugal, Great Britain… That of heavy goods vehicles in particular continues to progress due to e-commerce, according to the CEO, who notes a doubling of the number of logistics warehouses along the motorway corridors .
These results are published when the debate is relaunched in France on motorway concessions, awarded since 2006 to private companies including Vinci. The Ministry of the Economy, questioned on the increase in tolls and on the profitability of concessionaires, said on Wednesday that it was considering the possibility of shortening the duration of concessions.
Focus on energy
This subject “gives me a sense of repetition“, answered Thursday in front of the press the president of Vinci Autoroutes, Pierre Coppey, blaming more generally a”incomprehensionof the business model of dealerships. Another growing activity, Vinci Energies, with 693 million euros in net profit (+25%), and for which 31 acquisitions were made last year. This year notably marked the integration of Cobra IS, acquired from the Spanish ACS and which will, for example, enable it to do offshore wind power off the coast of Germany, or the installation of high voltage lines in Brazil. .
For Xavier Huillard, this energy division, which has madea very very good year», «with 22 billion euros in turnover, will continue to perform because it is at the heart of the powerful transformations linked to the energy transition and the digital revolution“.
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On the side of Vinci Construction, the main division of the group (half of the turnover), the net profit is at 680 million (+ 19%), with “satisfactory renewal of order books“. “Here we are not aiming for volumes but for operational excellence, the size of our order books gives us the necessary serenity to allow us to be selective“explains the CEO.
Among its projects, the new Toronto metro, or even part of the athletes’ village for the Paris 2024 Olympics, which “we will be on time to deliver“, he assured. In France, he notes that public procurement is doing rather well, and foresees with satisfaction a possible new program for the construction of nuclear reactors. More complicated times, on the other hand, for Vinci Immobilier, with a drop in housing reservations and “a wait-and-see attitude” in the construction. Ultimately, for 2023, the group with 270,000 employees plans a “further growth in turnover“and a net result”slightly above its 2022 level“.
TO HAVE ALSO – Tolls: motorway tariffs will increase by 4.75% on average in 2023