Vinci (corporately styled VINCI) is a French concessions and construction company founded in 1899 as Société Générale d’Enterprises. Its head office is in Nanterre, in the western suburbs of Paris.[3] Vinci is listed on Euronext’s Paris stock exchange and is a member of the Euro Stoxx 50 index.
The company was founded by Alexandre Giros and Louis Loucheur as Société Générale d’Entreprises S.A. (SGE) in 1899.[4] SGE was owned by Compagnie générale d’électricité (CGE), now Alcatel, from 1966 until 1981, when Saint-Gobain acquired a majority stake.[5]
Companies acquired by SGE include Sogea (a civil engineering firm founded in 1878), bought in 1986, Campenon Bernard (a civil engineering and development firm founded in 1920), bought in 1988, and Norwest Holst (a British civil engineering firm founded in 1969 by the merger of Holst & Co, established in 1918, and Norwest Construction, established in 1923),[6] bought in 1991.[4]
In 1988, SGE was acquired by Compagnie générale des eaux, now Vivendi.[7] In 2000, the company changed its name to Vinci.[4]
In 2001, Vinci acquired Groupe GTM, which was a combination of Dumez, founded in 1880, and GTM, founded in 1891.[4] In 2002, the UK business Norwest Holst was renamed Vinci plc.[6]
The company went on to acquire Autoroutes du Sud de la France (the Southern Freeways Company) in 2006,[8] and Soletanche-Bachy, the world’s second-largest geotechnical specialist contractor (after Bauer) in February 2007.[9] It also bought the UK operations of Taylor Woodrow Construction in September 2008.[10]
Vinci acquired Cegelec,[11] as well as the European aggregates businesses of Tarmac, in 2010[12] and it bought Meteor Parking from the Go-Ahead Group in September 2010.[13] Then, in 2012, Vinci signed a deal to buy ANA Aeroportos de Portugal for €3,080 million.[14]
In December 2013, Vinci was awarded a contract worth €440 million to build an express-lane highway system in Atlanta, Georgia.[15] In 2014, Vinci sold 75% of the shares of Vinci Park to a consortium Ardian Infrastructure and Crédit Agricole Assurances. Vinci Park then became Indigo. In June 2016 Vinci sold the remaining 25.4% ex-Vinci Park shares to the consortium Ardian Infrastructure and Crédit Agricole Assurances.[16]
Vinci and Orix won a 45-year contract in 2015 to operate Itami Airport and Kansai International Airport in Osaka Prefecture, Japan, at a price of around $18 billion.[17]
In March 2017, the company invested in Brazil to operate the international airport at Salvador, Bahia for 30 years.[18] In October 2017, Australian construction contractor Seymour Whyte was purchased.[19] In November 2017, the company invested in Sweden to acquire Eitech and Infratek, specialists in electrical works and engineering.[20]
In May 2019, Vinci acquired a 50.01% stake in Gatwick Airport.[21][22]
On 7 April 2021, Vinci won the concession to operate for 30 years the following airports in Brazil: Manaus-Brig. Eduardo Gomes International Airport, Tabatinga International Airport, Tefé Airport, Rio Branco International Airport, Cruzeiro do Sul International Airport, Porto Velho-Gov. Jorge Teixeira de Oliveira International Airport, and Boa Vista International Airport.[23]
On 31 December 2021, VINCI completed the acquisition of ACS’s energy business, Cobra IS.[24]