Interview with the Chairman and CEO
The growth potential in our business lines has certainly never been so considerable. Our companies are rallying around all the transformations under way in cities, buildings, transport infrastructure, energy grids and communication networks, in particular to address the major challenge of our planet’s health.
Chairman and CEO, VINCI
ENTRETIEN
How would you sum up VINCI’s business performance in 2021?
It’s solid. It bears the mark of our model’s resilience. We are a robust and at the same time mobile group, which is showing that it has the ability and agility to adapt to the shifting landscape during the public health crisis and to promptly return to a long-term growth path. Our revenue in 2021 was higher than in 2019, thanks to the sharp upswing in our business activities in the energy and construction sectors.
In our concessions, it is important to point out that traffic on our motorways was buoyant. Our airports were still heavily affected by the pandemic, but the overall repercussions are relatively limited. Our earnings also increased substantially, and free cash flow generation was outstanding. Lastly, the fact that we have kept our net debt within bounds enabled us to carry out our investments and development projects in optimal conditions.
What about the trend in each business?
The highlight in Concessions was that traffic on our motorways in France, which had been held back by travel restrictions in the first half of 2021, climbed back to its pre-crisis level then beyond it in the summer. The trend was by and large the same on our motorways outside France. The situation at our airports improved in Europe and the Americas during the year, once again showing that traffic springs back as soon as authorities lift restrictions. Unprecedented efforts were made to reduce investments and operating expenses.
In Construction, 2021 saw VINCI Construction and Eurovia join forces in a new integrated business line to tap into the complementarities between their areas of expertise and networks around the world. This move will optimise our growth potential in the building and civil engineering sectors in the long term, as well as our operational performance in the near term. We started seeing this in 2021: revenue and profit margin rates rose beyond their 2019 levels, and the order book grew slightly compared to 2020 – when it was already very high due to the exceptional volume of major new contracts awarded that year.
The momentum was even more noticeable at VINCI Energies, which is one of the best performing companies in its sector. Its ability to rally around its customers during the health crisis has further strengthened its ties with them, and we are seeing the results in its brisk growth and order intake. Essentially, VINCI Energies is taking full advantage of its ability to create solutions and services that position its companies at the very core of their customers’ energy transition and digital transformation.
The other major milestone here was the acquisition of ACS’s energy business, Cobra IS, which we finalised at the very end of 2021.