In renewable energies, the Belmonte solar farm in Brazil started generating power in July 2023. Work also began on new photovoltaic projects in Brazil and Spain, with total capacity of 0.6 GW and 0.8 GW respectively, in the second half of 2023. At the end of December 2023, the capacity of facilities in operation or under construction in Cobra IS’s portfolio totalled 2.0 GW.
In December 2023, Cobra IS signed a commitment deed contract for a public-private partnership (PPP) regarding power transmission infrastructure in Australia. This 35-year contract includes the financing, design, construction, operation and maintenance of several high-voltage power transmission lines, substations and their connections to renewable energy generation facilities (with capacity of 4.5 GW) in the state of New South Wales.
In addition, Cobra IS won a new PPP contract in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil to finance, design and build 349 km of high-voltage power lines, and then operate them over a 30-year period.
Since the end of December 2022, Cobra IS has ensured the maintenance and upgrading to technical and environmental standards of the facilities of Polo Carmópolis, a cluster of 11 onshore oil and natural gas field concessions acquired from Petrobras, located in the Brazilian state of Sergipe. In late 2023, Cobra IS renewed the operating licences for over 70% of the facilities’ energy production until 2052. The Group is currently carrying out a strategic review of these operations.
In November 2023, rating agency Standard & Poor’s reiterated its confidence in the Group’s credit quality by affirming its A− long-term and A2 short-term ratings, both with stable outlook. Ratings awarded to VINCI by Moody’s (A3 long-term and P2 short-term, with stable outlook) were also confirmed in July 2023.
The Group carried out several bond issues in 2023 with an average maturity of 6 years at the time of issue and an average interest rate of 3.5% at 31 December 2023:
In April, VINCI Highways finalised long-term funding for concession company Vía 40 Express (now known as Vía Sumapaz) in an amount of 2,675 billion Colombian pesos, or €535 million.
In November, VINCI Highways obtained a new 12-month bridging loan in the amount of 1.2 billion Peruvian sols, or €295 million, to refinance the previous one in the same amount, on behalf of the concession company Lima Expresa in Peru.
Including the bank funding obtained by its subsidiaries – particularly Cobra IS and VINCI Airports – the Group obtained €3.0 billion of new financing in total in 2023.
In 2023, the Group repaid a total of €2.2 billion of debt, including three ASF bond issues for a total amount of around €0.8 billion and the bank loans of VINCI Highways’ Peruvian and Colombian subsidiaries.
At 31 December 2023, the Group’s gross long-term financial debt, before taking into account net cash, totalled €29.3 billion, as opposed to €27.8 billion at 31 December 2022. Most of that debt was owed by VINCI Autoroutes, VINCI Airports and VINCI SA, and its average maturity was 6.4 years (6.9 years at 31 December 2022) with an average cost of 4.0% (*) (2.5% in 2022).
(*) The average cost of gross debt was 4.6% excluding the positive €167 million impact related to the restructuring of the debt used to acquire London Gatwick airport.
