Type Société Anonyme Industry Construction Headquarters Rueil-Malmaison, France Founded 1899 | Traded as Euronext: DG Area served Worldwide CEO Xavier Huillard (2006–) | |
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Founder Alexandre Giros, Louis Loucheur Key people Xavier Huillard (Chairman and CEO), Yves-Thibault de Silguy (Vice-Chairman) Stock price DG (EPA) € 74.46 +0.16 (+0.22%)3 Apr, 5:35 PM GMT+2 - Disclaimer Subsidiaries Eurovia, Cegelec, Vinci Autoroutes Profiles | ||
Vinci, corporately styled VINCI, is a French concessions and construction company founded in 1899 as Société Générale d'Enterprises. It employs over 179,000 people and is the largest construction company in the world by revenue. Vinci is listed at Euronext's Paris stock exchange and is a member of the Euro Stoxx 50 index. Its head office is in Rueil-Malmaison.
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History
The company was founded by Alexandre Giros and Louis Loucheur as Société Générale d’Entreprises S.A. (SGE) in 1899.
In 1986 SGE acquired Sogea, a business founded in 1878. Started building Yanggakdo International Hotel in Pyongyang, DPR of Korea.
In 1988 the company acquired Campenon Bernard, a business founded in 1920.
In 1991 SGE acquired Norwest Holst, a company founded in 1969.
In 2000 it changed its name to Vinci.
In 2001 it acquired Groupe GTM, which was a combination of Dumez, founded in 1880, and GTM founded in 1891.
In 2006 the company acquired Autoroutes du Sud de la France (the Southern Freeways Company).
In February 2007 Vinci completed the acquisition of Soletanche-Bachy, the world second largest leading geotechnical specialist contractor after Bauer.
In June 2007, Weaver PLC, established as William Weaver Limited in 1865, became a wholly owned subsidiary of Norwest Holst Limited: construction company based in Bromsgrove in the West Midlands, UK.
In September 2008 Vinci bought the UK operations of Taylor Woodrow Construction.
In 2010, Vinci acquired Cegelec, and the European aggregates businesses of Tarmac.
In September 2010, Vinci obtained Meteor Parking from the Go-Ahead Group.
In 2012, Vinci signed a deal to buy ANA Aeroportos de Portugal for €3080 million.
In December 2013, Vinci was awarded a contract worth €440 million to build an express-lane highway system in Atlanta, Georgia.
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.
Ownership
SGE was owned by Compagnie générale d'électricité (CGE), now Alcatel, from 1966 to 1984, then by Saint-Gobain from 1984 to 1988, and then by Compagnie générale des eaux, now Vivendi, from 1988 to 2000.
The breakdown of share capital at 31 December 2015:
Financial data
Source: OpesC
Turnover analysis
The turnover is split as follows:
Parking
The company operates a number of car parks under the Vinci Park and Meteor Parking brands. Many of the underground multi-storey car parks it operates were built by Vinci (e.g., those throughout Paris including under the Champs-Élysées), whilst other Vinci Park locations are contracted to it by hospital trusts, PFI consortia, property companies and local authorities. Vinci bought Meteor Parking from the Go-Ahead Group in September 2010 and these locations were added to its portfolio.
Major projects
Vinci and its predecessor companies has been involved in many major projects including the Gariep Dam completed in 1971, the Tour Montparnasse completed in 1972, the Centre Georges Pompidou completed in 1977, the Yamoussoukro Basilica completed in 1989, the new visitor entrance to the Louvre completed in 1989, the Channel Tunnel completed in 1994, the Pont de Normandie completed in 1995, the Stade de France completed in 1998, the Rio–Antirrio bridge, completed in 2004. and the Atlantic Bridge, Panama which is under construction.
Criticism
Vinci is involved in construction of the first 43 km of the Moscow-St.Petersburg toll road through the valuable Khimki Forest. This construction has raised many protests in Russia, 75% of the local community – about 208,000 citizens of Khimki – oppose the project. There have also been numerous human rights abuses surrounding the project, with journalists and activists arrested, assaulted, and even killed.
Furthermore, Vinci has caused protests surrounding its project to build an airport in Notre-Dame-des-Landes near Nantes that is supposed to become the third biggest airport of France on 2000 hectares of bocage and humid areas with an acknowledged social and ecological value. This project which is considered to be a 'useless imposed mega-project' is financed through a public-private partnership with profits going to Vinci. As of November 2012, protests are ongoing to prevent the expulsion of mostly villagers and farmers who struggle to protect their environment and are supported both on a national and international level.
Vinci's Norwest Holst and Taylor Woodrow were revealed as subscribers to the UK's Consulting Association, exposed in 2009 for operating an illegal construction industry blacklist. Vinci was later one of eight businesses involved in the 2014 launch of the Construction Workers Compensation Scheme, condemned as a "PR stunt" by the GMB union, and described by the Scottish Affairs Committee as "an act of bad faith".