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The story
Founded by Louis Loucheur in 1899.1
The company was founded by Alexandre Giros and Louis Loucheur as Société Générale d'Entreprises S.A. (SGE) in 1899. SGE was owned by Compagnie générale d'électricité (CGE), later Alcatel, from 1966 until 1981, when Saint-Gobain acquired a majority stake.
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), bought in 1991.
In 1988, SGE was acquired by Compagnie générale des eaux, which was later renamed Vivendi. In 2000, the company changed its name to Vinci.
During 2001, Vinci acquired Groupe GTM, which was a combination of Dumez (founded in 1880) and GTM (founded in 1891). One year later, the British-based business Norwest Holst was renamed Vinci plc.
The company went on to acquire Autoroutes du Sud de la France (the Southern Freeways Company) in 2006, and Bachy-Soletanche, the world's second-largest geotechnical specialist contractor (after Bauer) in February 2007. It also bought the UK operations of Taylor Woodrow Construction for £74m in September 2008.
During August 2009, Vinci acquired a portion of the troubled contractor Haymills. One month later, it acquired the French engineering firm Cegelec from the Qatar Investment Authority in exchange for €1.18 billion ($1.69 billion). During February 2010, it bought the European aggregates businesses of Tarmac from Anglo American in exchange for £250 million. It also purchased Meteor Parking from the Go-Ahead Group in September 2010.
During the early 2010s, the company was awarded multiple contracts to construct portions of London's Crossrail project. In 2012, Vinci signed a deal to buy ANA Aeroportos de Portugal in exchange for €3,080 million. During December 2013, Vinci was awarded a contract worth €440 million to build an express-lane highway system in Atlanta, Georgia.
During 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.
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During May 2015, Vinci and Orix were jointly awarded a 45-year contract to operate Itami Airport and Kansai International Airport in Osaka Prefecture, Japan, under a deal valued at around $18 billion.
In March 2017, the company won the concession to operate the international airport at Salvador, Bahia for 30 years. During October 2017, the Australian construction contractor Seymour Whyte was purchased by Vinci. In November 2017, the company invested in Sweden to acquire Eitech and Infratek, specialists in electrical works and engineering.
Between 2017 and 2020, Vinci, as part of a joint venture with Balfour Beatty and Systra, was awarded multiple contracts to work on Britain's High Speed 2 project.
In May 2019, Vinci acquired a 50.01% stake in Gatwick Airport; at the time of the transaction, the company pledged to invest £1.1 billion into passenger improvements at the airport by 2023.
Throughout 2020, the company's activities were heavily influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic; strict guidelines were implemented at its workplaces amongst other consequences. In the UK, Vinci was involved in the construction of several specialist hospitals.
During October 2020, Vinci issued a €5.2 billion ($6.08 billion) offer to the Spanish construction conglomerate ACS Group to acquire its ACS Industrial division; this transaction was completed during the following year. Additional arrangements between the two companies led to the creation of a joint venture focused on the renewable energy sector.
On 7 April 2021, Vinci was awarded a 30-year concession to operate the following Brazilian airports: 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.
In October 2024, Vinci agreed terms to purchase FM Conway.
From Wikipedia’s article on Vinci SA, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7