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The new owner of Belfast International Airport, France's Vinci, posted a 4.9 per cent rise in first-quarter sales, helped by acquisitions, robust concessions activity and a recovering French construction market.
Europe’s biggest construction and concessions company kept forecasts that profits and revenue would rise further this year.
“The group’s good performance in the first quarter, in spite of poor weather conditions, supports the previously announced outlook for 2018 of higher revenue, operating income and net income,” the statement said.
Total revenue reached €8.846 billion in the quarter. Excluding currency fluctuations and changes in scope, sales were up 2.2 per cent year-on-year, Vinci said.
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This fell slightly short of a median analyst forecast of €8.943 billion.
Revenue from the concessions business rose 5.9 per cent, driven by an 11.8 per cent jump in the airport segment, while revenue from contracting, which includes Vinci Energies, Eurovia and Vinci Construction rose 1.8 per cent.
To counter construction sector weakness, Vinci has been expanding into faster-growing and more profitable concessions such as airports and motorways as well as in energy engineering.
This week Vinci agreed to buy the airports management portfolio of Airports Worldwide from Omers Infrastructure, gaining a foothold in the United States, the world’s biggest air transport market, and expanding its presence in Europe and South America. Apart from Belfast International, the deal included airports in Costa Rica and Sweden.
Vinci now has 45 airports in 11 countries across three continents.
The group’s total order book for the quarter was €31.8 billion, up 5 per cent from the same period a year earlier. – Reuters