Stock Story: Vinci

Stock Story: Vinci

Vinci is built around the pillars of its concessions and contracting operations. From our perspective, the most attractive part of its business is the large and diversified concessions holdings. These provide the lion’s share of earnings and deliver a stable and reliable income stream for investors. 

The concessions business is diverse, spanning a wide array of assets. These include everything from toll roads and airports to renewable power and even the Stade de France stadium. This business is without doubt the most important earnings contributor due to the strong profit margins on which it operates. However, the contracting business is also a large operation. Capabilities for this contracting business are significant with the business operating in over 120 countries, with an employee base of more than 270,000 and project types including road construction, buildings, and electrical networks and data centres. 

Within the concession business, the most important economic engine comprises the toll roads concessions in France, known as Vinci Autoroutes. Autoroutes operates a collection of road networks covering 4,443 km that represent around half the toll road market in the country and one third of the total motorway network. These motorways are mature concessions and typically grow modestly but predictably as traffic increases and tolls are lifted by 70% of the recorded inflation rate each year. This leads to modest but steady inflation-linked growth in cash flow from these assets. Due to the mature nature of these concessions, they generate significant cash flow, with EBITDA (a cash flow proxy for motorways) of €4.4bn in 2022. 

Airports have been an area of growth for the company. In 2019 (the last full year before COVID-19 affected air traffic), Vinci owned or operated airports that moved 255 million passengers, a figure it looks likely to have surpassed in 2023. In 2013, Vinci took relatively modest airport operations and grew them through the acquisition of the airport operator in Portugal, ANA. This asset added key airports such as Lisbon and Porto to its portfolio. Since then, Vinci has taken stakes in airports in the UK, Mexico and Japan. These assets provide a link to the ongoing structural growth in global aviation. 

Vinci has continued to look for areas of growth in which it can profitably deploy capital generated from its existing business. The company has stated its aspirations for significant growth into renewable power. This has arisen through the acquisition of the contractor Cobra IS and its renewable energy development platform. The company has stated a target of over 12 GW of capacity by 2030 as it continues to deploy increasing capital into this opportunity.  

Finally, while a minority of Vinci’s earnings, contracting is a large part of the overall business in terms of volume of work. The company is currently sitting on an order book of €63.3bn or around 13.6 months of activity for the group. We expect this operation will continue to generate a meaningful and growing profit contribution, particularly through its energy and electric engineering teams that are benefiting from ongoing expenditure in energy transition and digital transformation. Importantly from a risk point of view, the contracts are highly diversified, with any single ‘difficult to complete’ construction project likely to be a headwind to earnings rather than a significant financial problem for the company. 

We consider that the outlook for the business should be steady and predictable with a well-diversified portfolio of infrastructure concession businesses. Meanwhile, management will be focused on continued capital deployment of the significant free cash flow the company generates for its shareholders. 

By Ben McVicar, Portfolio Manager
Sources: Company filings

 

Important Information: This material has been delivered to you by Magellan Asset Management Limited ABN 31 120 593 946 AFS Licence No. 304 301 (‘Magellan’) and has been prepared for general information purposes only and must not be construed as investment advice or as an investment recommendation.  This material does not take into account your investment objectives, financial situation or particular needs. This material does not constitute an offer or inducement to engage in an investment activity nor does it form part of any offer documentation, offer or invitation to purchase, sell or subscribe for interests in any type of investment product or service. You should obtain and consider the relevant Product Disclosure Statement (‘PDS’) and Target Market Determination (‘TMD’) and consider obtaining professional investment advice tailored to your specific circumstances before making a decision about whether to acquire, or continue to hold, the relevant financial product. A copy of the relevant PDS and TMD relating to a Magellan financial product may be obtained by calling +61 2 9235 4888 or by visiting www.magellangroup.com.au.

Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results and no person guarantees the future performance of any financial product or service, the amount or timing of any return from it, that asset allocations will be met, that it will be able to implement its investment strategy or that its investment objectives will be achieved. This material may contain ‘forward-looking statements’. Actual events or results or the actual performance of a Magellan financial product or service may differ materially from those reflected or contemplated in such forward-looking statements.

This material may include data, research and other information from third party sources. Magellan makes no guarantee that such information is accurate, complete or timely and does not provide any warranties regarding results obtained from its use. This information is subject to change at any time and no person has any responsibility to update any of the information provided in this material.  Statements contained in this material that are not historical facts are based on current expectations, estimates, projections, opinions and beliefs of Magellan. Such statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, and undue reliance should not be placed thereon. No representation or warranty is made with respect to the accuracy or completeness of any of the information contained in this material. Magellan will not be responsible or liable for any losses arising from your use or reliance upon any part of the information contained in this material.

Any third party trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners and Magellan claims no ownership in, nor any affiliation with, such trademarks.   Any third party trademarks that appear in this material are used for information purposes and only to identify the company names or brands of their respective owners. No affiliation, sponsorship or endorsement should be inferred from the use of these trademarks. This material and the information contained within it may not be reproduced, or disclosed, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of Magellan.

Insights direct to your inbox

Make sense of the global investment landscape with timely updates, articles and videos from our investment experts.

Enter your first name
Enter your last name
Provide a valid email address
Provide a valid postcode
Select type of investor