French construction giant Vinci announced Monday that it has been awarded two contracts worth a total of €1 billion for two high-voltage lines in Brazil, the largest of which comes with a 30-year operation and maintenance period.
Signed by the Cobra IS subsidiary, acquired in 2021 from the Spanish group ACS, these contracts cover the design and construction of more than 2,000 km of transmission lines and several stations, more than half of which are in the state of Minas Gerais, near Sao Paulo.
One of these contracts also covers the operation and maintenance for 30 years of 1,080 km of line, for 3.48 billion rials, or 670 million euros, according to a statement.
The work, which will mobilize “more than 5,000 employees”, should be completed by the end of 2027, the group said.
In the same state, but in the region of Espirito Santo, 4,900 Vinci employees will build, also by the end of 2027, 980 km of lines for 2.0 billion rials (386 million euros).
International business now accounts for more than half of Vinci’s activity, which in the first half of the year achieved a net profit of 1.9 billion euros, higher than the pre-pandemic Covid-19 and more than doubled compared to 2021, against a background of 26% growth in revenues, to 28.5 billion euros.
The acquisition of Cobra IS, which has already installed “about 32,000 km of power lines” in Brazil in 20 years, accounted for “a little less than half” of this sales growth, the group explained at the end of July, when presenting its results.
At the time, the group expected net income for 2022 to be higher than its 2019 level.
