VINCI - 2005 annual report

2.2 EARLY REDEMPTION OF THE 2002-2018 OCEANE BONDS
VINCI decided in November also to redeem early all the OCEANE bonds
issued on 2 May 2002 maturing in January 2018.
The early redemption was proposed on 1 January 2006 at €96.52 per
bond plus accrued interest at 1 January 2006 of €1.80, making a total of
€98.32 per bond.
CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
Conversion into shares was requested for almost all the bonds (99.90%)
during the fourth quarter, leading to the issue of 11,105,716 shares resulting
in an increase in the consolidated equity of €510 million.
Overall, these two transactions have resulted in a reduction during 2005 on the net financial debt of the order of €1.1 billion and a strengthening of
consolidated equity by the same amount.
3. SHARE BUYBACK POLICY
Between 1 January 2005 and 6 June 2005, the Company purchased
6,299,788 shares at an average price of €58.70 per share. During this same
period, 2,500,000 shares were cancelled, by a reduction of the share capital.
Given its development projects, VINCI has not bought any treasury shares since
June 2005.
Also, 1,683,478 shares were sold in 2005 in connection with the exercise of
share purchase options.
4. OTHER FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS
4.1 CONCESSIONS AND SERVICES
VINCI Airport’s 3.4% shareholding in Beijing airport (BCIA) was sold in
January 2005 for €40 million. The net disposal gain recognised was
€1.1 million.
In August 2005, VINCI Services Aéroportuaires agreed to acquire all the
issued shares of France Handling, the French leader in cargo assistance to
airlines and freight forwarders. This company’s consolidated revenue in
2004 was €91 million.
VINCI sold its 37.25% shareholding in SETA, the manager of 13 airports
in north east Mexico, to ICA, a Mexican construction group, which was
already a shareholder in SETA, at a selling price of €18 million.
4.2 ROADS
In January 2005, Eurovia acquired the UK company TE Beach (Contractors)
Limited, based at Dartford, near London, for €25 million. This company,
engaged in road surfacing and road building in London, employs
359 people and booked sales of €68 million in 2004.
As a result, VINCI’s holding of treasury shares amounted to 6,835,016 shares
at 31 December 2005 (representing 3.5% of the share capital), of which
2,059,228 shares allocated to covering share option plans. The balance, of
4,775,788 shares, is intended either to be used as consideration in external
growth transactions or to be sold.
On 31 March 2005, the French Government and Arcour, a member of
the VINCI Group, signed a concession agreement to design, build, finance
and operate the A19 motorway which will link Artenay and Courtenay,
two towns south of Paris by 2009. Arcour, a subsidiary of VINCI Concessions,
will act as principal and finance this project, worth €618 million, under
a 65-year concession contract.
In June 2005, VINCI Park finalised the sale of its activities in Chile for a
total price of €3.8 million, close to the net gain recognised.
In September 2005, Eurovia acquired assets from Crowder Construction,
based in Charlotte, North Carolina (USA), through its US subsidiary Blythe
Construction. This acquisition related to Crowder’s two coating stations,
which have an annual production capacity of more than 600,000 tonnes
of asphalt mix, and to its laying equipment.
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