Vinci Autoroutes “is not in talks with anyone” about a possible shortening of the duration of highway concessions in France, said its president, Pierre Coppey, on Thursday, in response to this hypothesis that the Government said it was studying.
This theme “inspires me with a feeling of repetition, which we never get tired of”, he responded to the press on the occasion of the presentation of the very good 2022 results of the Vinci group, the first highway concessionaire in France with Cofiroute or the Autoroutes du Sud de la France.
“We are not in talks with anyone to shorten the duration of the concessions,” he said, adding that the contracts provided for a shortening “if their assumptions were significantly exceeded, which is not the case.”
disputes
Asked about the increase in highway tolls and the profitability of the concessionaires after the publication, revealed by the chained duckFollowing a report from the General Treasury Inspectorate (IGF), the Ministry of Economy responded on Tuesday that it was studying the possibility of shortening the duration of the concessions.
For Vinci, “we can remember that since 2006 (year of concession allocation, editor’s note), Vinci Autoroutes has invested 15 billion euros in network improvement programs,” said Pierre Coppey on Thursday.
“This model is regularly the subject of controversy linked to its incomprehension,” he adds, referring to the importance of the capital to be reimbursed, and also referring to a report by the Transport Regulatory Authority (ART) on the economy of these companies: for him, “As soon as the ART said there was no issue, that should close the debate.”
ART, for its part, proposed in January to the State to favor shorter contracts, to give it greater room for manoeuvre, while the main concessions -particularly to Vinci, Eiffage and Sanef- will expire between 2031 and 2036.
Source: BFM TV
