(Reuters) -France's Vinci (EPA:SGEF) reported a jump in its half-year profit on Friday, driven by strong energy transition trends and air travel recovery.
Europe's biggest construction and concessions company benefits from higher traffic at its airports and renewable energy investments in non-residential construction.
"The Energy business, which is being driven by powerful megatrends related to the energy transition, saw business levels rise sharply," CEO Xavier Huillard said in a statement.
The group, which operates highways and airports like London's Gatwick, said its core earnings (EBITDA) rose 17.3% to 5.31 billion euros ($5.83 billion) in the first half of 2023.
Revenue grew 11.6% organically to 32.4 billion euros, helped by good momentum in France and abroad, it said. Vinci Energies saw a 13% like-for-like increase to 9.1 billion.
Vinci Construction, which made up nearly a half of the group's revenue last year, continued strong upward sales momentum with a 12% jump to 14.9 billion, driven by 16% growth outside of France.
This external market, representing 54% of the division's revenue, was supported by civil engineering projects in Europe, North America and Australasia, Vinci said.
Real estate arm Vinci Immobilier was a notable negative with a 23% drop in revenue to 0.6 billion, weighed down by challenging real estate conditions in France.
Concessions revenue rose 13% to 5 billion in the first half, of which the Autoroutes business made up 3 billion, up 5.5%.
"At VINCI Airports, passenger numbers continued to rebound, and moved back to pre-pandemic levels outside of Asia," Huillard said.
On motorways, "firm momentum" continued in light vehicle traffic, while heavy vehicle traffic fell slightly, he added.
Vinci lowered some of its motorway toll prices in June, in response to a demand by the French government to help motorists ahead of the busy summer holiday season.
The group reaffirmed its full-year outlook.
($1 = 0.9116 euros)