The 12 French motorway concessions companies that manage and finance French motorways, are again raising money to invest. The state would like to pass the full burden of financing motorway engineering works to the concession groups but in exchange is committed to opening up their share capital.
The process was started in 2002 with the flotation of ASF, which is valued now at over €10Bn. Today, the government retains 50.3%, Vinci has up to 23% and the rest is quoted on the stock market.
Since then, three other concession companies have been introduced to the markets: SMTPC (the Marseille urban concession), APRR and most recently SANEF in March 2005. While the privatisations raised money for the state, the concessionaries also raised cash to fund further investments on extending or upgrading motorways. APRR raised €1.3Bn for example.
At the end of 2004, France counted nearly 8,000km of toll motorway, one of the largest networks in Europe. As at the beginning of this year, some 439km were under construction.
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