PARIS (Reuters) - Operators of French toll roads are set to meet the country's prime minister on Tuesday, hoping to defuse a row over taxes and tariffs that has pressured their shares and could threaten billions of euros of motorway renovation work.
According to an industry source, the meeting with Prime Minister Manuel Valls is expected to include Pierre Coppey, chairman of the French motorways association ASFA, and the chief operating officer of Vinci (PA:SGEF), France's largest concessions company.
Environment Minister Segolene Royal last week raised the prospect of an additional levy on the concession companies, which also include Eiffage (PA:FOUG) and the Spanish group Abertis (MC:ABE). Her aim was to replace a tax on heavy trucks which has been suspended amid opposition from truckers.
Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron has separately voiced concern about high toll road tariffs charged by the companies, comments that weighed on shares in Eiffage and Vinci.
Finance Minister Michel Sapin initially cast doubt on Royal's tax idea - noting that the companies would have recourse within their concession contracts to government compensation for such a move.
But in an interview with Les Echos newspaper on Tuesday he said the tax was a "good idea" adding that the companies had been privatised under conditions that were "too favourable" to them.
According to Les Echos, the meeting comes as the European Commission prepares to give the green light to 3.2 billion euros (2.53 billion pounds) worth of work the companies have undertaken to do on France's motorways.
Le Figaro newspaper said the companies were threatening to abandon the upgrade plan if a tax is imposed on them. The plan was signed in September 2013 for a total 3.6 billion euros worth of work in exchange for extensions of the companies' concession periods.
Vinci declined to comment. Eiffage and ASFA could not be reached for comment.
(Reporting by Gilles Guillaume and Andrew Callus; Editing by Blaise Robinson and Clara Ferreira Marques)