By Olivier Sorgho and PierreJohn Felcenloben
(Reuters) -French infrastructure company Vinci on Tuesday posted a jump in first quarter revenue, boosted by strong traffic across the airports and highways it operates.
Revenue in the first quarter was 15.0 billion euros ($16.46 billion), up 17% on an actual basis against the 12.8 billion posted for the same period a year earlier.
Europe's biggest construction and concessions company, which operates highways and airports like London Gatwick, has seen travel rebound as pandemic-related travel curbs eased, while it also benefits from investments in renewable energy. The recovery however has been slower in Asia.
"The strong recovery in air traffic was confirmed in the first quarter of 2023," the group said in a statement, adding that several airports it operates reached record passenger numbers.
Sales in the Concessions business rose 24% in the quarter to 2.2 billion euros, largely due to Vinci Airports which grew 89% in the quarter. Excluding Asian airports, passenger numbers reached 96% of pre-pandemic levels, Vinci said.
The construction segment's sales were up 13%, but the group flagged some challenges ahead for the unit.
"We can expect a slowdown in residential buildings, new homes, yes," said Grégoire Thibault, the group's director of investor relations, in a call with analysts.
He added however that in the non-residential sector, there's still demand for refurbishing works related to companies' need to become more energy efficient.
Its order book at end-March was a record of 60.3 billion euros, helped by Vinci Energies orders related to the energy transition.
Earlier this month, Vinci announced a contract worth 7 billion euros to design, build and install three offshore wind-farm energy converter platforms in the North Sea.
The group on Tuesday confirmed its 2023 guidance.