I've just been given the green light. It's a great day. A great day because, first of all, we're very pleased to see you. It's a great day because Jean-Christophe Galan has traveled especially from Argentina just to be with us. He's got a tan. Great day because Christian, on my left, is the grandfather of young Joseph, born 15 -minutes ago. I soon have 12, so that's done. Very pleased to be with you. Before going into the figures, a few pictures. Here we have Gatwick. Gatwick here. A view of the construction project of a new civil airport at Montijo, across the Tagus in Lisbon, so as to meet the dynamism of the Portuguese tourist economy in Lisbon. A pretty symbolic image, an IONITY very high charging station on the A10 motorway.
IONITY is a consortium of German manufacturers, very high tech, all German car makers to set up a network of 400 very high-speed charging stations in Europe, about 100 in France. It's a first, it's a symbol that the electric car is really taking off, we've all understood that. A new dynamic toll collection system contract won in September in Texas, the U.S., by TollPlus. Toll collection system allows you on the same section to have free lanes and paying lanes, and you can change as many times as you like within a given hour the tariff for charging lanes, so as to vary traffic levels, so as to respect journey times from A to B. It's very interesting. It generates a lot of electronics, TollPlus won the contract after many other contracts already won in the U.S.
Here we have an illustration of the knowhow VINCI Energies and IoT, Internet of Things, and the Port of Rotterdam Authority to track and optimize the shipping traffic in the Port of Rotterdam. Here, a view that symbolizes the acquisition that we're very pleased with Lane Plants and Paving, allowing Eurovia to double its size in the eastern and southeastern part of the United States. Things are going well. Integration is proceeding smoothly. A fine building by Jean Nouvel, built in Marseille. It's the La Marseillaise Tower, very close, 200 or 300 meters from the first tower that we built 10 -years ago that is the headquarters of CMA CGM between this tower and Marseille Airport. A first with a vertical tunneling machine that is produced in conjunction with Herrenknecht, who's the leading manufacturer of tunnel boring machines. These generally operate horizontally.
This is a vertical tunneling method, building a well as part of the Grand Paris project at Cachan. I went to see it. It seems to work well. New product launched by VINCI Immobilier Real Estate recently, Student Factory in Bordeaux, a student residence with large open spaces, very user-friendly. We already have three, we plan to continue to grow this real estate market segment. Much for the images. 2018 has been a good year. A very good year, I should say, characterized by strong growth and order intake in contracting. Good motorway traffic levels in line with our forecasts up until mid-November, things deteriorated, as you may have seen from our press release.
Of course, following the yellow vests that particularly hit ASF and Escota, because you'll have seen that it's in this part of France that the social unrest was the most severe. Airport traffic remains buoyant. More about that in a moment. Net income sharply up, free cash flow very sharply up, consequently, debt remains contained in spite of CapEx that are up and numerous acquisitions across our businesses during the course of 2018. Of course, Christian will go into greater detail of the figures. A quick geographical focus. All our geographies are up, as you can see, with the exception of Latin America, that is down 5%. Two factors. Exchange rate, but it's not the only geography where we've had to manage currency impacts that were negative last year.
In this part of the world, in the previous year, in 2017, we had works section to the urban motorway section at Lima, Peru, that kept us very busy. You see that Africa is now flat after the very severe decreases booked in previous years owing to the drop in commodity prices, oil in particular. Africa, as we've said, is coming back strongly, recorded good order intake in 2018, has stabilized its activity, that will spread across Africa in 2019. If we go into greater detail, starting with the autoroutes, the motorways, the social crisis cost us about 2.2% in traffic because we were headed to deliver 1.7%, 1.8%, and we end at - 0.5%. The difference between the two traffic numbers.
Of course, that led us to be particularly attentive to the spending power of the customer segment of those who use motorways to travel from home to work. We have a new subscription that is Ulys Card that is owed to all drivers and motorbikes that perform over 10 journeys per month over a same destination. We have over 5,000 users who signed up for this new scheme, it's our way of meeting the spending power concern of our fellow citizens. The motorway investment plans got underway as well as the works bypassing the west of Strasbourg. We've rolled out the Ulys brand, Ulys 30 that I mentioned a few months, which is connected mobility service that provides real time traffic informations with webcams and data and service areas, chatbots, a toll that can be free-flow, just paying with your iPhone, et cetera.
The dynamics of VINCI Airports is continuing. 6.8% growth in Portugal, 9.2% growth in France, 20% Cambodia, 8.8% Chile, 3.7% Japan, and that in spite of the typhoon that struck and disrupted us at KIX Airport. It's built on an artificial island in the middle of the Bay of Osaka and suffered the impact of a very violent typhoon that led us to stop operations for a few weeks. Revenue managed by VINCI Airports comes in at EUR 3.6 billion. That's pro forma in which we include the revenue of all the airports where we play a significant role, irrespective of whether we control them or not. If we focus on consolidated revenue, we're at EUR 1.6 billion in revenue, markedly up over last year with an EBITDA that is up 130 basis points over 2017, which was sharply up over the previous year.
If we look at the passengers who travel through our airports, including all those recently acquired, and of course, including Gatwick, deal hasn't been formally closed, but we signed an agreement with the seller on the 26th of December last year. We arrive at 240 million passengers managed. By way of comparison, for those of you who've forgotten, CDG is 70 million passengers, give or take, or Orly, 35 million passengers. We've won numerous new contracts, Salvador de Bahia, Belgrade, Kobe, the United States, Costa Rica, and the most recent, Gatwick with 46 million passengers. Going back to my first slide, we signed an MOU with the Portuguese government for two things. First of all, to build a new civil airport on the military air base of Montijo across the Tagus in Lisbon.
Furthermore, a renovation and extension program of the existing Lisbon airport, Humberto Delgado, that's very close to the downtown area of Lisbon. With an investment that will represent EUR 1.15 billion, we'll be able to meet the momentum of the economy and air traffic headed for Portugal and Lisbon in particular. We believe that VINCI Airports is the leading private operator of airports, as you will have no doubt, we don't plan to stop there. On concessions, it's essentially VINCI Railways and VINCI Highways. This is a chart that excludes VINCI Park. There was some revenue remaining in the initial years on the left. If we leave aside VINCI Park. You see that things are growing. VINCI Highways, we opened section two of our asset in Lima, Peru. LAMSAC, 13.4% growth ramp up above expectations.
The difficulty is to ensure smooth traffic flow, we're going flat out on deploying toll solutions through PEX , part of the group that disseminates proactively tele pay toll systems to absorb the very significant growth in traffic at Lima. Things are going markedly better than we planned in our initial BP. In Greece, things are going better than in earlier crisis years. Traffic levels are picking up usefully. The Rion-Antirion Bridge, the bridge that we reconsolidated during the course of 2018. Good ramp-up of our SEA Tours-Bordeaux high-speed rail link. 20 million passengers traveled that section in 2018. 11% growth in passenger numbers between the Paris region and southwestern France. With that, we've been able to refinance the debt of the asset, EUR 2.2 billion, which is, of course, important in a concession, especially during the start-up phase.
We successfully managed to put that deal on track. Moving to contracting, VINCI Energies grand slam achieved with strong organic growth. As you can see, wasn't the case in 2016. It's beginning to occur in 2017, 3.7% in France, 5% outside France. Good growth. Also, M&A brought in EUR 1.4 billion in additional revenue, all that whilst boosting the margin, which is headed for 5.8% up over last year. What's worth noting on this chart is the France international split of VINCI Energies. V has now shifted. International represents 54% of revenue of VINCI Energies, which is in line with our strategic roadmap. Eurovia is faring well, indeed very well, with pretty outstanding organic growth. France, 8.5%. It won't last. We're benefiting from the conventional effect of midterms versus the municipal elections. It's going to continue for a while into 2019, not necessarily into 2020.
That's in the bag. Good organic growth in France as well as outside, 5.8%. We stated that this good performance of Eurovia led us to offer a move for M&A in Canada, in the Baltics, and more recently, Lane Plants and Paving in the U.S. All this very usefully, as you can see, the operating margin is up from 3.7% - 3.9%. EBIT margin. Eurovia has the bulk of its business in France. That's because France is doing very well, 44% outside France and 56% in France. For construction, we need to go into details because the businesses follow different cycles. France is back. You see organic growth, 2.5%. Slight organic growth last year, but very significant decline in previous years. We suffered a lot in construction in France during earlier years. The good news is organic growth is up in France.
Growth also in Central Europe, Asia, Oceania, Upper Africa, post an upturn. Excellent order intake in 2018. VCGP major projects in a transition phase. That's to say that we're coming to the end of a number of major projects, and we haven't yet kicked off a number of new major projects, but we have strong hopes. Earlier, we had confirmation of the fact that we're going to process a railway station as part of the HS2 project in the U.K. This is a project that represents for us something like EUR 700 million. That means HS2 is getting underway. We have other transactions pertaining to HS2 in the pipeline that are going through the first phase, open ECI with some discussions, price setting with the authorities in project management regarding the amount of works that are significantly higher than the initially planned budget.
Oil and gas, primarily at Entrepose Contracting, continuing to suffer a great deal because hurt by the pretty dramatic loss of investments by the oil majors in both oil and gas. There are segments at Entrepose Contracting that are doing okay. The pipe, through Spiecapag, the historical business of Entrepose Contracting is suffering considerably because CapEx by the majors or national oil companies haven't really picked up hugely. Quick focus on VINCI Immobilier. Real estate things are doing well. We said about six months ago that our sense was that we'd reach the peak of real estate development in the residential segment. That's the case. We recorded a slight decrease of the number of bookings in residential property in 2018, it's going to continue to decline slowly.
It's not reflected in the figures because in real estate, there's always a lag between the time you reserve and when you book in your books. At VINCI Immobilier, our position means that we had fewer bookings, but in value terms, it's slightly more because the average cost of each housing unit has been pushed upwards because of where we're positioned. Good commercial property projects, hotels, offices in Paris and in Lyon. VINCI Immobilier made an acquisition of 49.9% of Urbat Promotion. That's interesting because geographically it's located in southern France and is positioned in a market segment, which is one of controlled pricing homes, whereas we were in higher end segments. I'm now going to turn over to Christian for the figures, and I'll come back to discuss the outlook.
Thank you. To briefly come back to revenue, you can see growth, organic growth, similar order of magnitude in concessions and contracting above 3%, in real estate plus 20%, which shows the big increase in reservations in recent years. To talk to you about changes in scope. The impact here is due to the full year effect of acquisitions in 2017, just under EUR 900 million worth, plus acquisitions made in 2018, providing about EUR 1.4 billion in revenue, such as the acquisition of PrimeLine in the U.S. by VINCI Energies, Wah Loon Engineering in Singapore, also by VINCI Energies, TNT in Canada by Eurovia, and the Salvador de Bahia Airport in Brazil. On the other hand, acquisitions of the Belgrade Airport and Lane Plants and Paving closed toward the end of the year have virtually no impact on the full year revenue.
Currency effects are negative because the euro continued to appreciate versus many currencies, particularly the dollar. Conversion of revenue of these subsidiaries into euros means fewer euros. That's why there's a negative effect. Next slide. This is the revenue evolution by geographical area. In France, mainly boosted by organic growth, particularly Xavier mentioned Eurovia, which sees a big growth in revenue, 8.5%. VINCI Airports up 6.3%, VINCI Energies up 3.7%, without even mentioning real estate. International growth is driven mainly by acquisitions growth, thanks to the acquisitions I mentioned previously. There is organic growth internationally, certainly, particularly in Germany, Poland, as well as the Czech Republic, whereas the U.K. is actually moving down. To talk about EBIT reaching almost EUR 5 billion, which is up 8.5%. Margin improves 10 basis points. We consider performance is remarkable.
All business divisions improved their contributions in 2018, except for VINCI Autoroutes, which maintained its earnings level unchanged for reasons given by Xavier, end of year events and so forth. Also due to the impact of the amortization of sections that were put in line recently in 2017, such as the Montpellier bypass, and then the section in the Basque Country, leading to further amortization. Concessions overall improved their contribution at EUR 180 million, contracting EUR 110 million is the contribution. These figures include the bonus for purchasing power toward the end of the year, which is an amount of EUR 20 million-EUR 30 million. Concessions, as I mentioned, an improvement coming mainly from VINCI Airports. This is a consequence of growth in revenue and careful controlling expenses. VINCI Autoroutes, I mentioned. VINCI Energies reaching 5.8% margin, which I believe is by far the best performance in the industry.
We see this in most of VINCI Energies' divisions, in fact, all their divisions. Eurovia also improved its contribution by 20 basis points, reaching 3.9%, which I believe also locates that company at the top of the industry. This in spite of difficulties we alluded to during half yearly meetings, work problems with railroads in France. Particularly strikes at the SNCF railway in the springtime. VINCI Construction, more of a contrast in France, an improvement in the situation, though the margin rate isn't yet at its record levels we'd reached in the past. VINCI Construction U.K., once again, is seeing a profit. A profit in construction in the U.K., that's a true feat of achievement considering the overall context. International subsidiaries we see are continuing to show good results, around 3%. Major projects, Les Transports Franciliens, continuing to be in excess of 4%-4.5%.
We see that the figures here are, as you see on the screen, overall an improvement of 30 basis points for VINCI Construction versus last year. We should continue seeing this progress in 2019. To continue to the income statement. Let's talk about IFRS 2, which is a reflection of the impact on earnings of share-based payment plans for employees, such as the corporate savings plan, as well as performance shares. We increased the contribution the company makes to the savings plan, which explains part of the increase in this expense line item. Other items, equity affiliates slightly down. Remember last year, we had a capital gain here for land sold in London that was around EUR 40 million, and of course that's non-recurring. There are no non-recurring items this year.
If we look at the income statement versus last year, we'd had some restructuring expenses previously and some impairments of goodwill. Financial results basically stable year on year. This includes a significant reduction in the cost of debt because the new debt established, I'll come back to that later, has been coordinated at interest rates that are much lower than interest rates on the debt repaid during the year. We're booking less interest this year, though, because we put into service, as we said, various new sections at VINCI Autoroutes. That goes under P&L. LAMSAC in Peru, bringing online the second section of Línea Amarilla in June of 2018 means we now take all the financial expenses from that investment in Peru. Tax costs going up, correcting for non-recurring items, about EUR 100 million. This basically is due to our improved profits.
Taxation rates have not changed in France, not for us versus last year. All in all, results in the neighborhood of EUR 3 billion, up 8.6% for net income. This similar growth rate in earnings per share. We've canceled out the dilution in earnings due to the creation of new shares for employees. Let's look at cash flow now. EBITDA almost EUR 9 billion, which is an improvement of over 6% versus 2017. Out of the EUR 6.9 billion concessions represent almost EUR 5 billion. VINCI Autoroutes EUR 3.9, VINCI Airports EUR 900 million, other concessions, EUR 100 million. Working capital requirements below EUR 300 million increased, but below EUR 300 million. A similar order of magnitude as last year. The reason for this mainly is increase in our acquisitions of land for VINCI Immobilier, around EUR 266 million.
If we want to continue developing real estate, we buy land. That's the raw material for our property business. Furthermore, VINCI Construction increased its WCR by around EUR 177 million. This is due to what I told you, Grands Projets and startup costs, and also a trough when it comes to big major projects. This should correct in all likelihood during 2019 or toward the end of the year. Furthermore, we also made investments in land in various operations. I also mentioned to you previously in the past, there's been the completion of various loss-making jobs that have been provisioned previously, and the losses had a cash effect. Taxes paid down substantially compared to 2017.
I'd recall we felt the effect end of 2017 by increase in corporate taxes around EUR 200 million, plus cash in beginning of the year, EUR 100 million of 3% dividend tax that was paid back. EUR 300 million difference. If you correct for the difference, we also correct for the fact that we started work on our new HQ in Nanterre, EUR 125 million is the difference. Free cash flow from one year to the next is around EUR 500 million. We improved free cash flow by EUR 500 million. If you correct for tax effects and the effects of what we call L'archipel, which is the name of our new headquarters in Nanterre. Investments above and beyond the HQ investment are up because activities are growing, particularly in contracting. Operating in OpEx continues.
Investments elsewhere, EUR 1 billion in concessions, around EUR 670 million for VINCI Autoroutes and VINCI Airports, EUR 270 million. That includes Brazil, Portugal, and a little bit in Serbia toward the end of the year. As I said, all of this has led to free cash flow that's up substantially, EUR 3.2 billion. That's beyond our forecasts, above our end of year forecasts. We did particularly well at the year in terms of cash in specifically. Financial investments, many in the year, EUR 2.8 billion in investments in contracting and also in concessions. In contracting, around EUR 1.6 billion, over EUR 1.6 billion in financial investments. EUR 900 million at VINCI Energies. Almost 30 companies acquired with VINCI Energies, and all, of course, PrimeLine in the U.S., the biggest one, and Wah Loon in Singapore, but there were many others. Around EUR 700 million investments at Eurovia.
Here as well, mainly Lane Plants and Paving in the U.S. toward the end of the year, but also other acquisitions in Canada, in France, and in Estonia. Concessions, around EUR 1 billion in acquisitions by VINCI Airports. Broadly half of this in Serbia, the other half the Airports Worldwide portfolio, which is airports in Northern Ireland, Sweden, the U.S., and Costa Rica. We paid out EUR 1.4 billion in dividends, share buyback, as I mentioned, offset the share increases for employees. We can say that there's little increase here due to the various investments throughout the year. Capital employed up. That's the next slide. Over EUR 38 billion versus EUR 35 billion one year before. Out of the EUR 38 billion, about EUR 31 billion is in concessions, EUR 6 billion in contracting, and under EUR 1 billion in real estate and holdings. Shareholders equity up around EUR 20 billion.
Some debt, EUR 15-some billion. EUR 6 billion. EUR 21 billion is the gross debt up from last year. We thought it was relevant in the context of the current marketplace to lengthen our debt by issuing more than we needed. Cash on hand end of the year was up. Went from EUR 4.8 billion -EUR 5.6 billion. I'll come back to finance operations during the year. Next slide. We were very active in 2018, as you will have observed. We raised EUR 4 billion in new debt, as that's in VINCI. Average maturity is 10 -years. Average weighted cost, you can't calculate from this slide because these rates are the ones on issue, which are the coupons. We swap these, most of them, for short rates, which are much cheaper, often negative. All in all, extra debt cost us less than 1%.
We also established toward the end of the year the financing of the Belgrade Airport, which was a substantial performance considering the lenders are mainly, not only but mainly, international organizations. All in all, we raised EUR 4.4 billion, which if we include Serbia, for consolidated elements in the group. At the same time, we paid back around EUR 3 billion in debt, reaching maturity that cost us almost 5%. That's where there's an improvement in cost of debt. Entities that are not consolidated, but that did interesting operations as well in 2018. You've got LISEA. LISEA is our concessionaire company of LGV Tours-Bordeaux. They refinanced their bank debt to the tune of EUR 2.2 billion by extending duration to 27 and 35 -years, which of course improves the return on equity of that project.
Lastly, having good liquidity, aside from the points I just made previously, increased the gross debt, leading to cash, shorthand cash that's greater. We increased our credit line from banks, partnered banks, over 20 of them, reaching EUR 8 billion credit line maturity 2023, but this could be extended conceivably subsequently. All of this was made possible by the good quality of VINCI's rating, A- at S&P and A3 at Moody's. As I already mentioned, this has led to constant decline in the cost of our debt, reaching 2.25% now if you're looking at average cost for the full year. To reach this last slide, I'd recall our strategy when it comes to interest rates. In recent years, we've endeavored to extend the duration of our debt, all the while optimizing cost of financing. How do we achieve this?
When you borrow long, it's more expensive than if you borrow short. First of all, it benefited from exceptional conditions, we also decided to swap part of our debt, around half of our net debt and 60% of gross debt, same amount, in exchange for short rates, LIBOR three months. That's how we were able to reduce cost of debt. Why do we do this? Our view is that about EUR 7 billion, one worth EBITDA, means that we're correlating to inflation, which means there's no risk in holding on EUR 7 billion net debt at floating rates.
Thank you, Christian. How do we view 2019? As per the tradition, we have to look for contracting our order intake at the start of the year. It's up, as you can see, significantly over the previous year, up 13%. All contracting businesses are recording an increase in their order intake. If we look at the split, France and outside France, for some time now we've been in this situation with an order book outside France that's higher than that of France, and the dip of the order book in France is fully explainable. In 2017, we booked very big contracts for the Grand Paris Express. Wasn't the case in 2018, nothing particularly worrying there. All this to conclude that contracting businesses will grow in 2019. On the concession front, it's not rocket science.
The growth in motorway traffic will track economic growth, except, of course, if we suffer from exceptional events similar to those suffered at the end of last year. We can return to that if you like. VINCI Airports growth also anticipated growth rates are slightly lower than last year because of the high comparison base growing year- after- year. Of course, after integration of London Gatwick expected to close before the end of Q1. Growth for our concessions, which means that all in all, we expect 2019 to be another year of further growth in revenue and net income. On this basis that the board, which met yesterday in its infinite wisdom, decided to propose to the shareholders meeting a coupon of EUR 2.67 per share, which EUR 0.75 has been paid in the shape of an interim dividend in November 2018.
That's up 9% over last year. In line with our constant payout policy, a payout ratio of about 50% of our net income. All this looks good. In closing, I'd just like to revisit some fundamentals. First of all, cash flow generation is obviously a priority. It is the key metric. Since 2007, we've generated EUR 28 billion in free cash flow, and its use follows constant rules. Return to shareholders, 50% payout ratio, as I recalled. Then stabilize the number of shares through a constant policy of share buybacks on the market to avoid dilution issues as part of the profit-sharing schemes for our employees, to grow the group through targeted M&A whilst maintaining our Grail, our rating. These acquisitions follow simple rules to facilitate our expansion, particularly internationally. Next slide, please. Here we are. Acquisitions follow straightforward rules.
First of all, facilitate our expansion internationally. Back to the earlier one. Extend the maturity, the residual duration of our concessions portfolio. Develop it, contracting on high-value segments. The M&A process is extremely rigorous. The initiative is down to the business units because it's those units that will integrate and grow the company's acquire. Every project is systematically screened by an internal risk committee. Then it goes before the board strategy committee for acquisitions above EUR 50 million, goes to VINCI board for the same acquisitions when the enterprise value exceeds EUR 200 million. Lastly, during these various review meetings, we examine not just the geographical and industrial rationale, that goes without saying, the price offered and value creation expected, but also the control of governance aspects. Above all, bottom right, the cultural fit of the target with the group's systems and values.
We have excellent know-how in this regard. Probably one of the most active companies in terms of M&A, sometimes very small or very large deals. Part of our DNA. In conjunction with our rigorous process of organic growth over time, to deliver constant improved ROC and ROE over the past five years. You can see the chart showing the past five years. That's what we wish to say. We're now available to take your questions. Let's see. I'll see who's asking questions. Jean-Christophe Galan from Argentina. Please, if you would like to go to Jean-Christophe Galan, CM-CIC Market Solutions.
Unfortunately, the interpreters are receiving no sound.
One of the major focus areas for VINCI Airports existing infrastructure with works down the road. Isn't there a shift, maybe from greenfield targets that might appear down the road?
I'll begin with that last question. Greenfield targets in airports, that's infrequent. Usually, we're talking about yellow field opportunities where after a bidding process, we would acquire an airport, and growth in traffic would mean we'd have to then make capital expenditure to keep pace with that. That was the case in Portugal with extensions of several of our platforms. Also is the case in Cambodia, where we started terminals that were fairly small, and gradually they were extended to take into account growth and traffic. In airports, almost always it's yellow field. There's no particular change there. Maybe the slide wasn't all that clear, but there's nothing new in terms of our ongoing policy of development in airports. Quality of results, VINCI Construction.
One of the points we look especially at is provisions, current provisions, recurring ones, i.e., short-term ones for jobs or longer-term provisions, mainly having to do with litigation and disputes. These are stable and actually slightly up. There's an increase in provisions under both of those headings. EUR 14 billion, EUR 15 billion in a division, you grab pluses and minuses clearly, but all in all, quality of results is good.
The U.K. What about the U.K.? Bruno, could you comment on that? What are you doing in the U.K.? Why are you in Paris?
Results are positive in the U.K. Just to give you significant, the cash improvement between 2017 and 2018, almost GBP 40 million.
Well, the slide may have led to some misunderstanding. It was one of the last ones, 38, I think it was number 38, having to do with the criteria when we decide whether or not to acquire a company. Under control. This is ill-worded here, but what we meant here is that in contracting businesses, these are labor-intensive. It's very important from the very beginning to have control. Best-case scenario, hold 100%. It's not always the case. If we're sold the company by an owner and to align with our interests, they stay on board with us several years before retiring, possibly, they then sell the remaining capital amount when they retire after that period. At the end of the process, in contracting, what we want is 100% control because it's all about people, and you've got to be in charge of management.
In concessions, we prefer to consolidate because that's how you build a long process, and that's how we can be in charge of assets and control of assets, especially managerial assets. If we're considering full consolidation at full power over expertise airports, that's meant that we've been able to take on board employees in Portugal and send them to Brazil and to Chile. Whenever we can do this, we do. If we can't, for instance, in Japan, it wasn't possible to consolidate. Or regarding greenfield, if we think it would take too long between the time you'd have to reserve the space in our balance sheet and the time we'd actually begin generating significant EBITDA. SEA, for instance.
It would have been possible to consolidate SEA, but it would have meant we would have had to set aside EUR 6 billion in our balance sheet as from 2011 for EBITDA, that would just start arriving, basically starting at opening 2017, and then we'd still have to wait for the whole ramp-up phase. We felt holding off EUR 6 billion for such a long timeframe wouldn't be worth our while. It was better to deconsolidate. On the other hand, you can have greenfield in airports and have full consolidation. It can happen. It's decided on a case-by-case basis.
At the back of the room now.
Bonjour. Josep Pujal from Kepler Cheuvreux.
Hi from Kepler. I've got three questions, if I may. First is on motorway traffic levels in France. From what you've seen these past few weeks, has there a return to normal or not yet? Still on motorways in France, this reduction in the price of subscriptions that you offer to frequent users. How much do you think the impact is, and how do you view things? No one's compelling you to do that. Do you see it as a temporary measure, or do you expect that once you've offered the scheme, it's very difficult to exit because it means that you'll have to ask for an increase in 50% from these same users, customers. Final question on concessions CapEx. We were expecting an increase this year of about EUR 200 million, if my memory is correct, over last year, and that didn't happen. You maintain CapEx at about EUR 1 billion.
I see that in 2019, you plan EUR 1.4 billion. Is that just a lag effect or are there other explanations? Thank you.
I cannot answer that last question, because Christian will answer it after I have answered the first two. Pierre will correct if I have mistaken, he will add a point if need be. Motorway traffic beginning of the year, what we can say? We could say that things could be better. We have not yet seen a return to the usual figures. There is still some slight disturbances due to some social unrest you are familiar with. We cannot say much more than that. It is not very serious. It just is happening at the beginning of the year. We will know more as the year unfolds and you get the statistics in real time. On reductions for frequent flyers, frequent drivers, discounts. It was not our rationale. We did not look at the cost as such.
We were looking at what needed to be done to make our contribution, to do our bit, to give some of our fellow citizens some extra purchasing power. It is very difficult to gauge the actual costs. We will tell you afterwards, and even then, I am not sure we will be able to. It is difficult because first of all, you do not know how many people will take out the subscription. For now, I have said there is 5,000. It started off well. There was even a bottleneck on their website that you had to go to sign up. We do not know exactly how many people will. The minister talked about one million potential customers could be interested for the whole motorway community, that is just a guesstimate, so we do not really know.
We can well imagine there would be some extra traffic costs, because since the motorway would be less expensive if you do the commute 10 times in a month, same origin, same destination for the commute, that could lead some people to take the motorway when previously they preferred to take regular roads. There are various reasons why currently we cannot give you an actual estimate, and it does not really matter to us. We needed to address the urgent matter. Maybe in the end, we will not even be able to tell you exactly the specific cost of this. On your last point, temporary or not. I cannot imagine in the near future we would backtrack on something like this. Unless, at some point, we had to more substantially revamp our marketing, our product offerings in the various networks.
Let me add a point. We've had the subscriptions at VINCI Autoroutes. We already have 20 different subscription schemes and the 5,000 sold, two-thirds a transformation of existing subscriptions.
CapEx on capital expenditure. It's always complicated to forecast CapEx for concessions. There are many different metrics that we're not in charge of, for instance, release of land, administrative permits, and so forth. In 2018, some things are a little bit delayed. We'd expected things to be higher originally, one of the things that changed things was the Strasbourg bypass. There were events in Strasbourg, and the job site had began, it was somewhat of a difficult thing. Motorway investments plan was to come out earlier than expected. The most recent decrees just came out in August, September. That slowed things down. I don't know if we'd expected things earlier, I'm not sure. Anyway, in 2019, Arcos, Strasbourg will start to ramp up substantially investments plans for motorways as well. Belgrade works beginning. I don't know if Lisbon will be in 2019 or 2020.
These are the explanations for 2018 versus 2019. They're very staging issues, 2017, 2018, and 2019. Another question from over here now.
I've got two questions, the first on the M&A strategy. VINCI Energies is getting closer to VINCI Construction in terms of size. Are we going to see a slowing in the pace of M&A on that segment? Secondly, on the plan to expand ANA in Lisbon, what are the funding arrangements? Is there going to be tariff offset or compensation on that? Just to get some color on the potential offset for the Portuguese airport.
I'll answer the first one. Nicolas will answer the second one. All of our business lines are to make acquisitions if they're the right opportunities. It so happens that one of the business lines, VINCI Energies, is a long-lasting cycle that's particularly positive in terms of acquisitions. It makes perfect sense to make acquisitions. We've got the business model, we've got the size as well to actually move on this globally. We're not going to stop this. There are various phases. This is mainly a time when we're digesting things we acquired in the past two years. 2017, 2018, we have acquired, if memory serves, 60 companies, additional revenue in a full year of around EUR 2 billion. Then you have to, of course, integrate all of this, digest it, so to speak, upgrade methods and so forth. Everything should be fine in 2019.
VINCI Energies will certainly continue growing. Some day, if VINCI Energies goes beyond VINCI Construction, it's not a problem in terms of size then. Eurovia also will grow. VINCI Construction also will make acquisitions, cyclically, you will see margins are growing. VINCI Construction, 2.8%, I believe, up substantially to our previous fiscal period. At VINCI Construction, what we're mainly doing is dealing with what we have already, managing what we have already before then moving proactively toward acquisitions. That was on the first point. Second point, Nicolas.
The solution for Lisbon, the most efficient for all parties, is a problem of CapEx to arrive at 72 aircraft movements and to see the future for the next 45 -years. 50-year concession, that's the best solution. It requires fewer tariff or financing requirements to be there. It's also the role of a private concessionaire by efficient, cost-effective solutions so that tariffs don't increase and the country remains competitive. There's a future improvement in regulation take out of the fact that the CapEx in two airports.
The clear objective is shared with the concession-granting authority. The airport must remain highly competitive versus other neighboring platforms in terms of the tariffs.
Brian Gurney, I got two questions. Can you give us your take on how you view margins for contracting trend in the coming years? Second question on Toulouse. Would you be interested in the stake of Casil in Toulouse Airport?
Easy answer. VINCI Energies was great, bringing to 5.8% for the first time in 2018. It's good to stabilize at that level. Eurovia and VINCI Construction will continue seeing their margins improving in future years. For Toulouse, the answer is also fairly straightforward. It's a beautiful city. It's a symbol of global aerospace. It's a city that's very successful. Its economy is doing very well, especially thanks to aerospace. Yes, it's an interesting asset, but we are level-headed. We've got to build these things gradually and do appropriate deals. If an appropriate deal is possible, that's fine. If it's not possible, that's fine as well. In France currently, you've got not a disturbance, but some questions, question marks, because the regulatory authority's positioned ASI, where you will have observed they've had to change the rate, the tariffs in Nice, and also didn't accept the Paris Airport original tariff proposal.
To look at how the regulatory landscape may change in airport areas such as Toulouse.
Are you Toulouse?
Interesting. We heard a question at the back.
Nicolas Mora Morgan Stanley. High-end construction in France. Confidence levels of contractors. What do you see on the ground in terms of volume, order intake, customer interest for contracting? Contracting margin improvements, rest on France. You promised 2% this year. Were we there? Are we slowing? That's the first question. Secondly, VINCI Energies. Good return to organic growth, a few clouds on the macro horizon. Are you seeing a slowing of pace with your industrial clients that might bring us back to a flatter scenario for the organic growth of VINCI Energies?
I'll come in on this briefly, then the colleagues will add points. I didn't fully get what you were saying about the 2%, though.
Well, 2% was VINCI Construction margin in France these past few years was close to zero. The idea of returning to an average level. Are we halfway there? Do we still have in the catch-up phase?
All in all, we don't need to jump into detail. Construction France margin isn't yet optimal. Obviously. Previously, we reached 4%, 5% margin. It's been a lengthy process to get back where we need to be, and we're still pushing to improve operating margin in VINCI Construction in future years, and particularly France. As to the markets generally, I didn't really understand what you were saying. You said a plummet in confidence. That's not what we see. In previous times, we've told you, yes, France is working at two speeds, so to speak. You get the impression that things are going fine because there's a focus on major projects like Grand Paris. There are also parts of France that aren't suffering, but there's not a whole lot of wherewithal to move forward.
Where there is a drop, I mentioned this earlier, it's in residential real estate, housing starts. All in all, Jerome, you're correct, but I don't think we can say that there's a plummet in the customer confidence or a drop in deals on offer in the various bidding processes we see. Mainly, I'd say it's a stability, a little asymmetry due to some of the major projects in Grand Paris. VINCI Energies now, you saw the figures for 2018, organic growth, order book growth. What happened in January, even if I knew, it wouldn't be that meaningful. We have to realize fully that the advantage with technology used by VINCI Energies is that it's not just about new, but also renovation and improvement of process, making everything smart buildings, smart grids, smart cities. Everything's becoming smart. The idea is there are lots of needs for ICTs.
This type of information communication technology is moving into every area. That's the overall trend above the economic growth trends. You know that we were pretty good at it at VINCI Energies. We've been there, in a timely fashion. We were into this information technology 10 -years ago. We're talking about EUR 2 billion some euros now as a portion of this activity for VINCI Energies. I'm not worried in any way, VINCI Energies, especially since their business model has been shown for some time now. It is organic growth when it's available, and also gives a lot of growth through acquisition, and we've got real knowledge in that area. Does that answer your question?
Yes.
No addition? There are no negative signals, Jerome, right? Things are stable? We've Increased order book, yes. Why would someone be thinking customers were depressed or something? No, not at all. Go ahead.
Nabil Ahmed from Barclays, three questions. A more general question on new forms of mobility, car sharing, the e-car. Do you have an idea strategically at VINCI as how it's going to impact your various infrastructure in terms of potential investment and traffic? Second question, more a point of detail. Strong increase in the contribution of other concessions. Is it Lima or other assets that are contributing more over last year that have entered your scope? A question on ADP. What's your reaction about the vote from the Senate, and do you still believe in it?
I'll begin with that one. Obviously, I have no comment on what's going on in the Senate. I'm not sure the debate was entirely rational, to be kind, especially when I hear some people feel it would be privatizing our border controls. Everybody knows that's not how things happen. Particularly when I hear it's unimaginable, it's unthinkable to privatize a monopoly. Everybody knows that in airports, there's huge competition. When the Chinese want to move into Europe, they've got so many choices in terms of an entry through Heathrow, Schiphol, Frankfurt, Madrid airports, or Paris airports and so forth. The Senate, okay, fine. The Senate's the Senate. We feel confident and calm. Our airport story is something we began 10 -years ago, moving on opportunities, enabling us to create value for all stakeholders, not only us. We boosted the economies where the various airports are.
Recent history of ours has shown that we're able to continue this story with or without ADP. We've always said clearly, if the opportunity arose, we'd be interested. If it doesn't arise, we'll do things differently. We'll continue this story, find opportunities, just as those we've been able to move on in recent years. No further comment. Now, if you want my forecast, I think privatization will continue. That's just a sort of prognosis. That's just my armchair thinking. Other concessions contributions. Several things. First of all, yes, an improvement from the main contributors, i.e., not only LAMSAC, but also Gefyra. Agreed. We consolidated this year, as you know. All the litigation that turned around, that was also included in this heading. How much was that? We don't give the breakout of these figures.
Do you have English questions? French questions to begin with. three people online. We'll begin with the French language questions. We have a question in French from Royal Bank of Canada. You have the floor for your question.
Hello. Question about your expectations in terms of financial leverage and cash conversion in the new businesses acquired this year. Cash conversion expectations. Adam, you have a question? Regulations in Portugal. Could you give us further details? What are your expectations for the new civil airport and military airport? Will the tariff formulas stay the same? Last point, could you tell us about developing concessions in the U.S.? Any regions you're particularly interested in?
Okay, if you could repeat the second part of your question, please. If you could just repeat the second part of your question. Thank you.
Third part. Third question was just what are your expectations in terms of acquisitions in the U.S. and developing concessions in the U.S.?
That'll be simple. I'm not going to answer that. What was the first question again? I'm not sure I understood. Oh, yeah, it was the optimal financial leverage. I'm not sure it was that. Well?
when we make an acquisition, Xavier said, we draw up a business plan unit by unit. We're looking at a new company with a number of operational assumptions on revenue, margin anticipated levels. We updated a model with a cost of capital with the possibility of leveraging or not the target. That's a process that applies both to concessions or country. When we do the PrimeLine or Lane Plants and Paving, we do that exercise. If we embark on M&A, if it's a big one, we have hopes of a return on investment consistent with our BP.
I can't mention anything I can say other than the way it's executed over time. Well, every target is different. Some have earlier returns than others, but over time, in any event, we have to reach the cost of capital targets that we set ourselves. On regulation in Portugal and CapEx allocation. Briefly, first thing, if you're familiar with the ANA contract, we had a major milestone in the concessions to find an agreement on the future. As I said, the fact that the most efficient, cost-effective solution allows us to limit the tariffs, so the airport will remain competitive over the initial 40, 45 -years. That's the country choice, and it suits us down to the ground to reduce the debate on types of regulation. I won't go into the detail. We'll remain both competitive and we have improved regulation.
EUR 650 million CapEx on the existing airport. One of the ideas is, of course, to boost its ability in order to reach maximum possible capacity and EUR 500 million for a new airport. The infrastructure is partly there because it's a military base, and we have a terminal and infrastructure improvements of about 500, 650+ five. That's EUR 1.15 billion in CapEx. On the U.S., two words you saw in the slide. On the highway front, there are fewer pure concessions, French or Latin America style. We have California and Texas positions, very dynamic on free-flow and the dynamic toll. We invested in a company called TollPlus that does all the engineering, the back office systems. California, Texas, very interesting dynamic states in terms of the tech and passenger volume. There are a few airport concessions in the U.S.
We have one in our portfolio, Airports Worldwide. We have Stansted Airport, that's about 3 million passengers, and we have operating contracts. They're not concessions contracts of small airports such as Hollywood Burbank, but also some of the services at Atlanta, the world's largest airport. We consider that in this developing market for concession fees are useful opportunities to gain a foothold in the world's leading market in what it's possible to be today. We did major moves in 2018 in the U.S. in concessions.
Next French language question. We have a second French language question from JPMorgan. You have the floor.
Hello, Christian, it's Xavier. I hope you're well. three questions, if you don't mind. Firstly, on the order book in Africa, which has seen a big increase. I'd like to know your view. What will the impact be on margins for VINCI Construction? Question number two. EBITDA margin for VINCI Autoroutes, slightly down in 2018, probably due to the yellow vests movement. How do you think margins will trend now? What about versus the peak in 2017? Next, tax rates. What are your expectations in 2019? Do you think tax reform may slow down, or can we expect a drop in tax rates starting in 2019? Thank you.
On tax rates, answer to your question on tax rates. We don't know. We don't decide. In a worst-case scenario, same tax rate. Best case scenario, as expected, should go down by how much, Marie? Two points. Go to 32% instead of 34%. You came from London, I know, but you're here in Paris. For the time being, we've heard no rumors according to which there'd be any questioning of the sequencing of the drop in corporate taxes, which have been started by this government when they came into office. We could worry, but there's no reason to worry for the time being. VINCI Autoroutes, EBITDA, you need to ask the Yellow Vests. We're in charge of the rest. Order book in Africa. As we've often said, we can generate operating margin in Africa, which is usually above the average of VINCI Construction. This was the case in the past. It's still the case now.
All of our employees are trained. They're always looking for margin, especially in more difficult geographies. I can't say much more than that. The order book is top quality, thanks to which we'll be able to continue growing with margin levels that are above the averages for VINCI Construction generally.
English language question now. It will be translated to French.
We have a question in English from Santander. Madam, please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. Apologies if I repeat a question, it's difficult to follow by phone. The first one is related to the possible pricing of the bonds to finance the Gatwick acquisition, which level of prices are you finding in the market? The second question is related to the ANA Capex. What do you receive in exchange of this EUR 1 billion exactly in terms of return on the concession? The second one is, should we wait for 45 basis points EBIT recovery also in 2019 for construction or something better? Thank you.
Are there native English speakers in the room maybe to give us an insight on the questions?
Well, Gatwick, we haven't done it yet. Hang on. There was the cost of finance.
No, I'm very sorry. My answer, Xavier, we fully understood your question. I'm very sorry to have to say that we can't go into such detail regarding construction. I'd like to repeat what I've already said. That's to say there's no reason to believe that construction cannot gradually reach margin levels that we've been used to. That is 4% -5 % EBIT margin. It's a slow process because it's a big division that is widely distributed in terms of expertise, business, and geography. We're on the way. We've increased by 30 basis points last year. That's set to continue. As to the rest, I'm very sorry, subject to Christian, we are unable to say anything else further. No more questions. Are you sure? Isn't there a very last question from the room? The reception is now open. Thank you.