Good evening, all. As you may have seen, the launching pad of Ariane 6 is well in progress according to the targets we have with the CNES. Infrastructure will be ready in 2019 for the first launching planned for 2020. Marvelous example of synergy among the four businesses of the group. Thanks for being present for this presentation of the annual figures of 2018, Eiffage. For this presentation, I wished to come up with a milestone report on the deployment of a strategic plan, Eiffage 2020. It's through its lens that we shall raise a certain amount of highlights of this period of time that I will complete with a certain amount of more recent elements and perspective for fiscal 2019, Christian, on his side, will present the financial elements.
As I said two years ago, the group is resting on a solid organization over four businesses and seven lines of businesses. We have contracting, real estates, roads, civil engineering, metal, system energy, alongside concession. The strategic plan reasserted the relevance of this organization and the strengths of the two major balances of our group. The balance between contracting and concessions, to know how to be a local player and a global player at the same time. Synthetically, in contracting, we set as a target to be a global player in our countries, our target European countries, strengthen ourselves on specialty businesses, project ourselves internationally from our permanent bases. Concession side, we wish to be a player of the whole of the chain of value, explore new segments, extend the length of our portfolio of a concession to remain a recognized player in that field.
It's by strengthening ourselves in the countries where some of our businesses are already present that we'll be appearing as a global player of BTP, of contracting, attract the best talents of those countries. Well, in the middle of the road, it seemed interesting to get back on some of the important implementation of this period, 2016-2018. Contracting side, we implemented 12.6% of organic growth, slightly over 4% on annual rhythm. We strengthened in the specialty businesses. Upgrading by organic growth of groundworks. Strengthening on rail with the acquisition of Meccoli. Ramping up of the businesses of deployment of optic fiber. Development in renewable energies, sun, onshore, and offshore wind farms. Parallel, the group deployed strategy to grab the opportunities linked to the project of Grand Paris Express and won over EUR 2.6 billion in contracts.
We experienced a very significant progression of our revenues in Europe, outside of France. Thanks to the momentum on our legacy markets by organic growth, strengthening of our territorial knit in Belgium and Spain, acquisition of specialty works in Germany, the entrance of the group in the Netherlands and Switzerland by external growth. Finally, in energy system, civil engineering, road, and metal, group goes on bearing on the skills of its Spanish, French, Belgian, and German teams in order to implement projects more and more numerous in export mode. Concession side, we have seized the opportunity to buy shares of A41 motorway north between Annecy and Geneva. We deployed the recovery plan 2015 and finalized a new investment motorway plan. We maintained our rotation portfolio strategy in PPP with six sessions and six new contracts over the period.
We finalized with Eiffage Aménagement and Eiffage Énergie Systèmes, our two first concession of heating networks. We are very active on the opportunities offered on the airports of Lille and Toulouse. To add to that, this panorama suggests some illustrations. Eiffage groundworks in Neuilly-sur-Seine on the Eole project. The dam of Singrobo-Ahouaty on Côte d'Ivoire, secured summer 2018. In our position of concessionaire-builder, it is a group, Eiffage APRR, who bid on the tender of concession of the Route Centre-Europe Atlantique, CEAR. Our model of concessionaire-constructor is mobilized on the PPP project of the A3 motorway in Germany, for which we bid our last offer. The decision is expected before summer 2019. Eiffage goes on strengthening itself as a private developer to up-ramp the value chain. It is an excellent means to put forward all the innovative solutions whereby all of the businesses of the group.
Eiffage Aménagement won major projects as LaVallée at Châtenay-Malabry, Nice, Asnières-sur-Seine, and the gastronomic city of Dijon. Thanks to the French and Spanish expertise of the group, with notably the success of the sun farm Cestas in Gironde, our teams go on rolling out their know-how in Europe and Africa, South America, and the Caribbean. It is close to two gigawatts that have been deployed, and we maintain most of those power plants. You see on screen, Chile. Another beautiful example of the strength delivered by the balanced contracting-concession is the Autoroute de l'Avenir in Senegal. After a third stage, we have built and commissioned the extension up to the new airport of Dakar. Success is there with traffic constantly increasing with over 50,000 daily transactions on the toll of Thiaroye.
Beyond concessions, our permanent installation in Senegal, with over 2,000 local employees, combined with expertise of our European installations, enables us to grab the very large project of the structure of this country. The fast train of Dakar is an example. We made the inaugural trip with the president on January 14, 2019. Very recently, we announced it, after a stage of study, we have signed a contract for marine infrastructure for the gas terminal of the Tortue gas fields for BP, offshore of Mauritania, Senegal. As a last illustration of important implementation over this 2016-2018 period, enable me to focus on the Grand Paris Express through this map illustrating all of the projects in which the group is involved. Civil engineering, after the pack 14 North, we secured the South lot.
On the Eole line, we have the rail teams and also the teams of civil engineering and metalwork. Obviously, the civil engineering with the tunnel borer Virginie from Gambetta to Courbevoie started its way under the ground towards the train station Saint-Lazare. For the Eiffage Énergie Systèmes branch, it is also the first secured bundle on the line 15 South. Finally, the very big pack of 16.1 that will be necessary for the Olympic Games of 2024 is the major challenge for the group for the five years to come. It is on the model of organization of Bretagne-Pays de la Loire that this project has mobilized over 1,000 employees. Following those snapshots of our major implementations, I wish to get back to the development of the group by external growth. Over the past three years, we strengthened ourselves in a progressive way.
2018 has seen the conclusion of several acquisitions in France, as well as in Europe. Those acquisitions were done in majority on a negotiation base following an analysis of our capacity to share a vision, a culture, and shared values. 2019 will be devoted to the integration of those entities and to the creation of value. All those acquisitions were made with a clear will to strengthen our specialties in a given country or to densify our European net. The second strong direction of development internationally is done by the projection and export mode of our know-hows. Beyond the examples that we have seen, you can see on the map here the projects that we won, some of them implemented already in Africa and in Latin America. The territory of Western Africa is completed with our permanent settlements in Morocco and Senegal.
Those projects have a size between five and EUR 100 million involving recognized know-how of the group. Electrical lines and stations, renewable energy, industrial engineering, port terminals, and bridges, and roads. They are implemented by secured financing and with major industrial clients. You see the split of the growth of our revenues over the past three years. As you may see, organic growth, proof of the momentum of the group and its employees, remains the first contributor of this growth. It represents the two-thirds of it. Now the vision of the momentum of the group is in the progressive development internationally. Over this period of time, the international share of the contracting activity moved from 23% to 31%, while the activity in France is back to growth since 2016.
This development is only possible if it is supported by the strengthening of the balance sheet and of the P&L of the group. As you may see, over the period, the shareholder equity increased by 50% to reach EUR 4.7 billion, and the financial liability has decreased by EUR 1 billion, following EUR 720 million of external growth and an increase of two-thirds of the dividend. The net cost of debt has decreased by 40%. The increase of 20% of the revenue, the increase of 30% of the operating profit, and the decrease of the financial expenses enabled the net profit of the group to double over the period. Before getting to the figures, some recent highlights.
In the line of our projects of groundworks for the wind farms offshore of Beatrice, I see on screen, we secured a contract of EUR 700 million, including EUR 267 million for Eiffage, in the Moray East in the North Sea. We won the PPP of Îlot Péreire in the center of Paris. That will regroup the police station of the four arrondissement of Paris for an amount of EUR 30 million. Eiffage Real Estate, Eiffage Immobilier, is very dynamic with new sales of housing units with 4,700 sales. La Crique Marseille on screen. All the housing units were sold before delivery. To thank and gain the loyalty of our frequent customers, we have launched a new offer of subscription, C230. Customers with two round trips per month have a rebate of 30%. The motorway, if it's often, it's - 30%. Over 7,000 customers subscribed to this new offer.
Half of it were already benefiting an offer of proximity. Last but not least, as in French, the acquisition of 5.03% of the capital of Getlink we announced on the 17th December 2018. This movement is also within the long-run vision of the strategic plan of the group. To add to those highlights, I picked some illustrations on extra-financial topics. Without being comprehensive, I picked five examples at the core of our strategy and proving our dynamism and the dynamism of the employees of the group. The employees' brand. Our first capital is our human capital. Develop the Eiffage brand as an employer brand, reflecting our identity, our values, our spirit of family, our culture, in order to develop, gain loyalty, and attract the best. This is how we got in the positioning of human perspective or up to you to invent a human-sized future.
Through selfies, the employees of the group were invited to illustrate their vision of a human-sized future through their own vision. As you see on screen, many picked their own work location. Our projects are also a fantastic vector of promotion of the Eiffage brand and contribute to strengthen the image and the awareness of our group. It's a driver for consistent implementation of our daily actions and the strengthening of the pride of belonging to our brand and to our teams. Through Eiffage Connexions, it's all of the fellows, all of the employees of the group which are supported in the digital transition. I wish to give to each and every employee an Eiffage email address and an access to the digital community, its daily news, its collaborative spaces, its apps, its communities.
It's also a way to make them aware of the new tools of our jobs, but also a way to strengthen the connection between all the employees of the group, and first and foremost, to bring together the offices from the ground. At Eiffage, as you know, our employees are part and parcel of the shareholder employees. It was something obvious to integrate them totally in our digital community and avoid thus any risk of digital gap in our group. Know how to make a difference. It's through innovation. The group has implemented supporting funds for innovation representing EUR 4 million in 2017 and 2018. Over 30 projects supported over this period of time, 15 dedicated to the low-carbon offer. It's also a start box, an idea box with over 10,000 employees who contribute to it. On screen, the first driverless shuttle.
Following two years of experiments, the authorization has been obtained on 18 January 2019 by our teams from Eiffage Énergie Systèmes. The dry runs are underway. The operation is to start on 28 March 2019. Know-how to make a difference by sustainable development in all its components has always been part and parcel of our concerns. Some major projects, as you can see on screen, acted and still act as catalyzer of solutions supported by all of our LOBs. It's those innovations that sometimes enable us to secure this project and mainly make their performance even more remarkable. It's in this continuity that the group will inspire of the process TCFD, Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure, and its extra-financial reportings as of this year. Before leaving the floor to Christian, the fiscal 2018 figures can be summarized with a revenue of 10% growth by contracting mainly.
Increase of our operating profit by 7.2%, stronger in contracting, plus 12.7%, sustained by the sales. Including this figure, the payment of a premium power purchase to 83% of the employees of the group in France for an amount of EUR 17 million. Increase of net result by 22% to EUR 629 million. Variation of the WCR, consuming in cash, as expected at the outcome of the first half-year. 2018 has been a special year because we have seen the materialization of several external growth, representing an investment of EUR 220 million, to which should be added the EUR 308 million of Getlink. Sum total, over EUR 500 million invested in our operation of growth. You see that our indebtedness has progressed only by EUR 169 million. Order taking have been sustained.
Our book of order is now up to EUR 40 billion, growth of 15% over a year. It's a historic top for the group. This book of order makes us anticipate the progression of activity and the results for 2019. We shall suggest to the general assembly to bring the dividend to EUR 2.4, an increase of 20%. Thank you for your attention, and I invite Christian to give you some figures.
Good evening, everyone. The main figures again, sticking to 2018 revenue. For the second year running, we have a robust growth to the tune of about 10%. Mostly our own organic momentum, it's still there, 5.8% in organic growth, about the same as 2017, but there was a more significant contribution from external growth. Revenues stood at EUR 6.6 billion, compared to EUR 15 billion in 2017 and EUR 14 billion in the three previous years. External growth, you're looking at mostly contracting. We have three major acquisitions at the end of 2017. EGC Marine, that was at the end of 2017. At the end of H1 2018, we had Priora in Switzerland, Kropman in Netherlands. Revenue was up 11%, including 5.8% organic. These acquisitions, of course, boosted our revenue abroad, about 18% out of the 13% outside France.
The balance, 16%, is due to our historic position on BTP markets in Spain, Belgium or Germany. As Benoît said, 31% of contracting is now achieved abroad. Five years ago, it was only 19% abroad. You can see that growth in France was not quite as high, at only 3%. Going through the divisions, I will examine the various trends on the French market. Operating profit was up 7.2%. That include the special bonus, and that was actually paid by the holding because it's a non-recurring operation. In contracting, operating profit was up 12.7%, and the profit margin was 3.6%. In contracting and concession, margin was up 50 basis point to 48.8%. All in all, the group operating profit margin was 11.2%. This is mostly due with a mix of business, whereas there was more growth in contracting than in concession.
If you look at the two big families have become both profitable and indeed increased revenue. Let's look at the details of these divisions. Looking at construction in Switzerland, we have about EUR 250 million in revenue in Switzerland. Almost 50% growth in the Benelux. In France, revenue is slightly down. It was already the case in H1. If you look at contracting business, not including property, it was down 10% in H1. It was only down 5.6%. I'm just talking about contracting here. H2 was almost stable. No, it was 5.6% for the year as a whole, so H2 was about stable, even though there was less PPP business. There was less contribution from contracting. Although property contribution was increased by EUR 66 million to EUR 845 in revenue.
If you look, there is less business in property, and you will find this in the press release. This is only due to the phasing out of some major operations, which back in Q4 2017, prompted us to recognize as much as EUR 430 million in revenue. If you restate this with IFRS 16, 15, I beg your pardon, you will find that in fact, it is almost stable. Profitability is 3.9%, slightly down, but close to its 4% average over time. Looking at our various lines of business, this is Gerland at the foot of the Matmut Stadium in Lyon. We had already renovated Jardin des Loups. That's a property project, 28,000 sq m and 334 parking spaces. A big parking lot. This is intergenerational. Here we are in Versailles, renovating Pradeau Morin, which is in Versailles Castle.
We have a prestigious, high-standing hotel with three buildings, 20 rooms, and a high-class restaurant. Infrastructure now. You have three branches. International was up 25.9% compared to 24% growth in 2017. We have the ramping up of the Grand Paris Express, we are looking here at EUR 300 million. The road market picked up to the tune of 9%, and that explains the 17% increase in revenue. In terms of profitability, we were able to have a better control over fixed costs. Good operating performance in roadworks in France, but also in Spain, where we gain more volume in terms of business, now we are profitable. Civil works has generated more revenue abroad. In metals, Smulders, you may remember that last year, we had reached a plateau, but we're still there at Smulders in offshore wind farms. We were only down by 3% or so percent.
Back to Kourou, the launch pads at the top of the crane of the water tower. It's a 90-meters-tall water tower with a superb view of the launching pad. On the right-hand side, you have the canal, the channel that connects the launching pad to the water tower, and the reflection of the crane there. To illustrate this high-performance year, this is a quarry in Corbigny, we have stepped up that business because we acquired two assets that were already mentioned earlier on. In energy and services, growth is significant, 10%, including 5.3% in organic growth. There again, our businesses abroad are growing nicely, up 34%. Well, of course, it is due to acquisitions, also internally up 16%, including Spain, Belgium, and export projects. Especially in renewable energies and solar panels more than transmission and distribution, those projects are slightly down.
In France, growth was more modest, 2% organically, 2.4% if you add the few acquisitions we make here and there. In France, you should note that in H2, we strengthened our order book with some major contracts in the telecom networks, also with Grand Paris Express. Indeed, we are continuing the improvement of profit margins in our various businesses. The last highlight, if you remain on the last slide, you can see at the bottom-right corner, we finalized our dedicated brand policy. Each market has its own brand. On our vehicles, you have Translic, Dorsalys, Expercité, and Terceo. This is the subway in Lille. Eiffage Énergie Systèmes is conducting the work for new portals. You have high and low voltage. We're also dredging gutters in the concrete slabs because the platforms have become bigger.
If you're looking at APRR, we have more heavy goods vehicles that have grown, the positive developments in H1 were compensated by negative in H2. The one big event is the upgrading of major investments as part of the APRR, the AREA investment, EUR 424 million, up 20% compared to 2017. This will continue because in the next few days, we'll be launching the site for the A480 motorway in Grenoble. Major, EUR 300 million financed by AREA, 3,300 direct or indirect jobs. At the end of the day, this means that the driving time will be divided by two for most of the distances in Grenoble. The Snowkill, this is a snow-clearing vehicle that can clear snow on two lanes simultaneously because of the special positioning of the trailer. In looking at concession PPP, we're looking at revenue up 5.6%.
That includes a high-speed BPL railway line, it's running smoothly on its first year. We have refinanced A'liénor's debt, we have secured its financial expenditure for the next 10 years. On the Senegal motorway, the Autoroute de l'Avenir motorway, you may remember with the opening of a new airport in December, we had suddenly a surge in revenue, as you find in the press release. Regarding operations, let's look at revenue and operating profit. We've been through that. Looking at other expenses, mostly restructuring costs, they were down to EUR 51 million. They were already down in 2016 and 2017. The cost of net debt, as Benoît said, is down for the fourth year running.
We have about a bigger decrease of EUR 104 million because there was the interest rate swaps of Eiffage, about EUR 75 million there, that accounts for the lower cost of debt. Net financial expenses in H2 is now being normalized. Income tax is up because the net effective tax rate is about 32.5%, that is in line with the tax rates in those areas where our business is present. Net profit attributable to the group is EUR 629 million. It's up. It's been going up for the past five years. Of course, earnings per share increased 21%, just like the 22% increase in profit. If you look at the balance sheet, you have the listing on page 61. You're looking at capital. This was commented by Benoît, I will not insist on the debt position. We have two items.
We have debt over the year. Let's go through the various bits and pieces. EBITDA, about EUR 2 billion, the debt was down by EUR 2.6 billion. Working capital requirements up to EUR 125 million, including EUR 107 million on contracting and EUR 18 million on concession. Interest and taxes, EUR 878 million. This would normally bring debt down when you pay back interest. We have holding and contracting equipment, EUR 197 million in both branches where we are present.
We have statutory CapEx as part of the plans, all ongoing PPPs, EUR 503 million, and that includes EUR 424 million for APRR. I mentioned it earlier, that is in line with our expectations. We said anywhere between EUR 400 million and EUR 450 million for APRR and between EUR 500 million and EUR 550 million in all. We are paying back debt as part of the rents we receive through PPPs.
Free cash flow is about EUR 1 billion, EUR 992 million exactly, compared with EUR 735 million in 2017. We see how we use that free cash flow. Part of it was for external growth, EUR 220 million for contracting. That figure does not include the cash from companies that we have acquired. That is the shares in companies that we have acquired that have their own cash, we did not include that. Getlink is EUR 308 million, EUR 528 million for external growth acquisitions therefore. Operations without flows, we have about EUR 105 million. That includes the accounting that is non-bank debt. There is no cash out, no actual bank debt, that is call options on minorities, companies that we have control over. We acquired them, we do not have all the shares.
There is an additional price to be paid over the acquisitions that were made, that is EUR 80 million. If you look at acquisitions, we have cash out of EUR 220 million and accounting debt, paper debt of EUR 80 million. Looking at additional prices and call options, it is not much in terms of debt, it is a lot of money if we look at cash variation over the year. The capital operations are EUR 528 million. That capital transaction, two major payments, of course, the dividend paid by Eiffage to our co-shareholder. Eiffage, that has control of APRR is therefore listed here, EUR 317 million here. There is a dividend paid by Eiffage to its shareholders, EUR 197 million. That is up EUR 52 million compared to 2017.
On the last clause, on our own shares, we have only EUR 9 million in actual cash out because what we do, we buy back and cancel the equivalent of those shares created for the benefit of employees. On H2, we bought back about 1.1% of Eiffage's capital. That brings the total net debt at the end of the year at EUR 10.544 billion. We have a breakdown of that. The non-recourse debt, that is down about EUR 209 million.
There was a bigger, of course, decrease in the year before because we sold off four PPPs and the net cash position of the holding of contracting EUR 526 million. You have to remember that the EUR 528 million in external debt was paid with that cash. You have, in accounting terms, the EUR 18 million I mentioned earlier on. In closing, looking at the order book, that is up 15%.
There's an increase in construction. Infrastructure, of course, with the Grand Paris Express accounts for most. You have this 29% box there, increase in the middle box there. In energy, well, we have filled back the order book. In H1, we had actually consumed some of that order book on some major operations. That completes the presentation on figures. Now we can have please give a hand to our employees at Eiffage who threw in their pictures with their smiles, their selfies with their smiles to highlight this presentation.
Microphone for the questions, please.
The micro arrive.
I don't think we're going to spend the night here. Could we have a split of the EUR 140 million of the other concessions, revenues of other concessions? What are the margin of progress in 2019? We had an important reduction of financing debt and an increase of the operational result. On the EUR 920 million of external growth to the revenues, what is the magnitude of the operational result, which seems to be relutive on some branches of construction? Can we have an idea about the evolution of traffic since the beginning of the year and the investment of APRR in 2019? Philippe, why don't we start by the last question, the evolution of the traffic since the beginning of 2019? Hello? On investments, Christian said it, we committed EUR 424 million in 2018.
It was the ramping up of investments linked to the major operations of plan 2014, 2018 on the motorway independence. Ramping up will carry on 2019. We'll have a peak investment because we anticipate on the growth an investment of EUR 550 million approximately, and we'll get down as of 2020, 2021. We anticipate a bracket of EUR 400 million-EUR 450 million each and every year. Far from investment. For the traffic beginning of the year, it's rather difficult to talk about the figure at the end of January and following the first reports of February. No great meaning at the end of this. What we may say is that the HGV is on a good trend, dynamic trend, and the continuity of what we experienced in 2018, end of 2018.
It's more complex for the lightweight vehicles, LVs, insofar that we have an unfavorable base effect due to a beginning of year that was fantastic with the winter season, extraordinary. Very good snow in the Alps. A lot of snow in the Alps. We're also impacted by the Yellow Vests, Yellow Jackets movement, less than what we experienced at the end of 2018. We have less toll stations that are disturbed. We have some concentration on the demos on Saturday. As of last year, we're impacted Saturday, Sunday, and sometimes weekdays. I wish to say that we'll have an unfavorable base effect in March, since the Easter weekend, which was positioned at the end of March last year, has been moved to April of this year, and then we'll have a base effect unfavorable at the end of March.
This is what I may say about the traffic for beginning of 2019. Christian, can you pick it up for the other questions? First question. It's simple. It's no. We give no details per business or per infrastructure of the margin of concessions. You have the detail of the revenues of each motorway besides APRR, and you have in your press kits. Since we think you're not stupid, you have a good education, and you can figure it out. About the other concessions you have included, what we said for BPL for the rent and maintenance, minus EUR 100 million. Last indication, we are expecting nothing significant in 2019. On the other concessions compared to 2018, we have no new entrants. Commissioning that would impact the margins, besides the growth of the motorway traffic and no cession that will decrease the operational results.
There's going to be a stability of the portfolio of PPP. Margin of progression, you're referring to the financial costs? As I said, the major lever this year was the end of the swap of FRE. Compared to the first half-year, 2018, 2019, we'll have a saving, and our debt is normalized. You have the detail of the cost of the debt, page 57 in the appendix. We have refunded the first stage that was at 5%, replaced by the debt of 1.5%. Next one, which is floating, had a very low cost, close to zero. This will be replaced by the debt at the current rate. No major savings besides the swap, FRE. Your last question was about the external growth. Several elements. On the infrastructure side, we made small specialty external growth, which are accretive as a specialty business in Germany.
We had the external growth of the maritime, of CFPM. We discussed that earlier, and it's relutive, I do confirm. On the part Energy System, there, too, the elements we have are the strengthening of niche of specialty, which are relutive compared to the brand itself. Internationally, we're on market with a level of margin. I mean, the margin are very relative and relutive also. Growth in Switzerland with Priora. Today, Priora delivers building and little bit of real estate. We shall carry on increasing the share of housing, which is more relutive, but we're very close to what we have in France currently.
Hello, Pierre Jose , HSBC. Three questions. First, on the concession in France, against the current background, do you expect or you hope changes on the concession contracts, a freezing of the amounts until an extension of the length of the concession, which could be a popular solution? Second question about the airports. When do we expect answers on Lille and Toulouse? What about the others like Marseille and Bordeaux? Third question about Getlink. Do you have relation with the management of Getlink? Did you start working groups on any topic?
If I take your question in the right order, first about the concessions in France. As you know, last summer, we had a report, rather comprehensive, on the situation of the roads in France. There is a clear will of the Ministry of Transport, through the discussion on law on mobility, to find ways to improve the situation of some roads in France. There are some wills to try to look into possible venues. One of the possible venue, and is part of the suggestion of ASFA, is to put to contribution some element which are consistent with what we have seen in 2015, the recovery of the maintenance of some parts of the roads, and also to be seen with the territories.
All this is not discussed anymore with the authorities, with the powers. We understand there will be a will to improve the transportation on a daily basis, and the motorway operators can deliver part of the solutions, but it's going to be only part of the solution. The other element of your question is what could be done between a freezing of the prices, the tariffs, and an extension of the length of the concession. The government knows better than we do what the mechanism of the contract enable them to do. If they keep some balance for the concession holders, we're open to negotiation.
This cannot be done separately from a more global solution, which is a take into account of some issues of maintaining the infrastructure. Here now, there's no discussion so far. Marc. On the airports. I cannot make any comment on the processes underway. You talked about Lille and Toulouse, and give you the elements that we may know about the time frame. What I can say is try to give you and state the interest we have for this negotiation.
Eiffage has a know-how enabling Eiffage to intervene in the territories where we are located, either as improvement of mobility, modernization of the infrastructure, or development. In the case of the airport, we notice that we have a certain amount of skills to proceed, either the practice of concession with the state as the authority, or works contracting airports and landing strips or complex systems. We're also a developer. There are synergies between our know-how and the qualities, competencies required to work in the airport area. In the face of it, we are interested to look into the issues of airports where we are located in our different lines of businesses. That's the case of Lille and Toulouse, to name only certain figures. In the region Hauts-de-France, we do EUR 1 billion of business, EUR 600 million in Occitanie.
Might be the case on the other French platforms, when and if their capital would be open to a private operator. Regarding Getlink, we have seen and we had some initial talks. I think the understanding of our movement and a favorable welcome of the management. We're happy and glad the way this asset has been managed, and there's no discussion today, so to speak, with the teams of Getlink.
Nabil Ahmed, Barclays. Margins in the contracting construction outside of real estate, two half-years, that is decreasing. What is it? Loss of projects which are difficult, pressure on the treasury movement, energy systems, more 20 basis points. What is the limit? How high can you go? Do you have a path foreseen for 2019? A similar question about the infrastructure. There is a motorway cycle which is favorable on 2019 in France.
Decrease of overheads and smallers has not been as high as foreseen last year. Will it be this year? What kind of margin do you see for this line of business? Olivier. On margins of construction, contracting. Decrease of margin on contracting is linked to a scissor effect in France and in Poland, as we noticed last semester. We had it over the whole year. Overheads, which are increasing strongly on sales for two years. We are on a private market with a firm pricing. Energy system line of business, we shared already on that. We're not yet at the profitability level reached by the best in class. We have size effects, which are very important. We have to have a territory net, an important one, to deliver more value. Added value offer. The combination of both be generating margins. As of today, we reach 4.4%.
We don't want to stop. We are on a trend of increase. It will take some years, but it is not unthinkable, in spite of our small size, to get to 5% of profitability. The more you go up, the more it is difficult. Takes some time, but be assured that all the teams of the line of business are committed to go on this trend. On the infrastructure side, we are on a business mix between motorway, metal, civil engineering. The visibility on the road is very significant. The other element is that we had really an upturn of profitability, thanks to the contracting rather than over volume in our industries. It's very positive on the fundamental of this profitability. On the civil engineering, if you remember, I always said that the major projects of Grand Paris Express will have very long tail effects to be recognized.
The first effect is that the tremendous investments we had in study. Well, today, we're not anymore in study. We're all mobilized on the project. We had very important successes on this project. We have a positive effect, which is a reduction of our investment of study. For the time being, those projects, which are weighing EUR 300 million this year, that will go on ramping up next year. We shall be with zero margin, not recognized. We have a volume effect. We have a better amortization of our overheads. When we'll be at 40%-50% of progress and the risk will be better known, we will see. It's a very long-tailed business.
The weight of this project increasing year after year, it is dilutive on the margin of the line of business, but it's because we are cautious in the recognition of the results on this kind of projects. On metal work, the market is variable. More and more competition on the offshore wind farms. Prices are more and more competitive. It's a market on which we do not wish to increase our volume. We can have a geographic diversification, since in 2019, the first wind farms in France will start being built. We're still in a study phase, but globally speaking, metal remains a contributor to the line of business because it's a specialty business, so to speak. It's quite difficult, this mix, as you may imagine.
Globally speaking, our volumes will go on taking some importance, and I think we can improve the profitability of infrastructure line of business next year, but it's longer.
Say, [Foreign language].
I get the microphone. Virginie Rousseau, Oddo BHF. Several questions. First, about what Nabil said, Vinci Construction. I understood the scissor effect. It's not the margin of Vinci Construction. I'm sorry. The lady says she's sorry. It's late. I was talking about Eiffage, indeed. Is the scissor effect, can it be reverted? Can the price of last contract seem to you to be better than those you piled in last year? Second, on M&A. What do you think about the M&A on the envelope? What is the level of gearing you're comfortable with? You talked about the airport of Lille, Toulouse, Getlink. How do you prioritize those various projects? On the Eiffage contracting, obviously, the scissor effects are decreasing in time. We remain in a very competitive environment.
Today, in the last contracts which are being presented and secured, we consider that we get to report in our price, to delay now in our accounts, the scissor effects we experience. There's no improvement of the margin, even if the activity remains dynamic. On the M&A part, I'm not comfortable with the question since there's no will. The issue of constructing from one side and concession on the other side on the works, we do it often, but on smaller amounts with managerial intensities, which are more important today. It so happens that several issues we worked on for some of them since 2016 were materialized in the beginning of 2018. One for the infrastructure, the other one for the energy system, and another one for the construction. The conclusions-- contracting. Conclusions came at the same year.
We had a very significant year, we're not going to other significant acquisition. We worked a lot to be on consistency, and we have to be sure that everything can be integrated to our values and our culture and our way of work in order to deliver the value we expect. Regarding concession, it's different. In the short term, we are invested on the tender of RCEA, which would be a significant investment, but it will be according to the length of the works, a concession. One feels this is where we create the most value because we mobilize the contracting and concession knowhow of the group. On Getlink, our disclosure was quite clear. It's an option taking. We are in our territory, European territory. We are on a very long tail concession.
An asset would have very issues of restructuring, financial restructuring lately, we're convinced that an industrialist can deliver a lot because there will be a challenge of renewal, of maintenance, of renewal of capital expenses, it's in our geography on a very long maturity. It's something important. We have time, we are against a long-run operation. If there is an opportunity, we can strengthen our position. Each element is looked into as such. The other element to better answer your question is the why we are used to present the cash flow, separating what is non-recurrent of what is our real capacity of investment and growth, which is the red part of the graph. Christian? You know the balances. We always said in the past, we didn't change our mind, that we're comfortable with EUR 500 million cash flow on the holding contracted concession.
Well, if there's an opportunity, we can go beyond, but it's a normal level with which we're comfortable. In a normative way, we get EUR 300 million of free floating cash flow past dividend. Those are the major equations. We are always be careful to have a dis-indebtment with a positive cash flow of EUR 500 million. Without ruling out to move on the various opportunities you were alluding to, some could possibly be financed or refinanced with a non-recurring debt by our bankers, some of them are here with us and have some ideas for us also sometimes.
Good evening. Erick Lemonnier. I have a couple of questions. On airports, what's your feeling about the recent decisions by the authority, the ASI, the Authority on Airports, which rejected proposals to increase rates? Does this sort of dampen your interest? Regarding the property market in France, if you're looking at property development in 2019, we feel like we are reaching the end of the cycle, are you optimistic all the same?
Marc will take the first question on airports, maybe.
Regarding airports, we have to see that the regulatory and legislative context is something we have to take on board. Of course, we have to take regulations into account. We know more or less the limits of the exercise. Within these limits, we can do what we can, it is not for us to criticize the institutional mechanism. Having said that, we are familiar with the exercise. We said that as concession holders, we have regular exchanges with the authority and independent authorities, that is something we've been doing in other areas, especially for motorways. That is part of our business as a concession holder. We do things on a case-by-case basis with airports if an opportunity arises. Yes. Well, if I may add to this.
Marc mentioned it earlier on, what counts for us is not so much having. Well, we haven't got an airport strategy. Our strategy, well, the overall strategic plan looks at the right balance between contracting and concession, that we have to be very present in certain areas and from certain parts of the country. If you're recognized in an area, in a country, that will give you legitimacy, in particular for airports, especially because those who operate airports are already involved in land development. If you're both doing concession and contracting, well, of course, an airport project, which will of course make a big difference to a territory, that stands to reason. It's not so much an airport strategy as a territorial strategy, and if we are happy being both a contracting partner and a concession partner, that makes sense.
If we're not present in the country, we're not out of the blue going to an airport project. On property development or real estate development, we have seen a climb down in the number of units marketed. It started in 2018. We're looking at minus 5% in the market as a whole. When we come close to an election, things tend to slow down, and it could be that the property market might shrink a little bit. We had 4,500 reservations in 2018, 4,700 in 2018, and that only accounts for 3% of the entire market. I already mentioned that in view of this small figure, we haven't got that much at stake. What is at stake is our ability to generate business. We can generate business easily, but once a project is completed, selling the units is never an issue.
We can generate new business because as land and property developers, we find that 30% of our property development is in Île-de-France, in the Paris area. In land development, we don't have regulatory issues because they've already been given the go-ahead by local authorities. Even if the market shrinks, and it did start shrinking in 2018, I'm not concerned about our size and our visibility in that market, both in property and land development.
Josep Pujal from Kepler Cheuvreux. I have a couple of questions. Number one, regarding the 30% discount on APRR. You mentioned a figure, 7,000 people who benefit from this discount. It's starting today? Well, it's starting this week, is the answer. Okay. Because the Minister of Transport said that 1 million people nationwide would be able to take advantage of this.
I know there are three companies, but some companies are bigger than others. Just to give us some guidance, could you tell us the relative weight in your revenue of APRR or light vehicles, the number of users that go from home to work, and that portion of drivers would have a lower rate. How much will this cost? The 30% discount, how much will it cost you? If you can give us an order of magnitude, that would be very helpful. Another question on Getlink, because reading your paper, we find that one of the purposes here is to extend the duration of a concession, the terms of it.
If you have only a minority stake, only 5% or even 10 or 15 or indeed 20%, is that enough to obtain an extension of the duration, saying that, "We are running this jointly, this asset, so we have a major role to play, therefore we can define new terms."
Philippe, maybe you can take the first question.
The main thing for us when we started talks with the minister, there are high expectations in terms of purchasing power, we focused working with the minister on the daily trips, the daily commutes between home and work. There's that commute. Now, with the new subscription system, that means that people can accept the statutory increase in the toll price.
It's almost impossible at this stage to work out the effect of this new offer on our revenue, because we do not know precisely just how many subscribers there will be. At the end of the day. As we said, with this subscription offer, this produces a discount. Right now, as we speak, we have anywhere between 7,000 and 8,000 subscribers. We do not know what the final share will be between people migrating from existing offers, existing subscriptions, and new subscriptions.
We know for sure, on the basis of the past three weeks, Christian mentioned this, we're looking at 50% migrated from existing contracts and 50% new subscriptions. We do not know what the positive effect will be on traffic with this new offer. You may have customers that are already there on the motorways, they will be decided to take advantage of this offer and drive more and use the motorways more. You may have drivers that are using the secondary road network now, with this new subscription, they'll start using our motorways instead.
All in all, it's pretty impossible to give you an idea of the total volume, let alone the impact on our revenue. Thank you, Philippe. Regarding Getlink, there is one immediate effect that, of course, the dividend is paid out, it makes a difference to the net profit. We might get a higher stake in Getlink and get more dividends. At this point, this is not planned. Of course, if we're in a position to do this, we might acquire a higher stake in Getlink.
Fundamentally, we do believe in this asset. We spent a bit of money acquiring a stake in Getlink, we are satisfied that in the long run, the industrial return will be worthwhile. I believe there's someone in the middle of the room who has a question.
Good evening. My name is Giller, calling from Paribas . I have two questions. Number 1, regarding your exports to South America and Africa, you're looking at regions that have geopolitical risks attached to them. As part of your stress test, have you assessed the effects of possible destabilization in these regions, what the effect would be on revenue and business at large? In terms of CapEx, you have to have human resources as well. You innovate, you invest in innovation, are you training, are you hiring at Eiffage to upskill your people so that they can keep up with these developments?
Let me just remind you, normally this is a meeting for analysts, but rest assured, as regards exports development, we do analyze this very carefully indeed. The country risk and geopolitical risk is monitored on a constant basis, including the safety of our employees and whether we should go to a country or not. Of course, we are highly aware of risks and indeed, a number of operations didn't go through precisely because of that. Regarding our investment in human resources, the training program is part of our program. We have a university, it's called the Eiffage University.
That includes sort of a virtual part, but also we do have the actual premises, and we offer training courses in our facilities. 50% of our trainers are in-house. Our training curricula are driven in terms of teaching techniques. We involve, of course, outside consultants, but our own people work with the trainers, so that the corporate culture is fully addressed. That training is extended to site workers all the way up to our top managers.
Good evening, Pierre Bosset. I still have two additional questions. On the buyback of minority stakes in A65, are there talks with the Atlantia Group that is the minority stakeholder? 50% you have half of the shares of APRR are held by Australian interests. You have the Macquarie Fund, I think it's Australia, is now aging. Would it make sense for you, therefore, to buy back minority interest there? That wouldn't make any difference to the duration of the portfolio, but might you do it? I imagine it's a matter of what price.
Another question that has nothing to do, but on BIM, we talked about digital. How advanced are you on BIM with your own contractors? Have you achieved any productivity gains, thanks to BIM?
Buying back minority holders on A65. Right now, there aren't any talks, but as you well know, this asset is consolidated because we own 65%. The operating company is called Sanef Aquitaine, and they are part of the Abertis Group. You know there have been all sorts of changes within that organization. If there are any opportunities, we may well look at them.
As you well know, Christian mentioned it earlier, A65 was fully refinanced, at least the refinancing is behind us already. Now, we can generate value out of assets without much concern. There are no talks right now. We do have right of first refusal, if and when any portions of A65 were up for grabs. Regarding minority interest on APRR, there have been changes at Atlas Arteria in Australia. There have been changes in governance there, but until such time the changes are completed at Macquarie and Autoroutes de France, we have no preemption rights. Only if there were changes there might we get preemption rights. At this point, we are happy with the present organization. This wouldn't make any difference in terms of extending the duration of our portfolio.
Of course, for the price, it would be a purely financial reasoning, if the price is right. Right now, it's not on the agenda and it's not a priority. Regarding BIM and the digital developments, all sorts of things are happening. Focusing on BIM, this is, of course, a part of our business, but we were very much involved in developing dialogues between engineers. A site worker on the construction site hasn't seen much developments because of digital tools. Should there be productivity gains, I believe, thanks to digital developments, that would be due to the way in which a site is planned or the way in which we can help a site worker achieve productivity gains. There are many initiatives right now, but they are a bit haphazard and not all focused in the same direction.
Most of the BIM developments concerned are engineers, and that's what prompted us to work more closely with Finalcad, the startup company, because they, instead of going from the top down with engineers, they started from the ground up with site workers. Part of the processes were to do with reversing reserves and such like, but now we are actually working with our site workers and seeing how they can use the digital tools to improve or to facilitate their work, but we haven't achieved productivity gains. In any case, when we do achieve productivity gains, of course, we have to be, as it were, courageous enough not to pass it on immediately to our customers and keep some of the profits for ourselves. Any case, there will be developments, I'm sure, but that will happen when you can see our site workers work differently.
At this stage, it's not happening. As Christian is telling me, there's a direct link between what I just told you about Eiffage Connexions. I do believe in our ability to help our site workers be prepared for new situations, new developments, and so we can build virtually because we build for real. That makes a difference, and that will help our site workers have a better idea of the project that can help them work more effectively and give more meaning to their work, and so that's an improvement in and of itself. Well, I know. One final question. I have two questions. Regarding airports, you said that you wouldn't go out buying an airport in a country when you had no presence, but didn't you bid for Belgrade? Yes, we did, and that is close to Europe.
Back then, there were no other airports, say, up for grabs, as it were. For our concession teams, it was worthwhile to see how such an airport worked. That was away from home, as you pointed out. We deliberately decided to work hand in hand with the Zurich Airport, and we were deliberately a minority partner. We're not a major infrastructure partner, but we were there to learn, to see how things worked on such an airport and learn from that for the airports where we are present. Could you do that again? Could you bid for a minority stake in an international airport? No, honestly, what does happen every so often in the concession division is that we may act as a minority partner.
On the picture you saw of the solar farm in Chile, in Huatacondo, the concession teams have a minority stake. They want to secure development or project development to, as it were, protect or to ensure that the work is conducted successfully. We just want to make sure the work is completed, but we don't mean to hold the space indefinitely because having run the place for a couple of years, then we'll sell back our stake. We are simply being there to support our teams, our building teams. We will focus on such territories as Belgium, France, or Germany. That is, of course, where we have a daily presence in terms of construction and other contracting projects.
To extend on airports, one of the reasons for having seen set aside Belgrade is because we're a minority and with the three. On Toulouse, with whom are you? Are you in majority position? Are there also some contracting work there? I would be very glad to know why we didn't do Belgrade. We always imagine things, and the motivation is never delivered in a very explicit way. Again, I'm sorry, I will give you no special details on the way we are proceeding with the operations underway. We are in the rationale, which is totally different, as it has been said, different from the one that led us to give it a try because nothing else was interesting in France.
In Toulouse, in our presence in the region of Occitanie, in all the lines of business with synergies with the airport, with, as you know, at the board of the airport, you will have the government with whom we're working, local authorities with whom we're working. A important partner for the airport, it's Airbus, who is an entity for whom we're working. I'd say all the conditions are gathered so we can come up with an offer with a team of very high quality managing this airport. We have all the means to come up with an offer or the bid.
Seemingly there's no more question. We'll be able to share with a glass of wine or water. You'll be able to discover the Luminochrome. It's an improvement of our road teams. It's the new vision of the marking on the ground on the motorways. We are on a testing period in several places. You will see what it is about. We brought a sample, and as Christian showed how to make a selfie, you have a certain amount of shades of glasses at hand, and we are interested to see the pictures you will take with the pictures on wearing those glasses. Thank you.