Vinci shares drop on disappointing first half earnings

Shares in French construction, motorway and car park group Vinci on Wednesday slumped almost 2.0 percent as traders reacted to disappointing first-half earnings that were partly affected by bad weather.

The group, which is expanding in airport management, saw its shares fall by 1.96 percent to 40.06 euros ($53.13) in afternoon trading in an overall lower market on the Paris stock exchange.

On Tuesday evening, Vinci reported a net profit of 748 million euros for the first six months of 2013, down from a previous 785 million euros a year earlier.

Sales jumped by 4.3 percent, however, to land at 18.71 billion euros and the group said it remained confident about its outlook “despite a still difficult economic environment,” expecting “slight” organic growth of sales and continued growth of its airport traffic.

abx/ln/rl