Vinci

Vinci (corporately styled VINCI) is a French concessions and construction company founded in 1899 as Société Générale d'Enterprises. Its head office is in Nanterre, in the western suburbs of Paris. Vinci is listed on Euronext's Paris stock exchange and is a member of the Euro Stoxx 50 index. History The company was founded by Alexandre Giros and Louis Loucheur as Société Générale d’Entreprises S.A. (SGE) in 1899. SGE was owned by Compagnie générale d'électricité (CGE), now Alcatel, from 1966 until 1981, when Saint-Gobain acquired a majority stake. Companies acquired by SGE include Sogea (a civil engineering firm founded in 1878), bought in 1986, Campenon Bernard (a civil engineering and development firm founded in 1920), bought in 1988, and Norwest Holst (a British civil engineering firm founded in 1969 by the merger of Holst & Co, established in 1918, and Norwest Construction, established in 1923), bought in 1991. In 1988, SGE was acquired by Compagnie générale des eaux, now Vivendi. In 2000, the company changed its name to Vinci.