Infrastructure giant Egis plans marathon expansion in Australia for Brisbane Games

French infrastructure giant Egis, which operates Sydney’s WestConnex motorway and helped deliver the Paris Olympics, is on the acquisition trail in Australia.

An artist impression of Brisbane Stadium in Victoria Park for Brisbane 2032 Olympics. Source: Queensland Government.

French infrastructure giant Egis, which operates Sydney’s WestConnex motorway and helped deliver the Paris Olympics, is on the acquisition trail in Australia as it seeks investment opportunities in major projects, including for the 2032 Brisbane Games.

Egis, which has grown its Australian revenue from $30m to $300m in the past four years, has been buying up smaller engineering, infrastructure and architectural firms in the country as part of ambitions to become a major player in its construction sector.

Egis Group chief executive Laurent Germain said the company hoped to become a delivery partner of the Brisbane Olympics, building on its experience in Paris, where it was involved in the construction of both sports and non-competitive infrastructure.

“We’re still at the early stage, but I’m meeting with some representatives of Brisbane 2032 this week, trying to convince them that what we have been successfully doing for Paris can be adapted to Brisbane 2032,” Mr Germain said. “Queensland is amazingly beautiful and a lot of venues will be in unique places. I think the challenge will be mobility and being able to have people move from one venue to the other in a smooth way.”

Earlier this year, Egis was announced as a commercial partner of the Australian Olympic Committee and the Australian Olympic Team through to 2026.

Mr Germain said Brisbane should look to attract corporate investment in its Olympics, building on Paris’s success in raising private money.

“About 95 per cent of the €4.5bn ($8bn) cost of the Games was financed with private money,” he said. “And the reason that they were so successful is that they started to look for sponsors and partners very early in the process and were very flexible in the way companies like mine could contribute.”

Mr Germain said the company became an official sponsor of the Paris Games.

Egis chief executive Laurent Germain

“Paris 2024 selected Egis to be the engineering partner,” he said. “So we were able to show the expertise and the know-how of Egis in many different activities of the Games, and our people felt very proud of being associated with such a worldwide event …

“Paris 2024 demonstrated that it was absolutely possible to leverage on private French companies in order to finance the Games.”

Mr Germain said Egis would continue to expand its Australian operations as it moved to double revenue in a variety of areas.

“That means that in 2026 and 2027 we will continue to do acquisitions in Australia,” he said.

“Potentially that could be in Queensland, but also in Western Australia and South Australia where our presence is too weak.”

Egis employs 1250 people in Australia, a number that grew from 350 four years ago.

Mr Germain said Egis’s Australian operations were world leading in facade engineering, a specialised field of structural engineering involved in the design, fabrication, and installation of building facades.

“This is expertise from Australia that we are using in other parts of the world,” he said.

Mr Germain, who was appointed chief executive five years ago, has more than doubled global revenue from €1bn to €2.4bn.

“We’ve been growing 12 per cent per year, which is a great outperformance,” he said. “The sector grew 7 per cent on average in the last four years.”

Originally published as Infrastructure giant Egis plans marathon expansion in Australia for Brisbane Games