Ardian has announced the sale of its 18% stake in Spie batignolles, the major construction, infrastructure and services group.

Following the transaction, 200 Spie batignolles managers will own shares in the company, placing them shoulder to shoulder with the management team. 360 Spie batignolles employees now together hold a majority stake in the firm, alongside the following new financial investors: EMZ Partners, Tikehau Capital through its asset management subsidiary Tikehau Investment Management, Société Générale Capital Partenaires, IDIA Capital Investissement and SOCADIF (Crédit Agricole).

Spie batignolles focuses on six areas of expertise: construction, civil engineering and foundations, energy, public works, real estate and concessions. The complementarity of its businesses allows the Group to support clients in all types of projects. Spie batignolles operates in 170 locations in France and nine internationally. The Group employs more than 7000 people and its turnover in 2018 was EUR2 billion (US$2.28 billion).

Since Ardian became a shareholder in 2014, Spie batignolles has achieved strong organic growth in its French business and has been involved in a range of flagship projects, including Grand Paris (which focuses on metro lines, stations and control centres) and the Lyon-Turin rail link.