The OHL Group Increases Their Net Profit by 64.7% in the First Trimester of 2010
May 12, 2010
The OHL Group has closed the first trimester of 2010 with a net profit of 33.6 million euros, representing a increase of 64.7 % on the same period in 2009.
OHL has obtained this excellent result in spite of the difficult economic climate. Along with the notable increase in net profit, the Group’s sales were 6.3 % higher, reaching 972.7 million euros. The EBITDA, at 175.2 million euros, grew 44.1 % and the EBIT 64.6 %.
Once again, the results were made possible by the successful development of the Concessions and International Construction divisions that recorded sales growths of 57.2 % and 10.2 % respectively, and growths in EBITDA of 66.7 % and 44.6 %.
In the meantime, National Construction recorded falls compared to the same period in 2009, both in sales, 21.6%, and in EBITDA, 12.1 %, owing to the continued economic downturn faced by the sector in Spain.
As a consequence of this, the areas other than construction, primarily represented by the Concessions division, have continued to gain proportion in the Group, now representing 30.8 % and 80.2 % of sales and EBITDA.
The internationalisation of OHL has also had a new push in the first trimester with activity outside Spain now representing 64.7 % of the Group’s sales.
From the financial point of view, following the close of the trimester, April produced two significant changes: the two-year extension on the money syndicated for 190 million that expired in January 2011 and the increase of the amount by 50 million; and the issuing of bonds to the total of 700 million euros in the Euromarket, including the exchange of 178.4 million bonds that expired in May 2012.
The success of those operations, along with the capital increase closed in December 2009 for 199.5 million euros proves the prestige of OHL in international capital markets, which is especially relevant in light of the current economic uncertainty.
Evolution by Division
OHL Concessions’ activity, as a main line of the Group’s business, has improved noticeably in the first trimester of the year. It obtained EBITDA and EBIT figures superior to those of 2009. Specifically, it achieved a 57.2 % increase in sales, 66.7 % in EBITDA and 85.5 % in EBIT. The results are a consequence of good management of a portfolio of 26 main concessions, which include 22 toll motorway concessions, two railway concessions, and one airport and one port concession. These are spread throughout Brazil, Mexico, Spain, Chile and Argentina.
The OHL International Construction division also maintained its line of growth with increases of 10.2 % in revenue and 44.6 % and 279.2 % in EBITDA and EBIT respectively. This is due to the impact of the large projects carried out such as the Bicentennial Viaduct (Mexico), the Oran Convention Centre (Algeria) and Sidra Hospital in Doha (Qatar).
The National Construction division shows a 21.6 % decrease in sales in the first trimester of 2010 compared to the same period in the previous year. This is due to the downturn in activity in the sector, highly affected by the national economic situation and the climatology of last winter. Nevertheless, thanks to large civil works and non-residential building projects, the EBITDA over sales ratio improved, going from 3.5 % in the first trimester of 2009 up to 4.6 %.
The other three divisions in the OHL Group – Industrial, Developments and Environmental – have a combined total sales figure of 75.7 million euros which equates to an increase of 43.9 % on the first trimester of the previous year. Specifically, the revenues of OHL Industrial increased by 50 %, OHL Developments by 93.7 %, and OHL Environmental by 9.3 %. The EBITDA in these areas increased to 6.8 million, equating to 4.0 % of the Group’s total.