OHL increased its net profit 55.6% in the first half of 2012
July 31, 2012
OHL obtained a net attributable profit of 122.6 million euros in the first half of 2012, representing a 55.6% increase with respect to the same period in 2011.
This significant growth in net profit reflects the positive performance of OHL’s business activity, which is also evidenced in the rest of the key balance sheet figures. Accordingly, sales totaled 2,540.6 millions euros, increasing 12.7%, while EBITDA and EBIT grew 33.4% and 37.2%, respectively.
OHL’s profile as an international concession and construction group, with a presence in 34 countries on all five continents, is reflected by the fact that 73.5% of sales and 90.8% of EBITDA are generated by the Group’s operations outside of Spain. Brazil (23.3%), Mexico (15.7%) and the U.S. and Canada (13.7%) are the main foreign markets in terms of sales.
On the operating level, the main driving force behind OHL’s results in the first half of 2012 was the activity of Concessions, which has achieved growth figures of 16.3% in sales and 38% in EBITDA, due primarily to the positive trend in traffic flows and toll rates of the toll roads under concession. This area accounts for 37% of the Group’s sales and 80.2% of EBITDA.
The Construction division contributed 51.6% of turnover, with increases of 3.2% in sales and 7.8% in EBITDA. This growth has come about thanks to the greater business activity in Central and Eastern Europe, the U.S. and Canada.
OHL has ended the first half of the year with a construction backlog worth 8,539.4 million euros, with a significant component of major international contracts, among which the following stand out: the Obskaja-Salechard-Nadym railway line, in Russia; the CHUM hospital in Montreal, Canada; the Marmaray tunnels, in Turkey, and the Mecca-Medina High-Speed Rail, in Saudi Arabia. The construction backlog in Spain accounts for only 21.2% of the total. Recently, OHL was awarded the Olympic Flame project in Russia: a tourist-sports complex that will accommodate the competitions of the 2014 Winter Olympics.
The sale of Inima, OHL’s environment subsidiary, to the Korean group, GS Engineering & Construction Corporation, was concluded on May 31 for the amount of 231 million euros. This transaction is set in the framework of the plan for disinvestment in non-strategic assets designed to reduce OHL’s recourse debt and has delivered a net capital gain of 42.5 million euros.
In the scope of Other activities -without including OHL Medio Ambiente, accounted for as a discontinued operation since December 2011-, sales totaled 289.5 million euros, growing 64.8% with respect to the same period in the previous year, thanks to the significant thrust of the OHL Industrial division. The combined EBITDA of these business activities comes to 7.9 million euros.
In terms of the Group’s financial situation, the substantial improvements obtained in the recourse debt maturity timetable are particularly significant, thanks to the bond issue transactions (300 million euros) in the month of March and to the refinancing of the syndicated loan in April. Both transactions demonstrate the prestige attained by OHL and the continuity of the support of the international capital markets and of the financial institutions, even in these more difficult times.
On 24 April 2012, OHL and Abertis signed an agreement of intent providing for a corporate reorganisation, whereby Abertis would take over the concession assets of OHL in Brazil and Chile, and OHL would become a reference shareholder and industrial partner of Abertis, in which it will hold a 15% stake by the end of this process.