OHLA closes the first quarter of fiscal year 2022 with advances in its economic parameters for sales, EBITDA and EBIT.

The company reported an 8% increase in sales to 642.7 million euros, driven by increased activity in Construction. 69% of the turnover was generated abroad. Meanwhile, EBITDA reached 18 million euros, a 28.6% increase, improving on the 14 million euros recorded in the first quarter of 2021. In this regard, it is worth highlighting the recovery trend of margins in the Construction business, which stood at 4.4% compared to 3.7% in the first quarter of 2021.

Income statement improvement is also reflected in the operating profit (EBIT), which amounted to €20.3 million compared to €1.9 million in the same period of 2021. Net Profit stood at -12.0 million euros compared with -20.1 million euros in the first quarter of 2021, mainly affected by the exchange rate.

On the other hand, it is important to highlight that, in an environment of great geostrategic and macroeconomic uncertainty at a global level, OHLA is carrying out a detailed monitoring by geographies and projects in order to analyze potential impacts for the coming quarters.

Growth in order intake and order book

Between January and March 2022, the total short-term order intake stood at €690.0 million, similar to that of the first quarter of 2021. In turn, the total order book at March 31, 2022 stands at €5,971.5 million, 2.8% more than in the same period of 2021. This backlog figure represents an activity coverage of 23.3 months of sales. Of the total order book, Europe represents 36%, the United States 34.0% and Latin America 29.3%.

Progress in Concessions

After expanding the order book in December 2021 with a new concession in Chile for the construction and maintenance of four hospitals in the Biobío region, OHLA has been awarded a new concession project in Colombia in the first quarter of 2022 with a construction cost of approximately 314 million euros. The project is the Accesos Norte 2 corridor, designed to improve mobility and reduce traffic congestion between Bogota and several nearby municipalities.  It is expected to be integrated into the company’s order book in the second quarter of 2022, following the formalization of its contract.

OHLA also continues to analyze concession projects in its three geographical areas of reference: Europe, the United States and, above all, Latin America.

First quarter milestones

OHLA ended the first quarter of 2022 with a total recourse liquidity position of €587.5 million.

The company continues to focus on debt reduction as one of its main priorities. In this sense, following the agreement reached between its subsidiary Cercanías Móstoles Navalcarnero and the Community of Madrid, the company has reduced its financial debt by nearly 100 million euros, after cancelling the ICO loan, whose principal amounted to 54.5 million euros, and launching a bond repurchase offer for a principal amount of 43.2 million euros.

The company’s efforts to reduce debt have been reflected in Moody’s upgrade of its credit rating to B3 with a positive outlook in March. This is the rating agency’s second rating upgrade in less than twelve months.