OHLA increases EBITDA by 40% to 20 million in the first quarter of 2023
Services is presented as a discontinued activity. The company presents the financial information for the first quarter of 2023 considering Services as a discontinued activity following the decision announced to the market last February to divest this line of business. In accordance with the accounting standards, comparative figures are restated in the income statement, except for the balance sheet, which remains unchanged.
May 25, 2023
OHLA closed the first quarter of 2023 with progress from an operational perspective. Sales increased by 16% to €637.5 million. 76.1% of the turnover was generated abroad. In the distribution of sales in the company’s three geographical areas of reference, Europe represents 44.3%, -Spain reaches 23.9%- North America 38.0% and Latin America 17.4%. On the other hand, gross operating profit (EBITDA) increased by nearly 40% to €20 million by March 2023.
These results highlight the progress of the business and confirm the good trend of the EBITDA margin (over sales), which in the case of the Construction division reached 4.5% in the first quarter.
The company’s attributable net income through March 2023 stands at €-7.8 million, a slight improvement over March 2022, when this figure was €-12 million.
Liquidity position
OHLA ended the first quarter of 2023 with a recourse liquidity position of €581.1 million and a negative net debt of €122.5 million, i.e. cash position over debt.
Order intake and order book
Total short-term order intake amounted to €598.3 million through March 2023, similar to the pro forma order intake for the same period in 2022. This order intake represents a book-to-bill ratio of 0.9x and complies with internal geographic diversification requirements. The total order book at March 31, 2023 amounted to €6,381.1 million, very similar to the pro forma order intake at year-end 2022.
It is worth highlighting the favorable evolution of the Industrial division activity’s order book after strengthening its renewables area with the award, in the first quarter of the year, of a new EPC contract for the design, construction and commissioning of a photovoltaic plant in Badajoz. Divided into three lots, the facility will have an installed capacity of 130 MW and will generate more than 240,000 MWh/year of 100% clean energy. It will supply electricity to close to approximately 70,000 households, i.e. close to 150,000 people.
Objective: debt reduction
On February 20, 2023, the company formalized another partial repurchase of the nominal amount of the bonds for an amount of 33.5 million, following the receipt of funds from the deferred proceeds of the Old War Office project.
This transaction is part of the company’s strategy to give new impulse to the deleveraging of the company. The mid-term objective is to reduce the gross financial debt to a level below 2.5x EBITDA, giving continuity to the Group’s divestment plan.
