Sales up for Eiffage

Consolidated sales were reported by French-based civil engineering construction company Eiffage to have reached €3.2 billion in the first quarter of 2017, representing a 6.2% increase when compared with the first quarter of 2016.

However, this growth did not come so much from construction as it did from infrastructure and energy.

Construction sales remained stable on a reported basis, coming in at €812 million, which was a 1.4% like-for-like fall.

This decrease was attributed to construction sales in European countries outside of France, which dropped by 16.5% to €132 million. Notably, sales fell in Poland following the delivery of the Poznan shopping mall at the end of 2016. In France, however, sales grew by 4.0% to €680 million.

With regard to property development activity, sales rose by 18.4%, with reservations for new housing units standing at 748, compared with 597 in the corresponding quarter of 2016.

For infrastructure, the situation in Europe was almost the reverse, with the overall like-for-like sales increase of 13.7% to €936 million being attributed primarily to European countries outside of France, where a 64.2% rise to €307 million was seen. Meanwhile, France saw an increase of 2.8% to €597 million.

The sharp jump in European infrastructure sales outside of France was said to be the result of a 109.7% increase recorded by the company’s Belgian subsidiary Smulders, which specialises in offshore structures.

Sales in the energy sector came to €857 million – up 7.8% on the first quarter of 2016.

With the French company’s contracting order book said to have increased to €12.7 billion – a 5.2% rise on the previous quarter – Eiffage has confirmed its outlook for the year ahead.