FCC claims international success

Spanish construction group FCC claims its international growth strategy has been vindicated as it has landed close to € 5 billion in new contracts to date.

It said that so far this year, international revenues had accounted for 43.8% of the total, compared with 43.1% in 2009.

It added that international business had proved to be more dynamic than domestic business in 2010, having expanded its backlog by 18.6%.

Its largest single new contract this year has been a 50:50 joint venture between FCC and subsidiary Alpine worth € 1990 billion to build and manage the D1 motorway in Slovakia.

The project, which involves building 10,6 km of tunnels and 7,6 km of bridges, is part of the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T), and is the country's primary transverse highway, connecting it with Austria and Eastern Europe. Financing is expected to be completed in the coming months.

FCC's international expansion is also benefiting from the London 2012 Olympic Games. Olympic Broadcasting Services, the agency in charge of broadcasting the London Games, has awarded a € 20 million contract to refurbish its London base and maintain it during the Games to a joint venture involving an FCC subsidiary.

Alpine, the subsidiary that operates in Central and Eastern Europe, added another Polish contract in June, following those obtained earlier in the year. The Salzburg-based construction company won a € 245 million contract to build the S5 expressway in Poland under a joint venture consisting of Alpine, PBG and its subsidiaries Aprivia and Hydrobudowa Polska.

Alpine will head the consortium. The project consists of building a highway between Posen - which will host the inaugural match of the UEFA Euro 2012 football championships - and Wroclaw, including bypasses around the cities of Bojanowa and Rawicza.

As part of the preparations for UEFA Euro 2012 in Poland, FCC is building stadiums in Krakow, Gdańsk, Posen and the National Stadium in Warsaw.

It has also been awarded a € 140 million contract to complete a section of the A1 toll road - 18,3 km extending from the Świerklany junction to Gorzyczki on the southern border with the Czech Republic. The project includes building two junctions, two rest areas and 31 bridges. The largest single item is a 380-metre cable-stayed bridge.