Hochtief remains ‘on track’

Having claimed to have increased operational profit, margins, and cash flow substantially in the first nine months of 2015, Hochtief said it had confirmed its guidance for the full year.

Chairman of the executive board Marcelino Fernández Verdes said, “Thanks to the strategic transformation, we are right on track to attain our targets for 2015.”

A number of assets were disposed of in 2014 as part of the company’s strategic restructure.

The company confirmed its 2015 objective of operational net profit of between €220 million and €260 million, representing an increase of 15% to 35% year-on-year. It said the comparable operational net profit figure for 2014 was €190 million.

Adjusted for one-off items such as disposals of activities and restructuring expenses, operational net profit was claimed to have risen by 45% to €190 million in the period from January to September 2015, compared to €131 million in the same period a year earlier.

It said that nominal net profit in the first nine months of 2015 of €151 million represented a year-on-year increase of about 50%, after the 2014 nine-month figure of €155 million took into account the €55 million impact of divestments at Australia’s CIMIC.

Sales grew by 0.6% to €16.1 billion, and work done increased by 4.1% to €18.3 billion. All three divisions – Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe – contributed to this improvement, said Hochtief.

The measures initiated by Hochtief to optimise cash management were said to have led to significant improvements. Cash flow from operations grew in the first nine months to €434 million, an increase of more than €360 million year-on-year.

New orders for the nine-month period came to €16.8 billion, an increase of 8%, said the company.