Weak economy affects Mills

Brazil-based Mills Estruturas e Serviços de Engenharia has continued its struggle in the first quarter of 2017, revealing a year-on-year decrease of 49.2% in its revenues to R$66.1 million (€19.20 million).

The company said the performance of the first quarter was impacted by the low level of economic activity, mainly in infrastructure in Brazil. In March, the company announced its full-year revenues for 2016, which proved to be a 31.2% fall on 2015.

In the first quarter of 2017, the company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) fell 156% year-on-year, resulting in a loss of R$16.2 million (€4.71 million) for the quarter.

Mills’ rental revenues also fell 46.6% year-on-year to R$40.8 million (€11.85 million).

On a quarter-by-quarter basis, however, Mills did see some positivity, with rental revenues increasing 1.5% compared to the fourth quarter of 2016.

It said that it was important to highlight an increase in its non-construction rental sector, which came as a result of the physical utilisation rate increasing as well as the usage of smaller equipment.