Fundación Elecnor ha firmado un convenio de colaboración con Deusto Business School con el objetivo de impulsar y fomentar el emprendimiento como vehículo de la innovación, uno de los paradigmas de la nueva economía, a través del Programa de Liderazgo Corporativo en Emprendimiento e Innovación (PLCE).

Los profesionales que cursan este programa, impartido conjuntamente por Deusto Business School e ICADE Business School, y que está iniciando su octava edición, conocerán las iniciativas emprendedoras más vanguardistas de las grandes corporaciones explicadas por los ejecutivos que las han liderado.

Los objetivos formativos de este programa, que son emprendimiento e innovación, son dos de las principales áreas de conocimiento de la escuela de negocios de la Universidad de Deusto, que también tiene entre sus propósitos el de fortalecer los lazos con el tejido empresarial, social e institucional. Según Almudena Eizaguirre, directora general de Deusto Business School, "el emprendimiento y la innovación son palancas que contribuyen a la transformación y adaptación de las organizaciones en sus intentos de dar respuesta a los nuevos retos de mercado y de entorno".   

Por su parte, el presidente de Fundación Elecnor, Fernando Azaola, ha señalado que “La innovación es uno de los elementos que nos definen y venimos aplicándola en nuestros proyectos de Infraestructura Social en América y África desde el 2010. La Responsabilidad Social Corporativa está migrando desde lo asistencial a la innovación social o emprendimiento social. En este caso, junto con Deusto Business School, queremos colaborar en la formación de futuros líderes que serán los responsables de construir una sociedad innovadora para generaciones futuras, dentro del marco de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible.”

El profesorado del PLCE está integrado por destacados expertos como el fundador del Grupo Barrabés, Carlos Barrabés; el presidente del Círculo de Empresarios, John de Zulueta; la cofundadora y presidenta de la Fundación Open Value, María Ángeles León; la directora de Google Campus, Sofía Benjumea o el Director de Telefónica Open Future (WAYRA), Miguel Arias, entre otros muchos profesores y expertos en el mundo del emprendimiento y la innovación.

Elecnor has won a new contract for deploying fibre optic in the United Kingdom worth 55 million euros. This is the second agreement of this kind reached by Elecnor in this country in less than one year.

IQA, Elecnor’s subsidiary in the UK since 2012, has signed a contract with CityFibre, the country’s principal alternative broadband operator, for building a fibre optic network in North Tyneside, in the northeast of England. This deployment will boost productivity and innovation in businesses, improving the economic dynamism of the entire community, thanks to an infrastructure capable of delivering a 1,000 megabyte-per-second service reaching 109,000 households.

Antonio Henarejos, IQA’s Managing Director, notes: “We are very enthusiastic about working on this project for CityFibre in North Tyneside following our previous experience in Newcastle. This is a magnificent opportunity to be a part of a project which will transform the digital experience of the community by providing it a more stable and efficient broadband”.

With this new project, the Elecnor group’s subsidiary underpins its presence in the UK’s fibre optic development plan and is demonstrating that it is in the vanguard for meeting the current demands for services, in addition to becoming one of CityFibre’s reference partners. Elecnor’s previous experience in building the infrastructures necessary for deployment in countries such as Spain or Italy is an invaluable asset in the area of telecommunications with high potential for growth in the British market. Already at the end of 2019, IQA was awarded an earlier contract by CityFibre for a similar deployment in Newcastle worth 66 million euros. 

The work undertaken by CityFibre is set in the framework of a macro-project being developed by the United Kingdom to expand fibre optic to the entire country, since, at the present time, this network barely reaches 10 % of households, compared to 80 % in Spain. In this context, CityFibre has become the UK’s principal alternative broadband operator. The company has announced an investment of 1.5 trillion pounds for building fibre deployment installations in 27 cities.

The Spanish infrastructure, energy and telecommunications group Elecnor has ended the first nine months of 2020 with a consolidated net profit of EUR 55.9 million, a slight reduction of 2.1% compared to the EUR 57 million achieved in the same period of the previous financial year. This change reflects the impact that the COVID-19 crisis has been having on operations since mid-March, an impact that has been partially offset by the Group's diversity both geographically and in terms of business.  However, during the third quarter, improved performance across the activities performed by Elecnor's businesses saw the company move from a 9.1% reduction in profit in the first six months of the financial year to a reduction of 2.1% in the first nine months. 

The performance of the Group's businesses during the crisis is demonstrating the basic and essential nature of its operations. The Infrastructure Business carries out a wide range of services that were affected during the first half of the financial year, but due to their essential nature, its operations were normalised in the third quarter. It also develops turnkey projects in different sectors and countries, especially in the energy sector, where investments have continued. For its part, the impact on the activity of the Concessions Business has been moderate, as the bulk of the assets are in operation. These assets performed well, despite the impact on the income statement of the depreciation of the currencies in which it operates. 

Rafael Martín de Bustamante, CEO of Elecnor, says, "The Group's priority over recent months has been to ensure the safety of its employees, customers and suppliers, as well as to guarantee the strength of its balance sheet. With these objectives in mind, Elecnor has implemented a series of cost-containment and job flexibility measures, which are enabling us to mitigate the risks we face. This plan has made it possible for employees to gradually return to full operation and, as a result, our businesses are continuing to generate a solid operating cash flow, which has strengthened our financial situation. The company also has financing lines available for amounts projected to be sufficient to address liquidity needs in the current setting".

With the end of the 2020 financial year in sight, the Elecnor Group, bolstered by its solid portfolio of contracts and by the geographical spread of its interests and activity, trusts that its businesses will achieve similar figures to those of the previous year. It also believes that capital recovery will not be affected by the pandemic.

A slight fall in revenues and a growing production portfolio 

As at 30 September 2020, the Group's consolidated sales amounted to EUR 1.6121 billion (vs. EUR 1.671 billion in 9M19). The domestic market accounts for 52% of this figure (47% in the same period last year) and the remainder, 48%, is generated internationally (compared to 53% 12 months ago).  The breakdown of this figure shows that 95% of revenue comes from the Infrastructure Business, while the other 5% comes from the Concessions Business.

The good performance of the Infrastructure Business over the last quarter has enabled a large degree of recovery from the impact of the health crisis, which first began to affect the business in mid-March.

In the domestic market, sales have had positive growth rates thanks to the commitment shown by our main service customers, who have upheld and even brought forward their investment plans to take advantage of the opportunities under Spain's 2021–2030 Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan (INECP). Furthermore, this period has seen construction works carried out for wind farms in Galicia and Zaragoza, and for solar PV parks in Ciudad Real and Cáceres.

In the international market, where states of alarm were progressively declared in the countries in which the Group operates, the positive performance in terms of the construction of electric power transmission lines in Brazil and Chile is particularly noteworthy, as is the performance of the US subsidiaries (Hawkeye and Belco). The large solar projects that are due to be carried out during the financial year in Australia were not started during this period and, therefore, their contribution will come in the final months of the year.

The Concessions Business has mitigated the effect of the depreciation of the currencies in which the Group holds assets—particularly in Brazil and Chile—owing to the greater wind resources available in Brazil during this period of the financial year, while the results of the of the other companies in this business have remained stable. The Group operates 5,740 kilometres of power transmission lines in Chile and Brazil, and has an interest in 1,744 MW of renewable energy in operation or under construction in Spain, Brazil, Canada, Colombia and Australia.

As at 30 September, the portfolio of signed contracts pending execution in the next 12 months amounts to EUR 2.316 billion (compared to EUR 2.223 billion at the end of 2019), representing an increase of 4.2%. The international market is responsible for 74% of the current figure, with the domestic market responsible for the other 26%. Domestic order intake has been bolstered by the photovoltaic power stations and wind farms developed, while the international portfolio includes major contracts in Brazil, Angola, the United States and Italy.