07/30/2019
Spanish infrastructure, energy and telecommunications group Elecnor has ended the first half of 2019 with consolidated net profit of EUR 37.2 million, which represents an increase of 5% compared to the figure reported in the same period of the previous year. This growth was driven by the strong performance of both of the company's business lines: Infrastructure and Concessions. In this regard, the most notable aspect is the positive trend in the company's operations at its head office in Spain as well as at its permanent offices in other countries, including Elecnor's subsidiaries in overseas markets such as the United States, Brazil, Chile and Australia, among others.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) reached EUR 152.6 million, increasing by 6.8% compared to the figure reported in June 2018 (EUR 142.9 million). This significant growth is primarily due to the strong performance of the aforementioned operations.
In the first half of 2019, net revenues reached EUR 1.070 billion, 1.1% higher than the figure reported in the same period of the previous year. Elecnor maintains its position as a leader in the domestic market and is continuing its decisive internationalisation process. As such, 54% of the Group's sales originates from overseas sales.
In this regard, the Group's results in international markets were driven by growth in Italy and the United Kingdom, greater presence in Africa, strong performance of subsidiaries in the United States, and the construction of two railway tunnels in Norway and wind farms in Panama, Jordan and Mauritania.
Increasing order intake and a significant backlog
With regard to order intake, the Infrastructure and Concessions business lines performed strongly during the first half of the year. In terms of Infrastructure, Elecnor maintains its position as a leader in the domestic services market for major electricity and telecommunications operators. The Group has intensified its activity in the electricity sector. Elecnor has been awarded the construction of several wind farms: one 50-MW facility in the municipality of Cofrentes (in the Valencia region), which is the first wind farm to be built in the region in the last eight years; and six in Zaragoza (with a combined capacity of 231 MW) developed by Forestalia.
In terms of the Concessions line of business, the first half of the year was marked by the strong performance of Celeo Redes' subsidiaries in Brazil and Chile. The Group has commenced the construction of six solar power plants in the state of Piauí (Brazil) and is constructing new power transmission projects in Chile.
Meanwhile, Elecnor's wind power subsidiary, Enerfín, signed 20-year power purchase agreements in Brazil for two new wind farms in the state of Río Grande do Norte, which has enabled it to commence construction of its first wind farm projects in that region of the country. Given the Group's continued activity in Australia, Enerfín has also initiated a 73-MW wind farm project in Woolsthorpe, Victoria.
Meanwhile, the backlog, whose implementation is expected to occur within the next 12 months, reached EUR 2,237 million (vs. EUR 2,229 million as of 31 December 2018), 78% of which originated from outside of Spain and the remaining 22% from the domestic market.
The figures reported and the backlog enable us to maintain our objectives of increasing sales and profit in the full year 2019 compared to the previous year.
06/24/2019
Spanish infrastructure, energy and telecommunications group Elecnor, through its wind energy development subsidiary Enerfin, has initiated the construction of a new 50-MW wind farm in the Valencia region, located in the municipality of Cofrentes. The new facility, which is expected to launch operations in March 2020, will require a total investment of EUR 53 million, and will be comprised of 13 wind turbines supplied by GE Renewable Energy.
It is one of the projects that was awarded under the framework of the Valencian Community Wind Energy Plan, and is the first wind farm to be built in the Autonomous Community of Valencia in the last eight years. The facility will generate sufficient clean energy to supply 43,705 households, avoiding the emission of 66,000 tonnes of CO2. It will evacuate the power generated to the Cofrentes substation, owned by Iberdrola Distribución.
The construction of the wind farm will generate over EUR 1.5 million in revenue for the Valencian Community, and the operation will provide annual revenue in excess of EUR 400,000/year from taxes and contributions to the Wind Farm Compensation Fund. The construction and operation phases are also expected to generate 300 direct jobs and over twice as many indirect jobs.
For this project, Elecnor has signed a Power Purchase Agreement with Cepsa at a fixed price for a period of 10 years. This agreement has allowed Elecnor to access profitable financing for the construction of the park and allows Cepsa to continue offering 100% renewable electricity to its customers. Likewise, it has signed the financing agreement for the project with Banco Sabadell under the project finance modality.
05/22/2019
Elecnor’s General Shareholders Meeting, held today in Madrid, has approved by a large majority the financial statements corresponding to the 2018 financial year, as well as all of the points proposed on the agenda.
In his presentation, the Group’s Chairman, Jaime Real de Asúa, announced that Elecnor will distribute among its shareholders a dividend charged to the 2018 financial year that is more than 7.1% higher than the dividend for 2017. This dividend represents a pay-out on the consolidated result of 36%, one point above that of recent years. As Real de Asúa stated, this confirms “the continuity of our sustainability policy in terms of pay-outs, with uninterrupted payments, always in cash”.
The total dividend per share amounted to 0.307293 euros, of which 0.05512 euros per share have already been distributed. On 12 June, the remaining 0.252173 euros per share will be paid out as a complementary dividend.
In reference to the profits earned, Real de Asúa pointed out that they have been able to “maintain a stable trading price during the last year, which was particularly hard on large Spanish companies. The year-end trading price last 31 December was 13.20 euros per share, versus 13.29 for the previous year. This result achieved clearly outperformed the Ibex-35, which suffered a significant 15% decline in 2018”.
2018: solidity and growth
In 2018, Elecnor obtained a consolidated net profit of 74.3 million euros, which represented an increase of 4.3% with respect to the 71.2 million in 2017. In terms of normalised EBITDA, the Elecnor Group reached 338.6 million euros, which represented a growth of 3.7% with respect to the normalised EBITDA recorded in 2017.
The sales figure reached by the Group totalled 2,273.1 billion euros. In the breakdown of this figure by geographical area, the international market represents 57% of the total figure, with 43% from domestic sales.
The positive cash flow generation in the businesses that comprise the Elecnor Group have favoured the excellent performance of the Group’s net corporate debt, which has declined by 38%, from 223 million in 2017 to 138 million in 2018.
People
In 2018, the group created 707 new jobs in Spain, reaching a global staff of 13,889 people.
Elecnor’s commitment is conveyed through its Equality Plan, which promotes several areas: training, remuneration, communication, selection, reconciliation and improvements in social protection. In addition, the Group has a Compliance Policy and internal controls to guarantee non-discrimination.
Elecnor's Compliance System has recently been certified according to the standard UNE-19601 “Management system for criminal compliance”, the main reference in Spain for designing and coordinating criminal risk prevention systems, entirely inspired by the highest international standards in this subject. This latest recognition is in addition to the Aenor certificate obtained in 2018 for Anti-bribery management systems according to standard UNE-ISO 37001, the premier and most demanding certifiable international standard for coordinating management systems in this field.
Complying with the 2019 objectives
The data from the first quarter in 2019 has led the Elecnor Group to maintain its objectives for 2019.
The portfolio of contracts pending execution, as of 31 March 2019, shows an increase of 4.1%. This amount grew to 2,320 billion euros, compared to 2,229 billion at 31 December 2018). The international market is responsible for 77% of this figure, with the domestic market responsible for 23%.
Agreements from the Shareholders Meeting
The Shareholders Meeting has also approved several proposals with respect to the Board of Directors. Along these lines, it voted to re-elect the members of the Board of Directors: Cristóbal González de Aguilar Alonso-Urquijo as Dominical Director, Isabel Dutilh Carvajal as Independent Director and Emilio Ybarra Aznar as Independent Director.
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