One of Europe’s biggest construction groups, 1300 Strabag SE, is facing tough trading conditions with “earnings significantly down,” according to its latest quarter three report.
Chief executive Hans Peter Haselsteiner told3260 World Highways that the central and east European specialist is fighting its way through a continuing downturn. “Conditions in the construction sector are becoming more difficult than we have been accustomed to in recent years,” he said. And this has been the case since “our half-year results. Three months later, we are determined to remain committed to the target of a more or less unchanged output volume compared to that of the 2011 financial year.”
Haselsteiner warns that previous forecasts of “earnings before interest and taxes of about € 200 million” now look “to be extraordinarily ambitious.”
And, he added, “the fourth quarter will be decisive – particularly as far as the transportation infrastructures sector, the construction materials business and the markets of Eastern Europe are concerned.”
Overall, STRABAG’s first half output volumes fell slightly by 2 % to € 10,111.10 million during January to June 2012 and the biggest fall in orders “was registered in Poland due to the end of the construction boom in that country,” the group said in an official statement.
However, “declines in the Czech Republic and in Switzerland were accompanied by increases in Germany and in Romania.” The company said. Revenues from January to September 2012 came to € 9,289.84 million, down 4 % relative on the first 9 months of 2011. And the speed of decline is increasing with the third quarter down 5 % year-on-year to € 3,588.73 million.
It was not all bad news, though. The “order backlog hit € 14,572.83 million at the end of the third quarter 2012, a 4 % plus over the end of September the year before,” the company reported. And, “while the high order backlog of the previous year from a series of large infrastructure projects in Poland was worked off, STRABAG won several new large projects at the beginning of 2012 including the Pedemontana Lombarda project to build a bypass around the city of Milan in Italy.”
There was a particularly nasty hit buried in the figures too. STRABAG has got to pay “damage compensation payments of € 43 million” following an “arbitration tribunal ruling regarding the failed acquisition of3016 Cemex in Hungary and Austria.” The firm has lodged an appeal but a cost provision has had to be made.
The downturn has hit jobs and STRABAG has cut its workforce by 4 % to 73,847 employees. Austria and Germany remain the company’s core markets and it is still strong in the Middle East as well. The group will go on specialising in “transportation infrastructures, special ground engineering and tunnelling work, it says and it will remain one of Europe’s leading construction groups.
According to its latest statement, STRABAG “generated more than 80 % of its output volume in markets in which its holds one of the top three market positions, such as Austria, Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Romania and Switzerland.”
Brands in the group include STRABAG, Heilit+Woerner, Möbius and Züblin.
Chief executive Hans Peter Haselsteiner told
Haselsteiner warns that previous forecasts of “earnings before interest and taxes of about € 200 million” now look “to be extraordinarily ambitious.”
And, he added, “the fourth quarter will be decisive – particularly as far as the transportation infrastructures sector, the construction materials business and the markets of Eastern Europe are concerned.”
Overall, STRABAG’s first half output volumes fell slightly by 2 % to € 10,111.10 million during January to June 2012 and the biggest fall in orders “was registered in Poland due to the end of the construction boom in that country,” the group said in an official statement.
However, “declines in the Czech Republic and in Switzerland were accompanied by increases in Germany and in Romania.” The company said. Revenues from January to September 2012 came to € 9,289.84 million, down 4 % relative on the first 9 months of 2011. And the speed of decline is increasing with the third quarter down 5 % year-on-year to € 3,588.73 million.
It was not all bad news, though. The “order backlog hit € 14,572.83 million at the end of the third quarter 2012, a 4 % plus over the end of September the year before,” the company reported. And, “while the high order backlog of the previous year from a series of large infrastructure projects in Poland was worked off, STRABAG won several new large projects at the beginning of 2012 including the Pedemontana Lombarda project to build a bypass around the city of Milan in Italy.”
There was a particularly nasty hit buried in the figures too. STRABAG has got to pay “damage compensation payments of € 43 million” following an “arbitration tribunal ruling regarding the failed acquisition of
The downturn has hit jobs and STRABAG has cut its workforce by 4 % to 73,847 employees. Austria and Germany remain the company’s core markets and it is still strong in the Middle East as well. The group will go on specialising in “transportation infrastructures, special ground engineering and tunnelling work, it says and it will remain one of Europe’s leading construction groups.
According to its latest statement, STRABAG “generated more than 80 % of its output volume in markets in which its holds one of the top three market positions, such as Austria, Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Romania and Switzerland.”
Brands in the group include STRABAG, Heilit+Woerner, Möbius and Züblin.
