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| Strabag confirms solid outlook The turbulence caused by the euro debt crisis has so far not affected the output or the expected results of Austrian building group Strabag over the course of the current 2011 financial year. While state investment programmes in markets such as Germany had supported the construction industry through the middle of the year, the sector already has several difficult years behind it in countries with lower public-sector spending – such as Hungary – or in the Adriatic region. The course of business so far this year has shown notably higher results in Poland as well as internationally, where significant write-downs had dampened results the year before. On the other hand, the company has had to accept market-dependent losses in the construction materials business as well as losses due to the low capacity use of large equipment and machinery in the fields of waterway and railway construction. A loss-making project in Scandinavia as well as one-off costs related to the integration of transacted enterprise acquisitions in Germany led Strabag AG, Cologne, a subsidiary of Strabag SE, to downwardly adjust its results estimate. An ad-hoc notice in this regard was released on 21 November 2011. Strabag SE can confirm its existing forecast for the further general course of business. Nevertheless, individual parameters are being adjusted in the face of the more detailed information that is now available for the 2011 financial year: Strabag had previously expected earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of € 320 million, corresponding to a margin on the output of 2.3 %. Less the expected interest result, a tax rate of 30 % and minority interest of approximately € 25 million, this would have resulted in net income after minorities of € 185 million. This target remains unchanged; however, STRABAG is raising its forecast for the EBIT to € 340 million and for minority interest to € 40 million. The outlook for the output remains at € 14.0 billion for the full year 2011. This corresponds to an expected rise of around 10 % over the previous year. The segments Building Construction & Civil Engineering, Transportation Infrastructures and Special Divisions & Concessions as well as Other are expected to contribute € 5.1 billion, € 6.3 billion, € 2.5 billion and € 0.1 billion to the output, respectively. For 2012, STRABAG remains convinced of growing at most with inflation across all markets and of raising its output to approximately € 14.3 billion. Strabag bases these forecasts on the assumptions that the economic framework in Europe will remain unchanged in the coming year. write your comments about the article :: © 2011 Construction News :: home page |