Spain’s FCC beats 9-month target, to beat 2006 goal

Spain’s FCC beats 9-month target, to beat 2006 goal
15 November 2006


Spanish construction group FCC posted a 41.8 per cent rise in nine-month profit on Tuesday thanks to a strong order book, acquisitions and faster overseas growth and said it expects to beat previous targets for the year.

The company is one of a group of large Spanish construction firms still enjoying a decade-long building boom, evident in a 39 per cent rise in cement sales and 20.8 per cent growth in its core construction business.

Spain’s third-biggest builder increased net profits to EUR402m, versus an average estimate of EUR389m from a poll of eight analysts.

EBITDA rose EUR232m to EUR947.5m, compared with a forecast EUR919m. Turnover also beat forecasts with a EUR1.25bn  rise to EUR6.37bn.

"We expect to beat the full-year targets recently set at the AGM, and for turnover not to slow down but actually to increase thanks to aquisitions," Finance Director Jose Eugenio Trueba told a conference call.

"It’s the same with EBITDA, where we had spoken of increased efficiencies and we are carrying that out."

A 32.5 per cent rise in Q3 turnover outpaced the company’s forecast for a more than 15 per cent increase for the full year. The 24.4 per cent improvement in EBITDA is also ahead of its full-year target of almost 20 per cent.

Published under Cement News