ACS 3% raises their benefit by its foreign business and reduce its debt by 40% – holaciudad.com, Fresno

The higher revenues from international activity and the stronger dollar have risen by 3.1% to 407 million euros, the semi-annual profit of ACS, which has reduced its debt by nearly 40% over the recorded in June last year.

After the improvement, the financial debt of the company stood at 3.508 million, 64.4% less than four years ago, thanks to increased cash generation, divestment policy by selling John Holland and Leighton Services by CIMIC and the divestment of assets renewable IPO Yield Saeta in February 2015.

The deleveraging is one of the objectives of the group, which has a focus on asset turnover and divestments in concessions. With all this, ahead of expected year-end debt was reduced by 100 million.

The group president Florentino Perez has also reiterated its commitment to make a profit around 1,000 million euros in 2016, as he advanced the shareholders meeting last year.

In the first half of the year, sales reached 17,860 million, an increase of 5.2% compared to those recorded in the same period last year, thanks to the good performance of all activities, supported by the positive evolution of the exchange rate.

The international activity of the group represented 81.6% of the total and only 18 % of sales came from Spain.

While recognizing that the Spanish economy is improving considerably, ACS does not expect significant growth in the construction sector, as in the industrial services, where . provides that the activity is maintained at levels similar to current

North America is the largest market for the company with 37% of sales; followed by Europe (26%); Australia (19%); Asia (10%) and South America (6%).

The Construction division achieved sales of 12.756 million, up 2.1%, thanks to the evolution of the exchange rate and the incorporation of companies Prince and White in 2014, which offset the decline in activity in Spain, the reduction of mining in Australia and lower recruitment in Germany.

The turnover in Spain again decrease in the first half by 16.1% to 661 million.

Industrial Services sales totaled 3.544 million, 2.7% less, and in the environmental area totaled 1,572 million 84.6% more.

The ACS Group’s investments amounted to 930 million, while divestments amounted 863 million.

ACS has agreed to reduce the share capital by the amount of EUR 2,089,622.50 through the cancellation of 4,179,245 treasury shares.

The ACS Group employed at the end of June to 203 436 people.

Just after 15:00, Company shares rose 1.12% to 30.6 euros.

© 2015 EFE

© ZGS 2015