In the world of infrastructures, big projects are displayed like trophies, and ACS has raised a few in the United States in recent months. The Spanish company has been awarded billion-dollar contracts to build highways and build battery factories, military bases, data centers, hospitals or sports stadiums. It has done so at such a rapid pace that the two companies in which it operates in the country, Dragados and Turner, have jointly become national leaders.
“The United States, and Europe will follow, is at the forefront of the infrastructure transition into the next century.” With this phrase, Juan SantamarÃa, the CEO of ACS, recently described the current moment for the large international construction companies. The forecast is that investment will grow in the country at an annual rate of 7% until 2026 thanks to the plans of the Biden Administration. Two of its programs, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act, will mobilize a trillion dollars in projects.
The claim is powerful enough to shake up the construction business globally. And for ACS the opportunity has come at a good time. The group has a debt of just 224 million euros and has gunpowder for large operations after the sale of its Cobra industrial division to the French Vinci for almost 5,000 million euros. It came to explore the purchase of Atlantia, its Italian rival and partner in Abertis.
What is happening in the United States will be one of the strong points of this Friday’s shareholders’ meeting, in which the group’s CEO will debut his extensive portfolio of new functions before shareholders. At barely 45 years old, SantamarÃa is also the chief executive of the German Hochtief and the Australian Cimic, two flagships of the group, in which he has replaced Marcelino Fernández Verdes as the right-hand man of Florentino Pérez, president and first shareholder with the 13.5%.
The numbers account for the magnitude of the American bet. Of the 33,615 million euros entered last year, 56% came from the United States, 27% more than in the previous year. It is by far the engine of the business, quite a distance from Spain, where revenues equaled 9% after growing less, 6%. ACS also has a project portfolio at record levels, amounting to almost 70,000 million euros.
From the company they explain that the American adventure of Dragados began with an office in New York from which they began to apply for tenders in Florida and California. The first offer was made in 2005 and the first project was won in 2006. Then came the emblematic project of the subway tunnels that give access to Manhattan.
The giant steps are actually being taken by Turner, an American construction company created in 1902 and bought in 1999 by the German company Hochtief, a subsidiary of ACS. Since 2011 Turner has been directly dependent on the Spanish group and its growth has been exponential in recent years.
So far this year, ACS has won contracts such as the 2.7 billion euro contract to renovate the Pearl Harbor naval base, the 710 million euro contract to build the first soccer stadium in New York, the 3.4 billion euro contract to build an electric car battery plant for Honda and LG or the one for 1,000 million to recycle this type of automotive components.
It has also taken over 100% of the SH-288 highway in Houston after progressively investing almost 1,500 million euros. It has also been awarded a pharmaceutical plant in Colorado, a children’s hospital in Boston, the construction of SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles or the remodeling of Madison Square Garden and Turner Square in New York.
SantamarÃa emphasizes the commitment to 5G data centers. Turner already works in the United States for giants like Meta, Microsoft, Amazon and Google.
