The six large Spanish construction companies, which are ACS, Acciona, Ferrovial, Sacyr, FCC and OHLA, are putting into practice very different business strategies, but they have one thing in common: they are at the crest of their international deployment, reaping the results of several years of searching for opportunities outside of Spain.
Last year they earned a total of 2,530 million euros, 55% more, according to the accounts they have deposited separately with the CNMV. All of them are growing strongly and also report an order book at record levels, enough to guarantee work for several years, with North America and the inertia of the Biden Administration’s infrastructure plans as the main international claim. This allows them to navigate easily among the cost increases, which have been the big headache since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine.
ACS continues to be the largest construction business machinery, thanks to subsidiaries such as the German Hochtief, the American Turner or the Australian Cimic. It earned 780 million last year, 16% more, above FCC, which earned 591 million, 87% more. They are followed by Acciona, with 541 million, 22% more, and Ferrovial, which multiplies the profit by 2.5, up to 460 million. Sacyr earns 39% more, up to 153 million, and OHLA comes out of losses.
In their presentations of results, construction companies usually display the catalog of large projects, in which there are hardly any assets in Spain. The country of origin continues to provide work, but for now less qualified, in road maintenance or railway development. According to data from the Seopan construction companies association, public works tenders stagnated last year, at around 28.1 billion, mainly due to the setbacks coming from the autonomous communities and city councils. The General Directorate of Highways, on the other hand, contracted 81% more and Adif, with more than 4,000 million euros, became the body with the highest bidding volume.
These local vicissitudes seem to worry construction companies little. ACS alone has an order book of 73,538 million euros, equivalent to everything tendered by all public administrations in Spain over 2.6 years. 9% of its orders are in its country of origin, compared to 52% in North America, where projects continue to be announced. Last year it won contracts in the United States to build data centers, sports stadiums, electric car battery factories, pharmaceutical plants or university campuses. He even works for the country’s Army in Pearl Harbor.
Ferrovial is the other great example of a construction company focused on the United States. Last year it made a controversial change of headquarters from Spain to the Netherlands with the ultimate goal of starting trading in New York in the coming months. While looking for new investors in North America, it is beginning the construction of Terminal 1 at New York’s JFK airport, where it is already negotiating rates with airlines. It must also unblock the sale of its 25% in London’s Heathrow airfield, with which it could obtain around 2.7 billion euros and have ample room for maneuver to undertake other business adventures.
Of the four largest projects that Acciona was awarded last year, three are on the American continent. They are a 1,400 million euro dam in the United States, the Vancouver metro for 1,100 million and the São Paulo Metro for 1,716 million. The fourth is at the antipodes and also very far from Spain: the Sydney metro, for 1.2 billion euros. The construction company chaired by José Manuel Entrecanales has also presented to investors an order book at historic levels, worth 24,508 million euros.
Sacyr is not far behind and wins contracts in the United States, but its great transformation has more to do with the focus on concessional assets, which generate recurring income for decades. The company has dedicated part of its efforts to selling its service subsidiaries Valoriza and Sacyr Facilities.
OHLA’s portfolio adds another record, with 3,163 million in the United States and relevant awards in Illinois and California. FCC, which sold its Environment area last year for almost 1,000 million euros, is the one that retains the most business in Spain. It is still 52% of income.
