The big six Spanish construction companies, which are ACS, Acciona, Ferrovial, Sacyr, FCC and are implementing very different business strategies, but they have one thing in common: they are at the peak of their international deployment, and they are achieving results of several years looking for opportunities outside of Spain.
Last year they earned a total of 2,530 million euros, 55% more, according to the accounts they have been filing separately with the CNMV. All are growing strongly and reporting order books 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 complaint. This allows them to easily navigate the cost hikes, which have been a major headache since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine.
ACS continues to be the largest construction machinery company, thanks to subsidiaries such as the German Hochtief, the American Turner or the Australian Cimic. It earned 780 million last year, 16% more, than 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 leaves losses.
In their results presentations, construction companies usually display the catalog of large projects, in which there are almost no 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 association of construction companies Seopan, tenders for public works stagnated last year, at around 28,100 million, mainly due to the setbacks from the autonomous communities and town councils. The General Directorate of Roads contracted, on the other hand, 81% more, and Adif, with more than 4,000 million euros, became the organization with the highest tender volume.
These local vicissitudes seem to bother the construction companies little. ACS alone has an order book of 73,538 million euros, equivalent to all that the public administrations in Spain bid for over the course of 2.6 years. 9% of their orders are in their country of origin, compared to 52% in North America, where projects are continuously 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 at Pearl Harbor.
Ferrovial is the other great example of a construction company focused on the United States. Last year it starred in its controversial change of headquarters from Spain to the Netherlands with the ultimate goal of starting to be listed in New York in the coming months. While looking for new investors in North America, it is starting construction of Terminal 1 at New York’s JFK airport, where it is already negotiating rates with airlines. He must also resolve the sale of his 25% in the London Heathrow airport, with which he 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 cost 1.4 billion euros in the United States, the Vancouver metro for 1.1 billion and the São Paulo metro for 1.716 million. The fourth is in 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 exhibited to investors a portfolio of orders at historical levels, worth 24,508 million euros.
Sacyr is not far behind and is winning contracts in the United States, but its big transformation has more to do with the focus on concessional assets, which generate recurring income for decades. The company has devoted part of its efforts to selling its service subsidiaries Valoriza and Sacyr Facilities.
OHLA’s portfolio has 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, on the other hand, more business in Spain. It continues to be 52% of revenues.
