Strabag reports output volume remained flat for year end 2014

Austrian construction giant 945 Strabag reported output volume of €13.6 billion to year end 2014 was unchanged from last year.

The publically listed group, with headquarters in Vienna, said declines in contracts in some countries were offset with increases in the home markets of Germany and Austria, despite a “very restrained tender award policy” for the public sector. Large projects were completed in Romania and Russia at the same time that newly acquired orders in these markets have not yet come on stream.

Strabag’s order book stood at €14.4 billion, up 7 % on last year. The level accounts for more than half of the planned output volume for 2015. Growth was seen especially in central and eastern Europe. A number of medium-sized orders in Slovakia and Romania, projects in the private industrial construction sector in Russia and a number of Polish transportation infrastructure projects Kept the order book healthy.

But there likely won’t be any major infrastructure investment in the company’s home markets. However, corporate diversification by region and segment “should allow us to raise the output volume to about €14 billion this year”, said Thomas Birtel, chief executive of Strabag.

“The high order backlog of €14.4 billion supports this target. We also believe that the efforts which we have made so far to further improve the risk management and to lower costs will be reflected in the earnings in 2015. We, therefore, expect an EBIT of at least €300 million, compared to €260 million that most probably we will be able to report for 2014”, said Birtel.

The outlook is for output volume to increase from €13.6 billion to € 14 billion in the 2015 financial year. Strabag is divided into three divisions; building construction and civil engineering, transportation infrastructure and finally special divisions and concessions.