ACS, Actividades de Construcción y Servicios, S.A. (ACS) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for the ACS Group 2024 First Half Results Call. This is Javier Crespo, Head of Investor Relations. The call will be led by our CEO, Juan Santamaría; who is accompanied by our Corporate General Manager, Ángel García Altozano; the group's Chief Financial Officer; Emilio Grande, and the rest of the management team. As usual, after the presentation, we will open up for a Q&A session. Now let me pass to Juan.

Thank you so much, Javier. Good afternoon, and thank you for being with us today. ACS delivered excellent first half results in 2024 with solid growth of sales, backlog and net profit, backed by strong cash flow generation. Over the last quarter, we have implemented important strategic initiatives that strengthened our competitive position. Number one, in May, Criteria Caixa, one of Europe's leading investment holding companies, announced it has become a core shareholder of ACS after acquiring a 9.4% stake by the exercise of the financial derivatives we held. Today, Mr. Isidro Fainé has been appointed as a member of the Board. We are extremely proud to have him on the Board. Also, the cash settlement of these derivatives is providing us with further firepower to deliver on our investment plans. Number two, last week, we agreed to acquire Dornan Engineering, a rapidly growing advanced tech engineering company based in Europe. This transaction will allow Turner to accelerate its strategy to expand in the European data center, biopharma, life science and industrial markets. Third, today, we announced the creation of Flatiron-Dragados, a leading North American civil construction company. By combining Dragados and HOCHTIEF in generating in construction subsidiaries in the U.S. and Canada. This transaction approved by HOCHTIEF, Dragados and ACS Boards will enable us to best deliver our engineering and construction strategy in a consistent and more efficient way in the rapidly growing North American market. And fourth, in April, CIMIC increased its ownership to 60% in the natural resources company, Thiess. This deepens the group's commitment to a global energy transition by increasing our position in our resources in critical minerals industry where Thiess is a global leader. I will later further explain these important initiatives that increased competitiveness, optimize operations and enhance our capacity to provide higher value for clients and stakeholders. Let's start the presentation with an overview of the financial results. The group posted a net profit of EUR 416 million, up 8.1% or 8.6% FX adjusted. Net ordinary profit, which excludes the noncash gains generated at CIMIC, amounted to EUR 335 million in the period, up 11.4%, in line with the top range of our 2024 guidance. In terms of cash generation, the group continues to perform very well. The strong second quarter has allowed us to deliver in this half year EUR 358 million in net operating cash flow. This represents an outstanding improvement of EUR 749 million year-on-year, mostly driven by strong working capital performance supported by Dragados and Turner. On the back of this solid cash flow generation, our net debt position at the end of June was EUR 1.6 billion. This is essentially the same figure as in March despite having incorporated EUR 1.1 billion from the Thiess consolidation. This demonstrates the strong free cash flow generated in the second quarter supported by the net operating cash flow of EUR 1.3 billion and the settlement of financial derivatives with a cash flow of EUR 0.5 billion inflow. From a backlog perspective, the first half has been very positive. The order book grew by 13% to more than EUR 86 billion, a record in the company's history, supported by an outstanding EUR 27.5 billion of new awards. This backlog is the result of positioning the group as a leading company in growth infrastructure markets, such as energy transition, new sustainable mobility and digital infrastructure. Currently, lower risk contracts represent more than 85% of our backlog. Let's look in greater detail at the consolidated results for the period. Revenues reached EUR 18.7 billion, up 6.3% FX adjusted. EBITDA grew by 12%, delivering a 6.2% margin. Ordinary net profit reached EUR 335 million, up 11.4%, adjusted for extraordinary items in both periods. Earnings per share grew by 8.8%, reaching EUR 1.62 per share. On the next slide, ordinary net profit is broken down by segment and company on an attributable basis. Integrated Solutions and E&C show resilient profitability with Turner becoming the largest contributor to ACS net profit, representing 41% of the ordinary impact after growing 47.5% year-on-year. Infrastructure had a lower contribution than last year due to nonoperational items. Abertis, despite its strong operational performance, was impacted by new tax regulation in France and financial costs from the new asset acquisitions, while Iridium's contribution was consistent with its lower stake in SH-288. Turning to cash flow performance. I would like to highlight the strong net operating cash flow generated supported by an outstanding working capital evolution, a movement of EUR 405 million year-to-date represent an improvement of EUR 659 million year-on-year. Key drivers of these improvements are Dragados with positive working capital contribution in the period of approximately EUR 500 million better than last year, and Turner EUR 100 million better. Dragados' stronger cash generation results from improvements in working capital management in North America and a better contracting risk profile. And overall, there is an increase in the use of factory facilities driven by the sales growth, including corporation of this. As a result, net operating cash flow in the first half, impacted by the usual seasonality, improved by EUR 749 million compared to the same period in 2023. If we look at the last 12 months, the group has generated a very solid EUR 1.8 billion, up by more than EUR 900 million year-on-year. Our net debt position as of June stood at EUR 1.6 billion, including EUR 1.1 billion consolidated from Thiess as of June 2024. This represents an increase of EUR 440 million versus the June 2023 figure. However, when excluding the consolidation effect of Thiess, debt movement would have been positive by EUR 642 million in the last 12 months on the back of the outstanding EUR 1.8 billion net operating cash flow. The strong operating cash flow generation supports our investment plans, which are aligned with the corporate strategy shared during the Capital Markets Day. Accordingly, our strategic capital allocation decisions during the period included several transactions, which are crucial for growth and risk reduction goals. In February, all shareholders of Abertis contributed EUR 1.3 billion in equity to support the financing of the U.S. and Puerto Rico acquisitions and the company's growth strategy. ACS ascribed to its 50% share with a EUR 650 million investment. And our major step in our strategy was taken at the end of April, when CIMIC announced it had reached an agreement with Elliot to acquire an additional 10% equity interest in Thiess. The acquisition for a purchase price of AUD 320 million included the group's ownership of Thiess to 60%, increasing operational control of the company. Consequently, CIMIC has fully consolidated Thiess for 2 months during the second quarter. Following the transaction, the put option for the remaining 40% is exercisable between April 2025 and December 2026. Also during the year, we have continued executing bolt-on acquisitions to enhance and expand our engineering, digital and logistic capabilities in target market segments. CIMIC has acquired several engineering firms in the critical mineral space, including Prudentia, MinSol and Mintrex. Thiess also announced acquisition of PYBAR, an underground mining business that will complement Thiess' capabilities. We have also been active on the sustainable mobility front with Skyports' and Glydways transactions, the development of data centers, such as the one in Madrid [ sale bps ] and renewable generation assets in Australia. Overall, we have invested approximately EUR 100 million across the group. Other important angle of our strategy is to deliver attractive shareholder remuneration. During the last 12 months, the group has devoted EUR 793 million to remunerating our shareholders via cash dividends, share dividends and active share buyback program. Our balance sheet position remains strong. Last week, S&P confirmed the company's investment grade rating at BBB- with a stable outlook. Maintaining an investment growth rating is a key principle for our financial policy. Moving to Slide 7. Order backlog stands at EUR 86.7 billion, up 11.5% FX adjusted. This growth is a consequence for strategic positioning in new generation infrastructure markets. Around 50% of new orders come from these segments. The book-to-bill ratio, a leading indicator of our growth, stands at 1.2x. This provides us with confidence to deliver our targets for the coming years. This is also reflected in the current backlog visibility of 26 months. In addition, we continue to derisk our order book through lower risk contract models, which currently account for more than 85% of the total. On the next slide, you can see a selection of recent awards. I'm not going to name them all, but let me highlight a few. In the energy transition sector, we have been very active, especially in Australia with the award of several contracts related to power generation, storage and transmission. It is worth mentioning the recent award of the South Dade Transit Operations Center in Miami and new electric battery buses operations and maintenance facility. In digital infrastructure, we have recently been awarded a project to build a semiconductor fab in Germany and large projects to build data centers in Asia, U.S. and Europe, including the $800 million data center campus in Jeffersonville, Indiana, for Meta. In new sustainable mobility and civil infrastructure, we continue to be the market as a reference contractor for large-scale projects in Australia, North America and Europe. Also in biopharma, health and indication and social infrastructure, we have been highlight successful with different jobs to build a refurbished hospitals, sport venues and educational facilities. Let's move now to a more in-depth look at each of our segments. As you can see in the slide, Turner sales grew by 13%, reaching EUR 8.6 billion. EBITDA and PBT significantly improved year-on-year. We're starting to see the margin we expect at Turner as it moves towards our target of 3.5% in 2026. It is currently at 3% in the second quarter, up 70 basis points year-on-year supported by successful strategy in advanced technology and SourceBlue supply chain solutions. Outstanding cash flow generation has been a feature of Turner for many years, and the first half of 2024 is no exception, with operating cash flow increasing by around EUR 150 million year-on-year. Turner's commercial strength is demonstrated by its new orders of EUR 13 million during 2024, an increase of 36% year-on-year. This momentum has brought its backlog to EUR 30 billion, up by 24% year-on-year, a sustained growth trend in recent years. As announced last week, Turner has signed an agreement to acquire 100% of Dornan Engineering, rapidly growing European advanced tech engineering company for an enterprise value of approximately EUR 400 million. Headquartered in Ireland. Dornan is a leading mechanical and electrical engineering company in Europe, operating in data center, biopharma, life science, industrial and other sectors. Dornan has a strong presence in the U.K., Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland and other European countries. The business is expected to achieve revenues of around EUR 700 million and an EBITDA of around EUR 55 million in 2024, implying an acquisition multiple of approximately 7.2x. Revenue growth has averaged over 20% in recent years, backed by an expanding order book that currently stands at close to EUR 1.1 billion. The current shareholders who are part of the key management team will remain in their position post transaction. Dornan and Turner share a similar business model and risk approach as well as made the right relationships with blue chip companies and hyperscalers. This is what the acquisition will allow us to further leverage our strong engineering, project management, commissioning, procurement and mineralization capabilities. Dornan's 1,000 skilled employees will provide additional resources to the group. The acquisition will be executed by Turner and will accelerate the company's strategy of expanding into the European market. Let's now move to CIMIC where we foresee significant growth opportunities in the energy transition and the natural resources markets, supported by an active M&A strategy. Recent transactions such as the 10% acquisition of Thiess and the various bolt-on acquisitions explained earlier are good examples. CIMIC delivered a solid attributable ordinary impact of EUR 99 million, up 8.6% FX adjusted, reflecting our increased stake in HOCHTIEF over the last 12 months. Net operating cash flow performance incorporates typical seasonality and structural changes in the working capital profile aligned to lower risk collaborative constructing models, and the orders of EUR 6.1 billion were 4% higher year-on-year with a robust order backlog of 24.6 billion, up 6% year-on-year. Turning to Engineering & Construction segment. We reported EUR 4.7 billion of sales, up 6.7%. EBITDA growth of 6.2%, maintaining a stable margin, achievable impact grew by 7.5% and net operating cash flow improved by almost EUR 400 million year-on-year, reflecting the positive performance of Dragados in working capital management. The order backlog continued to grow at a 9% rate FX adjusted and currently stands at EUR 29 billion, with a strong contribution from a new sustainable mobility and transport projects. Order intake during the year reached EUR 7.3 billion. Today, we are also announcing the decision to integrate ACS Group Civil Engineering and Construction businesses in North America by incorporating Flatiron Dragados North America activities into a single entity. This will result in the creation of a leading civil engineering and construction players in North America that will rank #2 in the U.S. market. The new entity, Flatiron Dragados will benefit from product expertise, broad geographical footprint and solid technical capabilities. The advantages are immense. It will be a leading player combining credentials in the U.S. and Canada, highly skilled technical resources and a successful track record in large infrastructure projects. It will simplify the group's structure in North America, ensuring strategic alignment across tendering, procurement and commercial approach towards collaborative models. The transaction will generate meaningful synergies estimated at around $30 million to $40 million run rate focused on procurement, shared services and centralization of a wide range of corporate functions. This is a significant further step in the group's simplification strategy that will allow for greater operational integration and tighter strategic alignment. The transaction is value accretive for shareholders based on significant available financial benefits. Let's now look at the breakdown of the contribution from different companies that comprise Engineering & Construction segment. Dragados sales grew by 3% in the first half to EUR 2.9 billion. EBITDA increased to EUR 152 million. Profit before tax of EUR 66 million was up 25% due to improved financial efficiency, backlog is EUR 17.9 billion, up 10.5% with a strong focus on transport and new sustainable mobility. North America currently represents 59% of the total. Our net operating cash flow went up by EUR 413 million in the last 12 months, driven by a significant improvement of circa EUR 500 million in working capital. Turning to HOCHTIEF engineering and construction activity. Sales growth in the year was 13% year-on-year, rising to over EUR 1.8 billion. At the EBITDA level, growth was 12% with stable margins. Net operating cash flow was driven by seasonal working capital variations and the order backlog of EUR 11.3 billion was up 7% year-on-year, with 2 major project wins in Europe worth over EUR 1 billion. Lastly, let's move to infrastructure. The attributable net profit contribution in the segment was slightly lower than the previous period, impacted by nonoperational items. A smaller participation in the 288 Iridium and the impact of the new tax regulation in France and financial costs from new asset acquisitions at Abertis. Operationally, Abertis has had robust performance as shown in its results released last week. To summarize, Abertis average steady traffic was up by 0.8% in the first half, with revenues and EBITDA of 11% and 13% year-on-year on a comparable basis. Net profit pre-PPA amounted to EUR 402 million. The Abertis profit contribution to ACS after PPA was EUR 89 million. For 2024, we expect Abertis will make a similar profit contribution to last year. On Slide 19, you have further information on a geographical basis to help explain the evolution of the portfolio of Abertis, highlighting the significant traffic growth in important markets such as Spain, Brazil, Mexico and Puerto Rico. To conclude, I would like to underline a highlight of our solid operating performance: 11.4% growth in ordinary net income at the top end of our 8% to 12% of our annual guidance, a strong cash flow generation supported by working capital management, record level of order intake during the period providing visibility to our long-term outlook and further derisking our backlog profile. We also continue to make significant capital deployment in alignment with our strategic plan with EUR 1.2 billion invested in the first half. In summary, we are on the right track to achieving our long-term targets by delivering a consistent corporate strategy centered on 3 key pillars. First, reducing the group's risk profile, which we are achieving by the greater use of our collaborative style contracts. Second, expanding our already strong presence in [indiscernible] high growth areas, with [indiscernible] a more sophisticated value proposition and which are driving higher margins. And third, a very disciplined capital allocation approach as we have done during this year, and we believe will start to yield attractive returns in the future. Thank you very much for your attention. Now we are ready to answer your questions.

[Operator Instructions] The first question comes from Graham Hunt from Jefferies.

I've just got 3 short ones. First of all, just referring to the new construction entity that you've created today or announced today. Can you speak to any cost efficiencies or improvements that we could expect under the new structure? That's question one. Number two, you seem to have a pretty strong working capital inflow for the business, excluding HOCHTIEF in the quarter. Just trying to understand which drove some of the strong operational cash flow in the quarter. So just trying to understand that. And then third question, just on the ACS holding costs. It seems to be down EUR 40 million versus Q1. Just trying to understand that quarter-on-quarter move.

So let me start with the first one. Cost efficiency, so you look at both corporations in North America, Dragados and Flatiron. Dragados currently has a series of subsidiaries, Schiavone, Picone, Pulice, [indiscernible] et cetera. In the case of Flatiron, you have cruise. And each one of them, they do have a holding. So first of all, by combining all these companies, we are going to be able to reduce significantly all the stuff associated to [indiscernible] holdings. So there were -- I mean, there will be significant cost synergies in that sense. There's also a lot of operational. I mean, operational efficiencies in terms of systems, in terms of procurement, in terms of certain contracts that you require certain caliber of size. So overall, that's the way we come to the EUR 30 million to EUR 40 million potential efficiencies in our space. In terms of the working capital, basically that has been Dragados. So in 2 years ago, we started with the transition of our Engineering & Construction business towards more balanced risk and equation, there is more collaborative contracts, et cetera on one hand. On the other hand, we made significant changes in part of our old projects that were on track. We achieved, in some cases, agreements with the clients. In our case, we've created efficiency plans for the projects. So you start seeing all of that reflected in the cash flow. So we think that it's a positive story from Dragados that has seen a significant inflow on their operational business. And then when it comes to the ACS holding costs, I think that is more, at this stage, a timing effect. We have around EUR 10 million difference, specifically in the ACS headquarters from '23 to '24. And that has been -- I think that last year was like 32 million and this year was 23 million. There has been an improvement.

The next question comes from Dario Maglione.

Dario Maglione from BNP Paribas. I have 3 questions, so one about the monetization of the options on ACS shares, the EUR 0.5 billion inflow. Is that including working capital or excluded? Second question on Dragados U.S. and Flatiron, I think it makes tougher sense. Why this has not done before in your view? And last question on HOCHTIEF shares, stake. Any thoughts there and update in the larger view of capital allocation?

Okay. On the first one, that EUR 500 million is excluded from the working capital. On the second one, why it hasn't been done before? I cannot comment except that, I mean, the management around the table today has been working on this since starting with our mandate. It obviously has to be done in the right way as it needs to go through all the right approvals at HOCHTIEF, et cetera. So it takes time to make sure that we get to the right evaluation and et cetera. So it's a process that takes time, but we've been working on this almost during the beginning of our mandate. And the third one, HOCHTIEF, as I always say, we will be opportunistic. It's -- we will analyze tipping on the value of the share, et cetera. So I mean, certainly, you've seen us increasing the share and we'll continue analyzing on a case by case basis.

Okay. And could you confirm the latest shareholding in HOCHTIEF besides the stake?

79.1% include interest restocks.

The next question comes from Marco Limite from Barclays.

A couple of questions on Abertis. First of all, if there is any update on the SH-288, first question. And the second question, I think, post CMD, Standard & Poor's said that they were working on an update on your credit rating review, whether -- my question is whether you've got any expectation in terms of timing for that? So those are my couple of questions on Abertis. And a third question on capital allocation. How much have you spent on buyback, so ACS shares year-to-date?

Thank you, Marco. So starting with an update on SH-288. Well, so there's 2 parallel lines. The first one is a termination that was announced. The second one is the negotiation. So we continue managing both in parallel. We're still having conversations with [indiscernible] is being very good at listening to what we have to say and different options. We're in that process. Next weeks will be important as there are some meetings confirmed to follow up on the conversations, but it's early days to announce anything one way or the other, right? But of course, it's so relevant that as soon as we can announce anything one way or the other, we will. S&P second half of the year, for the timing of the rating. And in terms of a buyback so far, I think that it was 293 million, 2-9-3.

And if I can add one follow-up question. Can you just further explain how you calculated the percentage of ownership of the new entity and the split between ACS and HOCHTIEF? Is that based on revenues of the 2 merged entity or net profit? Just a bit of clarity on that.

Okay. So obviously, we went through a furnace opinion and a long process to make sure that all of that was carried out independently. But the final percentages are 62% of the new entity owned by Dragados SA, 38% by HOCHTIEF. So Dragados SA will consolidate the result.

Ladies and gentlemen, it seems that there are no further questions, so I will give the floor back to ACS management to close the meeting. Well, it seems that we have a further question. Sorry, apologies. Graham Hunt from Jefferies.

Maybe just a question on whether you see any opportunities for further corporate simplification similar to what you've done in the U.S. and the rest of your portfolio? That's one. Number two, any update on Clece and the process there? And then last question, you seem to -- as you know, just those 2 questions, sorry.

So well simplification, I believe that there are opportunities on simplification. I mean there's -- I mean, we are a group of companies. And obviously, as we move into a one single company, one team and one approach, I mean, certainly, there's a lot of efficiencies in the process. So we will be continuing pursuing them as we go. Clece. So Clece, we continue -- I mean Clece, we will sell Clece if the price is right, okay, because obviously, it has a lot of opportunities as well. So we are listening to potential offers. We are in the market with Clece. But at this stage, there's no further update.

It seems that we have another question from Dario Maglione from BNP Paribas.

Just on guidance for full year '24. Is that confirmed? Or are you thinking to update it after the acquisition of Thiess and other companies?

At this stage, we prefer not to update the legal guidance. I mean I know we are in the top of it, and we are happy with the results and how things are going, but we want to be cautious, I mean.

Now ladies and gentlemen, it seems that really there are no further questions. So I'll give the floor back to ACS management to close the meeting.

Excellent. So thank you so much, everyone, for your time today, and we look forward to continue talking to you as we move ACS through this strategy that was outlined in the Capital Markets Day, and we'll continue delivering on it. Thank you so much.