EQS-News: STRABAG SE / Key word(s): Preliminary Results
STRABAG SE: new record output volume, EBIT margin expected to approach 5%
15.02.2024 / 07:00 CET/CEST
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
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STRABAG SE: new record output volume, EBIT margin expected to approach 5%
• Output at record level of € 19.1 billion (+8% vs. 2022)
• Order backlog largely unchanged at € 23.5 billion
• Outlook for 2024: output volume of around € 19.4 billion, EBIT margin
≥ 4%
STRABAG SE 2023 2022 % 2022–2023
Output volume 19,139.14 17,735.47 8%
Order backlog 23,466.13 23,738.84 -1%
Employees (FTE) 77,136 73,740 5%
NORTH + WEST^1) 2023 2022 % 2022–2023
Output volume 8,216.66 7,865.46 4%
Order backlog 11,207.13 10,337.38 8%
Employees (FTE) 22,136 21,683 2%
SOUTH + EAST^1) 2) 2023 2022 % 2022–2023
Output volume 7,741.90 7,087.08 9%
Order backlog 7,074.25 7,969.32 -11%
Employees (FTE) 27,057 27,514 -2%
INTERNATIONAL +
SPECIAL DIVISIONS^2) 2023 2022 % 2022–2023
Output volume 2,957.27 2,644.81 12%
Order backlog 5,159.42 5,412.72 -5%
Employees (FTE) 20,360 17,526 16%
OTHER 2023 2022 % 2022–2023
Output volume 223.31 138.12 62%
Order backlog 25.33 19.42 30%
Employees (FTE) 7,583 7,017 8%
1) Effective 1 January 2023, Switzerland was moved to the North + West
segment, Poland to South + East. 2) The building materials business,
previously reported in the International + Special Divisions segment, was
incorporated into South + East effective 1 July 2023. The previous year’s
figures have been adjusted accordingly.
STRABAG SE, the publicly listed European technology group for construction
services, today announced its initial figures for the 2023 financial year
and issued an outlook for 2024. “Following several boom years fuelled by
the zero and negative interest rate policy, 2023 was defined by a cooldown
in the construction industry. Residential construction was particularly
hard hit by the changed environment. This segment accounts for less than
10% of the STRABAG’s Group output, however. In times like these, we can
make use of the strengths that our business model offers: our critical
size and broad positioning by country and sector allowed us to increase
our output volume to over € 19 billion for the first time and to maintain
our very high order backlog,” says Klemens Haselsteiner, CEO of STRABAG
SE.
Output volume
The STRABAG SE Group increased its output volume by 8% to € 19.1 billion
in the 2023 financial year, setting a new record for this figure. Growth
in almost all of the Group’s key markets contributed to this development,
with the largest increases in output recorded in Germany and Romania as
well as in transportation infrastructures in Poland. In the Czech
Republic, output declined, as expected, after a selective approach was
taken in response to increased competition in transportation
infrastructures. Apart from this, only smaller markets such as Sweden and
Denmark recorded a decline in output.
Order backlog
Despite sharp declines on the residential construction market, the order
backlog remained more or less stable at a very high level of € 23.5
billion (-1% compared to 31 December 2022). The order backlog grew in
Germany, primarily in building construction and civil engineering, in
Poland, and in the Middle East, among other regions. As a result of the
current interest rate level and the stricter lending guidelines for
mortgage loans compared to the rest of Europe, the order backlog in
Austria remained below the above-average level of the previous year. The
decline in the United Kingdom and in the Americas can be explained by the
gradual completion of major projects in those regions.
Additions to the order backlog in Germany include the expansion of the U5
subway lines in Hamburg and Munich, the turnkey construction of a
replacement building for Ruhr University in Bochum, and the construction
of the sustainable office building Inspire Neukölln in Berlin. In the
Middle East, infrastructure and building construction projects worth
around € 383 million were acquired in the United Arab Emirates, Oman and
Qatar. In the Czech Republic, the Group was awarded the contract to
modernise the Masaryk railroad station in Prague, while in Poland STRABAG
is constructing a production and logistics building for Cognor S. A. and
building the country’s third longest bridge over the river San near the
city of Stalowa Wola.
EBIT
The EBIT margin for the 2023 financial year is expected to approach 5%
(2022: 4.2%), higher than originally forecast. This development is due to
positive earnings effects in the North + West segment.
Employees
The Group had an average of 77,136 employees (FTE) in the 2023 financial
year. This corresponds to an increase of 5% compared to the previous year.
Due to a strong increase in output volume and as a result of an
acquisition in property and facility services, the largest increase was
recorded in Germany, followed by the Americas, where the number of
employees was increased to handle the completion of several large-scale
projects.
Outlook 2024
“Buoyed by last year’s strong performance, we expect to be able to confirm
our record output in 2024. With our strategy of People. Planet. Progress.,
we are also ideally positioned to benefit from the increased demand for
reconstruction, conversion and refurbishment and in energy transition
projects in the coming years,” says CEO Klemens Haselsteiner.
Based on the continuing high order backlog, which already extends into
2025, the Management Board expects the output volume to increase slightly
from its already high level. Specifically, this figure is forecast to
reach around € 19.4 billion in the 2024 financial year, with contributions
coming especially from the two operating segments North + West and South +
East.
Due to the economic challenges in the construction industry, the earnings
for 2023 do not change anything about the target of generating an EBIT
margin of at least 4% in the 2024 financial year.
Net investment (cash flow from investing activities) in 2024 is not
expected to exceed € 750 million.
Further figures and details as to the 2023 financial year will be
published on 25 April 2024 at 7:00 a.m. (CEST) at www.strabag.com.
STRABAG SE is a European-based technology group for construction services,
a leader in innovation and financial strength. Our activities span all
areas of the construction industry and cover the entire construction value
chain. We create added value for our clients by taking an end-to-end view
of construction over the entire life cycle – from planning and design to
construction, operation and facility management to redevelopment or
demolition. In all of our work, we accept responsibility for people and
the environment: We are shaping the future of construction and are making
significant investments in our portfolio of more than 250 innovation and
400 sustainability projects. Through the hard work and dedication of our
approximately 86,000 employees, we generate an annual output volume of
around € 19 billion.
Our dense network of subsidiaries in various European countries and on
other continents extends our area of operation far beyond the borders of
Austria and Germany. Working together with strong partners, we are
pursuing a clear goal: to design, build and operate construction projects
in a way that protects the climate and conserves resources. More
information is available at www.strabag.com.
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15.02.2024 CET/CEST This Corporate News was distributed by EQS Group AG.
www.eqs.com
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Language: English
Company: STRABAG SE
Donau-City-Straße 9
1220 Vienna
Austria
Phone: +43 1 22422 – 1089
Fax: +43 1 22422 – 1177
E-mail: investor.relations@strabag.com
Internet: www.strabag.com
ISIN: AT000000STR1, AT0000A36HH9
Listed: Vienna Stock Exchange (Official Market)
EQS News ID: 1837415
End of News EQS News Service
1837415 15.02.2024 CET/CEST