Nevertheless, the group’s profit rose by 23 percent to a record level of 91.5 million euros, as the company listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange announced on Friday morning.
“A look at the first half of the year shows that the market environment in individual European countries – especially in Austria – continued to be challenging,” said Strabag CEO Klemens Haselsteiner, according to the statement. “At group level, however, we can compensate for these fluctuations well and once again report a strong result,” said Haselsteiner, referring to the increase in the order backlog by 4 percent to almost 25.2 billion euros.
Decline in Austria
In the first half of the year, Strabag SE generated an output of 8.33 billion euros, which is a slight increase of 1 percent year-on-year. Output increased in Germany and Poland, as well as in transport infrastructure construction in Romania. However, construction output declined significantly in Austria. “As expected, the sharp decline in the housing construction market is having an impact here,” the company said in explanation. Group revenue fell by 3 percent.
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased slightly by 2 percent to EUR 358.87 million in the first half of 2024. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) fell from EUR 87.35 million to EUR 81.92 million. Net interest income of EUR 52.23 million was almost twice as high as in the same period last year. Earnings per share improved from EUR 0.74 to EUR 0.84.
The number of employees increased by 2 percent to an average of 77,337, also as a result of takeovers.
For the full year 2024, the Strabag management board is still targeting an output of 19.4 billion euros. The EBIT margin should again be at least 4 percent. Net investments are still forecast at a maximum of 750 million euros.
Share lost value
The sanctioned Strabag shareholder Rasperia Trading, to which the also sanctioned Russian investor Oleg Deripaska had transferred his Strabag stake, remains an issue. As a final step in the capital measures to reduce the Rasperia stake, a capital increase in kind was carried out and entered in the commercial register in March 2024. This increases the share capital of Strabag SE from 102.6 million to 118.2 million euros. Due to the dividend payment in June, the equity ratio fell by one percentage point to 31.2 percent compared to the end of 2023. Strabag shares have lost 6.75 percent in value since the beginning of the year and were last quoted at 38.70 euros.
