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Between January and September 2023, Sacyr obtained an EBITDA of €980 million, 12% more than the same period in 2022. Operating cash flow increased 29% to €487 million, and net profit reached €92 million, up 36%.

These figures take into account the restatement of the 2022 accounts, reporting Valoriza Servicios Medioambientales’ and Sacyr Facilities’ activities as discontinued. The sale of Valoriza to Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners was closed on October 31st and the Sacyr Facilities sale will conclude before year-end. 

Sacyr’s growth in 2023 is the result of its transformation into a profitable P3 infrastructure company that continually creates value. 

In fact, Sacyr estimates that in December 2023 the value of its P3 assets will reach €3.25 billion, an increase of €443 million compared to the last valuation performed on Investor Day in October 2021.

Sacyr has consolidated its position as the third largest developer of transport assets, according to PWF magazine, and one of the largest infrastructure P3 companies in the world. 90% of the company’s EBITDA—€880 million—comes from P3 assets, which provide a predictable and stable business model.

Record profitability

In September, the company’s profitability (EBITDA margin) stood at a record 30.2%, 4.9 percentage points higher than in the same period of 2022. This rise in profitability goes hand-in-hand with Sacyr’s transformation into a P3 firm. 

Revenue, meanwhile, closed the quarter at €3.2 billion.

Recourse net debt reduction

Sacyr closed Q3 2023 with recourse net debt of €661 million. The sale of both Valoriza and Sacyr Facilities will contribute to drastically reducing this debt: after the Q3 close, Sacyr collected €420 million from the divestment of Valoriza and expects to complete the sale of Facilities before the end of the year.

As part of the company’s financial management, Sacyr succeeded in the early unwind of the options held on Repsol shares, resulting in an inflow of €31 million in cash and tying up its financial position in the Spanish energy company. 

Increased shareholder remuneration

Shareholder remuneration is one of the core aspects of the 2021-2025 Strategic Plan. In 2023, the company raised shareholder remuneration to €0.136 per share, paid out in two scrip dividends in January and July.  

Evolution by business unit

Concessions.- Sacyr Concesiones obtained an EBITDA of €633 million (+17%), thanks to the good operating performance of its assets, the contribution of the Ruta 78 and Los Vilos highways in Chile, and the fact that all revenue from P3 assets is linked to inflation. 

Sacyr continues demonstrating its capacity to commission new P3 assets. In 2023, Rutas del Este (Paraguay) entered operation and another three assets will begin operating soon: Pedemontana-Veneta (Italy), Ferrocarril Central (Uruguay), and Pamplona-Cúcuta (Colombia).

In addition, as part of the active management of the asset portfolio, the company sold its 49% stake in the Autovía del Eresma (Spain) and the N6 in Ireland. 

Engineering and Infrastructure.-  Revenue reached €2 billion and EBITDA grew 6% to €322 million. 

This division is firmly committed to profitability over volume, resulting in an uptick in EBITDA margin to 16%, relative to 14% in the same period of 2022. Excluding the effect of Italy’s Pedemontana-Veneta and A3 highways, profitability stands at 4.6%, as opposed to 3.7% in 2022. 

The division’s backlog closed at €7.5 billion, up 2% from December 2022. More than 52% of that figure corresponds to Sacyr Concesiones projects and represents 34 months of activity.

The Hernani-Astigarraga joint venture (60% Sacyr Construcción. 10% Sacyr Neopul, 15% Mariezcurrena and 15% Zubieder), has successfully completed the proof load test on the Hernani viaduct (Guipuzcoa).  

This test verifies the optimal structural performance of this pioneering viaduct within the High-Speed Rail Network.

To carry out this 2.34 km section, awarded in 2019 by the Basque Railway Network, the project required to build, among other infrastructures, a cable-stayed viaduct that crosses over the Urumea River twice and passes under the A-15 road.

The viaduct is 482 meters-long and allows crossings over the Urumea through two cable-stayed substructures with maximum spans of 67 and 120 meters. A total of 108 braces for three metal masts are needed to support the 14.5-meter-wide deck and a variable edge of up to four meters.

20,000 m3 of concrete and 4,000 tons of steel

Over 20,000 m3 of concrete (equivalent to 8 Olympic swimming pools) and 4,000 tons of steel have been needed to build this viaduct. The U-shaped section has a usable width of 10.7 meters to accommodate the slab track and gutters.

The construction process of the two boards was done in phases with a movable scaffolding system and concrete pouring in situ, on the final piles and several provisional piles to save the length of the section that needed the cabled to be added.

Once the board was executed, the metal pylons were installed, and the braces installed. The stay system used was with fixed fork on mast and adjustable fork on board, with a loading of the stays, through the use of the Stay Cable System, and steel Y1860S7T16 (150 mm2), galvanized, waxed and self-protected with a polyethylene sheath.

The three masts are made of structural steel S355 and S460 and have a height of 27 meters. The deep foundations have been made with piles that are over 40 meters deep.

Innovation to identify improvements

The project stands out for the wide range of special techniques necessary for its construction. All works, from the deep foundations to the treatments to improve the terrain have used innovative techniques that add value to the project.

A full 3D model of the entire project has been created that has allowed to identify and anticipate errors, as well as to propose optimizations and improvements to it throughout project development.

A project with a strong environmental character

The project has a marked environmental character as it is framed within the area of maritime-terrestrial public domain defined by the banks of the Urumea River; therefore, additional measures have been developed, among which are:

• Pollution management of 16,807 tons of contaminated soils with organic compounds and heavy metals, using ex-situ techniques.
• Treatment to prevent the proliferation of non-native vegetation through the mechanical removal of 11,000 m2 of invasive alien species, this being the second greatest threat to biodiversity, after the loss of natural habitats. 

In the first half of 2023, Sacyr progressed with its transformation strategy into an infrastructure P3 company, that is profitable and continually creating value.

As part of this P3 strategy, Sacyr announced the sale of Valoriza Servicios Medioambientales (VSM) to Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners back in June and reached an agreement on the divestment of Sacyr Facilities in July. Given these operations, the company restated the 1H 2022 financial statements to report Valoriza’s and Facilities’ activities as discontinued. 

In the first half of 2023, the company’s EBITDA reached €645 million, a 28% increase compared to the same period in 2022 after the aforementioned restatement.

Operating cash flow increased by nearly 40% to €360 million.

These steep growth results are due to the commissioning of new highway sections and a good P3 asset performance, which already comprise 90% of Sacyr’s EBITDA, providing a predictable and stable business model.

This continual value creation translates into an asset portfolio valuation of over €3 billion.

Record profitability

The company’s profitability (EBITDA margin) stood at a record 29.8% in June, 6.6 points higher than in 1H 2022.

In turn, revenues in June were €2,164 million. 78% of the revenue stream comes from international projects.

Net profit for the semester reached €64 million (+52%)

Major infrastructure project in the U.S.

2023 milestones include the selection for negotiations to execute the design, construction and operation and management for 50 years from its entry into operation of a stretch of the I-10 in Louisiana (USA). 

The project, with an investment of US$2.1 billion (around €1.9 billion), includes  the construction of a new eight-lane bridge (four lanes in each direction) over the Calcasieu River.

This contract, one of the largest in the group’s portfolio, gives a boost to the strategic goal of increasing the proportion of company activities in English-speaking markets.

Not accounting this project, Sacyr’s backlog grew by 8% in 1H2023, up to €55.86 billion. 90% of the backlog is from international projects, and 86% from the P3 business unit activity. 

Other noteworthy contracts this semester include the regeneration of the degraded Canal del Dique ecosystems (Colombia) for €560 million, the construction of a section of FGC Line 8 in Barcelona for €300 million, several real estate promotions in Spain valued at over €225 million, and the owner engineering aspects of a new LNG terminal in Germany for €29 million, among others.

Divestments and net recourse debt reduction 

Sale operations of Valoriza and Facilities, attributing both companies a €734 and €87 million enterprise value each, will strengthen Sacyr’s marked focus on P3, and will contribute to the drastic reduction of net recourse debt in 2023. 
At 1H2023 close, debt reached €627 million, compared to €644 million in March 2023.

Increased shareholder remuneration

Shareholder remuneration is one of the core aspects of the 2021-2025 Strategic Plan. In 2023, the company raised shareholder remuneration to € 0.136 per share, paid out in two scrip dividends in January and July.

Evolution by business unit

Concesiones.- Sacyr Concesiones obtained €911 million (+5%) in revenues and a €425 million (+45%) EBITDA, thanks to the good operating performance of its assets, the contribution of the Ruta 78 and Los Vilos highways in Chile, and increased traffic volume in Spain.

Sacyr continues demonstrating its capacity to commission new P3 assets, and another four will enter operation in 2023: Pedemontana-Veneta (Italy), Ferrocarril Central (Uruguay), Rutas del Este (Paraguay) and Pamplona-Cúcuta (Colombia).

Moreover, as part of its rotation strategy of mature, non-strategic assets, Sacyr sold 49% of Autovía del Eresma (Spain). 

Sacyr Concesiones is the world’s fourth largest infrastructure P3 developer and has 69 assets worldwide, 58 of which are operational.

Engineering and Infrastructure.- Revenues for this business unit were €1,327 million, below June 2022 figures due to its strategy to prioritize profitability before volume.

In turn, the EBITDA grew by 2%, up to €198 million, and the EBITDA margin reached 15%, as opposed to 13% in the same period in 2022. Excluding the effect of the Italian Pedemontana-Veneta and A3 highways, profitability was 4.3%, as opposed to 3.7% in 2022. 

The division’s backlog ended at €7.342 million, similar to that in December 2022. 55% of this figure corresponds to Sacyr Concesiones projects and represents 33 months of activity.

The certification, based on the ISO 30415:2021 standard, responds to the company’s efforts to boost diversity and inclusion and the need to implement defined processes

Sacyr and its subsidiary company Sacyr Construction have received the Diversity and Equality in Business certification from AENOR. Patricia Martínez, Chief People Officer at Sacyr, and Juan Antonio Fernández Cerrato, People director at Sacyr Construction, were presented the certification by Mónica Barroso, Area Manager – Center with AENOR.

This certification is based on the ISO 30415:2021 standard and uses a methodology allowing its compatibility with other organization management systems to address their actions regarding Diversity and Inclusion with a continual improvement approach.

Sacyr is the first company in Spain that has implemented this diversity and inclusion system based on the aforementioned ISO standard. This certification would allow Sacyr to have defined processes in place within a continual improvement framework model.

Over the past years, Sacyr has promoted diversity and inclusion related projects and initiatives that have garnered the obtention of the efr (“empresa familiarmente responsable”, family responsible company in English) certification in Spain, Colombia and Peru.

Moreover, Sacyr has also obtained the Equality distinction by the Ministry for Equality, joined the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index, and won awards for programs like Senior Talent, Sacyr Generation Senior and innovative programs for the inclusion of people with disabilities or the Flex Working and digital disconnection policies.

We support Fundación Juan XXIII in their new cooking school endeavor

We collaborate with this project through the Sacyr Foudation to develop a new training and integration center for youths at risk of psychological and social vulnerability.

We have signed an agreement by which the Sacyr Foundation will collaborate with a donation of part of the funds to build a new cooking school and a catering and ready-to-eat food preparation center for Fundación Juan XXIII.

Fundación Juan XXIII is currently developing a large-scale training and employment center. The Sacyr Foundation will collaborate with a donation of part of the funds to build the kitchens.

The Sacyr Foundation and Fundación Juan XXIII have a long-standing partnership, and back in 2019 it already participated with the expansion and adaptation of the kitchens in its professional training center, responsible for elaborating catering products.

Manuel Manrique, Chairman of the Sacyr Foundation, said, “this agreement builds into the continued support the Sacyr Foundation has given to multiple Juan XXIII initiatives over the past years”. “We share the view that opportunities and spaces for social and employment integration must be created for people in situations of psychological and social vulnerability”, Manrique added.

El Ayuntamiento de Edimburgo ha inaugurado hoy la prolongación de la línea de tranvía que conecta el centro de la ciudad con Newhaven, construida por la joint venture SFN, liderada por Sacyr junto a Farrans. 

El proyecto, adjudicado por Edinburgh Trams, incluía el diseño, construcción y puesta en funcionamiento y ha supuesto una inversión de 207 millones de libras (240 millones de euros).

La prolongación de la línea abarca un tramo de ocho nuevas paradas a lo largo de 4,7 km, que dará servicio de forma sostenible a una de las zonas más densamente pobladas de la ciudad. Esta mayor conectividad atraerá un mayor desarrollo económico, comercio, empleo y turismo a los barrios de Leith y Newhaven.  

Se estima que cerca de 16 millones de personas utilizarán anualmente esta infraestructura. 

María Ortega, directora del proyecto para Sacyr Ingeniería e Infraestructuras, destaca los retos suprados por el consorcio: “La joint venture se ha adaptado y ha superado retos mundiales sin precedentes: la pandemia del Covid, Brexit y la guerra en Ucrania. Estamos orgullosos de nuestro equipo y de lo que hemos conseguido juntos”.

Las obras comenzaron en noviembre de 2019 y han finalizado según el plazo previsto. Este proyecto ha superado numerosos retos como la pandemia de la Covid-19 y la excavación y reubicación de los hallazgos arqueológicos de un ejemplar de las ruedas originales del primer tranvía que datan del siglo XIX. 

Durante la ejecución de las obras, SFN ha adoptado un enfoque basado en las mejores prácticas para la participación de las partes interesadas, como por ejemplo la creación de centros logísticos para ayudar a las empresas y a los residentes. Hemos gestionado más de 24.500 compromisos de participación ciudadana y más de 75.000 entregas durante este proyecto.

Exhaustiva fase de pruebas

El nuevo tramo del tranvía ha superado una exhaustiva fase de pruebas para garantizar la seguridad y planificación de la nueva infraestructura, así como la correcta implementación de la señalética e integración con el centro de control de Edinburgh Trams y el proceso de familiarización de los conductores con este nuevo trayecto.

Crecimiento en Reino Unido
Reino Unido es uno de los mercados prioritarios para Sacyr en el marco de su Plan Estratégico 2021-2025. El tranvía de Edimburgo se suma a otros exitosos proyectos de construcción como la Universidad del Ulster en Belfast y la autopista A6 entre Dungiven y Drumahoe.

Actualmente, Sacyr está a cargo de la construcción del intercambiador multimodal Belfast Grand Central Station, que mejorará las conexiones nacionales e internacionales de Irlanda del Norte. Además, en julio de 2022, Sacyr se adjudicó su primera concesión en el país, el Hospital de Velindre en Gales. 

• The company maintains robust growth results in the first quarter, driven by its P3-focused strategy.
• Profit rates stood at 24.8%, 4.5 points higher than in the first quarter of 2022. 
• In 2023, Sacyr will commission four major P3 assets, increasing the value of its portfolio.
• Sacyr expects to reduce its recourse net debt throughout 2023. Divestment processes for Sacyr Facilities and Valoriza Medioambiente are currently in the confirmatory due diligence phase and binding offers are scheduled for later in May.
• Backlog grows by 8% and exceeds €58.8 billion.

Sacyr achieved solid growth in the first quarter of 2023, thanks to its business model, focused on P3 development.

The company’s EBITDA reached €320 million, which entails a 32% increase compared to 2022. All three Sacyr business units (Sacyr Concesiones, Sacyr Engineering and Infrastructure and Sacyr Services) contributed to EBITDA growth, driven by the commissioning of new highway sections and good asset performance.

Profitability (EBITDA margin) was 24.8%, 4.5 p.p. higher than in 1Q 2022. 

Revenues ended March 2023 at €1,293 million, with an 8% increase, and net profit was €31 million, 51% higher.

P3 assets make up 85% of the EBITDA, which yields a predictable and stable business model. The international backlog is 85% of the total.

According to schedule, Julie Harrison, Permanent Secretary for the Department for Infrastructure of NI, attended the opening event of this strategic route between Dungiven and Drumahoe, that is also part of the Northwestern transport corridor connecting the Belfast metropolitan area and the Northwest of the country to Londonderry.

The project, developed by the Sacyr Engineering and Infrastructure-Wills Bros-Sacyr Somague joint venture, called for the construction of 25.5 km of road between both towns, including four separate junctions, 17 km of side roads, 20 km of access tracks, 9.5 km of pedestrian walkways and 22 structures (6 viaducts, 10 overpasses, 5 underpasses and one wooden sidewalk).

These improvements guarantee the comfort, traffic, and safety of the more than 15,000 users that travel the road each day, and reduce journey times by more than 10 minutes.

Over 600 professionals have collaborated to the make this project a success since the beginning of the contract.

Positive impact

The project has brought on multiple sustainable initiatives throughout construction. For example, 18 new underpasses for wildlife were built at multiple points of the road to ensure their safety. We have also planted over 750,000 trees in the surrounding areas of the project site.

Our colleagues from Sacyr Engineering and Infrastructure have completed two Repsol projects on the el puerto Exterior de A Coruña that will allow the gas company to move their operations from the San Diego inner port to Punta Langosteira. 

This project will prevent the need from gas cargo vessels from entering the port and will notably optimize unloading freight times in the new facility.

The first project we completed, back in 2020 was the development of the new dock for unloading gas in Punta Langosteira.

The 520-meter-long dock can harbor up to 300-meter-long and 200,000 tn vessels. This development included, among other units,19 reinforced concrete floating vessels equivalent in height to a 10-story building, a four-arch viaduct and a  dock pit.

Carlos Balado, head project director for both developments highlighted “the contribution of all involved in both projects and who have worked hard to achieve a major milestone for A Coruña”.

Innovation

As part of our improvement and innovation projects, we have used pairs of floating breakwaters that run parallel to our floating dock Sacyr Uno instead of doing it individually.

We have done a triple concrete piping, so we have put two pumps on top of floats/pontoons to save the distance from land to the isolated breakwaters.

New pipeline

The second activity we completed in May last year was the pipeline. It is 3.8 km long and 11 meters wide; it has 11 underground pipes to transport products from the refinery and the new maritime Repsol terminal in the exterior port: two of them for gas a third for water and the remaining eight for other products.

Sustainable updates

This project entailed additional efforts to ensure safety, environmental and patrimony protection. 

One example is the exhaustive environmental monitoring and control activities of invasive species, such as the pampas grass. We also temporarily deviated a stream and later undertook its environmental restoration.

We have also developed a plan for petroglyph conservation, with the approval of the Galician cultural patrimony authorities and in cooperation with Repsol, to respect the configuration of the archaeological remains. This plan also includes the restoration of the flora along the project site layout.  

55 auxiliary companies and 370 professionals are involved in the dock project, and 35 companies with 290 professionals developed the new pipeline.

Sacyr experienced record growth in 2022 thanks to its successful business model, focused on the development of concession assets.

The company’s EBITDA climbed to €1,502 million, a 63% increase compared to 2021. This growth was due to the commissioning of several highway sections and the fact that the concession assets’ revenues are directly linked to inflation.

This improvement in results came with a substantial increase in profitability (EBITDA margin), that raised the result to a record 25.7%, 6 pp higher than in 2021 (19.7%).  

Revenues in 2022 stood at €5,852 million, a 25% increase compared to 2021, and net profit was €111 million, compared to the €189 million in the red in 2021. 

Sacyr proved the soundness of its predictable and stable business model in 2022. Concession assets made up 88% of the EBITDA, compared to 83% in 2021.    

In 2022, Sacyr fulfilled the main goals in the 2021-2025 Strategic Plan in terms of revenues (€5,852 M vs. €5,500 M), EBITDA (€1,502 M vs. €1,200 M), profitability (26% vs 22%) and percentage of EBITDA contributed by concessions (88% vs. 85%).

Sacyr announced a divestment plan in October 2022 to fulfill the target of drastically reducing the recourse net debt well ahead of schedule.

Today, Manuel Manrique, Chairman of Sacyr, received the National Innovation and Design Award in the Large company category, from their Majesties, King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain.

Diana Morant, Minister for Science and Innovation, and Adrian Barbón, President of the Principality of Asturias, attended the award-giving ceremony held in Avilés, among other authorities. 

These awards, given by the Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation, recognize Sacyr’s business model, that “uses innovation as a foundational and strategic value”.

“To us, innovation is a driver and generator of competitive advantages. It’s a tool that helps us prepare for the future through new ways of designing, building and managing our infrastructures and services”, Manrique explained.

With this award, the Government of Spain acknowledges how Sacyr faces the digitization and ecological transition challenges to find new business opportunities based on open innovation and public-private collaboration

45 innovation projects

In 2022 we developed 45 innovation projects with a budget of over €13 million. Nearly 350 Sacyr professionals are involved in innovation-related initiatives.
 

"Congratulations to the companies that are included in the 2023 GEI," said Peter T. Grauer, Chairman of Bloomberg and Founding Chairman of the U.S. 30% Club.

"We continue to see an increase in both interest and membership globally, reflecting a shared goal of transparency in gender-related metrics”, he added.

To construct the GEI, Bloomberg assesses gender equality practices in companies across five pillars: leadership & talent pipeline, equal pay & gender pay parity, inclusive culture, anti-sexual harassment policies, and external brand.

Barrier breakers
Some of the greatest challenges in traditionally male-dominated fields are opening the doors to female talent and ending the glass ceiling. Sacyr is above the industry average in indicators such as new hires, percentage of women in the workforce, and women in executive and middle management roles.

The company, that obtained the highest possible score in disclosure, positioned itself as the highest-scored in the transport infrastructure industry and got remarkable results in the ‘Equal pay & gender pay parity’ chapter.

“For Sacyr, this new milestone represents the recognition of our commitment to equality and talent, both cornerstones of the 2021-2025 Strategic Plan”, highlighted Patricia Martínez, Chief People Officer at Sacyr.

Committed to gender equality
As part of its commitment to equality, Sacyr has a Diversity, Equality and Inclusion Policy and a Protocol for the prevention and action in cases of harassment and discrimination, as well as an action plan to increase women in leadership.

Additionally, Sacyr also sponsors STEM education programs for women and girls and is signatory of the UN Women's Empowerment Principles and participates in the Target Gender Equality program, both Global Compact initiatives.