ACS, Actividades de Construcción y Servicios, S.A. (ACSAF) Q4 2023 Earnings Call

Investor webinar replay

Replay transcript excerpt

Good morning, everyone. And thank you very much for joining us in this 2023 results presentation. Our chairman will be joining us later. Until then, I'm going to proceed with the presentation. I'm here with Mr. Ángel García-Altazona, who's Corporate Chief Officer, Mr. Emilio Grande, who's our CFO. And as usual, after the presentation, there will be time for a Q&A in which we will discuss clarify any questions you may have. If you're following this online, you can send in your questions through the usual channel. I'd like to start by mentioning the five most relevant highlights of 2023. First of all, The group has had an outstanding year in operational results. Net operating income increased by 16.6% to 667 million euros, which is on the high end of the range of the guidance we gave for 2023 of 10%. Our income grew by 10.9%, adjusted by And our EBITDA rose 13.5%, also adjusted by Forex, up to 1.9 billion euros. So our EBITDA margin was 5.3%, which was higher than the previous year. And secondly, the group has had very solid cash flow generation with over 2.2 billion euros in gross operating cash flow, which grew 10.9%. Our available cash flow for shareholder remuneration and financial investments was 1.054 billion euro. Thirdly, the strong cash flow generation has enabled us to increase our net cash position by 176 million euros to 400 million on closing of the year. And all of that after having invested 462 million to increase our hoctave stake and to pay out 632 million to ACS shareholders as well as minorities. And fourthly, we've had a very strong growth in contract awards, 20%, if we adjust by the exchange rate, with over 45.1 billion euros. 44% of new awards have taken place in strategic high-growth markets, including the technology sector, energy transition, so...