ACS reports H1 330 million euro net profit as traffic recovers

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish construction and concessions group ACS said on Thursday its revenues rose by 15.6% during the first half of the year to 15.4 billion euros, buoyed by a positive momentum for its construction and toll road businesses amid a full recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

The infrastructure giant said the road traffic recovery on Abertis' networks to pre-pandemic levels led to positive first semester results for the concessionary unit.

Net profit fell by 6% year-on-year to 330 million euros, even as the concessions business contribution almost doubled. The profits from the construction business were slightly higher than those of the same period of 2021.

Last year's results included the sale of the company´s industrial division to French group Vinci for 215 million euros. On a comparable basis, that is not considering in 2021 the contribution of the Industrial Services activity sold in December nor the negative impact of the value changes on the financial instruments linked to ACS’ shares, net profit rose by 43.7% year-on-year.

North America's sales reached 9.3 billion euros and represented 65% of total construction revenues. The company said those results showed a solid recovery after the impact of the pandemic in 2021.

ACS reported a portfolio of construction projects worth 66.66 billion euros at the end of June, 16.3% higher than a year before.

At the end of June, ACS said the group held a net cash position of 1 billion euros compared with net debt of 2.9 billion euros 12 months ago.

(Reporting by Corina Pons; Editing by Marguerita Choy)