Earnings Labs

Ferrovial SE (FER)

Q1 2018 Earnings Call· Sat, May 12, 2018

$67.89

-0.03%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Ricardo Jiménez: Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to Ferrovial’s Conference Call for the 2018 First Quarter Results. The call will be conducted by Ferrovial CFO, Ernesto López Mozo. Ernesto, please go ahead. Ernesto López Mozo: Thank you, Ricardo, and, well, sorry for the delay. I mean, we’re having quite a queue of people waiting to join, so I’ll make some introductory remarks while the other people are joining. First, we won’t be touching much on the provision related to Birmingham given that we dedicated a call to that. And also, I would like you to have a look at some additional numbers we are providing this time. I mean, we have had a little request for some information on a proportional basis. I mean, this is kind of an ATM. I mean, all the conference call, we’ll be reviewing the consolidated results and the main equity accounted affiliate. But please have a look at the proportionate numbers that clearly show more of where the business is heading and where the infrastructure is operating. Okay. So without further delay, I will go now directly into the conference call, and hopefully, we will have more people already with us. The general overview would be that, again, and this might be sounding like a repetition, but is clearly an outstanding performance from our main infrastructure assets, both in traffic revenues and EBITDA. We’ll provide more color on that. The consolidated results in terms of revenues are showing a decline of 6.3%, and this is something that was expected by everybody, as we mentioned when we had the conference call, regarding the Broadspectrum outlook. In 2017, we were finalizing the immigration contracts, and therefore, we have lower revenues, but we see that we are starting along plan. Also, we are not consolidating Portuguese toll…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question today comes from Mehdi Boudokhane from Raymond James. Mehdi, please go ahead.

Mehdi Boudokhane

Analyst

Yes, good afternoon everyone. Thanks for taking my questions. So I have three, if I may, starting with the Construction. So you mentioned that profitability should improve throughout the year, so it would, I think, in February. So do you confirm that guidance? And do we have to expect the same kind of profitability than in 2017? Secondly, on Budimex, so profitability has been higher than peers average for a couple of years now. Could we consider the level reached in Q1 as being broadly in line with some kind of normative levels? And last one in toll roads, can we get an update of the pipeline and notably on the Westconnex project, please? Ernesto López Mozo: Okay. Thank you for the questions. We’ll start probably in reverse order. And Paco Clemente, the CFO from Cintra, will discuss Westconnex and pipeline. Francisco Clemente Sánchez: Thank you, Ernesto. In regards to our active pipeline by geographies, we will start in Australia with Westconnex. We are expecting to present – to submit a proposal at the end of July. We are currently working at that. Moving to North America in the U.S., we have changeover order in our Dallas project, Segment 3C. And we are expecting to reach an agreement with the NDOT during the rest of the 2018 [ph]. In addition to that, in the U.S. as well, we have – we are working on a project in Alabama, I-10, and we are expecting to make our proposal in the first quarter of next year. And finally, in that market, Maryland congestion relief program that is about to be launched by the state, we estimate that the request for proposal – request for qualification will be launched at the end of this year, and the request for proposal will be during…

Operator

Operator

The next question today comes from Stephanie D’Ath from RBC. Please go ahead Stephanie. Stephanie D’Ath: Hi, good evening, everyone. My first question is regarding the extension of the contracts you mentioned earlier. You said that the backlog number was impacted by the fact they were not renewed. Could you maybe give us an indication of where the backlog would be if instead of being extended, those contracts had been renewed? My second question is regarding the share buyback and your dividend for the full year. So you said you did about EUR 60 million of share buyback in the first quarter. What’s your thinking in terms of capital allocation? And would you be confident you can, at least, deliver the same dividend as last year for this year? And then finally, in terms of the outlook for the full year, you seem to say that infrastructure assets are performing better, and contracting assets are performing in line. And you reiterated all your guidance in terms of EBITDA for UK Services in Australia and EBIT margin guidance for Construction. So if you could give us a bit more flavor on – if we could have positive earnings surprise. Ernesto López Mozo: Okay, thanks. Well, the first one, Fernando will take what would be a pro forma instead of tacit renewals if they could be extended with the same length. Regarding the share buyback, yes, I mentioned, we’ve done EUR 60 million roughly. And we are – after the scrip dividend, we will be initiating the official share buyback up to EUR 275 million or 19 million shares along the year. So yes, we don’t see any reason to change what we announced on the February call and that also is referred to dividends, right. Regarding, yes, contracting in line and…

Operator

Operator

Our next question today comes from [indiscernible] from CaixaBank. Please go ahead.

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Good afternoon everyone. I have three detail questions. The first one, could you please tell us what is the operating cash flow pretax in this quarter for the Services as well as for the Construction unit? The second one, could you please clarify the year-on-year change in others – revenues in others EBITDA as detailed on Page number 2 of the release? And thirdly, if you don’t mind, what has been, if any, the level of provision reversals in the Construction unit this quarter? Ernesto López Mozo: Okay. Well, regarding the level of reversal of provisions in the Construction division, it was EUR 27 million. Then the others stuff that is quite detailed, let me see if we can cover part of this as the call goes on. I mean, the questions on operating cash flow, could you ask them again? Is the operating cash flow of Construction and Services, the working capital effect, are you asking that?

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

A more general question, what is the operating cash flow pretax for the Services and for the Construction unit, the way, for instance, you have reported at the end of 2017 presentation? Ernesto López Mozo: Okay. We usually don’t disclose that on a quarterly basis. We do that on full year and more information on the six months. I mean, you’ve had the normal drain on the working capital in this quarter. And basically, when you look at these kinds of reduction, you’re looking at working capital. Let me see if I can be a little bit more precise. If I remember correctly, the kind of working capital drain is around – let me hold a second because it’s around EUR 300 million. I will give back the exact number. It’s roughly EUR 300 million without getting into more detail, okay. And then the other questions that you were asking, well, I think that those were the main ones. Or did I leave anything out?

Unidentified Analyst

Analyst

Just the others in revenues and EBITDA and the earnings. Ernesto López Mozo: Oh, yes, yes, yes. The others amount in revenues is – revenues from real estate in Poland basically. Budimex publishes this on their accounts. Since for us, it’s a different business unit, we put it in others because it’s not Construction, right. So it’s real estate in Poland.

Operator

Operator

Our next question today comes from Thomas Van der Meij from Kempen. Please go ahead Thomas.

Thomas Van der Meij

Analyst

Good afternoon. Actually three questions from me. First of all, is the expected margin of the order book confirming your margin target in the subdivisions? Secondly, reducing your exposure to contracting, will this be done gradually over time, so actually being less competitive in tenders and helping the margin of the order book? Or will you take also more active approach by selling divisions? And thirdly, you highlighted again the potential opportunities and portfolio optimization. Does it mean that you have to sell assets to put the acquisitions? Or should we see them separately from each other? Ernesto López Mozo: Okay. Well, regarding the margin of the order book, I mean, in general, we have now in Construction a higher proportion of business with sister units and with own designs, so that also means that kind of level that we’ve seen at the end of the year is kind of below than we’ve seen on the order book, always with a caveat that the market is competitive at those levels, right. So the market is trading between 2% and 3% EBIT to sales margin. And in any hard bidding that should be the expectation, right. So yes, the backlog is okay and in line with what we are providing, right. Then other questions that you were asking is regarding the pace of more exposure to infrastructure and less to contracting. I mean, in terms of bidding, yes, we are slightly more risk-averse. We’ll be more risk-averse, and that should be reflected in the level of contracting, for sure. But we think we can remain competitive in some complex issues. And regarding the pace of other stuff, I cannot make any further comment. When we make decisions, we’ll provide them. Regarding the portfolio streamlining, we are commenting. Some of them are basically because they have been derisked, and we are optimizing the cash flow generation, right. That’s what happens with the dividends I mentioned from some concessions, and then the others are investments that have been practically reduced the risk. But they are more like created exposure, and therefore, we are divesting them. We have investment capacity. We have an interest in pipeline, but it’s not that we need to do divestment. It’s part of the portfolio rotation once they have been derisked, okay. So I guess I’ve addressed all you mentioned. Anything else?

Thomas Van der Meij

Analyst

No.

Operator

Operator

Our next question today comes from Olivia Peters from Macquarie. Please go ahead Olivia.

Olivia Peters

Analyst

Good afternoon everybody. I’ve got three questions, please. Firstly, I wanted to get a better understanding of why clients are extending support Services contracts per year rather than re-tendering them for the usual three to four year period. Secondly, could you provide an update on Toowoomba? I saw in the local Australian press that there has been some delays to the construction phase there. And then thirdly, it seems that there was a headline also suggesting that the dividend in the Managed Lanes could be brought forward to 2019, I think. Can you just remind us when they were due? I think it was 2020, 2021. Ernesto López Mozo: Okay. I will take – sorry. Fernando will take the one about the extension of the contracts in Services why it’s just renewal and not tendering. Fernando González de Canales Moyano: Okay. The way it works is the starting point if you have a contract, for example, that has an order book of $500 million, and it has – it comes to market. When you are at the end of the contract, the order book is squeezed, so you’re finished, that order book And if you go for tender and you renew the order book, you get the same amount of order book that you consumed in the past. And the question why the client – sorry, I missed your question. I understand you want to understand why the client is doing that. Maybe there are different reasons, but I think the first one is high competition, so the clients – the companies offering different alternatives. And especially in the Australian market, there is openness to new proposals, and that makes the clients change their view on what they want. That is the first one. And second is the increase in…

Olivia Peters

Analyst

So just to confirm, has construction started again on that project? Fernando González de Canales Moyano: It’s true that the – stopped a part of the project. But the project, the rest of the project is continuing the normal process as we planned and we programmed in the next month.

Olivia Peters

Analyst

Okay, thank you.

Operator

Operator

We currently have no further questions. [Operator Instructions] We have a question on the line from Guy MacKenzie from Crédit Suisse. Please go ahead.

Guy MacKenzie

Analyst

Yes, hi, thanks for taking my question. Just a quick one on the Managed Lanes, NTE and LBJ, specifically I just noticed there was a slight decline in the EBITDA margin that you delivered from the LBJ in Q1. Just wondering if that’s saying anything about the run rate, if that’s simply timing of the ramp-up or if it’s something else. And then secondly on NTE, traffic grew at about 6.5%, but your revenue was up by just under 3%. I’m assuming that’s primarily just FX translation related on the weak U.S. dollar, but I was just wondering if you could comment on your average tariffs there as well. Ernesto López Mozo: Yes. Well, both in Managed Lanes, in both construction, we believe that we are still in the ramp-up. So the decline in margin in LBJ is marginal, so it’s negligible. And we do not see any point here. I was saying – I don’t know if it has been heard by the audience, but I will repeat it in any case. We’re seeing that in regards of the Managed Lanes, we still believe that, mostly in LBJ but both in NTE as well, we are still in the ramp-up phase. And the difference in the decline in the margin in LBJ is negligible, so it’s – we do not see any real issue here. So it’s – no, we do not see anything relevant in regards of the margin of the – of both.

Guy MacKenzie

Analyst

Right. On the NTE, it was more a question of your traffic growing by about 6.5%. Revenue growth was just under 3%, if I’m reading it correctly. I assume much of that is simply the U.S. dollar depreciation, but I was just wondering if you could comment on your average tariff growth for the NTE as well. Ernesto López Mozo: You mean the tariff growth?

Guy MacKenzie

Analyst

Yes. Just trying to understand the disparity between the revenue growth that you delivered on NTE of 2.7% and the traffic growth of 6.5%. Ernesto López Mozo: Yes. Just one second, please. Yes. I think in Page 5, you have the – Page 5 and 6, you have the figures in local currency. And while I think that the margins in both are growing – well, slightly below in phases in LBJ, but it’s negligible. And – well, it’s nothing to do with the weakening with the – previous pages is because of the ForEx. So again, I insist that the both concession are still in ramp-up. And we believe that in the coming quarter and years, both the EBITDA and EBITDA margin will be growing in both concessions. And we do not see any factor that could impact for all.

Guy MacKenzie

Analyst

Okay, that’s clear. Thanks very much.

Operator

Operator

We currently have no further questions on the phone lines. I’ll hand back to the team. Ernesto López Mozo: Well, thank you all. And so we took a while to connect everybody. Thank you for attending, and we’ll be seeing you. Thanks. Bye.