Spain’s OHL lands in Australia

From EP, Madrid | OHL has disembarked in Australia, where it has opened an office aiming to analyse the market and find construction projects and infrastructure management opportunities. The company, that is managed and presided by Juan Miguel Villar Mir from Grupo Villar Mir, takes one more step in an internationalisation plan that it has been carrying out since 2007, and which has allowed it to establish its presence in some thirty countries from which it obtains 70% of its total revenue.

In Australia, OHL has chosen the town of Brisbane to set what is also the headquarters for its Direction of the Asia-Pacific OHL construction company, according to Europa Press from official sources of the group. In this way, the company also extends the geographical diversification of its activity outside the domestic market.

At present, it has activity in all the countries of North and South America, fourteen in Europe, two in Africa, Turkey and other Middle Eastern countries like Kuwait and Qatar. The Grupo Villar Mir, of which OHL is a part, is already present in the Asian market. Through Ferroatlántica, it props up in China the production of silicon metal in the world’s largest factory.

OHL seeks to further strengthen the weight that its international projects already have in its total portfolio. At present, they account for 62% of the total (about €4.24 billion of the total amount of €6.824 billion).

With the opening of an office in Australia, the group also joins other Spanish companies in the industry which also have opted for this market, which include Acciona and ACS. Acciona, headed by José Manuel Entrecanales, is present in the country with its three business areas, while the group chaired by Florentino Pérez, ACS, is active via Leighton, a subsidiary of German Hochtief.