Intermoney | ACS (Buy, TP €40) and OHLA (Buy, TP €0,95) have jointly presented the best bid for one of the biggest public-private contracts in the US. This is the Maryland light rail, known as the Purple Line, with a budget of €2.250 billion.
The project was initially adjudicated to the US construction firm Flour in 2016, but it abandoned the works at the 15% stage due to cost overruns. The rail line is 26 kilometres long and has 21 stations, running through the vicinity of Washington DC. Asset managers Meridiam and Star America will remain as financial partners for the project.
Valuation: The is excellent news for both Spanish compaies, particularly for OHLA. Its total construction portfolio already stands at some €6 billion, fully recovered from the declines caused by the pandemic. The trend has been the same in the case of other construction firms, like Sacyr, with a rise of 19% in 2021.
ACS and OHLA will present their Q3 results this week. With repect to the former, we are expecting an increase of 12% in EBITDA to €1.124 billion, amongst figures which for the most part are already known following Hochtief’s announcement. Meanwhile, OHLA should report flat EBITDA of around €54 million, due to its exceptional Q3’20. And, we hope, en route to meeting its 2021 annual estimated target of some €76 million.
