ACS, along with felllow Spanish construction company Navantia, will bid for one of the biggest orders from the Australian Armed Forces, namely the programme for embarcations of amphibious landing Land 8710 Phase 1. The amount of the contract could total 533 million euros and would extend until 2032.
ACS will be represented by its affiliate UGL, Cimic’s industrial engineering division. For its part, Navantia has been present in the Australian market for 10 years. The consortium will compete with other international groups, such as the one led by US firm Raytheon, also with a local presence.
Valuation: We will see how this contract pans out, although Navantia has already won bids for contracts for the Australian Armed Forces. These include the construction of two supply ships, which was awarded in 2016, with a budget of 400 million euros. Meanwhile ACS is completing its buyout of Cimic, the right move in our view, aimed at greater consolidation within the Group. A next step could be the integration of Abertis with Atlantia, which we believe would highlight the value of ACS’ stake in this concessionary. The Group has already announced its intention of combining its Abertis’ stakes, currently divided between ACS, with 30%, and Hochtief, with 20%: we think this process could be complicated due to the stance on the part of some of the minority shareholders in the German construction firm.
