HOCHTIEF Europe division
| (EUR million) | 2008 | 2007 |
|---|---|---|
| New orders | 3,283.3 | 3,176.1 |
| Work done | 3,239.2 | 2,868.5 |
| Order backlog | 3,559.0 | 3,545.6 |
| Divisional sales | 2,569.4 | 2,321.3 |
| External sales | 2,414.9 | 2,169.5 |
| Operating earnings (EBITA) | (29,6) | (131,7) |
| Profit before taxes | (34,2) | (149,4) |
| Capital expenditure | 53.5 | 29.5 |
| RONA (%) | 0.4 | (21,2) |
| Net assets (December 31) | 513.5 | 575.0 |
| Employees (average over the year) | 9,380 | 8,807 |
Near the South African city of Port Elizabeth, we will expand the deepwater port of Ngqura to include two berths for a container terminal by 2010. The contract is worth around EUR 77 million. The port had been built by HOCHTIEF Construction along with a partner in 2006.
The HOCHTIEF Europe division's key figures
The high levels of new orders and order backlog achieved in the previous year by the Europe division were topped once again.New orders were up by EUR 107.2 million (plus 3.4 percent) over the previous year's figure. Due to the restructuring program implemented in the German building construction business, the foreseeable decline in Germany was more than offset by order taking of large-scale infrastructure projects abroad and in the Eastern European subsidiaries.
Work done also rose by EUR 370.7 million (up 12.9 percent), mostly as a result of our international activities.
At EUR 3.56 billion, the order backlog remained at last year's level, ensuring satisfactory capacity utilization for 2009.
The restructuring measures launched in our German building construction operations in 2007 were continued in the year under review and still led to declines in operating earnings and profit before taxes after deduction of foreseeable expenses. However, the prior-year losses were reduced significantly.
The increase in capital expenditure was mainly attributable to technical equipment and machinery as well as other equipment and office equipment for the purpose of building large-scale infrastructure projects abroad.
Net assets declined compared with the previous year, mostly as a result of the disproportionate increase in liabilities. The increase in the number of employees was principally due to the HOCHTIEF Europe division's international activities.
Outlook
Thanks to its presence in the world's growth regions, the division is favorably positioned to largely balance out regional fluctuations. Our capacity utilization is at a satisfactory level, which leads us to be cautiously optimistic about developments in the coming months. The measures instituted in the building construction business in Germany proved to be effective, particularly due to the quality of prices obtained for new contracts.We continue to hold firm on our forecast and expect a return on sales of around one percent for the Europe division in 2009. For 2010, we are targeting a return of three percent.
