Commentary by the President of the Management Board of Budimex SA – Dariusz Blocher on the financial data from the consolidated financial statements of the Budimex Group for the first three quarters of 2016

A 10% increase in sales year-on-year, very good financial results at every level of operations, including a net result of PLN 250 million and a net cash position of over two billion are the main achievements of the Budimex Group for the three quarters of this year. In addition, despite the suspension of tender procedures by GDDKiA, the Budimex Group signed contracts worth PLN 4.1 billion in a given period.

The recorded increase in sales took place mainly as a result of the intensification of works on the largest road projects. It is possible that some of these investments will be completed even several months before the contract deadline. On the other hand, construction and assembly production decreased by 15.4% in this period. The main reason for this is primarily delays in the settlement of railway orders, as well as the aforementioned lack of new tenders from GDDKiA.

The persistently low prices of raw materials and the favourable level of prices of subcontractors’ services, resulting from the relatively poor condition of the sector, translated into very good financial results for the Budimex Group. Gross margin on sales, operating result and net result increased by 38%, 55% and 56%, respectively, compared to the same period of the previous year.

The suspension of announcing new tenders on the construction market is quite noticeable. Price competition is already visible among companies, which may lead to a decrease in margins in the future. The value of bids submitted by Budimex in the road segment in the period in question amounted to PLN 5.3 billion and was lower by over 70% compared to the same period of the previous year. Only the intensification of work in other segments of activity and the increase in the effectiveness of bidding allowed for the signing of contracts worth PLN 4.1 billion in the first three quarters of this year.

However, this is 13.6% lower than the value of contracts signed in the corresponding period of the previous year. In the road segment, we signed orders with a value 36% lower than in the first three quarters of the previous year (PLN 1.9 billion to PLN 2.9 billion, respectively). On the other hand, in the area of general construction, we increased the value of contracts won by 16% year-on-year, thus signing contracts with a value similar to the road segment. In both segments, we are successfully developing our business on the market of smaller, local contracts. In addition, in September, a consortium with Budimex signed a contract for the construction of an incineration plant in Vilnius. Our company’s share in the submitted offer is approximately PLN 375 million.

The value of contracts in which Budimex’s bid has been selected as the most advantageous is currently PLN 1.1 billion, of which infrastructure contracts account for about half, but these are orders where the contracting authority is the city or the local infrastructure manager. In recent days, a consortium with Budimex has also been selected to carry out one of the orders for PKP PLK.

The value of the order book at the end of September amounted to PLN 8.7 billion and was higher by PLN 0.3 billion than at the end of 2015. Budimex’s portfolio is filled with road contracts. Currently, we are building every fourth kilometer of roads in Poland. Nevertheless, high sales combined with a lower value of infrastructure contracts signed are the reason for the decline in the level of the order book in the third quarter alone. Maintaining it in the coming months may be a big challenge.

The net cash position as at September 30th 2016 was PLN 2,127m. This is 18% higher than at the end of September 2015. The increase in the cash level in the period in question is due to an improvement in the profitability of the construction segment, as well as an increase in the balance of funds paid for the purchase of apartments by Budimex Nieruchomości’s customers.

During the first three quarters of this year, pre-sales of the development segment amounted to 1,121 apartments and were 22% (316 apartments) lower than in the corresponding period of the previous year. The interest of buyers on the residential market is still very high, and the decrease in the number of pre-sold apartments by Budimex Nieruchomości is mainly due to the very attractive offer of the “Nowe Czyżyny” project (a decrease in pre-sales by 484 apartments).

Since the beginning of 2016, we have started pre-sales of apartments on seven new projects. By the end of the year, we plan to launch several more investments. The goal for the future is to achieve annual pre-sales of about 1,500 apartments. We currently offer 1,129 apartments, which accounts for 27% of the residential units currently under construction.

During the first three quarters of 2016, 667 notarial deeds were signed, i.e. 47% more than in the corresponding period of the previous year. At the same time, the growth rate of recognized sales was slightly lower and amounted to 29%. This is the result of a decrease in the average price of an apartment, which results from an increased share in sales of projects located outside Warsaw, i.e. in Poznań and Kraków. This trend will be visible in the next quarter and next year, when the results of notarial sales will include apartments from the “Nowe Czyżyny” project on a larger scale.

In the near future and in 2017, we will focus on building a profitable order book for the coming years. After almost a year of downtime in infrastructure tenders, we are observing a gradual resumption of proceedings by GDDKiA and the start of tender processes on the railway market. The key investor for the Budimex Group, GDDKiA, has recently invited companies to submit price offers in several road tenders. The pre-qualification procedures for these orders began several months ago, while the first decisions will not be known until the end of this year. In the case of PKP PLK, we have already submitted the first price offers. In addition, we are pre-qualified in fourteen proceedings. We have invested in railway equipment and we would like to obtain contracts on this market worth about one billion zlotys per year. We will observe and draw conclusions from subsequent decisions. Despite the decreasing market, during the first three quarters of this year we increased the number of employees by over 300 people. We plan to further increase the number of employees in 2017, provided that the public tender market recovers.

Next year, we expect an increase in sales dynamics. In many road contracts, the design phase ends in 2016 and therefore we expect construction work to intensify in 2017. Increasing the scale of investments may cause even greater pressure on wage growth and a further decrease in the availability of qualified employees.

BUDIMEX Group

Selected financial data from the consolidated financial statements of the Budimex Group prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for three quarters of 2016 and comparable data for three quarters of 2015.

Results of the reporting segments for the first three quarters of 2016 (in PLN thousands):

Results of the reporting segments for the first three quarters of 2015 (in PLN thousand):