Acciona targets cross-sector growth after €332mn 2021 profit

Acciona, the Spanish multinational conglomerate, closed 2021 with strong growth across all divisions.

Group revenues grew by 25% y-o-y to €8.1bn, while EBITDA was 30.9% up, to €1.48bn. EBT increased by 11.2% to €575mn although net profit fell by 14.2% y-o-y to €332mn.

In addition, 2020’s figures included €145mn relating from the reversal of the impairment of the stake in Nordex, which was made in 2017, and net debt fell to €4.34bn, a drop of 8.2%.

The IPO of its subsidiary, Acciona Energía, in July last year has enabled the group to considerably reduce its financial leverage, thereby increasing its ability to invest and improve its growth potential, not only in the energy sector, but also in all its sustainable infrastructure activities.

Net ordinary investment in the various divisions of the Acciona Group amounted to €1.32bn, a 59.2% increase, excluding a €224mn investment in existing assets in the Real Estate division.

Acciona Energía invested €819mn as part of its plan to double its installed energy capacity to 20GW by 2025.

Meanwhile, the Infrastructure division invested a net total of €185mn, the company added. The Board of Directors has proposed a dividend payout of €4.10 per share from the 2021 results,
it stated.

The division posted revenues of €4.87bn, a 24% increase to 2020, with accumulated EBITDA of €323mn, which is a 51% increase to the previous year’s results.

It added that the division's portfolio broke its all-time record and increased to €18.1bn, a growth of 21.6%. During the year, new contracts worth €8.55bn were booked, including
€6.06 billion in Construction and Water projects.

By geographical region, 27% of the portfolio is located in Latin America; 24% in Australia and Southeast Asia; 23% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA); 18% in Spain; and 8% in
North America.

Amongst the main projects awarded in 2021 were the construction of a flood diversion canal in Fargo (US), several water plants in Saudi Arabia, the Sydney Metro West project and one of the sections of the Mayan Railway in Mexico.

The positive performance in Construction enabled the business unit to achieve revenues of €3.63bn (30.6%) and an EBITDA of €163mn (225.2%), a significant improvement over the 2020 results, when the pandemic’s effects were the most severe. The Water unit’s revenues amounted to €1.05bn (7.8%) with EBITDA of €100mn (18.3%).

“The strength of the results of these business units easily compensate the lower contribution of the Concessions business due to the sale of a large portfolio of projects in Spain for €484 million, a transaction completed in 2021,” the company statement said.

Real estate, construction and renewable energy fuel Acciona's growth plans

Acciona’s Real Estate division posted revenues of €190mn (-5.7%) for the year, slightly less than the previous year because of the lower number of homes delivered in that period (443 in 2021 versus 744 in 2020), while its EBITDA grew strongly to €27mn (45%).

Bestinver increased its revenues to €128 million (12.1%) and its EBITDA to €67 million (7.1%), as a result of the average increase in funds under management and the positive contribution of Bestinver Securities. As of December 31st, 2021, its funds under management stood at €7.05 billion (10.7%).

Meanwhile, Acciona Energía posted €363mn profit on the back of €2.47bn (39.8%) revenues and EBITDA of €1.09 billion (25.1%) with solid business performances in all countries.

The company said that it installed a total of 557MW in 2021, bringing its total capacity to 11.2GW. By country, it installed 140MW of wind power in Australia (Mortlake South), 145MW of wind power in Mexico (San Carlos), 209MW of photovoltaic power in Chile (Malgarida) and 48MW of wind power in Spain (Celada Fusión).

The remaining 15MW belong to the Lloseta and Petra photovoltaic plants in Mallorca (Spain), which will supply clean energy to produce green hydrogen in the country's first commercial plant of this kind.

At the end of 2021, Acciona Energía had a further 691MW under construction, mainly in the US and Spain, and it plans to install 0.8GW in 2022.