Cairo – Mubasher: Orascom Construction Plc, listed on the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) and Nasdaq Dubai, reported a 55.23% year-on-year (YoY) surge in its net profits, logging $53.4 million in the first half (H1) of 2021, compared to $34.4 million, including minority shareholders' rights.
The profits attributable to the company's owners grew to $47.7 million in the six-month period ended 30 June, compared to $34.8 million in the corresponding period in 2020, according to a statement to the EGX on Sunday.
The company's revenues increased to $1.68 billion in the January-June period from $1.62 billion in the prior-year period.
As for standalone business, the construction firm incurred net losses of $13.11 million in H1-21, up from $6.69 million in H1-20.
Meanwhile, the consolidated backlog rose by 8.8% YoY to $5.9 billion and the pro forma backlog including a 50% share in BESIX grew by 6.0% YoY to $8.4 billion as of 30 June 2021.
The company added $1.1 billion of new awards to its backlog in the second quarter (Q2) of 2021, recording a 56.8% YoY increase. The total value of new awards in the H1-21 grew by 36.2% to $1.8 billion.
"New projects this quarter were led mainly by a pick-up in the US, especially in the data centre sector, and included work across the water and industrial sectors in Egypt where we continue to reinforce our leadership in such market segments," the CEO of Orascom Construction, Osama Bishai, said.
"In addition, Egypt continues to provide us with an interesting pipeline of new opportunities that we expect to materialise during H2-21," Bishai noted.
During the first quarter (Q1) of 2021, Orascom Construction posted net profits of $26.9 million, compared to $24.9 million in Q1-20, including minority shareholders' rights.
The profits attributable to the company's owners fell to $23.9 million in the January-March period from $25 million in the year-ago period.
