CAF’s first-half adjusted Ebit is more than 15% up year-on-year rising from €67m in first half 2018 to €77m for first half 2019.
First-half revenue increased by 34% from €943m in the first half of 2018 to €1.27bn. “This was driven mainly by the contribution of sales from the bus business (not consolidated in the first half of 2018) and, to a lesser extent, the greater contribution of turnkey projects and the supply of components,” CAF says. Sales of components, equipment, signalling, and systems increased by 59% compared with just 3% for services and no increase for rolling stock. CAF says the international market represented 89.6% of sales.
CAF says its order backlog reached a new high of €8.5bn on June 30, representing an 11% increase over its backlog of €7.7bn at the end of 2018 thanks to an order intake of just over €2bn. CAF expects to maintain its high order backlog, based on the stable volume of open tenders above €7bn.
CAF says its financial result worsened due to an increase in gross debt resulting from the acquisition of Solaris. The company’s net financial debt rose from €324m at the end of 2018 to €412m on June 30 due to an increase in the project execution cycle.
First-half pre-tax profit fell from €36m in 2018 to €4m while net income switched from a profit of €18m in first-half 2018 to a loss of €13m this year. However, adjusted net income increased by 46% to €25m.
Acquisition
In July, CAF completed the acquisition of EuroMaint, Sweden, which specialises in train fleet maintenance. EuroMaint was founded in 2001 as a spin-off from the former Swedish State Railways. It employs around 1000 people in 18 facilities and workshops in Sweden and has an annual turnover around €150m.
