Burdens of the past affected 2011 earnings but there is a good outlook for 2012, said the company in its latest update. The consolidated net loss figure is now about €160m (£134.3m), compared with previous guidance of a loss of about €100m.
Hochtief said that, despite a good solid operational performance, it was not able to completely compensate the losses from Leighton. The results of the Australian subsidiary have been affected throughout the last year by two major projects and by further issues.
Divisions of the Hochtief Group have performed well, said the company, with strong new orders in the fourth quarter totalling approximately €9bn.
However, Hochtief had additional issues in the fourth quarter including negative impacts on earnings at Leighton and expenses for former Hochtief executive board members. On January 16, 2012, Leighton reported impairments to its investment in its subsidiary in Dubai and the operator company BrisConnections. The negative impact on profit before taxes amounted to approximately AU$120m (£80.8m).
In addition, the total amount of expenses incurred due to special termination rights exercised by former executive board members as a result of the change of control increased by around €19m to roughly €35m in the fourth quarter of 2011.
"We thus complete a year in which we have handled many changes and burdens of the past,” said Hochtief CEO Dr Frank Stieler. “This is reflected in the financial statements. At the same time, Hochtief has proven its excellent market position by a very high volume of new orders in the fourth quarter. As a result, our order backlog at year-end has increased to approximately €48 billion. This gives us comfort and therefore we confirm our guidance for 2012: We continue to expect an operative profit that will be slightly below the previous record year 2010."
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