UK - Acciona improves its EBITDA by 38.5% up to reaching 528 Million Euros

Acciona Energy increased by 42.1%, to 741 million Euros and the EBITDA grew 60.1% up to 395 million Euros.

Acciona has closed the first half of 2010 with an EBITDA (gross operating margin) of 528 million Euros, 38.5% more than in the same period of the previous year, and with revenues of 3,015 million Euros, 2.8% more than in June 2009. This improvement in the results is largely due to the growth of Acciona Energy in terms of EBITDA (+60.1%) and revenues (+42.1%).

Attributable net profit is 78 million Euros, meaning an increase of 10.7% in comparative terms, without taking into account the results of non-current activities corresponding to the Endesa stake.

During the first half of the year a significant investment effort has been carried out in a difficult environment. Group capex reached 482 million Euros, an amount that includes 200 million Euros invested in the organic growth of the activities of ACCIONA Energy and 145 million in the Infrastructures division, mainly in concessions activity. Furthermore, the purchase of two cargo ships has represented a net investment of 136 million Euros in Acciona Trasmediterránea.

As a consequence of this investment effort, net financial debt reached 7,898 million Euros (against 7,265 at the close of 2009) and the gearing ratio showed a slight rise from 119% to 133%.

With regard to the contribution of the different divisions to the Group results, the main contribution to the EBITDA comes from ACCIONA Energy (73.4%), followed by Acciona Infrastructures (14.9%).

Evolution of the main businesses:
By division, the revenues of Acciona Energy increased by 42.1%, to 741 million Euros and the EBITDA grew 60.1% up to 395 million Euros. The 2,078 MW acquired from Endesa, the incorporation of 462 MW of organic growth during the last year, and the higher load factors in Spain contributed to this growth.

All of this has lead to an increase of 73% in total production, which has compensated for the fall in the average price of wind energy in Spain in the first half 2010 (-12.8%) stemming from a fall of the pool price in Spain (-27.8%) in the same period. As of June 2010, the total capacity installed by Acciona Energy rose to 7,437 MW and the company has 635 MW in construction.

Acciona Energy focuses its activity on wind power. Its installed wind farm capacity in this field was 7,702 MW at 31 September 2009. It has implemented 271 wind farms with 7,275 wind turbines (both for itself and for other customers), making it the world leader in the development and construction of wind power facilities.

Acciona holds a position of world leadership in the develoment of solar thermal electric plants (also called cocentrating solar power -CSP- plants). In 2007 it grid connected the biggest plant of its type installed in the world in the last 18 years: Nevada Solar One. The 64 MW facility in the Nevada desert (USA) has proprietary solar trough technology that has helped the company to achieve its position in the sector. The plant represented an investment of 250 million dollars.

Acciona Infrastructures recorded revenue of 1,523 million Euros, showing lower activity in the domestic construction business. The EBITDA improved by 3.7% with respect to the same period of the previous year reaching 80 million Euros. This improvement is mainly due to the significant increase in concession business, which has compensated for the deterioration in the national construction business, and has contributed to the improvement in the division's margin, which amounted to 5.3%. As of 30th June 2010, the construction backlog was 6,897 million Euros.

The Urban & Environmental Services division managed revenues of 337 million Euros, with EBITDA of 20 million, 12.2% more, due to the good performance of Acciona Agua and environmental services, which increased their sales by 2.2% and their EBITDA, by 42.7%.

In the Other Businesses and Financial chapter the positive evolution of Bestinver stands out, which increased funds under management from 2,704 million Euros to 4,273 million Euros in the last 12 months.

For more information please contact Trevor Sievert at ts@windfair.net