Mostotrest sees IFRS net profit rise 2.7-fold in 2014 to 6.1 bln rubles, above forecast
MOSCOW. April 13 (Interfax) - The net profit of PJSC Mostotrest to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) rose 2.7-fold in comparison with 2013 to 6.1 billion rubles, the company said in a statement.
Revenue rose by 29% to 150.5 billion rubles.
The company's IFRS net profit turned out higher than the consensus forecast made by analysts (5.02 billion rubles). Analysts expected Mostotrest's net profit within the range of 4.067 billion-5.968 billion rubles. Revenue was also higher than the consensus forecast, which was 138.699 billion rubles.
"Net profit attributable to the owners of the Company was 5.6 billion rubles," Mostotrest said.
The statement said that earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose 63% year-on-year to 15.4 billion rubles and was also higher than the consensus forecast (13.368 billion rubles). "EBITDA margin rose from 8.1% last year to 10.2% in the reporting period, supported by the decrease in provisions for doubtful receivables," the company said.
Gross profit rose 47% - from 14 billion rubles in 2013 to 20.6 billion rubles in 2014. Gross margin rose from 12.0% to 13.7%, "driven by more efficient deployment of resources," the company said.
"The Group increased capital expenditure by 21% compared to the previous year, including for implementation of major projects added at the end of 2013," Mostotrest said.
"Net cash (i.e. cash and cash equivalents net of debt) at the end of 2014 amounted to 21.2 billion rubles, driven by customer advances," the company said.
"The Group's market share rose to 13.4% in 2014 from 9.9% in 2013, driven by a 31% increase in in-house volumes," the statement said.
"Backlog stood at 352.0 billion rubles, with new order intake totaling 99.8 billion rubles. Over the same period, the road services backlog grew almost 2.7 times to 56.5 billion rubles, as a number of long-term investment contracts reached operational phase," Mostotrest said.
PJSC Mostorest CEO Vladimir Vlasov was cited in the statement as saying that the company's main advantage in 2014 was the commissioning of a number of large facilities before the contractual timeframes. "The Company benefitted significantly from the early completion and delivery of a number of large construction projects in 2014. The Company was able to direct these freed up resources in a far more effective way, boosting their utilisation and leading to a substantial increase in productivity while minimising the risk that the inflation rate exceeded that agreed in the contracts," he said.
"In terms of financial results for 2014, I would like to emphasize that in addition to delivering traditionally strong revenue growth (+29%), Mostotrest managed to "recover" its profitability. Gross margin of the Group was 13.7%, a 1.7 pp increase year-on-year. EBITDA margin was also up 2.1 pp, to 10.2%. The efficiency improvement was achieved through optimal use of resources and decrease in bad debt provisions," the CEO said.
"As regards 2015, our expectation is that it will undoubtedly be a challenging year for the industry as a whole, both in terms of reduced funding and weaker tendering activity, but also in terms of the effect that high inflation is likely to have on the cost base of construction companies," he said.