Hochtief Ag

Good afternoon to everyone and thank you for joining us for the presentation of Hawktief's first half 2023 results. I'm Mike Pinckney, head of corporate strategy, and I'm here with our CEO, Juan Santamaria, our CFO, Peter Sassenfeld, as well as our head of capital markets, Tobias Loskamp, and other colleagues from the senior management team of Hawktief. We're looking forward to taking your questions as always, but to start off with, our CEO is going to run us through the key aspects of our performance during the first six months of the year. Juan, who are yours?

Thank you so much, Mike and the team. Good afternoon to everyone, and thanks for joining us. Octiv has achieved robust performance during the first half of 2023 with higher sales and profits, a strong growth in the orders, and a solid net cash position at the end of June. This reflects our strategy to further strengthen Octiv's position in its core markets, whilst at the same time pursuing selective growth opportunities in the rapidly expanding areas of high-tech, energy transition, and sustainable infrastructure markets. Furthermore, we continue steadily improving the risk profile of our order book and executing our ESG priorities. Now let's look at some of the key numbers. Sales increased by 9% during the first six months of the year to $13 billion, and Hochtief's operational net profit for the period rose by 8% to 170 million euros. Nominal net profit of 262 million was 9% higher year on year. During the second quarter, cash flow from operating activities pre-factoring showed a strong performance, increasing by over 100 million euros year on year to 676 million. On a last 12 months basis, this cash flow metric stands at close €1.2 billion, up over €400 million compared with the previous period. Octif ended the period with a solid balance sheet showing net cash of €346 million and increased year-on-year of €381 million. New orders during the first half of 2023 rose strongly to over €18 billion, up 26%, and include several important high-tech infrastructure projects. At the end of June 2023, the group's order book stands at $53.6 billion, up by 8% year-on-year on an FX-adjusted basis. On slide 6, we can see the group's outstanding cash flow performance in more detail. As I indicated, the group achieved a strong cash flow performance during the second quarter of the year. The cash flow figures for the first six months incorporate the characteristic seasonal movement seen during the early part of the year. Looking at the last 12 months, to adjust for decisionality, underlying cash flow from operating activities stands at a high level of close to 1.2 billion, highlighting Cocteau's strong and sustained cash conversion. On slide 7, we can look at the positive net cash evolution. For the end of June, Cocteau has reported a net cash position of 346 million. This represents an increase year-on-year of 381 million euros. Looking at the quarterly movement, the period end figure shows a 736 million year increase compared with March, driven by the firm second quarter cash flow performance. I would also like to note that in June, the credit rating agency, S&P, reaffirmed its investment grade rating with a stable outlook. The next two slides show more detail on the development of the group's orders. Our new orders rose substantially. during the first half of the year to over 18 billion, an increase of 26% year-on-year, an equivalent to approximately 1.25 times work done in the period. The 9.5 billion euro of work won in the second quarter was 21% above Q2 2022. These significant increases are being driven by the strong growth we are achieving in the high-tech energy transition and data infrastructure sectors, A central pillar of our group's strategy, around 50% of our new orders in the first half of the year were secured in the structural growth markets we have identified. At the end of June, our order book stood at €53.6 billion, which on an FX-adjusted basis represents an 8% increase year-on-year. As a result of active de-risking approach to order intake, the vast majority of the new work secured during the January-June period was lower risk in nature. The consequence is that proportion of low-risk projects in our order book is now approaching 85% up from around 80% at the end of last year. From a geographic perspective, over half of our backlog, 55%, is located in North America, with a further 35% in the Asia-Pacific region and 10% in Europe. In the presentation, You can find more details on the solid performance in H1 2023 of our divisions, but let me just highlight. First, the positive margin development and order book momentum in Americas. Second, the strong revenue growth at Scenic. Third, a sharp increase in new orders at Europe. And fourth, solid traffic and tariff growth at Abertis. I wanted to take some time now to give you an update of our new strategy which we presented at the full year 2022 results presentation back in February. Our pursuit of opportunities in a rapidly expanding high-tech, energy transition, and digital infrastructure markets is accompanied, as I just underlined, by our continued focus on further the Riskin Order Book. In parallel, we continue enhancing our engineering, systems, and logistics know-how and remain focused on delivering on our ESG commitments. Furthermore, Our capital allocation decisions support the group's diversification and simplification goals, as well as our high-tech infra expertise. We're now entering a new phase of our strategy where we can begin to harness our investment expertise in these strategic sectors. Let me give you some examples of areas and projects we're working on. A reliable energy supply system that helps to manage renewable energy distribution is essential if net zero aspirations are to be realized. Battery energy storage systems, or BES as they are known, will play an increasingly important role in this. In June, Simic Sub-Serie UGL announced it had been contracted to build a 219 megawatt BES and associated energy infrastructure in Western Australia for NEOEN, a leading independent producer of renewable energy. This is the third project of this type we have been awarded so far this year. At the beginning of 2023, a group was contracted to install a Tesla-supplied base and associated high-voltage grid connection 250 kilometers west of Brisbane. And during the second quarter, we were also selected to install a 35-megawatt one-hour facility in Port Headland, Western Australia. As a leading designer and constructor of sustainable electricity generation and storage assets, UGL has already delivered 17 major renewable energy generation and storage projects. I wanted to briefly touch upon the topic of hydrogen, which has the potential to be another important contributor to the global transition to net zero. In Australia, for example, the government has stated an ambition to become the world leader in hydrogen by 2030, with potential related investments of up to 300 billion Australian dollars. CIMIC has been involved in four major front-end engineering design studies based on its engineering expertise, and we're currently constructing a hydrogen-ready power generation plant in the South Wales. This leaves the Hochtief Group in a strong position as hydrogen-related investments ramp up. Elsewhere, Hochtief continues to rapidly expand its presence in electric vehicle batteries manufacturing, a strategic market for the group. In the U.S., Turner's most recent major award was a project for Panasonic Energy's 4 billion USD EV battery production facility in Kansas. The plant is expected to begin production by the end of March 2025 and will eventually reach approximately 30 gigawatts of annual production capacity. The Turner Green Venture is also building a multi-billion electric vehicle battery plant for Honda and LG Energy in Ohio. Annual production capacity will be some 4 gigawatts hours by the end of 2025. Another area where HoCTIV is well placed is the digital infrastructure sector, where the rollout of high-tech infrastructure, including 5G, and its applicability in state-of-the-art facilities is rapidly expanding. So far, in 2023, Turner has been awarded projects to build four large-scale data centers worth in total over $500 million. Following several awards and completions of data center projects in the Asia-Pacific market, SIMC recently secured and our data center contract in Hong Kong for a major international developer. Overall, at the end of June, the group had over 4 billion euros in digital infrastructure projects in the order book. As we become a leader in these high-growth markets, capital allocation will play an increasingly important role in the strategic development of our company. We are now beginning to invest equity in these high-tech growth sectors, where we can apply the financing project management, and O&M capabilities we have built up over many years in our PPE business. In Germany, for example, OKTIV and an infrastructure partner will invest in decentralized and sustainable edge data centers. The demand for these sustainably built and operated data centers is very high, especially in Europe, and construction is carried out to the highest energy efficiency standards. They are the basic infrastructure for many new technologies and particularly suitable regionally-oriented companies that prefer computing power and data storage close to their headquarters and customers. Furthermore, as the importance of cloud computing continues to grow and artificial intelligence applications evolve, more and more companies want to convert their IT systems to this model to process and store data. Another example of how we're expanding our presence in the value chain of these high-growth industries is the Australian Glenrowan Solar Farm project. In the first half of 2023, CIMI commands construction of this solar farm in Northern Victoria, the development rights of which were acquired in 2022. The company will develop, invest in, and manage the solar farm with our services subsidiary UGL to undertake construction, operations, and maintenance. The 245-hectare solar farm will have an installed capacity of up to 130 megawatts and generate enough electricity to power approximately 45,000 Australian homes. This renewable energy project development is part of our strategy to establish a diversified portfolio of energy and utility assets within the Australian national electricity market. Let me move on to another strategic area, natural resources, which is playing a key role in driving energy transition globally and producing a significant increase in demand for lithium, nickel, copper, amongst others, as well as rare earth metals. Last year, we acquired Onyx, a company with strong project management and engineering expertise in this area. But to further develop our know-how, in July this year, CIMIC purchased a Canadian engineering and metallurgy company, NovaPro, which has strong know-how in lithium processing technology. Octiv gains additional access to opportunities in this expanding sector. As demand for batteries and electric vehicles increases, while enhancing the Group's North American presence and offering to clients. This bolt-on acquisition is consistent with the Group's strategy of expanding our presence in the value chain and high-tech infra, as well as with this strategy targeting a growing pipeline of metals and minerals opportunities. We also continue to be reactive in PEPs, a long-standing core area of expertise for the Group. In June, Octi won a major PEP building contract in Berlin, The group will refurbish and build new offices for the Institute for Federal Real Estate and subsequently operate and maintain them over a total 30-year period. Our objective is to help the client make the buildings more sustainable. As the retrofitting contracts cover the refurbishment and operation of the properties, we can optimize these buildings over their entire life cycle. As a result, we can reduce the carbon footprint as well as the operating cost of tenants and and in the process helped create around 2,400 jobs. Moctiv has also been awarded a PVP contract in Germany to build a new central location for the University of Applied Sciences for Police and Public Administration in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Moctiv will rent out the university campus and deliver operational services for an initial 20 years after the construction work of around 200 million euros is completed. Environmental, social, and governance, ESG, is a priority for management. In 2021, Octave made the commitment to be climate neutral by 2045. Our sustainability performance already puts us amongst the leading companies in our industry. Octave Subsea Returnal has been recognized for several years as the largest green builder in the United States. In Australia, we're one of the leading providers of sustainable infrastructure projects. Simic, for example, is a leader in mine rehabilitation with skilled teams of environmental and operational specialists. This has delivered award-winning rehabilitation programs globally for more than 30 years and is a trusted partner in sustainable mining operations with over 10,000 hectares of rehabilitation work executed since 2007. Meanwhile, back here in Germany, environmentally friendly projects in building and infrastructure account for the majority of our new projects. Our strategy and the high-tech markets we're focused on are helping our clients achieve their ESG goals. So to wrap up, Octiv has delivered solid figures for the first half of the year. A strong future cost of performance, positive operating margin momentum, further substantial progress in the risking or order backlog, and a significant increase in new orders, particularly in the high-tech sectors we're focused on and where we are starting to selectively invest equity. Furthermore, we continue to advance with our ESG commitments. Finally, we can confirm our guidance for 2023 for an operational net profit in the range of 510 to 550 million euros. Now, thank you very much, everyone, for listening, and I welcome your questions.

And we have the first question from Louis Prieto from Cap-Lageu-Vreux. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon. Thanks a lot for taking my questions today. I just had one, actually. And it is basically, now that almost three years have passed of Elliott's entry into TEAS, how should we think about their production on their stake going forward into next year and the following?

Thank you. Thank you, Luis. So it's... Just to give everyone the framework, although I think everyone understands the framework, pretty much Elliott has the right to execute that put starting in year three to year six, which means that pretty much they start in 2024. Which are the chances that Elliott executes that put? We don't know. We're in conversations with them right now to see if they want, if they're open for discussions, because certainly we would be open to discussions. We always thought very highly of this business, and we believe that it's a very good business in performance. And as we diversify and transition this into more green mining, certainly we emphasize even more our position. From our rating agency perspective, we consider in our group, the liquidity and our position as if Elliott was going to exercise the put in the one. So that's what we're looking in our accounts. Difficult to say at this stage, but we might have more information at the end of this dialogue that we're having right now with Elliott, and probably that will happen in second half of 2023. So by the end of the year, we'll know exactly Elliott's position.

Excellent. Thank you very much.

The next question is from Graham Hunt from Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Hi. Thanks for taking the questions. Two from me. First, I'm just wondering if you can share a little bit on, I guess, some of your risk management processes as you're seeing so much order intake and order backlog at kind of record levels. across the business, you know, how are you managing such strong growth in terms of the risk profile of the order book and bringing that down? Any specifics on that would be helpful. And then just on the U.S. market, I wondered if you could give us any latest trends. You talked about, obviously, the strength in the high-tech infrastructure and markets, but maybe some of the other markets, some on commercial, non-resi, hotels, et cetera. The latest that you're seeing there would be very helpful.

Thanks. Thank you, William.

Well, first of all, starting with the risk management, we're being very strong, and I think that I make emphasis in that in our presentations, on the level of risk that we're willing to take, which is very low. Very low not only in sectors where traditionally had low risk, such as Turner or UGL or TIS, etc., but throughout the entire group. That would include civil works and building as well. So basically, our new policy in general only allows different companies to get into collaborative contracts, to get into projects where there's progressive design together with the client, alliances, cost pluses. And if there was a design-build component, only for work that we've done in the past and in regions where we are very consolidated, and traditionally, in the same project, same region, we had consistent profits. Basically, if you follow that approach, when you go through the, I mean, our general backlog, we are about to achieve, as I said, in the presentation, 85% of our portfolio characterized as low-risk projects. But when you look at our new index, we get above the 95%. Because basically, most of our work in hand are on these spaces. We're not doing EPCs, right? Basically, or we're not doing design builds. We have a few exceptions that we're willing to consider. And basically, these exceptions are when we drive or we build for ourselves EPCs, our own developments. Glen Rowan, for example, it's a solar farm we built for ourselves. We're happy to take the risk because it's for us. We're not subsidizing anyone else if things were in the wrong direction, which, by the way, are not, okay? We're quite comfortable with the way we're pricing these days. In order to do that, we appointed a new chief risk officer at Cocteau level. We put here three management committees with... focused pretty much in strategy and risk, one for North America, one for Europe, and one for Asia, all of them in place, and they are working very, very well. In terms of the U.S. market, you were asking for pretty much the way we are distributing our work in hand or how things are going in the commercial offices, building space, traditional sectors. Let me start giving a review of the order backlog in the first half of 2023 for North America, for example. So 12% of our backlog is in education. When it comes to hotels, residential, and commercial, we would be talking about commercial 16%. and hotel residential 85%. And that's more in the traditional side. What are we seeing in that sector? If you ask my opinion six months ago, a year ago, and a year and a half ago, I was always a little bit skeptical about the evolution. I was very optimistic in general in Turner because of batteries, because of biopharma, data centers, 5G in general. There's opportunities for Turner to get into semiconductors space. And we're pursuing them. And I was very, very excited about those. And I was seeing those opportunities, not only opportunities to grow the company, but also to replace potential more traditional backlog. And that's the way that we were planning our squad in North America. It was a possibility to grow, but a need. What are we seeing right now? That everyone is retrofitting their current commercial office space. everyone is turning their buildings into more sustainable. So a sector that I thought was going to see a decrease, it's actually increasing, which comes to a surprise to me. And that's not only in the U.S. That's happening across Europe and across Australia. Everyone wants a more modern office, more connected, more sustainable, with more modern spaces, et cetera, et cetera. So there's a lot to do with that. In healthcare, there's a huge expansion in healthcare, not only biopharma, I mean traditional hospitals across North America. And in the case of the stadiums, that's more stable. I mean, there's always, I mean, that continues in a stable path. We're not seeing growth. We're not seeing decline at this stage. A lot of retrofitting as well about all stadiums, and that's happening because technology is evolving too fast. And most of what we're doing, yes, there's from time to time a new stadium that requires demolishing, but there's a lot of retrofitting of pretty much to change IT, to change the structure, et cetera. So in general, we're seeing positive performance for areas with huge growth in the high-tech space.

Thanks very much.

The next question is from the line of Marcin Wojtyla from Bank of America. Please go ahead.

Yes, good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. The first one is just a follow-up on your contract mining business, Teeth. Can you confirm whether you received any dividends from Teeth in the second quarter? And if so, what was the amount received? And question number two, if I may. Can you talk a little bit more broadly about the outlook for Asia-Pacific? In what segments of the market are you seeing encouraging order intake? What is the competitive environment? And how should we think about your profitability? You're mentioning in your statement that there is some dilution from the Westgate tunnel. But is your underlying profitability in Asia-Pacific improving or a little bit deteriorating? Thank you.

Thank you, Marcin. So let me start with the mining business in general and the dividend. So including MACA, the profit contribution from this in the H1 was 57.3 million. That was versus 62 million in the same half 2022. And the dividend from this was 54 million Australian dollars. And that's pretty much versus 89.5 million in 2022. Now, where are we seeing the growth in Asia-Pacific and margins, et cetera? So let me talk about the forecast and let me talk about the margins. Margins in general right now are a little bit low. for two reasons. The first one is the, I mean, Westgate is in its peak, Westgate project. In the past, as I mentioned, as part of our agreement on that job, we were not taking any profit on the project. So it means that all the revenues that come, come at no profit. And also interest rates have increased significantly across the board, but that affected more the CMIC project. I mean, the same part, basically because of the debt structure, and also in particular with this as well, because of the agreement we have with Elliott. Because at the end of the day, they have $180 million guaranteed. And as the interest rate increases and affects this, we only get the difference versus the $180 million. So that's affecting. I believe that that's only throughout Westgate. That's only seasonal. We're expecting to see back margins as in the past with no doubt. Where do we see the growth? Well, we see growth first of all in Australia, transmission lines, renewable projects, a lot of work, a lot of work in both areas, in renewables, in batteries, solar farms. We see a lot of work in data centers across Asia. So you're seeing that increases significantly. If you look at some of the examples of the pipeline we are bidding just in Asia, we're looking in Australia for copper string. That's around $5 to $8 billion. We announced that this year. but we only announced the engineering part because we do have a negotiated deal that we have won. We won the first part, which is engineering. It's around $15 million, but we are negotiating the entire $8 billion for us on a 100% basis. So that's not in our work in hand, but that will come at some point once we negotiate with them. We're seeing a lot of data centers across Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Hong Kong, everywhere. We see... As we have transitioned, and I'm going to get back to one of my points in the presentation, I'm going to open up parentheses. We had one firm called Setsman that traditionally was doing only processing plants associated to coal. And as you can imagine, for a number of years, there's no new processing plant associated to coal mines. But also, we made the commitment not to get into coal green mining. greenfield projects in mining. So for the last few years, we've been, as I was talking in the presentation, diversifying that to our metals. The amount of new work coming from nickel, molybdenum, copper, lithium, et cetera, et cetera. I mean, of course, gold, of course, other, it's unbelievable. So there's a lot of growth in that stage. And because we have expanded our engineering capabilities, not just mining operations, but engineering, there's a lot of work, potentially industrial site of lithium, nickel, magnetite, molybdenum in rare earths in the industrial site. I mentioned before solar farms and the Glen Road one. We're looking at five new opportunities to develop the rights over land that we do have an option potentially to generate and to develop, and those will be renewables. I mentioned in my presentation the three to four storage facilities, the batteries that we're building for Neon and Tesla. We are going to apply those for some of our clients with different technology, but also we see opportunities to implement those in some of our solar farms and other solar farms that we've built in the past, up to 17, where there's a potential to install some of those batteries. And I focus, obviously, a lot of this in Asia Pacific, but this could apply globally. but specifically in Asia Pacific because of your question. We're also seeing a lot of alliances around dams and pump hydro projects. We're seeing a lot of work in hospitals around Australia. We're seeing work in infrastructure associated to natural resources. potentially to hydrogen. There's a huge pipeline, but right now on hold, so that goes slowly, but whenever ramp up, it's going to grow significantly. And not to give you a few examples, but we believe it's going to grow. Now, the big question we always have is Hong Kong. That was one of our biggest markets in the old days, and right now has been reduced almost to zero. except for our presence in data centers, private clients. I believe that that eventually has to come back, and we are having good conversations with clients. And if you look at our cash flow, like in Asia, and because specifically Hong Kong, it's the only region of all our regions globally that hasn't achieved 100% conversion operating cash flows. speaking, right? And we believe that 2024 has to be the breaking point, right? In 2024, that has to change, and we'll recover normality in contracting and in cash flows. What other examples can I give you? From a civil perspective, Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong, a huge pipeline. Probably Australia is going to slow down. The peak will be 2024, and there will be a little slowdown probably for two, three years, and then Plans will come later. I'm not concerned too much about that because I think that we will still be in a good position at least for the pipeline, even if it will be more reduced. I don't see so much work in building in Australia, but we're not in residential in any way. That has never been part of our pipeline. It's part of our pipeline hospitals where, as I mentioned before, it's growing significantly. And I hope this gives you an overview of that market.

Thank you very much.

The next question is from the line of Victor Acitoris from Societe General. Please go ahead.

Hi, good afternoon, Tim. I have two questions. The first one is on slide number six, when you disclosed the cash flows. It's on the factoring on the second quarter. We have seen the factoring is slightly higher, 200 million euros. In order to understand, first, what level of factoring we could think there could be at the end of the year, and if the ratio of the factoring versus sales is growing, let's say on sales growth, or because there are different periods of collecting. This is the first question. The second question is regarding the slide on CIMIC, that is the slide number. 11 is in order to understand where we can think that the cash conversion of the beta could go at the end of the year. The first half is close to 50%, but could be the level at the end of the year.

Thank you. Okay.

Thank you so much, Victor. So starting with the factoring. I mean, I think we are in very reasonable levels of factoring, right? It's a little bit of... call it seasonal it's pretty much similar I believe I think that it's very similar to the same levels a year ago we feel comfortable in these levels probably will reduce by the end of the year that's what we saw last year and probably it will reduce the second part as we go I'm not I mean, we're not willing to increase an amount or decrease. We were comfortable at the current levels. Regarding the gas conversion at CIMIC, we are at 50%. That's correct. It's true that it would be without light in Asia. It would grow to 75%. And I think that the reason for it is just... I mean, it's just seasonality. I mean, we're not seeing any problem. I mean, I believe when I'm talking about the conversion before, I was thinking on forecast for 2024. Sorry, 2023. We are not seeing any major issue right now that we're not concerned. And in fact, the only area where most of the problem with conversion is coming from, which is Hong Kong, We have been waiting for three years right now on the resolution of a lot of the mediations, arbitrations, et cetera, et cetera. And, well, sorry, more than arbitrations, mediations or reconciliations, which means that we will get paid. I mean, it's not that we depend on a judge. Typically, those processes are very normal in Hong Kong. So that should be unwound at some states in our favor. But, yeah, I mean, nothing. I don't think that there's a major issue in the regions.

Thank you.

The next question is from the line of Augustin Senrer from Stiefel. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. I've got three, if I may. First off, I'd like to have, if possible, some updates on the risky projects that you mentioned during the 4-year-22 conference call. Could you please update us on the level of provisions and whether there are sufficient for the risky projects that you have. My second question is on high-tech infrastructure. You commented that you hired 5,000 professionals in the last 12 months, and I imagine these kind of skill sets are scarce and as a consequence can be expensive. Could you comment on the margin of projects focused on high-tech infrastructure in your order book? And as a side note, is the margin in America this quarter driven by this? And finally, a question on the working capital. I saw that the working capital outflow was quite strong in Q1, and Q2 saw a very strong reversal. So could you comment on it, given that it appears quite unusual versus history?

Thank you very much. Sorry, just one question.

You were talking about working capital at the end, the last question, right?

Yeah, working capital.

All right, so starting with the projects. Well, first of all, and as an introduction, we have been focused, and not now, but for a number of years right now, since some of the one-offs that we had in the past, to make sure that we address all the risks, I mean, not only of the new order book, but but also to make sure that we have the necessary provisions in our projects. If you go through a project by project basis, from the beginning of the year or the position at the end of last year, things have not changed significantly. I mean, 470 continues its path in the arbitration. And again, I think that I mentioned in 2022, we're comfortable with the level of provisions. Harbor Bridge is going in the right direction when it comes to constructions and conversations with the client, and all very positive. Adelaide Hospital, which is the other project in the list, well, that one has been in arbitration forever, and I believe that we have the right level of provisions with no doubt. And if worst case, it's about cash that will come to us, again, with a high level of provisions allocated to the job. The RASTAT in Germany, I think that that's the other project that was discussed in 2022, very close to our resolution on that one, and very good resolution with no impact to us. I'm not sure if there's, I don't think that there's any other project in the list. So that's on the first question. Second question, so yes, I mean, resources is the most, important thing nowadays to attract resources, to retain resources, to have skilled labor. It's number one priority and number one challenge. I believe that because of our ability to bring resources, that's why we're being so successful. Nowadays, it's the number one reason why clients award projects to companies. It's not just about technical performance or engineering capabilities. or balance sheet, because right now most of the risk of the projects are low risk. It's about what's your ability to make sure you have people, because that's the certainty they have to finance a project within the framework. Most of these projects are driven by timelines. Any delay causes major losses to the client. So it's not so much driven by the price or the cost of infrastructure. It's driven by how fast you can finish and how you make sure that you have the right skills to finish them on time. So I believe that that's allowing us to be competitive together with our geographical diversity, together with some of our supply chain capability that I was mentioning before. Which are the margins that we're asking? Bear in mind that most of our projects, as we get into a low-risk scenario, have – I mean, we try to maintain margins. But donors, for example, have low margins in most of the projects, especially the traditional ones. Hightech are allowing us to increase margins. That's why, if you look at Hocktee North America, it's increasing the margins from 2.1% at the end of the year. Right now, it's starting 2.4% as we get into the first phases of these high-tech projects. So we are starting the ramp-up. It's still in the early phase, right, because it's early days, but those will go up, and And I don't want to mention specific margins because of competitive reasons, and most of them are confidential, but they are significantly above traditional octave margins in traditional infrastructure. And we will be seeing that in North America as we go. The same philosophy applies to Asia-Pacific, including Australia. I mean, we want to do high-tech because we want to make sure that we work with clients on a collaborative basis, selling our engineering expertise and knowledge, but, of course, on a reasonable approach, collaborative, and with reasonable margins. Working capital, there's one main reason, which is basically CCBP. But first of all, and before I go into CBP, let me compare two things when we talk about cash flow. First, the most useful comparison for cash flow performance is the underlying cash flow from operating activities pre-factoring. That includes net working capital changes. And if you look at H1 cash flow, it's similar level to the prior year, with a very strong momentum, but it's very, very similar to prior year. If you adjust for seasonality, which is what the last 12 months cost of operations pre-factoring stands for, it is pretty much at a very strong level of close to $1.2 billion, which is $400 million more year-on-year. Now, if you look specifically about the networking capital figures, which is probably the figure that you're seeing right now, everything is about the CPP project payment, because last year, had a positive impact in 2022 because it came as a liability, while it had a negative impact in 2023. If you were to adjust just for this, the statutory networking capital figures would be very, very similar. $475 million H-123 versus $470 million same period last year. If you want more detail about this, please follow offline. I think that it's an important matter and should be clarified to everyone.

Thank you very much.

The next question is from the line of Joao Safara from Bankless and Tender. Please go ahead.

Yes, hi, good afternoon. Just two questions from my side. The first one on the guidance. I understand that if we you don't usually change your guidance and you're obviously on track to change it. But if we go and see detail by detail, I'm still quite surprised with how conservative is your guidance on Abertis, considering what you've done on the first half of the year. You're basically up 65% and you're mentioning a similar performance as in as in 2022 for the full year. So I don't know if you could give a bit of color on that one. And then the second one, just to understand a bit what are the changes in your business going forward, considering that, and maybe I got it wrong, but it seems that you're now more focused on projects where you have to deploy capital than before. And so what will this mean in terms of capital employed and your, I mean, needs in terms of equity financing for these projects? If you could give us, I don't know, some figures or some ideas of what to expect in the future. Thank you.

Let's start with the first one and the guidelines. Are we cautious when we establish guidelines? I mean, The guidelines is, I mean, we need to make sure that we don't overstate or understate guidance for legal implications. So we try always, obviously, to be sensitive when we report on guidelines. When it comes to authorities, so yes, it has a very strong start in 2023, and traffic was at 5% year-on-year and Q1 and 4% in Q2. And a lot of that was driven as well because of the solid increases in tariffs, which was around 7.4%. Now, what should we expect from the second year? We're heading into an important Q3 area, so we need to wait a little bit to see. We are trying not to anticipate what's happening in H2 as a trend of H1, right? So we're trying to be careful. It's not about predicting our projects, our profit on construction. It's about counting traffic. So how many variables are trying to provide a guideline? It's risky from a business perspective, and also from a business perspective, not the same thing forecasting traffic than forecasting real business. When it comes to your second question, sorry, and it was... Okay, yes, capital allocation. We always had a similar capital allocation in the old days. I think we've been number one group, construction group, investing in greenfield projects when it came to highways, to ports, to airports. In the past, we have always, always dedicated a strong part of our capital into these projects. Our strategy is to make sure that we consolidate not only in the traditional areas, civil, built, ports, highways, et cetera, et cetera, but also in all the new areas, all the new infrastructure. I mentioned energy transition, batteries, hydrogen, but also recycling. but also sustainable mobility, 5G, data centers, semiconductors, et cetera, et cetera. So we want to make sure that we're able to build those projects as we have built in the past highways, et cetera. And obviously, as projects, we analyze opportunities in terms of deploying cash and deploying capital. And I must say that we believe that there's plenty of opportunities in the renewable space. There's opportunities in the recycling space. There's opportunities in the 5G and data-centered space. There's opportunities in some of the logistics fronts, including some autonomous vehicles, and we do have that technology from the operations for mines in Australia. And we see opportunities in more medium-long-term in hydrogen, especially in the past when we came to to highways and ports and airports. So nothing has changed in terms of deploying capital. What is going to change is where we're going to deploy the capital. Right now so far, the first opportunities are coming from the renewable sector and some of the natural resources sectors and data centers. But in the future, we're going to see more across the examples I gave.

Perfect. Thank you very much.

The next question is from the line of Dario Maglione from BNP Paribas Exxon. Please go ahead.

Good afternoon. Two quick questions for me. One on the new order. You mentioned 50%, roughly 50% of the new order in H1 was targeted new markets. How do you expect this percentage to change over the next two years? And second question on Americas. The revenue in Q2 slowed down significantly versus Q1. I believe it was up 3% year-on-year. Was it just tough comp, or are you actually seeing a slowdown in activity? Thanks.

Okay, the first one, what can I expect to grow? I mean, it's growing. I mean, the amount of investment in the new areas is unbelievable. I mean, how much we can take of those depends more on us and our ability to bring resources and our capacity on the supply chain more than the market. The market is unlimited from what we are seeing. So it comes to us. It can grow significantly. And it depends on the market, civil and building. I see slowing down, stabilizations, a little bit increase, but I don't see the rate of growth as the new areas that we are jumping on. When it comes to North America, no, I mean, certainly not slowing down. On the contrary, I mean, North America is going in the other direction. The difference between the Q1 and the Q2, and that's where you see the, and I guess you're referring to the 0.6%, sales growth versus the 16% in Q1 2023, right? I think that you're talking about that. I mean, we're seeing at 7% if you go the average. But the new orders, which is driving the future of that, has grown at 32% in local currency terms. So growth of 32% of new orders. That sales, don't look at the sales, Q1, Q2. I mean, construction is not mathematical, right? At the end of the day, At the end of the day, you see a trend. If some things come more in one month or some others get delayed to the next month, it's irrelevant. The important thing is obviously to see a period of time, six months, nine months, one year, right? That's the important thing right now is not to focus on that 0.6% versus 16% in Q1. It's to focus at 32% in the orders and growing, right? That's where we see the growth.

Makes sense. Thanks. Thanks a lot.

Ladies and gentlemen, as a final reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone. So far, there are no further questions, and I hand back to Mike Pinkney for closing comments.

Okay, thanks very much. Thanks very much to everyone for joining us.

Thank you so much, everyone. I appreciate your time. And again, any question, please, we will be more than happy to follow up offline. Thank you. To bring resources and our capacity on the supply chain more than the market. The market is unlimited from what we are seeing. So it comes to us. It can grow significantly. And it depends on the market, civil and building, I see slowing down, stabilizations, a little bit increase, but I don't see the rate of growth as the new areas that we are jumping on. When it comes to North America, no. I mean, certainly not slowing down. On the contrary, I mean, North America is going in the other direction. The difference between the Q1 and the Q2, and that's where you see the – growth versus the 16% in Q1 2023, right? I think that you're talking about that. I mean, we're seeing at 7% if you go the average. But the new orders, which is driving the future of that, has grown at 32% in local currency terms. So growth of 32% of new orders. That sales, don't look at the sales, Q1, Q2. I mean, construction is not mathematical, right? At the end of the day, Q1, Q2, at the end of the day, you see a trend. If some things come more in one month or some others get delayed to the next month, it's irrelevant. The important thing is obviously to see a period of time, six months, nine months, one year, right? That's the important thing right now is not to focus on that 0.6% versus 16% in Q1. It's to focus at 32% in the orders and growing, right? That's where we see the growth.

Yeah, makes sense. Thanks. Thanks a lot.

Ladies and gentlemen, as a final reminder, if you would like to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone. So far, there are no further questions, and I hand back to Mike Pinkney for closing comments.

Okay, thanks very much. Thanks very much to everyone for joining us.

Thank you so much, everyone. I appreciate your time. And again, any questions, please, we will be more than happy to follow up offline. Thank you.