- Effects of financial crisis impossible to predict with sufficient certainty
- Strategic orientation key to long-term growth targets
- Wide-ranging opportunities harbor strong earnings potential
- Consistent, earnings-driven dividend policy
Looking ahead
Competitive advantage of good strategic
positioning
A realistic judgment of how the financial crisis will impact
on the real economy is not currently possible. Uncertainty
about the way forward and the scale of the global crisis
has grown considerably in the last several months. Leading
economic research institutes expect that the world
economy will undergo a major slowdown in 2009, although
with regional variation. The growth markets of the recent
past will also be affected.
HOCHTIEF is outstandingly well placed with its strategy of
spanning the whole infrastructure project, real estate and
facility life cycle and of serving international markets. We can
seize available opportunities and better make up for cyclical
downturns. Our integrated capability portfolio and global
presence lend HOCHTIEF considerable risk diversification
and greater independence from fluctuations in specific industries
and markets. By closely dovetailing the elements
of that portfolio, we are also able to generate synergies
and thus add value for customers. We see HOCHTIEF's
strategic positioning as a sound competitive advantage
and the key to attaining our long-term growth targets'
through both favorable and adverse phases of the economic
cycle.
Group forecast subject to uncertainty
With the financial crisis dynamically unfolding, we are currently
only able to provide a very limited forecast for the
Group in 2009, burdened still by major uncertainty. As the
year progresses, we will add further detail to our expectations
regarding HOCHTIEF's performance in our quarterly
reports.
Our planning is based on the assumptions that the international
finance and capital markets will increasingly normalize
from 2010 and that there will not be a sustained recessive
setback in the world economy. We also work on
the basis that the situation in areas of political tension will
not lastingly deteriorate any further. We anticipate an increasing
rise in the euro against the US dollar and the Australian
dollar through fiscal 2009. We expect euro exchange
rates in 2009 averaging about USD 1.30 and AUD 2.00.
New orders, order backlog and sales regain normal
levels
HOCHTIEF once again achieved outstanding results in
2008 with new orders of EUR 25.28 billion, an order backlog
of EUR 30.92 billion and sales of EUR 19.10 billion. On
current
perspectives, in light of the situation now on lending
and goods markets, we expect that these figures will
settle back to normal this year, below the levels attained in
2008.
Earnings at similar high level to prior year
HOCHTIEF further stepped up its earning power in fiscal
2008. Both profit before taxes (EUR 520.1 million) and
consolidated net profit (EUR 175.1 million) for 2008 were
above their prior-year levels. The earnings growth showed
through particularly impressively in consolidated net profit,
which climbed by more than 24 percent. Despite the difficult
economic operating environment, we aim in the current
fiscal year to attain similar strong earnings performance
both on profit before taxes and on consolidated net profit.
We consider these earnings targets to be attainable in
particular with a view to our large order backlog and the
currently available opportunities.
