Cash flow
Consolidated statement of cash flows
Net cash provided by operating activities increased in the period under review to EUR 949.3 million. Operating activities thus generated a EUR 683.2 million larger cash inflow than the prior-year figure of EUR 266.1 million. Alongside the improvement in profit after taxes, this notably reflected changes in working capital. Whereas in the prior year considerable financial resources were tied up in working capital due to a large rise in trade receivables, growth in working capital was only slight in the year under review. Net cash provided by operating activities was particularly strong in the HOCHTIEF Real Estate and HOCHTIEF Asia Pacific divisions.
HOCHTIEF committed resources of EUR 968.5 million in 2009 for capital expenditure on property, plant and equipment and financial assets. Capital expenditure was consequently EUR 187.5 million down on the prior-year total of EUR 1.16 billion. After several years of strong growth through large-scale acquisitions, the HOCHTIEF Group focused capital spending in the period under review on the purchase of necessary plant and equipment as well as on selective additions to our business portfolio. Purchases o癢 intangible assets and property, plant and equipment accounted for EUR 826 million (2008: EUR 645.5 million). Our subsidiary Leighton undertook the largest share of capital expenditure on property, plant and equipment, at EUR 708.7 million.
With regard to capital investment in financial assets, we applied a restrictive spending policy in the past fiscal year with expenditure of EUR 142.5 million marking a significant reduction on 2008 (EUR 510.5 million). The focus of our investment policy was on selective additions to the Leighton business portfolio and on participation in corporate actions at Sydney Airport. The HOCHTIEF Asia Pacific division spent a total of EUR 73.5 million on participating interests. Its expenditure was thus EUR 393 million below the prior-year figure (EUR 466.5 million). In contrast, capital spending on financial assets in the HOCHTIEF Concessions division was substantially higher, at EUR 48.6 million compared
Statement of Cash Flows for the HOCHTIEF Group (Summary)*
| (EUR million) | 2009 | 2008 |
|---|---|---|
| Net cash provided by operating activities | 949.3 | 266.1 |
| Net cash used for investment activities | (848.6) | (901.3) |
| Net cash (used in)/provided by financing activities | (181.0) | 1,046.1 |
| Net cash (decrease)/increase in cash and cash equivalents | (80.3) | 410.9 |
| Cash and cash equivalents at year-end | 1,769.6 | 1,787.7 |
with EUR 27.6 million in the prior year, due to funds made available for the shareholders’ contributions at Sydney Airport.
Disposals of property, plant and equipment and financial assets generated a cash inflow of EUR 213.3 million. This represents a EUR 209.1 million drop in disposal proceeds compared with the prior year, when disposals generated EUR 422.4 million. Most of the total was accounted for by sales of property, plant and equipment in the HOCHTIEF Asia Pacific division. In the opposite direction, changes in securities holdings and financial receivables made for a cash outflow of EUR 58.2 million. This mainly related to the granting of new loans and increases in the size of existing loans to companies in the business portfolio. A notable part of the EUR 148.1 million cash outflow in the prior year related to purchases of securities by our Luxembourg reinsurance companies. Changes in cash and cash equivalents due to consolidation changes involving Group companies came to a negative figure of EUR 35.2 million in the period under review (2008: minus EUR 19.7 million). Taking all factors into account, net cash used in investing activities amounted to EUR 848.6 million in fiscal 2009, compared with EUR 901.3 million in the prior year.
Our management of financing in the past fiscal year was systematically geared to securing Group finances on a long-term, diversified basis. We responded early