January
January set the pace for a great year for Ferrovial, extending the management contract with the Australian Department of Defense for 300 million euros, through Ferrovial Services Subsidiary, Broadspectrum. The new contract will last until 2021 and cover a wide range of services. The company also announced its plan to carry out services for Shell-QGC in Queensland until December of 2018. Both plans marked the move towards a strong presence in the facility management and energy sectors.
February
February turned out to be a beneficial month both on and off the books—first announcing a net profit of 454 million euros, an increase of 21%, in 2017, and secondly announcing its involvement in 22 water and sanitation projects in Latin America and Africa, as well as renovating Red Cross soup kitchens and food banks across Spain.
March
Continuing its fruitful relationship with the Colombian community of El Salado, Ferrovial together with Ayuda en Acción and Fundación Semana delivered new water systems to the community such as repairing and expanding the aqueduct system as well as forming a Water Committee to maintain and operate the new system.
April
April started on great note with Chairman Rafael del Pino announcing that the Managed Lanes Project in Texas would soon begin to pay dividends in 2019 and 2020 as well as revenue growth and a strong financial position from 2017. This month also marked greats honors for two of the Heathrow terminals. Heathrow Terminal 2 won the prize for the best terminal in the world. Passengers cast their votes for the “Queen’s Terminal” and not far behind came Heathrow’s Terminal 5 as fourth best in the world in the “World Airport Awards” 2018 by Skytrax.
May
Even though there weren’t any April showers (at least metaphorically speaking), May did bring plenty of flowers (also metaphorically speaking). These blooming buds included such achievements as the award to Budimex, Polish subsidiary of Ferrovial, for Top Builder 2018 and the European Women in Construction & Engineering Awards 2018 award to Sara Collado of Ferrovial Agroman Chile for Best Woman Civil Engineer. In addition to Sara Collado, 14 other Ferrovial professionals were finalists in various categories. Fidel López Soria was also named CEO of Ferrovial Services, taking over the position from Santiago Olivares, bringing a fresh perspective to the lovely spring month.
June
Things started to heat up in the first of the summer months, and especially in the steamy southern state of Texas where Ferrovial was awarded the project to widen two roads through its subsidiary Webber. Construction on the SH 146 in Houston and the IH-10 in San Antonio is planned to begin in January and October of 2019, respectively.
July
Things got off to a booming start for Ferrovial at the beginning of July with the announcement of two projects in Chile—upgrading and widening 11 kilometers of Ruta 25 and building a 25-kilometer bypass, as well as erecting 14-story building for the University of Chile; both contracts summing to 321 million euros.
Ferrovial Airports, along with its partners that make up the Great Hall Partners (GHP), celebrated the groundbreaker ceremony at Jeppesen Terminal which commenced the construction of the Great Hall Project. GHP agreed to design and build over three and a half years and later maintain and operate specific commercial areas of the terminal for 30 years, improving the overall passenger experience at DEN.
The month ended on a productive note, inaugurating the extension of the North Tarrant Express (NTE) two months ahead of schedule after four years of work. The 101.1-mile extension (just over 16km), which involved an average of 1,400 professionals each day and 1,000 suppliers was built by Ferrovial subsidiary, Cintra, to relieve one the Dallas-Fort Worth axis, which was considered some of the most congested road transportation in the country.
August
At the beginning of August Ferrovial signed a new liquidity line with 16 financial institutions, adhering to Ferrovial’s strategy of reducing funding costs, extending maturity, and incorporating ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) criteria. The new liquidity line amounted for 900 million euros for five years, a reduction from the previous 1,250-million-euro facility.
September
At the start of September, work officially began on the Western Roads Upgrade project. The project entails first demolishing the old bridge in order to construct a new two-lane bridge running in both directions over the Princes Freeway, as well as new access roads and pedestrian and cycle paths, making it the Australian State of Victoria’s largest single investment in its road network to date.
In Poland, Budimex signed two contracts to build a section of the A1 highway and 10.5-kilometer section of the S19 with a combined value of 155 million euros. The construction done on the two roads will improve connections to neighboring countries.
Ferrovial continued to receive good news related to road projects in September with their being awarded with three new road projects in Texas worth 308 million euros. The projects include the widening of the IH-10 in Houston and the FM-156 in Fort Worth. The projects also include building a bridge and an underpass on the IH-35 in Austin. This award asserted Ferrovial Agroman’s subsidiary, Webber, as one of the leading road builders in Texas.
To cap off the month, Ferrovial announced its being listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for the 17th consecutive year. It is the only Spanish construction and engineering company to be listed on both the world and the European DJSI.
October
The launch of WONDO, the urban mobility platform, got Ferrovial off to the right start at the beginning of October. The unique startup that combines a range of modes of transportation such as public transport, taxis, and private car sharing and ridesharing operators conducted a pilot test for large event in the summer in Madrid, resulting in a more convenient, efficient, and affordable trip.
Ferrovial also began to lead the “ZRR for Municipal Waste” project, which analyzes the implementation of robotic waste sorting, which is partially funded through the EU’s EIT Climate-KIC and would take place over a 21-month period.
October was also an exciting month for Amey, a subsidiary of Ferrovial Services, as it was chosen by Highways England to maintain roads in Area 10, which connects the cities of Liverpool, Manchester, and the area surrounding the North West of England. The 15-year contract holds a value of over 366 million euros and will put Amery in charge of maintaining 501 kilometers of roads.
The end of the month brought interesting changes as the Board of Directors of Ferrovial named Alejandro de la Joya and Ignacio Gastón as the CEOs of Cintra and Ferrovial Agroman, respectively. Both men have spent most theirs careers as part of the Ferrovial team and would spend the following three months working with the former CEO of Cintra, Enrique Díaz-Rato, to complete a smooth transition period.
November
November brought the financial closure of the Ruta del Cacao toll road concession through Cintra, one which will last 25 years, covering the construction of 80.84 kilometers of existing road and the construction of 16 bridges, 2 viaducts, and 2 tunnels, totaling to length of 5.95 kilometers.
The subsidiary of Ferrovial Services Broadspectrum was chosen in consortium with MTC to maintain the facilities of Parklea Correctional Centre in Australia as well as manage inmate rehabilitation programs under a 7-year contract with the possibility of a 5-year extension. The contract is worth AUD 90 million (over 57 million euros) annually.
December
In this year’s edition of CONAMA, of which the slogan was “Rumbo 20.30”, addressing the dire need for radical changes before the year 2030, there was extraordinary participation from Ferrovial staff such as Quality and Environment management, business units, and corporate areas, collaborating in various forums, workings groups, technical sessions, and other activities related to adaptation to climate change, biodiversity, circular economy, cities, conservation, ecological restoration, mobility, and waste.
The year rounded off on an extremely positive note with the rankings release by Comprend in which they analyzed the websites of the biggest companies in Spain, considering such factors as the company’s communication, its corporate government, the sustainability section, its investor relations, and its professional progress. Ferrovial climbed from the 5th to the 3rd position with a score of 55, beating out such companies as ArcelorMittal, CaixaBank, Telefónica, Red Eléctrica, Naturgy, Bankia, and BBVA in their respective ranking order.
