Visabeira 2021 profit rises 72% to €38M as turnover surges

Visabeira group last year saw profit rise 72% from 2020, to €37.9 million, as it reached what the company on Wednesday called the “historic milestone” of €1.171 billion in turnover.

“Despite the strong constraints still felt due to the Covid-19 pandemic” in 2021, the Visabeira group “had strong growth in its national and international activities, reinforcing its trajectory of sustained growth in the main business areas,” the company said in a statement.

In the period under review, it said, net profit was €37.9 million, representing an increase of 72% from 2020.

The group “reached the historic milestone of 1,171 million euros of consolidated turnover, an increase of 211 million euros compared to 2020, translating into growth of 21.9%,” it said, adding that EBITDA (earnings before tax, interest, depreciation and amortisation) was €183 million, or 17.8% more than in 2020. Operating profit, it said, “exceeded 100 million euros”.

The Visabeira Group maintains as its main strategy in foreign markets “the growth of its ‘core’ activities – provision of telecommunications and energy network engineering services – for the main European operators and the strengthening of its position in these markets,” the statement explains.

Last year, these markets represented 72.6% of turnover of the group, which emphasises that organic growth “was the main pillar of the remarkable performance of the activity … namely in the business area of telecommunications and energy network engineering.”

The European market, excluding Portugal, “represents an increasingly important dimension for the group” and last year turnover there totalled €687 million, or 59% of the global total, with Visabeira’s main markets in this region being France, the UK, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Spain and Sweden.

In Portugal turnover was €275 million, up 13% on the year, while European turnover grew 16%.

“The United States contributed 91 million euros to the exponential growth in turnover in America, Asia and Oceania, which recorded a value of 106 million euros,” states Visabeira, adding that Africa had a weight of about 9%, with turnover of “about €102 million”.

By business area, Visabeira Global – the holding company that includes the telecommunications, energy, technology and construction businesses – last year had turnover of €983 million, meaning that it remained the largest in the group, at 84% of the total.

“Compared to the previous year, turnover grew by 25%, which demonstrates excellent operating performance in telecommunications and energy network engineering services both nationally and internationally, as well as in its own cable television operations in Angola and Mozambique,” Visabeira said of this business area.

It also highlighted the group’s entry into Morocco and Sao Tome and Principe – a former colony of Portugal – the latter via the purchase of Companhia Santomense de Telecomunicações.

Visabeira Indústria, meanwhile, had turnover of €153 million, up 7% year-on-year, “contributing 13% to the consolidated turnover of the Visabeira Group.”

In this area, it said, “it is important to highlight the excellent results achieved by Vista Alegre, [which] despite the severe confinement due to the pandemic that marked the first half of the year 2021, recorded 117 million euros in turnover, which represents a growth of about 6% compared to the previous year.” The unit’s net result was a positive €1.6 million, the company added.

In turn, Visabeira Turismo, Imobiliária e Serviços, “in a year strongly conditioned by the pandemic, with the closure of all hotel units during practically the first half of the year, recorded turnover of 34 million euros, which represents about 3% of the total volume of the group’s activity.”

On orders booked, the Visabeira statement also highlights that the group ended the 2021 “with more than 2.9 billion euros of business in its portfolio already contracted in all business areas, and in Europe, namely in the group’s core business, the contracted turnover is 2.5 billion euros, thus enhancing the sustained growth of our operations in the coming years.”