Austrian builder Strabag raises earnings outlook

May 31, 2011, 9:12 GMT

Vienna - Austrian construction firm Strabag on Tuesday raised its forecast for the current business year, as favourable weather gave the biggest builder in Central and Eastern Europe a head start into the first quarter.

Strabag said operating profit would grow to 320 million euros (461 million dollars) this year, compared to the previously targeted 295 million euros.

The company also increased its projected construction output volume by half a billion euros to 14 billion euros.

Strabag made an operating profit of 299 million euros last year, while the value of the output volume stood at 12.8 billion euros.

In the first quarter, output rose 26 per cent to 2.3 billion euros.

'This year's weather conditions allowed us to begin building significantly earlier, which is why we are pleased to report double digit growth of the output volume,' chief executive Hans Peter Haselsteiner said.

The quarterly net loss that construction firms usually make in the first quarter stood at 118 million euros, nearly unchanged from last year.

Strabag's order backlog shrank by 3 per cent, mainly because projects were cancelled in Libya.