Mota-Engil profits up 20% to record €92 million to September

The Sino-Portuguese construction company Mota-Engil posted record profits of €92 million to September, up 20% like-for-like on 2024 when profits stood at €77 million.

However, delays in contract awards and project start dates for vital projects in Portugal and Mexico resulted in a 1.4% fall in the group’s business turnover in the first nine months of the year to €4Bn.

Nevertheless, its order books enjoyed a new record with €15.7Bn and the company headed by Carlos Mota dos Santos hopes to pick up the delayed business in 2026.

The company’s EBITDA increased 15% to €699 million which Mota-Engil calls “record levels of profitability achieved in the first nine months of the year” with an improvement on margin from 15% to 17%.

By geography, the best performance was achieved in Africa, where the group recorded a 57% growth in turnover to €1,616 million, with the EBITDA generated in this region increasing 62% to €405 million, “driven by the doubling of activity in the industrial engineering segment”, says the group, adding that it is currently “the largest operator of ‘contract mining’ on the entire African continent”. “The execution of large-scale projects resulted in high returns, resulting in an exceptional EBITDA margin of 25%,” it adds.

In Europe, turnover decreased by 27% to €334 million, which the group attributes to “delays in tenders and awards of important projects in Portugal, due to the snap legislative elections”, as well as the sale of operations in Poland, a market that in the third quarter of 2024 had contributed €123 million.

EBITDA in this region stood at €25 million, down 26% year-on-year, also impacted by the sale in Poland. Removing this effect, it states, “would represent a maintenance of activity levels in Portugal compared to the same period last year”, and in relation to the domestic market, it says that “activity is expected to gain traction in 2026”.

In Latin America, the group achieved a business turnover of €1.561Bn – down 29% – reflecting expected adjustments after more than two years of strong business growth aided by Mexico’s Trém Maya project – a 1,554 km-long (966 miles) inter-city railway project in Mexico that traverses the Yucatán Peninsula. Construction began in June 2020 –  the company explained.