Orascom Construction, a leading engineering and construction contractor in the region, has reported a net profit of $119.3 million for the period between January and September, up 45 per cent over the previous year's figure of $82.3 million.

Announcing the results for the period between January and September, Orascom Construction said its adjusted net income excluding one-off US legal provision increased by 208.5 per cent to $69.1 million in the third quarter over last year, while its profit for the nine-month period surged by 104.6 per cent to $151.6 million over last year.

The consolidated adjusted ebitda rose to $210.9 million, while its pro forma ebitda including 50 per cent in Besix (excluding one-off legal provision) hit $259.8 million in the nine-month period.

The Egyptian company said its consolidated backlog was at $4.2 billion and pro forma backlog, including 50 per cent share in Belgian construction major Besix was put at $6.1 billion as of 30 September 2018.

Commenting on the results, CEO and Executive Director Osama Bishai said: "Our third quarter results highlight the consistent performance of our recurring operations. Our efforts to focus on execution and project controls in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) business continue to be successful, and we believe that similar efforts already underway in our US operation will start to pay off next year."

"We have maintained a healthy backlog of $4.2 billion comprising quality projects that provide us with our targeted visibility of 16-20 months," stated the top official.

"We are also very pleased with the exciting project pipeline that we are currently pursuing in our main markets where we have been focusing on key sectors and projects across our core competencies," said Bishai.

In the US, stated the top official, Orascom Construction has received the Certificate of Final Acceptance for Natgasoline - one of the largest methanol production facilities in the world - only seven months after mechanical completion, demonstrating its success on this industrial project.

"Separately, while we had a negative verbal verdict related to the legal case with a subcontractor at the Iowa Fertilizer project in the US, we will study the outcome of the outstanding written verdict once received and proceed with the appeal process accordingly," he said.

A provision of $40 million has been recorded in the third quarter to account for this, he added.

According to him, Besix continues to report a strong backlog of €3.2 billion and has signed new contracts amounting to €1.9 billion during the first nine months of the year.

In addition, the Belgian construction group has signed during the fourth quarter a contract to build Africa’s tallest tower in Morocco.-TradeArabia News Service