COWI delivers solid result for the first half of 2016

COWI’s operating profit (EBIT) amounted to DKK 102 million and the cash flow to DKK 103 million, which represent a considerable improvement compared to the same period last year.

“I’m very pleased to see that we’re growing according to plan, and that our operating profit and cash flow are following the same positive trend. At the beginning of 2016, we launched our new business strategy, One Step Ahead, and it’s evident that we’re achieving a number of the goals that we set ourselves – both for this year and in the long term,” says CEO Lars-Peter Søbye and elaborates:

“The essence of our new growth strategy is to run a healthy business with a healthy cash flow, and to that end, for the first half the year, COWI made it a strategic focus point to strengthen our financial flexibility. We succeeded in our endeavours, and we clearly expect this positive trend to continue. Combined with a solid order book throughout the business across our core sectors, this has strengthened our confidence that we will meet our financial targets for this year.”

Strong teams and partners
A key element of the One Step Ahead and our efforts to secure COWI’s competitive ability in the global market is prioritising the synergies that are achieved by working more closely together across the business:

“What characterises some of the large projects that we’ve won in 2016 is that we’ve won because we are able to mobilise strong teams across disciplines and geographies – and that our interdisciplinary competencies are brought into play on the projects. One example of this approach is the West Link in Gothenburg, Sweden – a large-scale infrastructure project which involves construction of an underground station and a railway tunnel.

Furthermore, we prioritise working with cooperation partners across the world, who can contribute the specialist competencies and any local knowledge that are needed for the specific project. For instance, COWI has joined forces with a number of external partners to take on the Lower Thames crossing – one of the largest, most high-profile infrastructure projects in Europe.”

Maintains ambitious growth targets
Infrastructure is the key growth driver for COWI in the next five-year strategy period: The ambition is to generate more than 50 per cent growth in COWI’s services related to infrastructure projects. But the company’s other core areas – buildings, energy and water and environment – have also set ambitious growth targets. One evidence is the recent acquisition of the project management consultancy firm Bascon, which significantly strengthens COWI’s position in strategic client consultancy.

“The global urbanisation trend fosters a massive potential across COWI’s core sectors. And despite political and financial unrest in certain markets, our expectations to this year’s final result remain positive,” says Søbye.

COWI just landed the design contract for Denmark’s largest cloudburst tunnel located in Northern Copenhagen, and the consultancy contract for the total building project on the former main post office site near Copenhagen Central Station, which is one of the most significant urban development projects in Copenhagen in recent time. Each project represents three-digit million amounts.