Impregilo H1 revs down, upbeat on South America-UPDATE 2

Trade the News

Friday August 27, 2010 04:42:15 PM GMT

* H1 net rises 6 pct to 56.2 mln eur, in line with fcast

* CEO upbeat on South America, sees pick-up in Italy projects

* Shares up 4.6 pct, outperform construction sector rise

(Adds CEO comments, updates shares)

By Danilo Masoni

MILAN, Aug 27 (Reuters) - Italy's biggest construction group Impregilo posted a 30 percent fall in first-half revenue on Friday, citing a fragile global economy and weakness in its engineering activities in the Middle East.

But the company was upbeat on prospects in South America and said it saw new infrastructure projects in Italy coming on stream in the second half of the year after a flat first half.

"This crisis is not blocking the entire world. In South America they are going through a season of expansion," Impregilo Chief Executive Alberto Rubegni said at a news conference.

He said the company was looking at railway projects in Venezuela and hydroelectric schemes in Colombia, Chile and Ecuador. In Italy he cited the Pedemontana Lombarda motorway in the Lombardy region and a fourth line of Milan's underground.

Despite the revenue plunge, Impregilo's first-half net profit rose, boosted by higher-margin operations including its Brazilian road-toll unit Ecorodovias, which generated a one-off gain.

Net profit rose 6 percent to 56.2 million euros ($71.5 million), in line with a Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S consensus estimate. Revenues fell to about 1 billion euros and the order book was 21.4 billion euros.

A Milan analyst said results were good especially in the concession sector.

Impregilo results come ahead of those from builders including Central and Eastern Europe's No. 1 Strabag and French giant Vinci on Tuesday.

At 1513 GMT, Impregilo shares were up 4.6 percent at 2.005 euros, while the STOXX 600 construction and materials sector index was up 1.2 percent. (Editing by David Cowell)

($1=.7861 Euro)

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