Mills Rental revenues up 34.8% in 1st quarter

09 May 2013

The Rental division of Brazil’s Mills Estruturas e Serviços de Engenharia S.A. continues to expand dramatically with first quarter revenues up 34.8% to R$76.1 million (€28.7 million), a new quarterly record, reflecting continued demand in construction, infrastructure and housing and Mills’ heavy investment in its fleet.

The company said the powered access sector in Brazil was still “booming” and that it would continue to expand its branch network, with a location opened in Natal, in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, during the quarter and a further four openings planned for the rest of the year.

EBITDA profits for the Rental division in the first quarter were R$43.6 (€16.5 million).

Mills invested R$127.8 million (€48.3 million) in organic growth in the first quarter across its entire business, with rental activities accounting for R$120.1 million (€45.3 million). The powered access division accounted for 57.4% of the rental investment, with scaffolding and formwork equipment for other Mills divisions accounting for most of the rest.

“The powered access equipment market is still booming”, said Mills, “We expect that the Brazilian fleet will increase at an average annual rate of 14% in the next few years and reach 40000 units by 2017, against a current fleet of approximately 21000 units.”

The prospects are also good for the coming years. Mills said that the BNDES (Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social) is anticipating that Brazil’s infrastructure sector will “take off from the end of 2013, as the concessions for the logistics sector are granted.”

Meanwhile, on the World Cup 2014 projects, only 14 of the planned 102 infrastructure projects have been completed. Construction works related to the World Cup and 2016 Olympics represented 25% of the revenue of Mills’ Heavy Construction business in the quarter.

Total group revenue for the first quarter of the year was R$239.9 million (€90.6 million), 20.5% higher than the first quarter of 2012. Net profits rose by 20.2% to R$39.3 million (€14.8 million).