The Ashtrom Infrastructure and Construction Group closes a year with a sharp increase in the profit line – thanks in part to the sale of its holdings in the operator of the Jerusalem City Light Rail line back to the State of Israel for NIS 493 million.
The said sale took place on May 30, 2021 and pushed the group’s profits to NIS 1.2 billion, a jump of 273% compared to 2020. Also after neutralizing the CityPass deal, Ashtrom recorded a sharp increase of 127% in net profit to NIS 750 million.
The company will distribute a dividend to shareholders in the amount of NIS 200 million, an amount that increases the volume of the dividend distributed in respect of 2021 to NIS 410 million.
The group’s revenues for the year as a whole decreased by 3.6% to NIS 4.46 billion, a decline that is mainly attributed to a decrease in the activity of the contracting sector abroad. This is due to the completion of works, and a delay in receiving and starting new works due to the corona.
In the fourth quarter, revenues maintained their level as in the previous year and stood at NIS 1.22 billion. The quarterly net profit attributable to shareholders jumped by 200% – NIS 427.6 million. The jump in the last quarter was due, among other things, to a positive revaluation of the company’s assets to NIS 290 million, compared with NIS 103 million in the corresponding quarter in 2020.
Rami Nussbaum, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Ashtrom Group, announced upon publication of the results that “in the field of contracting, we have won a number of significant projects, the largest of which is the construction of the Alf complex in Rishon Lezion, estimated at NIS 1 billion. At the same time, we entered through Ashtrom Properties as a partner in the project, which will be one of the flagship projects in the field of offices in the central region.
In the field of long-term rental housing, we continued to expand our property portfolio, and won additional projects in Bnei Brak and Lod, which are added to our projects in Haifa, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and other cities, and in total this activity currently includes active projects housing”.