Well good evening fellow bloggers! I have previously posted a very brief blog in regards to my company Ferrovial. It has taken me a while to answer my initial questions after discovering the name of my company, mainly who are Ferrovial?. I also question what have Ferrovial done to make them so successful and after looking deeper into my company i am now posed with another question, how have I never heard of a company who’s presence is so widespread.
Company Background
On the 18th December 1952 in an attic in central Madrid, Rafael del Pino y Moreno (pictured below) founded a company, Ferrovial, whose name derives from the Spanish word for railway. The company originally focused on railway projects first big win was securing the contract in 1958 to mortise wooden rail ties for the Spanish railway company Renfe. The project was a success with Ferrovial laying 30 kilometres of track between Las Rozas and Chamartin in Madrid in only 30 days.
By 1960’s Ferrovial had grown from its humble beginnings in an attic to a company with over 500 employees and had expanded into the construction of waterworks, roads, buildings and also into toll road concessions. Pushing forward through the years with the oil crisis causing the recession the opportunity for international expansion was next on the agenda. The first international projects were focused in four countries: Libya, Mexico, Brazil and Paraguay.
Over the following decades Ferrovial cemented themselves as a leader in building networks of highways to access the big cities whilst also expanding and modernising ports, airports and railways and constructing new schools and hospitals. 1980’s saw the acquisition of Cadagua, a company who specialised in the design, construction and operation of drinking water and sewerage treatment plants.
Ferrovial’s reach continue to grown with the acquisition of Agroman, which placed Ferrovial as one of Spain’s largest construction companies. The company was eventually floated on the stock exchange in 1999.
From 2000 to present day important acquisitions have been made which include but are not limited to : Heathrow, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Southampton airports. Their presence is felt in over 15 countries (refer below) and has approximately 74,000 employees.
Financial Statements
When we look over the financial statements it is clear to see this company is a massive operation, with their Wikipedia page stating and annual revenue of 9,701 billion euros in 2015.
Unfortunately I am still struggling to understand what these statements all mean, I can logically know that if the companies debt is higher than their income/assets then the company is going to struggle to survive. Based on the little knowledge I have on accounting I can assume from these statements that the company is well and truly thriving which is evident in the global reach they have.
The most confusing part for is simply understanding the exact amounts that are reflected in the statements. It is noted on the statements that they are listed in Millions of Euros, so in that respect does the total equity in the 2016 financial statements of 6,314 only equate to €6,314,000? This seems like a rather small figure for such a large company. I would imagine that a company in over 15 countries would have a much larger amount of equity.
The other big thing I have noticed is that in all the financial statements I have read the total assets and total equity and liabilities figures are always equal. I wonder if this is the norm, are they meant to be equal to balance each other out or is it preferred that one be larger than the other.
I have attached the links to the financial statements I have read, please feel free to have a look:
2016
2015
2014
2013
I have also included a link to a few of the Ferrovial website’s from around the globe, including the Ferrovial Blog.
Ferrovial Home Page
Ferrovial Blog
Ferrovial Agroman (Aus & NZ)
Group Websites
Thank you for taking the time to read about Ferrovial, please feel free to leave any feedback as it is all appreciated.
Bye for now,
Tania