CAIRO: Egypt's Orascom Construction (OCI) reported a 77 percent jump in first-quarter net profit on Wednesday and said it was confident infrastructure spending would accelerate despite political turmoil in the Middle East. The firm, Egypt's biggest listed builder and fertilizer maker, made a net profit of $206.1 million, up from $116.6 million a year earlier. The earnings beat the average forecast from seven analysts polled by Reuters of $182 million. Estimates ranged from $159 million to $200 million. OCI said its consolidated backlog was $5.1 billion at the end of the quarter and new awards totaled $0.3 billion, with infrastructure work making up 54 percent of the construction group's backlog as of end-March. The group's operations in Egypt have slowed since president Hosni Mubarak was ousted from power in February. OCI's construction business makes 81 percent of its revenue outside Egypt. "Despite political unrest in our key regional markets during the quarter, we feel confident that infrastructure spending will continue to accelerate in order to stimulate these markets' economies and create immediate employment," Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Nassef Sawiris said in a statement. OCI said first-quarter consolidated revenue increased 28 percent to $1.3 billion and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) rose by 43 percent to $334.7 million. OCI's fertilizer group sold over 1.1 million tons of nitrogen-based fertilizers during the quarter compared with 0.47 million during the same period last year.
