Estaba revisando la earnings call del mes pasado de TRE y se confirma lo que escribía en un post anterior
Eduardo San Miguel
I think working capital has not significantly changed from last quarter to the actual one. I think accounts receivables have grown €50 million more than what the accounts payroll have grown. So working capital has deteriorated around €50 million. It's a fact that I think that's the most relevant trend that both accounts receivable and accounts payable are growing above the figures we have in the past. And maybe that's the main trend we are facing now.
And it has to do with the fact that working in the Middle East, it's very difficult to invoice as fast as we wish. We need to wait till the milestones arise and then we can invoice. The point is that if you have a concentration of procurement in the Middle East and that's the case today both in Fadilia [ph] and Herat. What you do is you pile large amounts of services rendered that you cannot invoice. So you need to reach the milestone and that's what it is currently doing. And that's why we have such a big amount of accounts receivable. And well probably we have less cash than expected.
What can we expect from now until the end of the year? I think that -- well we will see some projects basically in the Middle East in Kuwait and also in America in South America and in Peru where we will be allowed to invoice large amounts that can be invoiced now once we have signed the attendees to certain contracts.
So what we will say is that amounts to be invoiced hopefully a large part of these new invoices will be collected and what you will see significant reductions of amounts to be collected for the clients or accounts receivable. Consequently we will be paying our suppliers and we will see also a reduction of accounts payable.
So the figures we currently have are very big. They will become a smaller idea end of the year. But the overall, I mean the working capital, it always depends if I have to advance some money to my suppliers or if I can't collect something quicker from my clients. But I think – well, we haven't seen major changes. It's stable from the last quarter to third quarter. It's not a major difference. And I think the point is and where we are very focused on that is how to reduce this amount of accounts receivable and of accounts payable. I think that's the target.
En estos negocios, siempre es así. El crecimiento te penaliza en este aspecto y llega un momento en el que la deuda / liquidez termina siendo un problema serio.
Y a medida que los contratos son más grandes, como es el caso, las condiciones de facturación son más leoninas de forma que el impacto financiero empieza a comerse el margen operativo de los propios contratos.
Coincido con @jackrackham, estos negocios son una porquería para los inversores. Es puro trading de tendencia. Así que cuidado para los valientes.
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