Granite Construction poised for strong start to 2019

Roberts

Erratic, wet weather in the West factored into Granite Construction’s year-end 2018 results, but the company finished its fiscal year with revenue up 11 percent and adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) up 39 percent year-over-year.

“Our hard work in 2018 has Granite well prepared for a great 2019,” says James Roberts, Granite president and CEO. “With strong demand, healthy backlog and near-record committed materials volumes, we are enthusiastically poised for a strong start to the year once Mother Nature allows.”

Granite is also increasingly optimistic that infrastructure investment is an opportunity that will produce significant, incremental and long-term funding solutions for America’s crumbling infrastructure.

“We believe logic will ultimately prevail in Washington, D.C., in 2019,” Roberts says. “Our optimistic outlook for 2019 and beyond excludes the potential enactment of a federal infrastructure bill, which, if passed, would further enhance long-term stability in the overall market, while driving growth most likely beginning in late 2020.”

The defeat of California’s Proposition 6 last November marked a significant opportunity for Granite’s transportation segment, Roberts adds.

“This result preserved the 10-year, $52.4 billion Senate Bill 1, the Road Repair and Accountability Act of 2017 (SB 1),” he says. “SB 1 is one of more than two dozen state and local transportation and infrastructure measures passed since 2015 that will drive Granite’s growth and profitability for years to come.

“Strong demand trends also are evidence of growth opportunities for our growing specialty segment, including tunnel, mining, power, and site development,” Roberts adds. “Our water segment backlog increased significantly year-over-year, and the segment’s bidding environment remains healthy against a backdrop of steadily improving public and municipal water infrastructure funding. We do not see the dynamics of this robust market slowing down for the foreseeable future.”