Good morning, everyone, and welcome to TR's First Quarter 2025 results presentation. It's going to be conducted by our Chairman, Juan Lladó, and our CEO, Eduardo San Miguel. It's going to last approximately 20 minutes, and you will be able to post your questions after the final remarks. Now, I'll leave the floor to our Chairman, Juan Lladó.
Thank you, Antonio. Good morning to everyone. As usual, Eduardo and I will be conducting this presentation. First of all, I will share with you the main key performance indicators that we have achieved this first quarter, following with our most important awards this first quarter together, which is as important about how do we see our pipeline. Just do it, you know, and more give some color to our pipeline. Afterwards, Eduardo will continue with an update of the new areas of growth that we consider very relevant for TR in the upcoming years. He, as always, will drive you through all the relevant financial figures for this quarter. Finally, I will wrap up this presentation with closing remarks.
Let's start with highlights. We have six relevant numbers here, and I have it easy this time. Let's start with the first one.
We started this quarter with an order intake of 7.3 billion. 7.3 billion that has a very large percentage have to do with a very important job, which is Lower Zakum that we spent some minutes before afterwards. Very important. It very much reflects TR's capacity, quality, and delivery capacity to our customers. Obviously, this order intake translates into a very solid diversify. I like to use records because this is not a race of records put up, put up. It is a very solid 14.9 billion backlog that obviously gives us comfort and visibility. Intake and backlog translating, and that has to do to our delivery capacity and our strategy put in place over the last two years to 1.3 billion of sales.
1.3 billion of sales, which gives us a return of EUR 56 million of EBIT, which translates that we had very much anticipated to an EBIT margin of 4.3%. All these five numbers ended up with the sixth highlight. We give some color to everything, which is the net cash position of 423 million. Six very important numbers to start the presentation. Now let's just move straight to the next slide, which is order intake and backlog. If you see the order intake, the left-side graph, quarter by quarter, it is what the business is c hunky and difficult to predict. Probably for the managers, we do not see this chunkiness because we see where we are, and we cannot announce or book jobs until they are signed or we are allowed to. It is chunky. It is chunky.
I do remember last year when we were making this presentation, you were asking me, how do you see the end of the year? Are you going to be able to replace sales? How do you see the awards? Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. If you see them all together, last year was a very successful year in terms of awards, quarter after quarter, with quality, diversification, and customers and regions. It was a very good year. This year, some of the queries and anxiety that was reflected last year has disappeared because we have started with two very important awards. Two very important awards.
The business that we want to be, which is the upstream business, oil and gas upstream, both Vaca Muerta that we have already talked about before, and it's super important, Lower Zakum, that we're going to devote some minutes to you on the next slide. These awards allow us to present the market, a smooth grow in our backlog. It's a very smooth growth in the backlog that put us at a very strong position. We reached 14.9 billion, close to 15 billion backlog. This is a solid growth that allows to put us to give visibility to the market, to tell the market, and to tell you that we're working in the products and with the customers that we want to work with. If you see the quality of the awards, it's not very difficult to anticipate that we're going to have more.
I mean, its backlog, what it gives to the market, is present and future. We are very proud to show you this backlog. We are with whom we want to be and in the markets that we want to grow. Let's move to our next slide, which is Lower Zakum. I think this is very, there is a lot of information on this slide. If you remember a year ago, we had our Capital Markets Day in Abu Dhabi. We decided to do it in Abu Dhabi because we thought that in that country, in that region, in the heart of the Emirates, you could see the best of TR. It was there that we presented to you our four-year strategy, our south strategy. It is there where TR was performing at its best. We took you on a helicopter.
Some people thought that we may be showing off. We were not. We wanted to show you how we were performing in the islands. You have to learn how to perform in the big islands in Abu Dhabi. We show you the Dutch islands, which is a brownfield, very difficult to work on, where we were working in two projects. We also show you, and we flew through a huge model yard. In this case, with the models that we were designing and constructing to be delivered to the port of Antwerp. Today, those models are the largest models ever built, and they have never gone to that port, Antwerp. They are being successful, being in sample and construction in Antwerp, working at a very good pace. It is TR at its best.
I think with this job, Lower Zakum, what the customer is asking is asking again TR at its best. They want to work with us, and we want to work with them with ADNOC Offshore, with whom we've only worked on FEED, on engineering. We've never done with that division of ADNOC, which is the upstream offshore division, the most sophisticated division we have never worked before. What they ask for us is TR at its best. This is a big job. We want to be by ourselves. It's a five-year job, and we're fully committed with the customer to try to shorten the schedule. This is a job that we have to design and deploy more than 1 million man-hours in our home office with the support of, obviously, our satellite engineering offices.
Our customer will have to come to Madrid and work together on that home office engineer to design models that have to be transported to an island, which is 100 km away, which is the Alhambra island. This is a green field. This is not Dutch islands. It's not very far from the one you have seen, some of you, through those helicopters. On this job, you will see, as we prosper, the best of TR by yourself working for ADNOC, to whom I'd like to thank on this presentation. You will see the best of TR, models design, offshore business, oil and gas upstream development, and big logistic efforts to reduce those five years by a few months and make this job as profitable as we can for our customer. Very important job. I think we can move to the next slide.
With that slide, we can after that, soak the story, which is that award, let's move of where we are in terms of our commercial front, our pipeline. The momentum, as I said in my notes, is extremely solid. Obviously, there are macro uncertainties in the market, but our customers are asking us to bid, and we're very actively bidding for more than EUR 66 billion of our pipeline. The pipeline is very much diversified, very much diversifying customers and geographies. It is surprising that almost 30% of that pipeline comes out of North America, which is I like to start because geographically is there. I mean, not everything will be EPC. As you know, in North America, we'll be working EP Construction Management, engineering, construction, and procurement services. We're going to be partnership construction schemes.
That North America includes Canada, where we're already working there, doing engineering with important customers, includes the United States, includes Mexico, and includes Panama, where we're already working there with an American customer, which is part of our strategy. This is the extended North America, not only United States. It is very important that we're very much focused on that region. 55%, and we've always said we like to be there, and we want to be there, and we're going to grow there. It is the Middle East. It is the Middle East in petrochemicals. It is the Middle East in gas. It is the Middle East in transition energy, big time. It is the Middle East where we're very well known, and we know how to deliver, and we know how to perform, and our customers know so.
Obviously, the rest, Europe, which is Europe, is Germany. Obviously, we continue. We have expectations of growing in Germany. We are growing in the rest of Europe. Obviously, Latin America, it is always a land that gives us opportunities here and there, and we are always very well positioned. Remember, you have seen Vaca Muerta. You have seen that we are working through. You have seen that we are working Chile. We have strong and solid opportunities in North America. There is something we should not forget. I mean, that is the geography split. I think let us not forget about decarbonization. On this slide, which has a lot of information, it is very relevant that we have split on regions, 15 billion of future, extremely tangible opportunities, which are very closely related to decarbonization.
Out of which 2 billion correspond to opportunities, which are pure service projects, which is 2 billion in pure service projects. It is a lot done compared with EPC, purely focused on TRAC and services business units. Very much aligned with our south strategy that we are presenting quarter after quarter. After this presentation, highlight awards, Lower Zakum, and pipeline. I leave the floor to Eduardo, which will continue with the presentation.
Thank you, Juan. Good morning, everyone. Juan has outlined the opportunities that we foresee in the coming years. A EUR 66 billion pipeline is a number that brings us a high level of comfort for the short future. In TR, we all believe there are three areas that demand a bit more dedicated analysis to understand well its full potential. We are talking about the U.S.A., the power unit, and the energy transition.
First, the U.S. market. For a company like ours, the new energy policy implemented by the U.S. government can only be considered as a unique opportunity. Traditional energy sources, and more specifically oil and LNG, will be the primary investment drivers during the next five years. Our generation, linked to artificial intelligence and data centers, will be the other driver. All those are areas where we have a solid expertise recognized by Tier 1 clients outside and inside the US. Also, as you are aware, we moved our headquarters in North America from Calgary to Houston when we did it. The purpose was to our primary strategy was to focus in the decarbonization projects. In this sense, we still see blue ammonia will play an important role in the medium term. We will leverage our commercial effort on the proven track record and strong recognition from our U.S. customers.
We are also closing alliances with construction partners that consolidate our proposal for the American market. We currently have a EUR 10 billion pipeline in the U.S., it is a very solid pipeline, and we are confident we will capture a part of it. In fact, we are already involved in a number of FEED and profits that could potentially be converted into larger projects. To summarize, I would say the volume of opportunities we are facing now exceeds by far our original expectations. Second, the power business unit. Last year, when we were in Abu Dhabi in our Capital Markets Day, we devoted an entire section to explain the importance of this business unit to us.
In the past year, I have always considered power generation, and specifically the construction of gas combined cycles, as a solid and reliable activity that delivers consistent margins but without a significant growth ahead. Today, in a world that demands electrification for environmental and artificial intelligence purposes, this view has become absolutely obsolete. There is, and there will be, a huge demand for our power services because of three reasons. First, TR has more than 50 years of experience in the execution of power plants. No one else has this track record. Second, TR has strategic partnerships and works today at the same time with the four turbine suppliers in the sector, GE Vernova, Mitsubishi, Ansaldo, and Siemens.
Third, TR already has a strong presence in all regions of the world where we believe the demand for electrification is going to grow, basically U.S., Middle East, and Europe. The pipeline we have identified for the upcoming 18 months amounts to EUR 12 billion. Again, we are confident that we will be successful capturing a part of this pipeline. The power unit will finally be a very relevant part of our P&L and our margin in the next decade. Third, the energy transition. We believe there is an excess of pessimism regarding decarbonization. It is a fact that there are delays regarding the final investment decision of many projects. It is also true that the time needed to obtain a final investment decision from our energy transition clients is much longer than the time required by our traditional clients.
Aligning all the drivers of this huge new business cannot happen overnight. Técnicas Reunidas and TRAC are already well positioned to become a major player in decarbonization, with expertise already in place in three areas: blue and green ammonia, carbon capture, and sustainable aviation fuels. In those three areas, we see clients with a profitable business plan trying to find the right momentum to launch their investments. Like in power generation, all these investments will mainly happen in three regions where we already have solid experience executing projects: Europe, North America, and the Middle East. As I said before, the energy transition is progressing slowly, but it is here to stay. I am quite sure that these projects will be an important part of our backlog in the coming years, as we are already working with a pipeline of more than EUR 15 billion.
Regarding the energy transition, I would like to highlight the recent agreement that TRAC has signed with BBVA. As announced a month ago, TR and BBVA have signed a memorandum of understanding with the aim of promoting the development of initiatives and projects linked to the energy transition and the decarbonization of the economy. This agreement establishes a collaboration framework to strengthen the business of TRAC by identifying additional growth opportunities and to search ways of financing this growth. Why the BBVA? Because the bank has set a target for its sustainable business pipeline of 700 billion for the next four years, 700 billion for the next four years, a figure that more than doubles its previous target of 300 billion for the period 2018-2025. We firmly believe this move will provide us solid support for the expansion of energy transition activities.
Now let's move to the financial chapter of the presentation. Net sales of the first quarter reached EUR 1.3 billion, 30% higher than in the first quarter of 2024 and 6% higher than in the previous quarter. It is not a surprise. The current backlog enabled TR to achieve one of its highest quarterly sales ever and provide strong revenue visibility for the coming quarters. EBIT in the first quarter has grown up to EUR 56 million, an increase of 40% compared to the first quarter 2024. More relevant, EBIT margin versus sales is already at 4.3%, moving towards the 4.5% we expect as an average for the year. I would also like to point out that we did an analysis of the impact that tariffs imposed by the U.S. could have in our backlog.
The outcome of this analysis is that there should not be a relevant impact in our costs due to this fact. To summarize, the first quarter has finally been a quarter of significant growth, both in terms of sales and margins, aligned with our guidance for the full year 2025. Balance sheet figures are improving as well. The net cash position at the end of March 2025 increased to EUR 423 million, a level that compares to 333 million one year ago. Cash conversion of profits and the improvement of payment terms contribute to this growth.
Once again, and I'm extremely sorry for being so repetitive, I would like to emphasize that in the current market, the scenario where customers are asking us to execute fast track projects, the smartest use of cash is not to accumulate it in our balance sheet, but to transfer it to suppliers and enable them to accelerate their work as much as possible. Regarding our equity, we continue to strengthen it. We ended this first quarter of 2025 with a sound position of EUR 626 million, including CEPIS, PPL. If we do not consider it, we already have reached a figure above EUR 450 million. We are solidly back to pre-pandemic levels. As a summary, financial figures reflect well the healthy operations of the company. Now let me give back the floor to Juan for the final remarks.
Hello everyone again. I think these presentations are like two sentiments. This is a good presentation. It is thanks to the effort made by all TR professionals or TR employees that has allowed us to have today a very solid backlog of EUR 15 billion. EUR 15 billion with the strong risk mitigation measures that we have put in place, which give us visibility for the coming next month, very much aligned with our Southwest strategy. It is also a message of a good and solid delivery of our projects, which translates into a good and solid profitability growth. This is allowing us to increase our operating margins and again meeting our targets very much in line with our SALTA strategies.
With these two messages, I feel very comfortable to reaffirm first our 2025 guidance of sales of more than EUR 5.2 billion and an EBIT margin in the range of 4.5%, as Eduardo has said. Second, we have an ambition, which is more consultants to the term, but we have an objective, full objective of increasing our sales levels above EUR 5.5 billion and an EBIT margin above 5% in 2025, and a very firm commitment of returning to our dividend paying policy. This is the solid margin. As we talked before, you remember well that about a year ago we had a capital markets day in Abu Dhabi, and this is the same day date.
I mean, we're planning, we have already decided to organize a short Capital Markets Day, getting together here, our premises in Madrid, to have a simplified version of a Capital Markets Day where we could revise the status of our SALTA strategy. I think it'll be a very good opportunity to sit here for a few hours in our premises and to really understand who we are, where we are, and who we're working for, and where our ambitions to be in the very near future. With this message, very important, with this saving the date, save it, please, I'll open the floor to any questions that you may want to pose. Thank you very much.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the Q&A session starts now. If you wish to ask an audio question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. Again, that would be star one to ask a question. Your first question comes from the line of Ignacio Domenech with JB Capital. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Good morning. Thank you for taking my questions. The first one is on the 2025 outlook. You reiterated the guidance, but if we simply analyze the first quarter revenue figure, you appear to be comfortably on track, or even there's a chance you could exceed these targets. If you could elaborate on the key drivers you see supporting this pace of execution, especially taking into account that in the last 9 months, I think you've been awarded somewhere north of 8 billion in projects. I would assume that some of these would start to accelerate in the coming months. My second question is related with the current macro outlook. I think, Juan, you mentioned a 24-month commercial pipeline of EUR 66 billion, which is slightly below what you presented in Abu Dhabi last year.
Of course, there's been a significant amount of awards since then. If you could give us some color on what you are currently seeing in the market, particularly from a client activity and bidding perspective, and also in terms of your activity, being more downstream focused, if this should help mitigate a bit the impact on the regional price volatility that we are seeing. Thank you.
Hi, Ignacio. It's Eduardo. Thanks for the question. First of all, we are predicting EUR 5.2 billion for the year. I think this is something like a 15% increase compared to last year. First, we are already predicting a very material growth for the year. Second, you're Spanish. You will understand the joke. I want to go much by much, quarter by quarter. Its of June, Sorry, It is 15 May. I already know what's going to be the volume of sales of this quarter, of this second quarter, and it will be again 1,300 or give or take. It will be around that figure. It is not good to predict since you have grown in the last quarter, you will grow again next quarter. No, it does not work in that way.
I will give you something that is important for me and for all of us. There are no lists of three big projects in our backlog where the clients are demanding to construct the projects under fast track schedules. We need to sit with them and analyze if potentially this could impact in the delivery of revenues within this year, 2024, because we need to accelerate somehow. We need to sit with the clients. For the time being, our guidance is 5.2 , and I think it's a fair number. The second question, I will leave Juan to answer it.
Yeah, I'll try to answer the question the best I can. I don't know if I get a full feeling of what I have to answer to you, but I mean, obviously, if you compare pipelines, they get pipelines. It is very difficult, obviously, taking into account that of the 72 to just our sales, we have taken a chunk of 9 billion in sales, I mean, in awards. That has been taken out. It is growing. It is a moving target. Pipelines is the measure of where we are and whom we are. Some of the pipelines are EPC, some others are services. Our service bidding is growing, and it's growing very fast. It is a variable. I mean, 6.6 billion is big. It is solid. It is two years of the jobs, which reflects the opportunities that we are ready to engage with customers.
This is not market size. These are the real opportunities that are, which most of them we are fully engaged with the customers, with pre-qualifying, being pre-qualified, bidding, discussing. I mean, 66 billion is very good. After a year, I lost the feeling of what it meant, the 72 of a year ago. All I can tell you is that we have been successful, and we have taken a chunk of 9 billion from that date that we were presented that number, which is good. If we're focused downstream to protect ourselves, I'm not sure what we have to be protected of. I'm a bit lost. What I can tell you is what we focus on. We're very much focused, which we continue being demanded of gas developing jobs. Gas continues to grow from conventional gas and unconventional gas in the Middle East enough, big time.
Because it is needed for the downstream. It is needed for the petrochemicals on which we are already focused. You have seen some very important awards this year. You will continue seeing awards as we move forward. It is fully downstream, petrochemicals. Also, gas is needed for power. There is a big need of power for both countries, for the need that the Middle East, and also for the growth of the data centers. There is a shortage of power. That power is very closely related to gas development. Obviously, we are growing. As Eduardo has said, quarter after quarter, month after month, customers have come on transition, energy transition in general. We are moving very much on decarbonization and different sources of biofuels. This is what we focus on. We have not lost track.
I don't understand what you mean by protecting ourselves, but we're happy on what we're very much focused. I mean, we're very much demanded.
Ignacio, do you have any follow-up?
No, thank you. Thank you very much. I just meant protected on the CapEx flexibility in upstream, which I would assume you are a bit more protected given the nature of your pipeline. Thank you.
Yeah, if you mean if we were protected from upstream or whatever, you have to realize that the pure upstream, which is drilling and production, we are not in. If you mean that, yes, we're better protected. We're more resilient to the market in that sense.
Thank you.
Your next question comes from the line of Kevin Roger with Kepler Cheuvreux , please go ahead.
Yes, good morning. Thanks for taking the time. The first one was also related in a sense on the phasing of the top line because I understand that many things can happen, etc. But mechanically, on the paper, should we agree that when the backlog is increasing and providing record visibility, it will mean that sequentially the quarterly revenue will increase? In that sense, when you said that the top line will be at 5.2 billion, you remain cautious on the projection that you are arguing for 2025. It's maybe to try to understand a bit more if there is some cautiousness or whatever in the numbers that you provide. The second one is maybe just, if I missed it, sorry for that, but just on the financial expense that were relatively high this quarter compared to, let's say, the past year.
To understand if there is a kind of one-off and what we should consider for the full year as a financial expense, please.
Okay, Kevin. You're right. Backlog is growing. As I said before, the guidance is growing as well. I mean, last year, we closed in 4.8 , if I'm not wrong, and now we're predicting 5.2 . That's a growth of 15%. It's true also that the backlog has grown above this 15%. I don't think we are being too conservative. I mean, we make our numbers. To be honest, I think for the time being, you should follow our advice. 5.2 represents what we're expecting for the year. Again, I think that's my main concern because I'm sending that message today. There are two projects, three huge projects, three huge projects in the Middle East that we are sitting on.
We are about to sit with the clients trying to find how to save time because clients are somehow desperate to accelerate the project because they want the project to start delivering. It can probably impact, but it is something that we cannot tell you now because, unfortunately, we do not still see a clear picture of what they want and about what can be done. Obviously, we are trying always to be conservative because we do not want to make mistakes. Please do not believe that there is a hidden volume of revenues now that we do not want to anticipate. Once we know where the new projects or these new projects accelerate will end, we will be telling the market what is the correct number for the year. That is the only thing I can tell you now.
Regarding financial expense, I think there is not a one-off. We have a problem there. There are two, there is a one-off regarding hyperinflation in Argentina, I think, but this is, I do not know how relevant is this because it is around EUR 2 million- EUR 3 million this quarter. It has more to do with the cost of the PPL we have with the Spanish government. This hybrid loan has a cost now of around 8.5%. It is extremely expensive. That is why we have told the market many times that we perfectly understand that it is very convenient for us to have the government by our side because clients see us as a more reliable company. That is a fact. Simultaneously, we understand that the cost is too high, and we need to find the right moment to repay it.
The message was clear one month ago, two months ago when we were closing the figures of December, last February. The message was, "Next September, we will be telling you exactly when we are going to repay the PPL." That is the idea. We want to analyze everything carefully. Please know we are managing a backlog of EUR 15 billion. There are very big opportunities ahead of us. It is complex how to manage the cash, how to manage the PPL, the revenues. We need 15,000 people to deliver this backlog. We are managing very significant figures, and we have to be careful. Regarding your question, the problem here or the big impact here has to do with the PPL that in the worst scenario, will be repaid next June, 2026. It will last another 12 months. That is the worst scenario.
Okay. Perfect. Understood. Thanks for that.
Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Robert Jackson with Banco Santander . Please go ahead.
Hi, Kevin. Good morning, everybody. My question is related to you, Eduardo. I know it's related to the North American backlog. It represents 30%, and that's very surprising. Positively surprised. I know you've been traveling and doing a lot of work in the U.S. looking for opportunities. That was pre-Trump. I don't know if what you saw in the U.S. then and what's in the backlog now, there's any risks that things could change. What is your strategy for the next 12 months in terms of doing more commercial activity in the North American market so we can better understand where the North American market is heading in your pipeline? That would be my main question.
Hi, Robert. Good question. First of all, I think we need to split the pipeline between a number of countries because when we talk about North America, as Juan has explained, we're talking about Canada, the United States, Panama, and Mexico. 28% of EUR 15 billion is around how many countries? EUR 18 billion. EUR 18 billion. EUR 18 billion. Half of this amount comes from the States, but the other 8 billion has to do basically with projects in Panama, Mexico, Canada. The good news regarding those three countries, except in Mexico, is that we are talking about projects that have been launched by American customers. Okay. It is the result. It is the result of our activity in the states that we can obtain new projects, win new projects in the surrounding countries.
If we go to the United States, where I believe is where your question is going to, it's a fact. Who can deny that Mr. Trump has an impact in the economy and in the strategies of the companies around the world? It's a fact. The energy transition world, the energy transition world, the feeling we have or the feeling we had that everything could be booming soon, obviously has been postponed, but it's also a fact that there are plenty of European players or American players that are willing to export blue ammonia from the states to Europe. And because of the IRA's support, it makes a lot of financial sense to keep on investing in those activities. It's true that everything seems to move slower in the United States, but I see the European clients and the American partners being very firm in their investment decisions.
The only problem is they need some time because under the actual uncertain scenario, they need more time to be sure about the outcome of the project they are going to invest in. But they are firm. Believe me, they are very, very firm. That is regarding the energy transition. And regarding the other potential investments and activities, it is true that everyone is a bit concerned about what is going to happen because of the tariffs. The policy of Mr. Trump has been a bit aggressive, but they are taking their time, but they are willing to invest. What is extremely clear is that the power comes very soon. In fact, we are already bidding for a large project for one of the major oil companies in the U.S. The project will be awarded within this year. It will be awarded the fifth phase.
Probably it will be a competitive fit, but we see the power already coming. It is here. There are many projects of carbon capture also and projects of LNG on the table. Again, the feeling we have is that the projects are there and the clients are willing to construct the plants. The problem is they need some time to be sure about everything is properly fixed in the macroeconomic and to launch the project. Honestly speaking, we have not modified our strategy. We are very focused in the energy transition world, but also we have had the chance to talk to many clients, and they have had the opportunity to learn about our expertise in oil, in gas, in petchem. They want to be with us.
We haven't changed the strategy, but it's a fact that the volume of opportunities is higher than it was when we were talking just about pure energy transition. We are very optimistic when we see the yesterday, we were analyzing with the board of directors not the potential awards of 2025, but the potential awards I'm talking about, not EPCs, but big projects next year, 2026. The States had a presence. It was relevant, the volume of opportunities. We believe we have a good chance to be awarded next year. We are more than happy with the United States now.
Let me ask something. If you were here, if somebody made the effort to take a chair and sit in our office here at the entrance, where we have a big screen where we welcome our customers when they come to visit us, you'll be seeing it didn't happen before. That is a good sign. It is very rarely the week that we haven't got here in our premises a newest customer that some of them we have never worked before, and we are already working on pre-FEED or FEED studies. We're talking to the big ones that come here, they sit with our premises, they launch the jobs, they audit us, which is good news. They visit us. I mean, the activity of the U.S., which is, I mean, let's be honest with you, it's a new market for us.
We landed there only in reality two years ago and in full flesh just only a year ago. We are being, and let me tell you, extremely successful. I mean, we have contracts, we have customers, we're bidding, we have strong partners, construction partners, and a lot of opportunities. That is why we have put North America and the U.S., what are we seeing in terms of a pipeline, which is big, which is big.
Yeah. I think, Eduardo, you answered my question by saying that talking to the board next year, 2026, the U.S. potential awards looks higher. That looks encouraging. Thank you very much, good answers.
Now I feel the pressure.
Your next question comes from the line of Juan Cánovas with Alantra. Please go ahead.
Hello. I've got a couple of questions. The first one is on those Middle Eastern projects that your customers are asking you to deliver earlier, can you give us a timeline for your decision on whether that will be possible? Also, I would like to know whether you could give us an update on your project disputes, the ones in Finland and the others, whether there is anything new on that side of things. Finally, given the huge order backlog that you have and the massive potential new backlog, how are you thinking about capacity? I mean, are you constrained? Could you really execute those projects if you got a high level of awards? That's it. Thank you.
Juan will focus on the first two questions and about capacity constraints. Eduardo is going to answer you. If you ask your protagonist, it's not an issue of when you sit with a customer and you have billions of dollar jobs, you don't say, "Okay, let's give us three months whether we could reduce or not the schedule." These jobs have started, kickoff meets have taken place. You have to pause with the long lead items. I mean, the equipment that has to be placed and see whether you can negotiate with them to deliver a few months earlier. If that's the case, you have to negotiate and find out whether all the bulk material can be on time, so c onstruction, pure detail construction can take place. You have to find out and negotiate whether construction companies have enough resources to accelerate. It's an ongoing business.
I cannot tell you whether in two months we have reached an agreement or not. You're together with the customer, pulsing whether you can deliver or finish the job as the market is following suppliers' reactions. The message is that, and the good message, it's a better message to see to have customers that want to run, than customers that do not want to run. That's the important message that we like to launch here. I cannot answer you whether we're going to make a decision as we don't have to make a decision in the next two, three, four months. As soon as we fall through the customers that we can reduce, we'll be more than happy to reduce the schedule, obviously. That's what we get paid for. It's good news. That's the message.
Disputes, let me tell you, we feel comfortable with our disputes. We do believe that this year is going to be a good year to finalize some of our major disputes that we very much focus on. Obviously, this is not the place in public to talk about disputes. I do not like to do so. As in many cases, I have to talk about customers. I do not think it is correct. The message is we are comfortable that a large percentage of our disputes will be very much finished this year. Eduardo will answer the third question.
Regarding our capacity for going growing, my answer is first. For this year, 2025, we need very few additional people. We have already done the homework, and the people we have at home is enough to deliver the existing backlog. We are ambitious. We want to go on growing. As you are more than aware, the idea is we want to focus as much as we can in the service sector, and it is very intensive in terms of human resources. Last week, I went to Abu Dhabi, for example, at a meeting with a top manager of ADNOC. I was visiting our premises. It was three months since the last time I was there. Three months ago, there were 250 people, I think, or 300. Now there are 500 people.
We are growing very fast in our satellite engineering offices around the world, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Turkey. I mean, it's not that difficult to grow in those engineering offices. The main answer to your question has to do with India. India. It's incredible the way we are growing in India. We already have around slightly less of 2,000 people. I think it's 1.6, 1.7, 1.8. I don't know exactly the number today. We have an affiliate in Bangalore. We have another one in Chennai. We are planning for the next year probably, or the year after, to open a third one in Mumbai. Here we have all, we already have all the disciplines, all the engineering disciplines available in those offices. They are managed sometimes from Spanish managers that have been expatriated there.
In many cases, the management has already been done by locals that have been working for us for many years, and now they can be the leaders of the different disciplines in this country. If today we were willing to send a full unit to India, it could be done, for sure. We have no concerns about that. It is a fact that we want to maintain always a mix between Spanish engineering and Indian engineering. The huge potential of growth is there by far. I do not know exactly the numbers. Unfortunately, I do not have them in my mind, but in the last two or three years, we have multiplied by four probably the number of professionals we have in India. There is room for improvement. There are other players in the market and other companies from other sectors.
We see the volume of human resources being managed in India, and there is no limit in this market in India. So anything we need, we can get it from that country. Saying so, the purpose is not to do everything in India. I mean, we are Spanish, we are Europeans, and we want to maximize as much as we can the volume of resources here in Spain. That is our target. It is a fact that we probably will be opening new branches. We currently have one in Madrid, another one in Cartagena, the third one in Bilbao. We are planning to open a new one in the short term. If you want to capture Spanish professionals, you need to move to the cities where they are living.
We will find our strategies, but we are confident that there will be not a bottleneck in our growth because of the human resources.
Thank you for your answers. May I have a very quick follow-up, just asking what data you're thinking about for the CMD update? Thank you.
Sorry, I had it written down that it's going to be, we'll be more precise, but it's going to be the week of the 22nd of September. That is, 22nd is on Monday.
Okay. Thank you.
Okay.
Your next question comes from the line of Filepe Leite with CaixaBank . Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning, everyone. I have just one final question regarding revenue split and if you can give us the contribution of service contract to both revenues and EBIT just to understand what part of margin expansion in this quarter is related with me. Thank you.
Hi, Filipe. I want to be cautious. I will provide you an accurate answer to your question and everything that has to do with the future of the service division next September in our Capital Markets Day. To give you a hint of where we are today, for the year, we were planning services amounting to around EUR 200 million. Give or take, in this third quarter, we are aligned with those EUR 200 million. We are in the range of EUR 50 million of services. That's a number. Let me be cautious because I don't still have very detailed analysis. I prefer to share it with you once I have a deep understanding of where we are and where we are going to. Again, we are quite confident that it shouldn't be a major challenge to achieve the results we expect for this year, 2025.
Okay. Thank you. Perfect.
We have no further questions at this time. I would like to turn it back to our presenters for closing remarks.
Okay. Thank you very much for listening to this presentation. Thank you very much for posing questions and participating actively. I think all of us will be talking again on the 31st of July with the first half of the year results. Then again, very soon, after a quick rest in September, on the week of the 22nd, which is going to be our great capital markets gathering. Thank you very much again.
Thank you, presenters. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.