Thanks, operator. Good afternoon to everyone, and thank you for joining The HOCHTIEF Results Call for the first nine months of 2021. I'm Mike Pinkney, the head of corporate strategy, and I'm here with our Chief Executive, Marcelino Fernández, our CFO, Peter Sassenfeld, and our head of capital markets, Tobias Loskamp, along with other colleagues from the senior management team of HOCHTIEF. We look forward to taking your questions, but to begin with, our CEO will run us through the key highlights of the numbers. Marcelino, all yours.
Thank you, Mike and the team. Good afternoon to everyone, and thanks for joining us. During the first 9 months of 2021, HOCHTIEF has delivered a resilient performance despite the different impacts of COVID in our core markets, with solid increases in profits, cash flow, and new orders. The group ended the period with a net cash position and had an order backlog of EUR 551.2 billion, which now stands well above the pre-COVID December 2019 level. Highlights, key highlights. In the nine-month period, HOCHTIEF has delivered a nominal net profit of EUR 294 million. This represents a 19% increase on a like for like basis, adjusting for the divestments of 50% of this. Nominal earnings per share were 22% higher.
Operational net profit of EUR 322 million rose year-on-year by 13% like for like. Margins remained firm across our operating divisions with the group operational PBT margin up slightly at 2.9% pre-Abertis. The EUR 43 million profit contribution from our stake in Abertis compares with the EUR 4 million loss in the corresponding period of 2020. HOCHTIEF's cash generation improved during the first nine months of 2021. Net cash from operating activities increased by EUR 47 million year-on-year reflecting, driven by an improved working capital performance. The group ended September 2021 with a net cash position of EUR 28 million, ahead of the seasonally strong fourth quarter. New orders increased by 40% year-on-year to EUR 22.5 billion, already exceeding the total for 2020, while maintaining a disciplined bidding approach.
As a consequence, the group saw the book of EUR 51.2 billion is up EUR 5.4 billion or 12% since December 2020, and now stands well above the pre-COVID December 2019 level of EUR 48.3 billion. Cash flow details. Net cash from operating activities increased by EUR 47 million year-on-year pre-factoring to EUR 79 million, driven by an improved working capital performance. The third quarter year-on-year variation reflects temporary project timing effects at Americas. Looking at the last 12 months to adjust for seasonality factors, the group achieved over EUR 800 million in net cash from underlying operating activities pre-factoring or EUR 736 million at the free cash flow level from operations after CapEx.
After accounting for net CapEx of EUR 40 million, free cash flow pre-factoring was an inflow of EUR 39 million compared with the outflow of EUR 58 million last year, and the last twelve months figure stands at EUR 736 million. Looking forward, management is confident that the fourth quarter will see HOCHTIEF deliver a seasonally strong cash generation performance as is characteristic of the final three months of the year. Let's take a look at the balance sheet. HOCHTIEF ended the period with a net cash position of EUR 28 million. Considering the variation year to date, I will highlight that if we adjust for the change in factoring, reduced by EUR 300 million since December, the net cash position would stand at EUR 328 million.
In terms of liquidity, the group's position remains strong at EUR 5.1 billion with a further EUR 2.6 billion of unused credit facility. Ahead of the seasonally strong fourth quarter, our balance sheet remains sound, and we are well positioned to the remainder of 2021 and beyond. Now we're going to show some of our major recent project wins, such as in Americas, Turner Joint Venture will build a new veterans medical center in Kentucky for a total contract value of $840 million. In Berkeley, California, Turner will construct a new building which will house the university's Computer and Data Science Center. As a part of a joint venture, Flatiron secured a $430 million project for the widening and rehabilitation of the I-95 highway in North Carolina.
In Europe, as part of a joint venture, HOCHTIEF will reconvert and refurbish a building complex in Berlin at the city's Alexanderplatz. CIMIC has announced a number of significant project wins, including CPB Contractors is leading a joint venture which has been chosen for a AUD 1.2 billion Warringah freeway project to improve the northern approach to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. This incentivized target cost style contract allows for the extensive collaboration between the contractors and the New South Wales government, supporting better outcomes for all parties. UGL services business, as a part of a joint venture, has been awarded a NZD 600 million contract over an initial term of 8 years to operate Auckland's passenger rail network.
Back in Australia, CPB joint venture was selected by Inland Rail to execute civil works worth around AUD 1 billion for over 300 km of new track formation under a collaborative framework agreement. Let's analyze group orders and the trend. We consider they have continued on trend in a very positive fashion. New orders have increased year-on-year by over EUR 6 billion to EUR 22.5 billion, up by 40% compared with last year, and led by strong growth in the Asia-Pacific division. The value of group project wins in the nine months period already exceeds that for the whole of 2020. As a consequence, our book now stands at over EUR 51 billion, up 10% year-on-year, and about EUR 3 billion higher than the last pre-COVID figure, EUR 48.3 billion, reported for December 2019.
All our divisions show significant increases, both since September 2020 and also year to date. Almost half of our order book has been generated in North America, with a further 43% in the Asia-Pacific region and 8% in Europe. Now, let's look at Americas. HOCHTIEF Americas achieved a solid performance during the first nine months of the year, with stable profits accompanied by further order book growth. Sales year to date of EUR 10.1 billion were 5% lower than the corresponding period of 2020 on an FX adjusted basis, with work done stable, reflecting the completion of several large joint venture projects.
Operational EBITDA was steady at EUR 242 million, up slightly in local currency terms, with a robust margin of 2.4%, supported by the solid nature of the construction management activities, which account for the majority of the division's business. Division net cash from operating activities pre-factoring stood at EUR 69 million for the 9-month period of 2021. The year-on-year variation reflects some temporary project timing effects. Looking at the last 12 months to adjust for seasonality effects, net cash from operating activities remains strong at close to EUR 400 million pre-factoring, despite the impact of the pandemic. America's robust balance sheet showed a net cash position of over EUR 1.4 billion at the end of September, up by EUR 44 million year-on-year.
At the end of the period, the order book stood at EUR 24.9 billion, up 7% year-on-year, and has risen by EUR 2.3 billion so far in 2021. New orders of EUR 11 billion in the 9 months maintain the high level and are stable year-on-year in local currency, with work secured in the last 12 months representing 1.1x work done. Looking forward, the market fundamentals for our key segments are moving in the right direction. The U.S. non-residential market is expected to finish the year with significant growth with the commercial segment recovery. Office using industries in New York, for example, have regained almost 100% employment levels and office occupancy is expected to continue rising as many companies have defined return to work dates for this autumn.
Even as hybrid work models and remote work become common, technology firms have significantly expanded their commercial footprints across metro urban areas over the course of the last year. Turner is currently building Google's new $2 billion St. John's Terminal office in New York. New trends in office space design, such as higher layout flexibility, touchless technology, better air filtration, and video chat rooms have emerged to accommodate the expected blend of remote and office workers while ensuring safety and social distancing. All of these changes will require construction or modernization activity. In the meantime, growth continues in the healthcare and life sciences segments, and the data center market also continues to thrive with Turner well-positioned to benefit from its strong technology client base. Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act with an amendment that would provide nearly $1 trillion over 5 years from 2022 through 2026.
The bill will be voted by the House of Representatives in the next few days. The $1 trillion bill includes incremental funds to improve the nation's roads, bridges, broadband internet, water pipes, and various public works systems, which could generate additional opportunities for both Flatiron and Turner. In conclusion, we can confirm our operational PBT guidance at Americas business for 2021 of EUR 320 million-EUR 350 million, as well as the positive outlook for the business in 2022 and beyond. Now Asia Pacific. The Asia Pacific division, with CIMIC results published last week. Revenues increased by 7% year-on-year to AUD 7.1 billion in the nine months of 2021, driven by growth in Australian construction and services, and despite Q3 lockdowns in New South Wales, Victoria, and New Zealand.
A profit after tax, NPAT, of AUD 303 million compares with AUD 306 million in the prior year period. Operating cash flow pre-factoring improved by AUD 351 million year-on-year in 9 months, 2021. CIMIC is building positive cash flow momentum with the award of new projects and expects the characteristic seasonal fourth quarter improvement. Cash conversion last twelve months would have been 73% versus the 40% reported if adjusted for the Leighton Asia performance, which is expected to recover from Q4 onwards. Net debt ended the period at AUD 754 million, with the year-to-date movement, including the unwinding of 481 million of factoring, or AUD 81 million of factoring during the period, and AUD 187 million of dividends to shareholders in July.
New work of AUD 16 billion was awarded to CIMIC during the first nine months of 2021, and project win momentum remains strong. This is well above the pre-COVID nine months 2019 figure of AUD 11.5 billion. As a result, the September order book stands at AUD 35.1 billion, a 17% increase year-on-year. CIMIC confirmed its NPAT guidance for 2021 of AUD 400 million-AUD 430 million, subject to market conditions and excluding any one-off items such as the potential Ventia IPO. Now Europe. HOCHTIEF Europe continues to perform well. Sales were stable at EUR 940 million while maintaining the division's disciplined bidding approach. Operational PBT of EUR 40 million was also in line with the comparable period of 2020 and with a solid margin level.
Net cash from operating activities improved by EUR 55 million year-on-year, driven by the infrastructure business with a particularly strong Q3 result. At the end of September, the division's balance sheet maintained a strong net cash position of EUR 470 million, an increase of over EUR 220 million compared with a year ago. New orders in the period of EUR 1.35 billion show an increase year-on-year of almost EUR 300 million with an LTM figure of EUR 2.2 billion, equivalent to 1.4 x work done. The divisional order backlog of EUR 4.5 billion is now 18% higher than twelve months ago. For 2021, we expect operational PBT for Europe of EUR 40 million-EUR 60 million.
Now, let's summarize the performance of Abertis on the next slide, which shows a strong improvement. Profit levels at Abertis have continued to improve, and in Q3 were consistently above those registered in 2019 pre-COVID. Operating revenues rose 16% year-on-year in the third quarter to EUR 1.4 billion, with the EBITDA 21% higher at almost EUR 980 million. On a like-for-like basis, including the full consolidation of RCO, Mexico, and Elizabeth River Crossings, acquired during 2020 nine months, EBITDA was 27% higher at EUR 2.5 billion. Net profit pre PPA of EUR 560 million year-to-date increased by 60%.
The Abertis profit contribution to HOCHTIEF for our 20% stake was EUR 43 million during the period, which represents a EUR 47 million improvement from last year, with the third quarter more than double the Q3 2020 level. A dividend payment of EUR 601 million was made in April 2021, of which HOCHTIEF received its share of EUR 119 million. The proposed dividend policy for 2022 is EUR 600 million. The strategy at Abertis to invest in perpetuating the duration of its concession portfolio continues to advance. Earlier this month, the company announced an agreement with the Chilean government to invest over EUR 300 million in increasing the capacity of Autopista Central, the 62 km toll road, which is a critical transport link running through the capital, Santiago de Chile.
As part of the deal, the concession will be extended beyond its current 2032 expiry date. Now, let's finish up with the summary. HOCHTIEF's business outlook is steadily improving following the varied impacts of the pandemic across our group over the last 18 months or so. Our guidance for 2021 of operational net profit between EUR 410 million and EUR 460 million is confirmed, and this implies an increase of EUR 50 million-EUR 100 million year-on-year. Management expects a strong cash flow performance in Q4 due to improving underlying fundamentals as well as seasonality. Looking further ahead, the risk profile of our order book is evolving in a positive manner as the nature and the structure of our project contracts steadily move towards more collaborative models.
We're seeing strong new orders, new order growth, and have positive long-term prospects based on our significant pipeline of opportunities and the stimulus packages in our core markets. Furthermore, Abertis traffic levels are rising, and this bodes well for the concession company's current and future performance. I also like to underline HOCHTIEF's focus efforts on the ESG front. All business units are working on the group's 2021 to 2025 sustainability plan, which will be finalized in the coming weeks. The new framework includes the setting of specific carbon reduction targets in order to support the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change. To promote the sustainable transformation of our industry, HOCHTIEF is focusing in particular on digital solutions. Innovation subsidiary Nexplore has already developed several applications which help identify potential energy efficiencies, as well as streamlining processes and cutting costs at our construction sites.
To summarize, we see a positive outlook for HOCHTIEF, given the improving trends in our order book, cash flow and profit performance, which are supportive for our central objective for continuing to create sustainable long-term value for all our stakeholders. Thank you very much then for everyone for listening, and I now welcome your questions.
Operator, we're ready for questions. Thank you.
Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, we will begin the question and answer session. The first question comes from the line of Luis Prieto of Kepler Cheuvreux. Please go ahead.
Good afternoon, all. Thanks for taking my questions. I had two questions, if I could. The first one is I would like to explore a little bit more of the cost inflation situation, particularly in Asia-Pacific, given that I assume that in the US you're very well protected, given the nature of your business. If you could shed some light into how you're dealing with it, what's the contract nature at the moment and how it deals with cost inflation? That'd be extremely useful. The second question would be also trying to explore HOCHTIEF's position or role in the context of the other two Abertis shareholders having significant cash proceeds in due course as a result of their respective agreed transactions.
In other words, what I mean is, what is HOCHTIEF's stance if the other two shareholders in Abertis agree to recapitalize the company in order to lower debt and most importantly, invest in new projects? Would you be happy seeing your stake dilute? Would you try to contribute also to a potential theoretical capital increase? Any help would be very appreciated. Thank you.
cost inflation.
Hi, Luis. It's Mike Pinkney here. Thanks for your questions. I'll take the first one there on cost inflation. So as you sort of rightly point out, you know, around 60% of our revenues originate from cost plus fee type contracts in the Americas, where the, you know, essentially cost increases are passed on to the client. For the remainder of our sort of construction and services activities, we've got various risk mitigation tools as part of our risk management, you know, approach. You know, these include, for example, price escalation clauses. In Australia in particular, they use a lot of enterprise bargaining agreements where the pay structure over the life of a project for the workers.
Also there's a lot of pre-purchasing of materials and subcontractor capacity, which is also pre-purchased at the time of sort of project award stage. In addition, we've also, you know, shifted our contract portfolio on the construction Asia-side away from the typical lump sum type contract toward more alliance collaboration and partnering projects. Marcelino there mentioned that some of the projects that we won in Q3 in Australia, the Warringah Freeway Project AUD 1.2 billion, has been agreed under what's called an incentivized target cost style contract, which allows for extensive collaboration. Also the Inland Rail project, the AUD 1 billion project, also in Australia, which was agreed under this collaborative framework agreement.
You know, we're quite well-positioned. We think we're very well-positioned there, both in all our key markets that you asked about Australia specifically. There as well. Yeah.
Yes, Luis, Mike is right. This collaborative framework agreement for new projects, but this is the way that currently the different clients are doing in Australia. They are very close to us. They are very close to the day-to-day problems. They understand that some problems are not coming because of us, and they are helping. They're helping us on looking for what is the best solution for each of the potential problems. The situation obviously is a challenging situation, but it's a challenging situation that together with our clients, it's easy to solve, apart from the different clauses included at the project level. Your second question, you know that for us, Abertis is a very important asset. It's a very good investment.
Obviously, we are always just looking at what is the best capital allocation for our interest. We will see in the future. We cannot say in advance what is going on with our partners. You realize that there are lots of things that they have to be clarified in the future. When this is clear, then we will analyze correspondingly for us what is the most convenient position for HOCHTIEF.
Excellent. Thank you very much.
The next question is from the line of Christian Kolb of HSBC. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much, and good afternoon. My first question is, you reported a strong growth in the order intake, and the order backlog is now well above two years of sales again. I just wanted to ask how this order backlog splits over the future years. Like how much is for 2022, how much is for 2023, and so on. My second question is on the cash position on the balance sheet and the net cash position. What do you think is the optimal level of cash and net cash for the group with this order backlog that you currently have? Do you think you will need more cash on the balance sheet than in the past, about the same or maybe less? My third question is, how will future prepayments from these new orders will influence the cash position?
Should we expect more cash inflows from prepayments in the next few years, leading to higher cash position on the balance sheet or not? Thank you very much.
Christian, hi. It's Mike Pinkney again. Thanks for your questions. I mean, the first one in terms of the order backlog obviously a large proportion of that order backlog will be executed during 2022, but we also have several multi-year projects that you know can be two, three, four years in length. In addition, we have PPPs that you know as I don't know if you've seen this this morning that CIMIC has done the financial close on the North East Link PPP, which is a you know a massive project of which EUR 4 billion is gonna be executed by CIMIC companies. That is a project that goes on for several years, 25 years, something like that.
Obviously there's a mix there. We can try and look at a bit more detail for you and get back to you. Broadly speaking, I think those would be the main issues. In terms of, you mentioned prepayments, what the trend might look like going forward. I mean, obviously you've got several factors there, but on the one hand, you've got a recovery from the impact of COVID. You've seen that, you know, the group's new orders in EUR 22.5 billion in the first nine months of the year. That's already in excess of the full year 2020 figure, 12 months. There's clearly a strong momentum there.
That order book, as you saw of over EUR 51 billion, is up by 12% year to date. On the other hand, as we were saying, you know, the risk profile, particularly for example, in Australia, they've been moving more towards these alliance style contracts, these collaborative contracts that Marcelino was just highlighting as well, where the working capital profile is different. So there's less of the sort of big lump sum up front payments, but it's a more smoother, shall we say, payment calendar. I think those are the sort of key issues to bear in mind when you're thinking about that.
Christian, I said to give to you the kind of complementary view that that Mike was giving to you. The book-to-bill ratio 9 months in 2021 is 1.2 for the whole company. When you split this to the different regions, then you have a different impact. Now, for instance, Europe is 1.1, Asia Pacific is 1.4, and Americas is 1.5. Meaning that you can realize that with this, we are covered, we are significantly covered, and the thing is the discontinuity, you know. There's been a significant increase in new orders, and this significant increase in new orders obviously has been influenced as well by the COVID, no.
Because if you look at the previous year, new orders were significantly lower, and it was because you remember there were a lot of new bids or bids that were postponed because of the COVID. We are in a recovery process, and I think in the next years, once the COVID is over, we will go to a normalization of this. Meaning that we expect, let's say, obviously, to recover and to continue growing. We expect, for instance, 2022 to be a significant year in regard to revenues increase if the COVID does not continue impacting us severely. This is very important. I think I can give you a different view.
More cash on the balance sheet, future prepayments influence the balance sheet. Look, we are very sensitive to the variation of the sales market, etc. Cash is coming in and coming out exactly because of that. Our expectation for the future, I'm telling you that we believe that we are expecting a growth, better growth than in the previous year, obviously, recovering, let's say, the previous impact coming from COVID. It's clear that it's nothing to do with prepayments. It's clear that the business itself, it will give us, let's say, a better cash position, and obviously, it's going, let's say, to be much more positive to us. This, what you say, future prepayments or whatever, is not very significant.
Mike was explaining previously that in the last years we've been doing this for the last 3 to 4 years, depending on the markets, we've been changing the risk profile of our contracts. Most of the contracts right now are not having this kind of big prepayments. They are more kind of PPPs, projects or something like that. You realize that the risk profile now is significantly lower, and obviously, this is also affecting, as well, this kind of prepayments. We believe that we're going to get to a more normalized cash collection. Apart from this kind of, say, variation that when you finish on your star projects.
Usually, you need, let's say, to spend more money for the mobilization, or you need, let's say, or you have the final payments when you end the projects. Depending on this, depending on how many projects that you finish, depending on the quarter, depending on the moment, then you can have some variations. In the end, we expect our cash position to improve.
The next question is the line of Tobias Woerner of Stifel. Please go ahead.
Yes, good afternoon, gentlemen. Three questions, if I may. Number one, with regard to factoring, you've reduced your factoring now quite a bit, but you still leave it, if I'm not mistaken, at roughly EUR 750 million. The question here really is why don't you reduce this further going forward in time? I think it would simplify things for people looking at your accounts. The second question, just as to double-check, when I look at here, the order backlog in Asia Pacific up 5% year to date, plus 17% FX-adjusted. Just, can you confirm that there's no scope impact in there? So this is pure, like for like as we would look at it, adjusted for FX.
The third question relates to again, Asia Pacific in as far as I think you've also stopped your credit financing with third parties. Are you gonna stop this for the long term?
Tobias, hi. Mike Pinkney here. How are you doing? Thanks for your questions. To maybe start with your second question, you were asking about the order book, or as the Australians call it, the work in hand, at the end of September at CIMIC was AUD 35.1 billion. That is up, as you said, 17% year to date. That's on a completely comparable basis, yeah. It's also up 17% year on year as it happens.
There's nothing unusual there. You asked about factoring. Yeah, we ended September with just under EUR 800 million of factoring. That's down about EUR 300 million. Well, it's down exactly, I think, EUR 300 million year to date. You know, the majority of factoring is held by CIMIC, and they have indicated that they expect it to remain fairly stable going forward. It's one of the operational or financial tools that the group uses when it's convenient to do so. The third question s upply chain financing.
Was about supply chain financing. Yeah, you've seen that basically that's been eliminated by CIMIC. Yeah, we can
Zero.
Confirm that.
Zero.
It's at zero. That's no longer being used. Yeah, that's correct. Yeah.
Okay. Thanks a lot.
Sorry, Tobias. CIMIC was declaring that they thought that keeping AUD 500 million factoring level was something that could be, how can I say, sensible for the next years. Because taking into account the size of the business and everything, they believe that this is the right way to do it. That's why they prefer, let's say, to keep this stable level than to go to zero. That is not what they consider this would be in the best interest of the company. Then you can, let's say, analyze things. You have a stable factoring amount because the business is having a stable revenues and growing steadily, meaning that you can very easy, let's say, analyze every detail.
The second thing in regard of the supply chain financing is like, you know that depending on the market, for instance, we don't have any supply chain financing here in Europe, very small but practically meaningless, and in Americas, meaningless, and in Asia-Pacific, was a little bit higher. Depending on the market, the market reaction when you have these kind of tools, they can consider that they prefer not to have this on the balance sheet. CIMIC made a decision a year and a half ago, let's say, to go to a zero position in the supply chain financing, and they reached this position in this quarter.
If I may follow up with one question, gentlemen, please. Ventia, maybe you can give us a timeline when this is happening. I saw something on Bloomberg yesterday, in terms of further details and also the pricing. Is it imminent? Is it next week? Or, when should we expect this?
Yeah.
Yeah. It's Peter here. I mean, with regard to Ventia, they are doing a roadshow, we understand, until the mid of November. I think the earliest time they would go into the ASX or New Zealand stock market is something around the nineteenth of November.
The indication was.
This might take a week or two longer, depending on the feedback we get from investors. At the moment, this is the intended timing.
The article alluded to you and your partners keeping a share each of 22%. Is that so? Can you confirm this?
This is, give or take a couple of %, we and the partners are all holding about half of our current shareholding. That's the intention.
Thank you very much.
The next question is from the line of Marcin Wojtal of Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. The first one is on your business in the U.S. What are your expectations for revenue growth going forward, considering your backlog is, I think, up 7%? Do you expect to return to positive growth already in Q4? Perhaps for 2022, can you make some high-level comments about your revenue growth expectations for the U.S.? If I may, I have some questions on Abertis as well. The first one, is there any update on the AP7 guarantee dispute in Spain, considering that the Acesa concession has now expired? Do you expect this to be resolved through courts, or maybe there is scope for this to be still settled with the government?
Lastly, also on Abertis, if I may, when could we receive some update on Abertis' dividend policy? I believe they committed to pay a dividend of EUR 600 in 2022, but when could we hear about more medium-term dividend, let's say, aspirations of Abertis? Thank you.
Marcin, hi. It's Mike Pinkney here. I'll take your first question. You were asking about the Americas. As you rightly point out, the order backlog has been very strong.
7% year-on-year and a similar proportion year to date. It is trending in a very positive fashion. You've seen the new orders in the last twelve months are around the EUR 11 billion level. They're stable year-on-year FX adjusted, but it's 1.1 x the work done. So, you know, we're going into Q4, and I think particularly thinking about 2022, with the expectations that, after you've seen the impacts of COVID on the level of activity during basically more 2021 even than 2020, that you should, that we would expect to return to a growth track in 2022. Definitely, yeah.
Okay. Marcin Wojtal, in regard of Abertis AP-7 update, the liquidation with the final numbers, with the final traffic numbers, the claim was presented September, at the end of September, meaning that now we need to wait for the necessary time. There is a period of time that the client has to analyze the claim in depth with the final numbers. They have a time, I think, to the next year, I don't know, by February, something like that. We need to wait. We don't have right now any extra information. The ministry is analyzing the updating of the claim, and then we'll see. Regarding dividend policy, your question. The Abertis team is currently analyzing what is the business plan for the next three years.
I guess once the business plan is finished and agreed and approved by the board, then we will know something about the dividend policy for the future. As you said, for 2022, it's clear that the dividend is going to be, and we, I think I said this in my speech, EUR 600 million, and then we will have for the next year a clear dividend policy. We need to wait for that.
Okay. Well, thank you.
As a reminder, if you wish to ask a question, please press star followed by one on your telephone keypad. The next question is from a line of Nicolas Mora of Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Yes, good afternoon, gentlemen. Just a couple from me. First one on coming back on the US, your Swedish peer, Skanska, this morning hinted to margins firming up in the market. We've seen this as well, in, I mean, throughout the year at, especially at Turner. Is it something you're seeing as well, putting aside the fears around cost inflation, supply of materials and so on? Are you seeing fundamentally an improvement in underlying tender pricing and your ability to drive margins to maybe a dream of 3% the EBIT level? Second question, more short-term on cash flow. We've seen a trend of Q4 net working capital at HOCHTIEF between, let's say, EUR 650 million-EUR 800 million inflows.
Is this ballpark figure the range you are expecting for Q4 this year, and which would drive, you know, an improvement in net cash that you've talked about? These will be my two questions.
Nicolas, hi, it's Mike Pinkney here again. On your first question on the U.S. business, I mean, as you've seen, our Americas division has reported very firm operating margins. They were up slightly year-on-year. I wouldn't. I think that they are clearly dealing with cost inflation issues very effectively, and that's in no small degree due to the construction management model, which is used by Turner and which is very effective and is very low risk. I think that going forward, we would expect margins to remain firm, but I wouldn't be any more optimistic than that necessarily.
Secondly, you were asking us about cash flow. I mean, as you said, you know, we've flagged on various occasions over the past few years that over 80% of our net cash from operating activities is in the second half of the year, and that's particularly, well, that's really almost entirely in the fourth quarter. And that sort of, you know, fourth quarter bias this year, there shouldn't be any exception. You know, the key driver obviously for the cash flow is the seasonality of our working capital. Although there's been impacts from COVID, you know, we think that the broad direction of a strong inflow should clearly remain.
Yes, Nicolas. Regarding again the U.S. The company in the U.S., Turner, for instance, that you were referring to, is having a special way of approaching to all these kind of potential issues. They are applying a micromanagement approach to each project, and then they are very close to the clients that they can see well in advance all the potential issues that they have. One of the things that is important at times is like you need some kind of supply, so to ask for them with enough time in advance, no? That this is what I call micromanagement. They're very close to what is needed in the next months, and then to ask for them.
Then for that, you need, let's say, even to have this kind of relationship with your suppliers, with your clients, and then altogether, you can say, avoid significant cost increase. This is what exactly the clients are really appreciating from us in the U.S., and that's why Turner is very successful in getting such a big amount of new contracts. Cash flow. The cash flow usually, Mike was saying that, in a standard year, not taking into account any impact, any extraordinary impact, like we can consider COVID impacts in the last years. Q4 should be usually the extraordinary quarter for cash collection. We expect this year to be as well a very good cash collection quarter for...
mainly for the reason that in the markets that we are working on, practically, we cannot say that the crisis is over, but the normality in many of the places and many of the contracts is coming back and we are really positive on that. For next year that we expect, this even to improve better. I said before that, even we consider that we can say improve in our sales, which in the end is improving also in our cash collection, cash flow, et cetera.
If I may just a couple of follow-ups on the margins. I mean, in 2021, we talked a lot about cost inflation, but mostly from materials. I mean, you are not afraid, actually, both in the U.S. and Australia, that the issue will move in 2022 on wages? That's the first question. Just to follow up, the cash flow in North America has been pretty weak throughout the year. You talked about phasing. Anything peculiar or specific you would like to mention, just to explain a bit of the softness there?
Maybe, Nicolas, just to start with the second question there, on Americas. I mean, you've got a Q3 variation in cash flows at Americas that is mainly driven by Turner. There's several factors there. The first is that the second quarter was an extremely strong cash flow quarter for the Americas business, and particularly for Turner. So you've seen a bit of a reversal of that. That's part of the reasoning.
Secondly, you know, you've got some sort of temporary COVID related impacts in terms of the execution of new orders, but probably overall, more importantly, is that you've got a, let's call it a normalization of a very strong working capital trends that you've seen in the last four years, when, you know, cash conversion of the division and particularly Turner has exceeded 100%. Well over 100%, in fact. If you looked at 2019, you're looking at a sort of 180% cash conversion. In 2020, almost 150% EBITDA cash conversion. So, you know, in other words, you've sort of generated more than three years of cash flow in two years in 2019 and 2020.
Those are, I think, really the main drivers. Looking forward to 2022, as I think I was saying earlier, we're expecting a rebound in sales as these temporary effects really phase out. We execute on that strong order book, which as I was saying, is up 7% year-on-year at Americas.
Cash flows up.
obviously, and therefore the cash flows up as well. Yes, exactly. The other question was about cost increases, but particularly wages, I think you were talking about, yeah?
Yeah, just a bit of a switch in focus from between this year and next year.
I think, you know, as we've said, the controlling costs in the Americas division and specifically Turner is very much aided by the fact that they use this construction management model. You're basically putting the client and the subcontractors together, it's cost plus fee. There is not really an issue at all. In Australia, you know, one of the tools that they have, and I think we mentioned earlier, is these enterprise bargaining agreements, which is, you know, for the life of a project, they agree with the unions, the workforce, what the wage increases are gonna be over the life of that project, and therefore you can manage that sort of wage risk there.
I think overall, I think we have a sound situation. Of course, overall, you've got a de-risking of the projects because of the risk profile as you move, you know, more towards these alliance style contracts, more collaborative framework, et cetera. All of those movements help you to manage that sort of risk.
All right. Excellent. Thank you very much.
There are no more questions at this time. I would like to hand back to Mike Pinkney for closing comments.
Okay. Operator, if we have no more questions, is that right?
Yeah. Currently, there's no more questions.
Okay. Well, look, thank you very much, operator, and thanks to everyone for listening to the call.
Yes. Thank you very much to all of you for listening to us, and then we will see or have the chance let's say to speak again, when we finish the year, and we can close the numbers. Thank you.