Italy s Salini cuts revenue target through 2019 due to forex headwinds

MILAN, March 15 (Reuters) - Italian contractor Salini Impregilo cut its revenue targets through 2019 on Thursday to take into account currency effects, which together with a writedown of its Venezuela operations pushed it into the red last year.

With three quarters of its revenue derived in foreign currencies, and over half it in U.S. dollars, Salini Impregilo is paying the price of a weak greenback.

The company, whose current projects include building a bridge in California, metro lines in Riyadh and a cach cho tre an dam in Tajikistan, revised its forecast for 2019 revenues to 7.6 billion-8 billion euros ($9.4 bln-$9.8 bln), from a previous estimate of 9 billion euros. For this year the company expects revenues of 6.8 bln-7.0 bln euros.

The euro appreciated by almost 14 percent against the dollar in 2017 and the forex impact on sales amounted to 135 million euros last year.

Salini Impregilo reported a net loss of 106.9 million euros for 2017, compared with a 59.9 million euros profit a year earlier. Excluding the Venezuela writedown, it made a net profit of 117 million euros, up 67 percent on the previous year.

Chief Executive Pietro Salini told analysts in a post-results conference call that the Venezuela writedown would not affect the company's strategy or targets and that the group did not need any capital increase.

He added Salini Impregilo would continue to sell non-core assets for around 100 million this year to reduce gross debt.

The company, whose works span across more than 50 counties, proposed a dividend of 0.053 euros per share.

Concerns linked to Venezuela and forex effects have sent Salini Impregilo shares down 36 percent since November, underperforming a 1.6 percent fall in Italy's All-share index .

($1 = 0.8127 euros) (Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari; Editing by Susan Fenton)

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