Cox

Cox Triples Operating Profit to €245 Million in the First Half and Consolidates Its Transformation Following the Acquisition of Iberdrola Mexico

 

  • Cox completed the acquisition of Iberdrola Mexico during the first half of the year, significantly increasing its scale and strengthening its position as an operator of critical energy and water infrastructure.
  • Including six months of contribution from Mexico, Group revenues reached €1.243 billion in the period, 2.5 times higher than in the same period last year.
  • Operating profit (EBITDA), including six months of contribution from Mexico, reached approximately €245 million, tripling the figure reported in the first half of 2025 and increasing the EBITDA margin to 20% (compared with 16% in the same period last year).

  • Asset Co (the infrastructure business) has been consolidated as the Group’s growth and value-creation engine, providing scale, recurring revenues, and cash flow visibility, while Service Co achieved a record backlog of €3.346 billion, 24% higher than a year ago, with margins above 10%.

  • Operating cash generation, with €129 million in operating cash flow, has become one of the Group’s key financial performance indicators and reinforces its strategy of strict capital allocation discipline and deleveraging, which remains a top priority for the Group.

    Madrid, July 28, 2026. Cox has announced its financial results for the first half of 2026, a period marked by the integration of the assets acquired from Iberdrola in Mexico (now Cox Asset Mexico) and continued progress in its strategic transformation toward a business model with a greater weighting of long-term assets. The company closes the first six months of the year with increased scale, greater revenue recurrence, and enhanced cash generation capabilities, further strengthening its unique position in critical energy and water infrastructure.

    Group revenues reached €1.243 billion, including six months of contribution from Mexico, representing a 2.5-fold increase compared with the first half of 2025. Similarly, EBITDA rose to €245 million, tripling the previous year’s figure, while the EBITDA margin improved to 20%, compared with 16% one year earlier. In addition, adjusted net income reached €66 million, 5.3 times higher than in the same period of the previous year.

    Cox continues to demonstrate the strong cash-generating capacity of its business. Including six months of contribution from Cox Asset Mexico, adjusted operating cash flow reached €129 million, more than tripling the amount generated in the first half of 2025, with a cash conversion rate of 52% of adjusted EBITDA. This result further establishes cash flow as one of the Group’s key performance metrics, supporting a clear path toward deleveraging, disciplined capital allocation, and long-term value creation.

    “The first results following the integration of Mexico confirm the strength of our investment thesis and demonstrate the new era we have begun with the new Cox. Today, we operate at a different scale: we are a larger company, with a stronger asset base, greater revenue recurrence, and significantly enhanced cash-generation capabilities. Mexico not only reinforces our leadership in water and energy but also accelerates our transformation toward a more resilient, predictable model that delivers greater value creation for our shareholders,” said Enrique Riquelme, Executive Chairman of Cox.

    Increasing Weight of Assets

    The company is also accelerating its transition toward a business model with a greater share of concession-based and long-term contracted assets. Asset Co has become the Group’s primary value-creation engine, reporting, including six months of Cox Asset Mexico, revenues of €869 million and adjusted EBITDA of €289 million, representing increases of 7.7 times and 5.1 times, respectively, over the previous year, clearly illustrating the significant increase in business scale.

    The integration of Cox Asset Mexico is progressing as planned and confirms the strategic rationale of the transaction. The platform operates 16 assets, with approximately 3.9 GW of installed capacity, 94.1% availability, and contract renewal rates above 99%, consolidating its position as one of the country’s leading private operators and the only vertically integrated one.

    During the first half of 2026, the Mexican business generated approximately US$870 million in revenues, an increase of 24% compared with the same period last year, and adjusted EBITDA of US$302 million, up 7%, while energy commercialized reached 10.2 TWh, an increase of 8%.

    The acquisition has significantly strengthened Cox’s competitive position in one of its priority markets and increased the proportion of contracted and recurring revenues within the Group, providing greater operational stability, financial visibility, and cash-generation capacity. It has also positioned Cox as one of Mexico’s leading integrated private operators of energy and water infrastructure.

    Meanwhile, Service Co reported a backlog of €3.346 billion, up 24% year-on-year, supported by a diversified portfolio and attractive margins above 10%, demonstrating the strength of underlying demand. Operational results were negatively impacted by the international geopolitical environment and delays in the execution of certain projects.

    Stable, Long-Term Capital Structure

     

    Just two weeks after completing the acquisition of Iberdrola Mexico, Cox replaced its short-term bridge financing with a stable, long-term financial structure by successfully refinancing the acquisition-related debt in the capital markets. The company issued US$2 billion in bonds, attracting demand more than five times the initial offering size, and secured a US$733 million Term Loan. As a result, its capital structure is now aligned with the long-term nature of the business, significantly reducing short-term financial risk.

    Following the refinancing of the debt associated with the acquisition of Cox Asset Mexico, the company now has a stable, long-term capital structure with an average debt maturity of approximately 6.5 years. Net financial debt stood at approximately €3.3 billion, equivalent to a Net Financial Debt/EBITDA ratio of 4.9x.

    The company expects to continue advancing its deleveraging process through the strong cash generation of its assets, portfolio optimization and selective asset rotation, a disciplined investment policy, and other initiatives currently under evaluation that will further reduce leverage.

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Luis Arizaga Zárate

Independent Director

Member of the Audit Committee

Date of appointment: September 17, 2024

Shareholding in Cox Abg Group, S.A.: 11,514 shares

Partner of Exus Management Partners (Exus) and GenuX Power, a global renewable energy platform with offices in nine countries, managing 11GW of installed capacity, including 2.6GW in Mexico between wind and solar energy projects. Holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at NYU in New York, and a bachelors degree in Accounting and Finance from ITESM in Mexico.

Prior to joining EXUS in 2019, he founded EIRA Capital, an investment platform focused on Energy and Infrastructure transactions in Mexico, and Latin America. He was also part of Australia’s Macquarie Group in Latin America, where he spent more than 7 years in the Macquarie Capital and Macquarie Funds divisions, working on fund capital raising, equity investments, asset management activities, as well as third party advisory roles on energy and infrastructure transactions in Mexico and Latin America. During his years at Macquarie, he also held board positions in the several investments made by Macquarie which covered energy, public private partnerships, roads, and telecom companies. In addition, his previous involvement at financial institutions include positions in the investment banking teams of Deutsche Bank’s M&A group in New York, and Citibank’s M&A group in Mexico.

Other former relevant positions include his role as independent member of the investment committee of the Instituto del Fondo Nacional de la Vivienda para los Trabajadores (Mexican mortgages and housing government agency).

Enrique Riquelme Vives

Presidente Ejecutivo

Fecha de nombramiento: 17 de septiembre de 2024

Participación en el capital social de Cox Abg Group, S.A.: 50.612.744  acciones

Presidente Ejecutivo de Cox, tras iniciar su andadura profesional en el sector inmobiliario y de la construcción, en 2010 fundó Grupo El Sol en Panamá, especializado en operaciones de minería, cemento, infraestructuras y energía. Con el tiempo, la empresa se convertiría en el mayor proveedor de arena de la UTE responsable de la ampliación del canal de Panamá. Posteriormente, pasó a liderar las fases de oferta y desarrollo de Rainbow 50: el proyecto fotovoltaico de mayor envergadura ejecutado en América Latina hasta aquel momento.

Ha recibido varios galardones por su contribución al mundo empresarial en España, entre ellos el Premio del Certamen Nacional de Jóvenes Emprendedores 2018. También ha sido distinguido como uno de los «100 latinos más influyentes comprometidos con la acción climática» y uno de los «100 españoles más creativos del mundo de los negocios» según la revista Forbes. Actualmente, es miembro del Consejo Internacional de la San Telmo Business School y preside el Consejo Asesor de la Fundación Scholas para Panamá, Centroamérica y Caribe.