Orascom, the Egypt-based global engineering and construction contractor, has said that it has added approximately $770 million worth of new awards to its backlog in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2019.

With this announcement, the total new awards in FY 2019 have reached $3.5 billion, the company said, adding that this marked an increase of 50% y-o-y. it also underscored the group’s success in adding wide-ranging, well-funded projects, while maintaining its selective criteria.

Projects in Egypt comprised 70% of the new awards of new awards during Q4 2019 across market segments including infrastructure, healthcare, logistics and roads.

The company added that new awards in the US, which accounted for the remaining balance of new awards, were mostly comprised of projects in the Group’s core student housing, commercial and data centre sectors.

The estimated consolidated backlog stood at $5.2 billion as of December 31, 2019, compared to the $4.3 billion registered on December 31, 2018.

In November 2019, the construction giant reported 25.2% growth in consolidated backlog to $5.2 billion, and a 10.2% increase in net income to $32.2 million in Q3 2019. Consolidated EBITDA increased 16.9% y-o-y to $199.7 million, while proforma EBITDA including 50% in BESIX increased 15.3% y-o-y to $253.5 million in 9M 2019.