RIYADH: Egypt’s Orascom Construction Co. saw a 50.4 percent year-on-year net profit increase in the fourth quarter of 2022, with a rise in construction operations helping the firm hit $55.8 million Across the whole of 2022, the Cairo-based firm its total profits rise 0.1 percent to $113.5 million, compared to $113.4 million in the same period of 2021. Orascom"s total revenues increased by 17.9 percent to reach $4.17 billion, compared to $3.53 billion in 2021, with the increase attributed to all operating segments and its joint venture BESIX-Orascom Construction. It also announced $5.3 billion worth of projects in progress compared to $6.08 billion in 2021, a decline of 13.4 percent, and a pro forma backlog of $8.1 billion, including its 50 percent stake in BESIX. “Starting with our priority on health and safety, we recorded accomplishments at our projects in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the US such as a substantial increase in man-hours without Lost Time Injury across the board,” Osama Bishai, CEO of Orascom Construction said in a statement. He added that Orascom Construction took many steps to expand its investments in the renewable energy sector during the last quarter of 2022. The company’s consolidated earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or EBITDA, fell 13.8 percent year-on-year to $50.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2022, and 2.0 percent year-on-year to $200.3 million in 2022. Yet its EBITDA in the US increased 25.8 percent year-on-year in the fiscal year of 2022, showing a stronger contribution to the group’s performance. The company also started the preliminary works for the construction of a new wind station with a capacity of 500 megawatts on a build-own-operate basis in Egypt, which will offer clean electricity to over 800,000 homes and cut CO2 emissions by one million tons per year. Orascom also focused on the completion of the preliminary phase for the establishment of the first green hydrogen plant in Africa.