In addition to a slew of road projects in the UK and North America, Ferrovial is part of a consortium on a $300-million design-build-operate contract for a desalination plant in Oman. Its overall backlog in services and construction stands at $33.4 billion.

The outlier is Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas (FCC), which posted a $923-million loss for the first nine months of 2013, although that was significantly less than its $1.41 billion loss in 2012. FCC’s backlog is now more than $12.3 billion.

The firm's potential financial recovery prompted Microsoft founder Bill Gates to acquire a 6% stake in the company last year, while investor George Soros’ bought a 3% stake.

Megaprojects Beckon

“Spain has developed a great transport network during the last decades, including roads, railway lines and airports infrastructure,” Acciona's Castilla says. “This has made Spain become a world’s reference in infrastructure that can export its valuable know-how through the global presence of its companies.”

Acciona’s biggest roadworks projects are on the $1.3 billion Legacy Way tunnel in Australia, a $700-million road contract in São Paulo, Brazil, and the $1.3 billion Fortaleza metro line, in the Brazilian city of Fortaleza.

The company is looking for opportunities in the Nordic countries and in Southeast Asia, while continuing work on the world’s largest wastewater treatment plant—the estimated $800-million Atotonilco facility in Mexico City—and on a $660-million solar power plant in Morocco, according to Castilla.

This year, Acciona will start work on a $3.9-billion coal power plant in Poland, 400 MW of wind and solar projects in North and South America and a 24-MW photovoltaic farm in Australia, the largest in the country, he adds.

OHL’s largest project in its history is the current $2-billion Ural Polar railway in Russia’s Siberia that will stretch 242 miles. It is also working on the $1.3-billion Marmary railway project in Turkey that will link Asia and Europe, the $882-million Kuwait Viaduct in the country’s capital, and the $360-million AirportLink rail line in Miami, Fla. It will start work this year on the $445-million Doha metro in Qatar, as well as several projects in Chile.

OHL’s largest project in its history is the current $2-billion Ural Polar railway in Russia’s Siberia that will stretch 242 miles. It is also working on the $1.3-billion Marmary railway project in Turkey that will link Asia and Europe, the $882-million Kuwait Viaduct in the country’s capital, and the $360-million AirportLink rail line in Miami, Fla. It will start work this year on the $445-million Doha metro in Qatar, as well as several projects in Chile.

Civil work represents 80% of FCC’s backlog, a strategic position Prad says the firm has acquired through its work at home. “We are a very specialized company in civil works and in projects that present special difficulties,” he says. “There are not many companies around the world that have more than a century of history and that have the experience that we have acquired during a historical period in Spain marked by an extraordinary development of infrastructure.”

This summer, a consortium including FCC will start work on an estimated $8.2 billion contract for the Riyadh Metro in Saudi Arabia, which at 109 miles will be the largest urban rail system in the world when completed five years later.

This month, the firm is completing construction, as part of a consortium, of a $1.5-billion subway in Panama City, Panama, which will be Central America’s first subway system. It also has work on transportation contracts in Romania, the UK, Portugal, Mexico, and Toronto.

Ferrovial is planning to maintain a strong presence in Poland as well as the UK. In Scotland, Ferrovial is leading a consortium that will build and operate a $711-million motorway network.

In North America, Ferrovial is working on the $2.7-billion LBJ Express project—part of a team that will design, construct, finance, operate and maintain the 13-mile corridor in Dallas County, Texas.

Sacyr’s concessions division has already started work on the $970-million Amerigo Vespucci East freeway in Santiago, Chile and a $547-million roadway project in Peru. This year, it will start work on a number of roadways in Qatar and India.

Roadwork constitutes about 30% of the global portfolio for ACS. Through its subsidiary Dragados, which has 500 employees working in 14 offices across the U.S., the company has contracts in Seattle, Florida and New York City. It also is working on the $1.8-billion light rail in Canada's capital of Ottawa.

In Europe, ACS is working on the $790-million Firth of Forth Bridge in Edinburgh, Scotland and a road project in Portugal. Work will start later this year on rail projects in Australia and Hong Kong. It is also participating, along with OHL, on the $9.2-billion high-speed rail project linking the Saudi Arabian cities of Mecca and Medina.

Spokesman Díaz notes "the importance of being flexible and dynamic while entering growing economies and adapting to the new situation, diversifying and consolidating the company’s position in those markets.”

Employee Reshuffling

But moving operations away from Spain has resulted in structural changes to the companies’ workforces.

Grupo ACS has been able to maintain its 162,000-people-strong workforce despite some business disposals, as a result of its geographic diversification, according to Díaz. In Southern Europe, the company reduced payroll with early retirement and relocation, but has increased its staff numbers in markets such as the U.S., Mexico, UK, and Australia.

Acciona’s workforce at the end of 2013 stood at 34,139, which was an increase of 1,300 personnel compared with the year prior. But the company has experienced a “significant globalization of our workforce,” Castilla says, redeploying and reassigning engineering and construction teams to international projects.

Similarly, OHL’s workforce has expanded from 18,900 to 19,820 from 2012 to 2013, with a focus on hiring locally and exchanging experience between its various geographic markets, according to a company spokesperson. Sacyr’s workforce has remained relatively unchanged from last year, according to Loureda.

FCC, on the other hand, has laid off more than 1,500 employees in 2013, after internal reshuffling and offering early retirement, severance packages or relocation abroad to mitigate the cuts, bringing its total workforce to around 11,000 employees, according to Prad.