MADRID: Spanish construction giant FCC, which is fighting its way out of heavy losses, said it expects a boost in revenues from the launch of contracts to build new subway lines in Saudi Arabia and in Peru.

FCC, which reported that it had slashed losses by 91 percent year-on-year to 52.7 million euros ($71 million) in the first half of 2014, said the foreign contracts would help sales in the short term.

The building and public works group said revenues had declined by 3.7 percent to 2.97 billion euros in the first half of the year as income from construction activity plunged by 14.5 percent.

FCC suffered a 5.3-percent slump in group sales in Spain, where the construction industry is still in the doldrums long after the collapse of a decade-long property bubble in 2008 and where the government is slashing infrastructure investment to rein in the public deficit.

FCC said Spanish public administrations had run up overdue bills amounting to 400 million euros as of June 30 despite a central government program to help regions pay their debts to suppliers.

The slide in group sales in Spain will be gradually offset, however, it said, as international activity increases “in the short term” with the commencement of contracts such as those for new subway lines in Lima and Riyadh in the second half of 2014.

FCC highlighted that it was part of a consortium that won a contract in March to build two lines of Lima Metro for 3.3 billion euros and that it led another consortium that won a 250-million-euro deal to build a subway line in Qatar’s capital Doha.

Last year, FCC led a consortium that won a 6.3-billion-euro contract to build three metro lines in the Riyadh subway system.

The group reported, however, that its net debt climbed to 6.413 billion euros at the end of June, up by 7.5 percent from the end of 2013.

FCC said its debt situation would be helped in the second half by asset sales and the end of a seasonal increase in working capital.