2011 Consolidated management report

1.- Organizational structure and activities

• Abengoa, S.A. is a technology company, and the head of a group of companies, which at the end of 2011 comprised the following
• The holding parent company itself.
• 568 subsidiaries.
• 16 associates and 33 joint businesses as well as certain companies of the Group being involved in 224 temporary joint ventures. Furthermore, the Group’s companies have shareholdings of less than 20% in other entities.

Independent of the legal structure, Abengoa is managed as outlined below.

Abengoa is an international company that applies innovative technology solutions for sustainability development in the  energy and environment sectors, generating energy from the sun, producing biofuels, desalinating sea water and  recycling industrial waste. The company carries out engineering projects under a “turnkey” format and operates assets  that generate renewable energy, produce biofuel, manage water resources, desalinate sea water, treat waste water and recycle industrial waste.

The Group has three main business activities (Engineering and Construction, Concession-type Infrastructures and  Industrial Production).

Abengoa’s activities are focused on the energy and environmental sectors, and integrate operations throughout the value chain including R&D+i, project development, engineering and construction, and operations and maintenance of its own assets and for third parties.

Abengoa’s business is organized into the following three activities:

• Engineering and construction: includes our traditional engineering activities in the energy and water sectors, with more than 70 years of experience in the market and the development of solar-thermal technology. Abengoa specializes in  carrying out complex turn-key projects for solar-thermal plants, solar-gas hybrid plants, conventional generation plants, biofuels plants and water infrastructures, as well as large-scale desalination plants and transmission lines, among  others.
• Concession-type infrastructures: groups together the company’s proprietary concession assets that generate revenues governed by long term sales agreements, such as take-or-pay contracts, tariff contracts or power purchase agreements. This activity includes the operation of electricity (solar, cogeneration or wind) generation plants and transmission lines.  These assets generate low demand risk and we focus on operating them as efficiently as possible. 
• Industrial production: covers Abengoa’s businesses with a high technological component, such as biofuels and industrial waste recycling. The company holds an important leadership position in these activities in the geographical markets in which it operates.