German construction company Hochtief AG (HOT.XE) Wednesday said it still expects net profit for the full year to be above the 2010 level, as consolidated second-quarter net profit dropped to EUR13.8 million from EUR54.1 million in the same period a year earlier as "problems at subsidiary Leighton Holdings Ltd. (LEI.AU) continued to take their toll on earnings performance."

MAIN FACTS:

-"Of course we are not satisfied with these results," Hochtief Chief Executive Frank Stieler said in a statement, but added that aside from Asia Pacific operations, all divisions performed strongly in the first half-year.

-External sales increased on the year to EUR5.46 billion from EUR5.08 billion in the second quarter of 2010.

-Order intake fell on the year to EUR7.63 billion from EUR9.47 billion.

-Profit before taxes fell to EUR10.2 million from EUR181 million in the second quarter of 2010, ahead of the EUR400,000 pretax loss a Dow Jones Newswires poll of seven analysts had expected.

-Earnings before interest, tax and amortization, or EBITA, dropped to EUR54 million from EUR239.2 million in the same period a year earlier.

-For 2011, the company still expects new orders, work done, and the order backlog to be below the prior year, and for sales to be broadly on a par with 2010.

-Hochtief still expects profit before taxes to be about half the prior-year figure,

-The company backed its guidance for pretax profit of approximately EUR1 billion and consolidated net profit of about EUR500 million in 2012, and pretax profit of over EUR1 billion and consolidated net profit of around EUR450 million from the operating business in 2013.

-Frankfurt Bureau, Dow Jones Newswires; 49-69-29725-500