Spanish construction companies may escape the worst housing crunch in 15 years after turning themselves into low-cost energy stocks.

Sacyr Vallehermoso and competitors together spent about $16 billion, almost a third of their annual revenue, in the second half of 2006 to buy stakes in Spain’s biggest oil and natural gas producers.

Some, like Sacyr, doubled the assets on their balance sheet. As much as half of the Spanish building industry’s profit now comes from dividends, company filings show. As oil and gas prices rise, those gains are only going to get bigger, said Francisco Salvador, a director of Venture Finanzas in Madrid.

“People are now starting to realize that there is a certain hidden value in these builders,” Salvador said. “Their results are just going to keep on growing now that they’ve minimized their exposure to the real estate business.”

According to the average of eight analyst forecasts in a Bloomberg survey, Sacyr will rise an additional 25 percent and Actividades de Construcción y Servicios, known as ACS and the largest builder in Spain, will extend gains by 24 percent.

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