Royal Heijmans: strong year and positive outlook for 2025

Highlights

• Revenue increases to € 2.6 billion (2023: €2.1 billion)
• Underlying EBITDA of € 199 million; margin at 7.7% (2023: EBITDA of € 147 million; 6.9%)
• Result after tax of € 90 million; dividend proposal of € 1.64 per share (50% cash pay-out)
• Net debt at € 10 million (2023: €137 million). Loan for acquisition repaid
• Home sales show an upward trend of +23% to 3,181 homes sold (2023: 2,579 homes)
• Order book including joint ventures stable at € 2.8 billion (2023: € 2.8 billion)
• Outlook 2025: underlying EBITDA margin of at least 8.0% with revenue approaching € 2.75 billion

We are proud of the robust financial results we achieved in 2024, with revenue of € 2.6 billion and an improved underlying EBITDA margin of 7.7%. All our business divisions contributed to this growth. Our order book is well filled and we are also very pleased with the high quality of the projects. It is a good sign that the share of revenue from recurring business continues to grow, especially at the Working and Connecting segments. After all, recurring business based on multi-year client relationships is a key foundation of our business model, and now accounts for 35% of our revenue.

Partly due to our robust and predictable business operations, selective tender policy and strict risk management, we are achieving good results and strong cash generation. Thanks to this, we were able to accelerate the repayment of the acquisition financing for Van Wanrooij and have now paid this off in full. We also reduced our net debt in 2024. Our current performance and our strategic course give us confidence that we will achieve the financial objectives we communicated for 2027.”

Outlook 2025

We are expecting a further increase in home sales and the continued growth of our recurring business in the Working and Connecting segments. On top of this, we are also encouraged by our well-filled and high-quality order book. Based on this, we expect revenue to increase to € 2.75 billion in 2025. Our profitability is expected to increase to a minimum underlying EBITDA margin of 8.0%. We also expect all sectors to perform within their strategic bandwidths in 2025.

And we expect to achieve a positive net cash position in Q1 2025, one year earlier than we had initially anticipated. It is still difficult to predict the impact of the macro-economic uncertainty that appears to be increasing, as well as the consequences of legal rulings related to nitrogen emissions in the longer term. Nevertheless, we have a solid foundation and the outlook is good that 2025 will be another strong year.

Safety: changing awareness

Efforts to enhance safety in the construction sector require continuous attention. We remain committed to our credo: we work safely, or we don’t work at all. With our new safety strategy, we are primarily focused on ensuring compliance with standardized procedures for High-Risk Activities (HRA). Recent figures at Heijmans show that the number of lost-time incidents remains stable at 72, compared to 2023. However, we observe a decrease in the severity of incidents in 2024, leading to a reduction in our Incident Frequency (IF) rate from 3.1 to 2.3. Employees are also increasingly inclined to report both safe and unsafe situations. This behavior is encouraging, but we must never become complacent. Unfortunately, we continue to see reckless driving behavior near roadworks, as well as occasional incidents

of intimidation and aggression towards road workers. That is why safety remains a top priority on our agenda.

Sustainability

Our even more intensive partnership with the Dutch forestry commission (Staatsbosbeheer) is a boost for biodiversity in the Netherlands. Heijmans also showed it is keen to take a leading role on this front, with the launch of the BioBuddy, an innovative biodiversity monitoring box. We also reduced our Scope 1 and 2 CO2e emissions by 30% compared to 2023. And we remain committed to our goal of making our own business operations and the chain climate-neutral by 2040 at the latest. We will continue to report on this transparently and accessibly, in accordance with the new requirements of the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).

Water

To give Heijmans direction on the theme of water, in 2024 we based our vision on four pillars to provide the focal points of our strategy: water quality, water balance, water use and water safety. In the coming year, we will be experimenting with rainwater reuse at a number of residential construction sites, as part of our drive to realise a significant reduction in household water consumption, following the example of efforts in the Flemish region of Belgium. There, it is mandatory for single-family homes to have at least 5,000 liters of infiltration facilities for reuse. The innovative water basin we realised last year in Rotterdam’s Hart van Zuid district combines sustainability and quality of life, strengthens the city’s climate resilience and clearly demonstrates Heijmans’ commitment to forward-looking, multifunctional urban solutions.

Grid congestion

This kind of innovative potential will also be needed if we are to tackle the pressing problem of grid congestion. We will have to focus on innovative solutions if we are to meet current and future electricity demand. Our expertise in energy infrastructure and the built environment ensures a stable and reliable network. We create energy grids for public and private clients, including local grids on private premises. We handle the design and implementation, work as an integrated service partner, or manage and operate the systems in the long term. Additionally, we are experimenting with a new energy management system in the Waterviolier district of Nuenen, which optimizes the availability and use of locally generated energy. Our own timber frame housing factory in Heerenveen operates largely on solar panels and a battery that stores excess solar energy.

Financial calender

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