Ballast Nedam half year results 2019

Highlights half year results 2019

• Financial results exceed expectations
• The revenue increases to €359.7 million (first half-year 2018: €298.8 million)
• The EBITDA significantly improves to €12.3 million (first half-year 2018: €- 0.1 million)
• The order book of over €1.6 billion remains very strong and healthy

Solid financial position: continuous growth and strong order book

Ballast Nedam continues its upward trend by again making a profit in the first half year of 2019. Its operational excellence strategy results in controlled progression. Ballast Nedam’s revenue is growing and in the first half year amounted to approximately €359.7 million. The company is performing slightly above its business plan, resulting in an EBITDA of €12.3 million, a net result of €4.0 million and an impressive cash position of €119.2 million.

Ballast Nedam has expanded and extended its existing financing facilities (credit, bonding and bank guarantee lines), as well as entered into relationships with new financiers. The total financing package provides Ballast Nedam with additional flexibility and headroom to execute its projects, and more than sufficient means to finance its ongoing operations.

Order book

Ballast Nedam has a strong and healthy order book of over €1.6 billion, in which the company continues to follow its approach of strategic and selective tendering.

Outlook

Ballast Nedam reconfirms the outlook for 2019 in with a revenue growth of 15% to more than €850 million and with positive results.

Market, new projects & milestones

Market
In all of Ballast Nedam’s markets the conditions and outlooks remain positive. However, there is a continuous upward pressure on prices for materials, subcontractors and labour. As result of Ballast Nedam’s tendering processes the organisation was able to manage these risks in order to avoid a negative impact on the company results. For the remainder of this year Ballast Nedam sees plenty of opportunities to acquire new projects for all business units to continue a solid and healthy growth. These opportunities arise due to the market conditions, but also as result of the deviating approach of Ballast Nedam by more frequently introducing international contract formats and international supply chains in the Dutch market.

New projects
Ballast Nedam is enthusiastically working on its ongoing projects. In addition, high-quality profile projects were newly acquired in 2019 such as the HES Hartel Tank Terminal project in Rotterdam, the Feringa Building project in Groningen, Shin-Etsu PVC in Rotterdam (project of subsidiary Ballast Nedam Industriebouw), Holland Casino in Venlo (project of subsidiary Laudy Bouw & Ontwikkeling) and Gare Du Nord in Amsterdam and building de Biesbosch in Amstelveen (both projects of subsidiary Heddes Bouw & Ontwikkeling). Besides to these interesting projects, construction team agreements were signed with Omnam Group for the realisation of the POST Rotterdam residential tower and the municipality of Maastricht for the renovation of Centre Céramique in Maastricht
(a project of subsidiary Laudy Bouw & Ontwikkeling).

Project milestones
Important milestones were reached on several large projects. Ballast Nedam started the construction of the underground bicycle parking at the Leidseplein in Amsterdam. The flag was raised to the (traditional) highest point for projects; Pier Airside at Schiphol, RTM Stage as part of the Rotterdam Ahoy Convention Centre (Hart van Zuid) and at the Mall of the Netherlands in Leidsenhage. Also the Blankenburgverbinding project entered a new phase when a permit was granted for the new build of the Maasdeltatunnel as part of the new highway A24 at Vlaardingen. Last but not least, start of the Provisional Design of the Urban Interactive District (UID), after Ballast Nedam Development reached an agreement with the municipality of Amsterdam on the design of the urban development as well as the contract zoning for the project in the ArenAPoort area. Also the redevelopment of Nieuw Delft is in full swing. In this project over 200 of approximately 350 houses, developed by Ballast Nedam Development, have already been sold.

Impact on society

Creating a bigger and positive impact on society in its broadest sense is important to Ballast Nedam. In all business units Ballast Nedam strives to create a more sustainable operation and to make a difference with regards to the environment and energy reduction. An important momentous occasion in this respect is the opening of Asfalt Productie Tiel in March 2019. Ballast Nedam is a shareholder of this most sustainable asphalt installation in the Netherlands. In addition, Ballast Nedam built Shell’s recently opened petrol station in Tilburg, which uses several sustainable solutions such as solar panels, insulated glass and energy sufficient equipment to reduce energy consumption and ultimately also its CO2 emission, making this the Netherlands’ most energy efficient petrol station.

Ballast Nedam’s impact on society is also reflected in its contribution to a more positive living environment in cities. Therefore Ballast Nedam is one of the partners in the RUGGEDISED project in Hart van Zuid, Rotterdam. This project demonstrates how combined ICT, e-mobility and energy solutions can contribute to smart and resilient cities. In addition, Ballast Nedam Development received the Dutch Green Building Councils’ four star certificate for the completion of sustainable and energy sufficient houses in Engelse Park in Groningen and De Groene Loper in Maastricht. At the Engelse Park 95 houses were built, alongside De Groene Loper 53 houses and 15 apartments were realised.

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* Ballast Nedam adopted IFRS 16 with effect from 1 January 2019, which prescribes that all leases have to be accounted for on the balance sheet; EBITDA excluding IFRS 16 amounts to €8.8 million.