VolkerWessels reconfirms outlook for 2018

HIGHLIGHTS Q1 2018 (compared to Q1 2017 or 31 March 2017)

• EBITDA € 8 million (€ 13 million)
• EBITDA margin 0.7% (1.1%)
• Revenue € 1,230 million (€ 1,195 million)
• Order book € 8.5 billion (€ 8.5 billion)

Jan de Ruiter, Chairman of the Management Board

“The markets in which we operate continue to develop positively. Both in the Netherlands as well as in our international home markets (the UK, Germany and North America) we see good demand for our products and services and we expect this trend to continue. The first quarter developments are in line with expectations. Please note that due to the company’s strong seasonality pattern, our Q1 numbers are not indicative for our full year results. 

In our C&RED segment, our construction and development companies and our companies active in the supply chain had a positive start for the year. Due to strong demand development, we experience increased cost inflation, inflexibility in the supply chain and re-negotiations with our clients which has resulted in some project delays due to the necessary time needed to agree on new pricing.

The number of houses sold in the first quarter was 389 versus 903 in the same period last year. The lower number is explained by the timing of transactions with institutional real estate investors and project delays as a result of which pre-selling also gets delayed.

In our Infrastructure segment we see a continued positive trend in the market for small and medium-sized projects. Especially the market for medium-sized projects is improving for which we believe we are well positioned. The construction of the re-designed caissons at the challenging sea-lock project in IJmuiden is on-going.

Energy & Telecoms performed well with a better performance for both sub-segments. On May 3^rd we announced our intention to acquire the commercial activities of Joulz Energy Solutions, positioning our Energy division even better for the coming energy transition in the Netherlands.

In our international markets we continue to see positive developments in the UK, despite the Brexit uncertainties. In Germany and North America our performance is in line with the same period last year.

Our order book (in euro’s) remains historically high at € 8.5 billion, which is an increase of € 0.4 billion versus the end of 2017.

We re-iterate our outlook that we expect our 2018 results to increase and reconfirm that we are on track to meet our medium-term objectives, as defined at the time of our IPO in May 2017.”