Koninklijke VolkerWessels N.V. (“VolkerWessels” or the “Company”), a listed market-leading, multi-branded construction Company based in the Netherlands, today publishes its trading update for the first nine months of 2017 (9M 2017). The Company will pay an interim dividend of € 0.28 per share on 29 November 2017 and confirms its outlook that full year EBITDA and net result from continuing operations will increase; the Company expects full year EBITDA margin to be in line with our medium term objectives.
(compared to 9M 2016 or 30 September 2016)
“I am pleased to announce that our EBITDA margin improved 30 basis points to 3.9% and our EBITDA improved 10% to € 155 million in the first nine months of 2017. Our focus on small and medium sized projects and the general positive business sentiment in our markets contributed to the increase of our EBITDA. Revenue was stable at € 3,967 million. We furthermore announce our first interim dividend, as a listed company, of € 0.28 per share.
The trends witnessed in our markets in the first 6 months of 2017 have continued in Q3 2017. Increasing prices in the real estate market continue to have a positive effect on our real estate development companies. The positive trend in real estate development is still partly offset by rising costs of construction. Going forward we expect this effect to diminish as more recently contracted construction projects allow for better pricing. Our companies active in the supply chain continue to profit from the trend of rising prices of supplies, proving the benefit of our integrated and multidisciplinary business model. The number of new homes sold by VolkerWessels in the Netherlands increased 37% from 1,770 to 2,428 in the first nine months of 2017. Market conditions are improving slightly in the Dutch Infrastructure and Energy & Telecom Infrastructure segments. Our companies in the United Kingdom, North America and Germany perform in line with our expectations. All segments contributed positively to our EBITDA.
We continue to focus on increasing efficiency and productivity together with winning profitable projects, reducing our failure costs and making selective bolt-on acquisitions to strengthen our local leadership positions. We are confident that our EBITDA and net result from continuing operations for the full year will increase.’’