Heijmans in the red

Dutch contractor Heijmans sales for 2014 were €1.9 billion, compared to €2 billion recorded the previous year.

There was a full-year loss of €47 million for 2014, compared to profits of €2 million in 2013. The company said this was due to a write-down on property assets and ongoing restructuring costs.

Heijmans issued a trading update in November 2014 that warned of a “difficult market” that led to a fall in turnover. THis came with the announcement of 200 job losses as a result of restructuring its non-residential contracting activities.

It has now confirmed there will be a further 100 job losses at its Germany subsidiary company, Oevermann, due to what it said was a decline in infrastructure activity.

The company also suffered an €11 million loss in December 2014, connected to an arbitration appeal ruling against it relating to its Energiefabriek Tilburg waste treatment project.

Despite this, there was an improvement in its order book, which was €2.3 billion at year-end 2014, against €1.6 billion recorded in 2013.

The company said the second half of 2014 saw a recovery in the housing market, leading to an increase in activity for its property development and residential divisions. Its core strategy to improve its results has focused on purchasing, tender and project management.

In its outlook, it said profit margins “remained thin” across all areas of the company. Its priorities were to complete its restructuring and increase business in its infrastructure division.

Bert van der Els, chairman, said, “Disappointing results at the infra activities in the Netherlands put downward pressure on our margin and results.

“Nevertheless, there is comfort for the future, which is also demonstrated by the additional agreement made with our banks in the past few weeks concerning the financial covenants as per mid-2015.

“As previously announced, we are introducing additional measures on top of the improvement measures initiated in 2014, to improve project results at Infra in the Netherlands.”