In the first half of the year 2002, Heijmans N.V. (construction and related activities) has achieved operating returns of € 1,068 million. This represents an increase by 9% in relation to the operating returns of € 981 million realized during the first half of 2001.
The net profit increased by 21%, from € 27.9 million during the first half of 2001 to € 33.8 million by the end of June of this year. The profit per ordinary share increased by 9% to € 1.46 (as opposed to € 1.34 at the end of the first half-year of 2001).
Earlier this year Heijmans predicted that the net profit for 2002 would increase by 20% to € 84 million. However, Heijmans is now predicting a net profit of around € 87 million (an increase of 24% in comparison to 2001) in relation to a turnover of approximately € 2.5 billion.
Result
The earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) increased from € 45.6 million during the first six months of 2001 to € 51.9 million during the first half of 2002. The tax burden fell from 33.2% to 26.2% during the first half of 2002. In addition to the implementation of tax-deductible losses, the reduction in the tax burden was also due to the ruling by the Supreme Court that external due diligence costs are considered to be tax deductible.
The order book
At the end of June 2002, the order portfolio amounted to about € 2.2 billion, which represents an increase of 12% as compared with the end of 2001. The order book includes only those projects for which a written contract has been issued and projects on which work has already started. The volume of work in hand as of 30 June 2002 was considerably higher, amounting to over € 7 billion.
Prospects
As already announced at the time of the publication of the annual accounts for 2001 in March of this year, Heijmans’ Executive Board expects the company to realize a turnover of approximately € 2.5 billion in 2002 with a net profit of approximately € 84 million (+ 20%). As a result of acquisitions, this forecast has been adjusted and a net profit of approximately € 87 million (+24%) is expected for 2002. The profit per share is expected to rise by 13% based on an average number of ordinary shares of approximately 22.4 million over 2002 as a whole.
For more information please visit www.heijmans.nl.
(source: Heijmans)
