Construction BUSINESS

BAM Ireland, one of the country’s largest construction businesses, had a year of strong revenue growth in 2014, increasing its turnover by 15 per cent last year to €353 million, although its pretax profit of €6.3 million was down €1.2 million on 2013, mostly because of increased cost of sales. The profit margin was 1.8 per cent.

The Financial Accounts also show that the company has a robust balance sheet with healthy cash balances and no bank debt.

In a move previously signalled, the company continued to reduce its focus on public works, increasing its revenue from private sector contracts by 34%.

Here are the main figures for BAM Ireland 2014 :

Turnover – €353m

Profit before tax – €6.3m

Profit margin – 1.8%

Cash balance – €106m

Commenting on the results, Theo Cullinane, BAM Ireland Chief Executive said:

“We had a positive year of revenue growth in 2014, successfully developing a portfolio of projects across FDI, agri food, commercial and healthcare, among other sectors. While we continue to invest strongly in PPP (Public Private Partnership) projects we also significantly grew our private sector business.” He also added :

“This is in line with our strategy, as experience in recent years has shown that the new forms of contract for public works in Ireland have proven adversarial rather than partnering in nature. We would welcome the timely adoption of internationally accepted forms of contract to alleviate this issue as progress with reversing the contentious conditions is proving too slow.”