The Ramboll Group has announced improved revenue in 2018 and a strengthened international presence, as its order book continues to develop
The engineering, design and consultancy company, Ramboll, further accelerated its growth curve in 2018. Revenue was the highest ever at DKK 11.4bn (~£1.32bn in 2017). Organic growth was 7% (2.8% in 2017).
Operating profit before goodwill amortisation (EBITA) was £69.2m compared to £71.73m in 2017, giving an EBITA margin of 5.3%. (5.8% in 2017). Cash conversion was also strong at 116%. At year-end, Ramboll’s order book stands at £850m, an increase of 31% compared to the end of 2017.
Ramboll also reached a strategic milestone in 2018 with the acquisition of the US consultancy O’Brien and Gere Limited (OBG) adding 900 experts to the company.
Ramboll CEO Jens-Peter Saul said: “For Ramboll, 2018 was overall a year with a good strategic development.
“We delivered a strong organic revenue growth of 7% which is above our industry. The solid growth reflects strong performances in the US, UK, Norway, Finland and the Middle East and Asia in particular. We are especially pleased to have achieved a successful turnaround in the UK, where we had one of our best years with 19% growth despite the uncertainty surrounding Brexit.”
In the UK, the team secured a contract on the Highways England Regional Delivery Partnership framework.
Commenting on Ramboll’s growth in the UK, Mathew Riley said: “To achieve 19% organic growth in difficult market conditions reflects the tremendous effort from everyone across our business.
“It is also a testament to our continued focus on clients, investment into our people and the innovations that we see as the game changers in our industry”.
Saul added: “However, what we achieved in terms of growth we didn’t quite manage in terms of profit which was below our expectations due to a slowdown in our traditionally strong performing business units such as Sweden, Denmark and our international business unit for Energy.
“In 2018 we also doubled the investment in digitalisation and innovation to support our strategic ambition to be a digital leader in our industry – and naturally this also affects our profit.”
He concluded: “Looking ahead, our key focus areas in 2019 are to continue the positive growth curve and improve our operational performance across the businesses to better convert growth into profit.”
