Solid results in a challenging year

• Revenue: EUR 1.7 billion (2019: EUR 1.6 billion)
• EBITDA: EUR 226 million (2019: EUR 254 million)
• Net profit: EUR 33 million (2019: EUR 46 million)
• Operational cash flow EUR 476 million (2019: EUR 30 million)
• Order book: EUR 3.6 billion (2019: EUR 3.6 billion)
• Net debt: EUR -24 million (2019: EUR 307 million)
• Solvency ratio: 41.3% (2019: 41.8%)

The year 2020 has been a challenging year. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted our daily lives, affected our families, changed our way of working, and created many business challenges. For Van Oord, this has been an extraordinary year as well. Our first priority is and has been the health and safety of our employees. We have been able to adapt to new circumstances and value the flexibility of our employees and the agility of our organisation. As a result of adapting quickly, focus on our clients and projects and restructuring our cost base, we were able to achieve a higher revenue, strong operational results, a relatively stable EBITDA, and a very strong cash performance. We have carried out a reorganisation affecting all our employees. We successfully adapted ourselves, and created a solid financial basis for future growth.

Key financial performance

With the excellent work of our people, we have realised a solid financial performance. Van Oord recorded EUR 1,677 million in revenue (2019: EUR 1,644 million) and despite the impact of restructuring costs and incidentals, EBITDA remained relatively stable EUR 226 million (2019: EUR 254 million).

Cash performance was very strong, resulting in a positive net cash position at year-end of EUR 24 million (2019: net debt EUR 307 million). Our order book remained stable at EUR 3,553 million (2019: EUR 3,610 million).

The revenue build-up in 2020 varied compared with 2019. The Dredging business unit saw a further revenue decrease to EUR 598 million (2019: EUR 690 million) due to ongoing market pressure, enhanced by COVID-19. The revenue of Offshore Wind picked up (2020: EUR 632 million, 2019: EUR 571 million) due to a high execution level on various projects. The Offshore business unit kept its revenue level stable, at EUR 211 million (2019: EUR 210 million). The Netherlands increased to EUR 236 million (2019: EUR 173 million) driven by the large projects in execution (including Afsluitdijk, A16 Rotterdam).

Our EBITDA level remained relatively stable at EUR 226 million. A solid performance considering the difficult circumstances and one-off costs. COVID-19 related measures and restructuring our organisation have resulted in incidental costs, running into tens of millions. Our 2020 result was supported by strong project execution and (relatively) good project results, combined with significant cost savings.

Our order book amounted to EUR 3,553 million at the end of 2020 which is stable compared with 2019 (EUR 3,610 million). Our underlying markets remain attractive and our order book is expected to grow. In 2020, Van Oord was for example selected by RWE as the preferred EPCI-contractor for the Sofia Offshore Wind Farm. This project is not included in our orderbook year end 2020. Van Oord will be responsible for the engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) of the monopile foundations and array cables of the 1.4 GW Sofia offshore wind project.

Our financial position remained strong in 2020 with equity amounting to EUR 1,015 million (2019: EUR 1,008 million) and solvency at 41.3% (2019: 41.8%). We realised a positive net cash position of EUR 24 million, compared with a net debt position of EUR 307 million per year-end 2019 and are well within the terms and conditions of our credit facilities.

The positive change in our net debt position was mainly related to the very strong operational cash flow performance (2020: EUR 476 million, 2019: EUR 30 million) driven by favourable working capital developments and by EBITDA.

We temporised our investment cash flow (EUR 2020: EUR 120 million, 2019: EUR 222 million). From 2021 onwards our investments will increase again to capitalise on the opportunities in our markets.