National Children’s Hospital builder BAM Ireland reports a return to growth and profits

The Irish division of Dutch construction giant BAM shrugged off the impact of Covid lockdowns last year to record a more than one-third surge in revenues while the group also returned to profit.

BAM, whose biggest project here is the €1.4 billion National Children’s Hospital (NCH) in Dublin, saw its revenues rise to €626.2 million last year. It recorded a profit of €10.7 million, compared to a loss of €16.9 million in 2020.

Accounts for the group provided to The Irish Times show BAM also collected about €2.5 million in Covid wage subsidies from the State last year. Work continued at its NCH site throughout the lockdowns of the first four months of last year, as the children’s hospital was deemed an essential project.

But some of its commercial projects were stalled under antivirus restrictions. BAM did not pay its Dutch parent a dividend last year, the accounts show.

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The directors of the group said in commentary with the accounts that its focus in Ireland on commercial and healthcare projects in Ireland helped it post strong results, while it is also involved in building healthcare facilities in the North, as well as civil engineering projects in Scotland. BAM said its facilities management division had also performed strongly last year.

BAM said the NCH project has presented significant challenges “from an operational and financial perspective”. The new hospital project has been hit by cost overruns. It was originally meant to cost €800 million, but the budget has since risen to more than €1.4 billion.

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More than €1 billion of that has already been spent, with well over a year of building work left on the project.

BAM’s accounts also show it claimed almost €1.8 million from an insurance company last year, which is likely to have been in relation to business interruption caused by the pandemic. It claimed more than €1.2 million from insurance companies in 2020, the year the pandemic first hit.

Overall, the group is in a strong financial position in Ireland. Its cash balance rose last year by more than €10 million to about €95 million, while its accumulated profits rose to €82.3 million. Equity in the business hit €84.4 million. It directly employed an average of 753 workers, with thousands more employed by contractors on its sites.

The group said its highlights for 2021 included completing a satellite site for NCH in Tallaght, as well as the “topping out” of the main NCH structure in Kilmainham, south of Dublin’s inner city.

It also won new work such as the Athy distributor road and new national schools in Dublin and Cork in a joint venture with Glasgiven.

“After a challenging 2020, these are good results,” said Alasdair Henderson, executive director of BAM Ireland. He said construction continues to be a “highly competitive market”. He said BAM would continue to invest in research & development and in digital services " as platforms for growth in a low-carbon future”.