Australia's Top 100 Largest Construction & Civil Engineering Companies - 2022

Below we will rank the top 100 biggest construction companies by revenue from their Australian operations.

Our Bi-Annual Top 100 list of Australian construction companies has really changed in the last two years since we first published this article in the 2020. There are 90 on the ranked list, based on information we could find in official disclosures (ie, annual reports) or disclosures made in the media, through modern slavery statements or on company websites . For those of you reading this from a construction company in the 'unknown' category - please feel free to email me with your revenue and I'll rank you on the list! If we have some of the following information in the table wrong, blame the internet.

australias-largest-construction-companies-2022

The Top 100 Largest Construction Companies Australia

 

We've brought together a list of Australian contractors and construction companies that are the biggest names in construction, based on the type of work our iseekplant customers care about. So don't @ me if you disagree, these are the movers and shakers that our customers would love to work for. We also have another cracking article, splitting out all the big construction names into contracting tiers - so click here for our list of all Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 Contractors in Australia . The total GDP of the construction industry in Australia was $360 billion in the 2021/2022 period. Between these companies, they generated over $94 billion in revenue or a little under 1/3 of the revenue of the whole damn industry!

They also represent over $36 billion in value on the Australian Stock Exchange. The construction industry continues to thrive despite facing numerous problems for the past two years - particularly related to major construction supply chain constraints, and a lack of skilled labour during COVID . Despite its challenges, the industry's growth is underpinned by a 10 year infrastructure investment pipeline funded by $85 billion of Federal Funding and enormous investment from the private sector. Construction continues to be one of the biggest drivers of economic growth in Australia. Let's hear it for the top 100 biggest names! Also - one point to note is that we have 'double listed' a couple of companies - ie, we know Thiess is owned by CIMIC etc.

 

Rank Company Local Revenue in $M Market Cap or Private Sale Price in $M Private or Public
1 Lendlease $13,130 $6,350 Public
2 Downer $11,900 $3,180 Public
3 Cimic Group Ltd $10,900 $8,200 Public
4 Laing O'Rourke $4,300 $6,000 Private
5 John Holland $4,200 $1,000 Private
6 Thiess $4,100 $4,300 Private
7 CPB Contractors $3,900 $900 Private
8 Multiplex $3,700 $7,300 Private
9 Broadspectrum $2,739 $472 Private - Offshore
10 Hutchinson Builders $2,670 $2,600 Private
11 Built $2,500 Unknown Private
12 Fulton Hogan $2,000 Unknown Public Unlisted
13 Probuild $2,000 Unknown Private - Offshore
14 Monadelphous $1,930 $1,300 Public
15 Acciona $1,700 $9,000 Public - Offshore
16 Service Stream $1,500 $415 Public
17 Deicorp $1,330 $1,330 Private
18 BMD $1,310 Unknown Private
19 Reliance Worldwide $1,162 $3,100 Public
20 NRW Holdings Limited $1,160 $1,300 Public
21 Hansen Yunken $1,150 $1,394 Private
22 BESIX / Watpac $919 $4,881 Private
23 Kane Constructions $913 $1,044 Private
24 Mirvac $906 $7,990 Public
25 Johns Lyng Group $898 $703 Public
26 McMahon $800 Unknown Private
27 GR Engineering Services $651 $350 Public
28 FKG Group $650 Unknown Private
29 SRG Global Ltd $644 $220 Public
30 SMEC Holdings $640 $400 Private
31 Georgiou $608 Unknown Private
32 Daracon Group $600 Unknown Private
33 Sunland Group $558 $328 Public
34 Southern Cross Electrical Engineering $553 $142 Public
35 Calibre Diona $500 Unknown Private
36 FDC Constructions $500 $1,000 Private
37 Geocon Constructors $500 Unknown Private
38 ADCO $487 $1,930 Private
39 Hickory $440 $1,617 Private
40 Seymour Whyte $433 $113 Private-Offshore
41 GWA Group Ltd $418 $513 Public
42 Richard Crookes Constructions $415 $445 Private
43 McNab Construction $400 Unknown Private
44 Intega Group Limited $398 $129 Public
45 Golding Contractors $369 $85 Private
46 Winslow Group $331 Unknown Private
47 Wagner Group $323 $149 Public
48 Grocon $317 Unknown Private
49 Decmil Group $313 $28 Public
50 Citywide Service Solutions $300 Unknown Public Unlisted
51 Abergeldie Contractors $276 Unknown Private
52 Bouyges Australia $251 $1,035 Public-Offshore
53 Buildcorp Group $250 Unknown Private
54 ICON $250 $1,800 Private
55 BGC Construction $243 $1,800 Private
56 McIllwain Civil $240 Unknown Private
57 Shadforth Civil $200 Unknown Private
58 Maas Group Holdings $159 $678 Public
59 Hazell Bros $150 Unknown Private
60 Shamrock Civil $150 Unknown Private
61 Bechtel Australia $141 Unknown Private - Offshore
62 Civil Mining and Construction (CMC) $130 Unknown Private
63 Saunders Intl Ltd $129 $108 Public
64 Haslin Constructions $120 Unknown Private
65 Moits $120 Unknown Private
66 Genusplus Group Ltd $117 $165 Public
67 Delta Group $104 Unknown Private
68 Lucas Total Contract Solutions $100 Unknown Private
69 Primero Group $100 $97 Public
70 Enviropacific $90 $31 Private
71 Duratec $89 $137 Public
72 Mainbrace Construction $86 Unknown Private
73 MaxiTRANS Industries $86 $99 Public
74 Dynamic Drill $74 $35 Public
75 Menai Civil $70 Unknown Private
76 EVZ Limited $67 $21 Public
77 Parkview Australia $66 $73 Private
78 Embelton Limited $65 $25 Public
79 Lycopodium Limited $63 $209 Public
80 Austin Engineering $62 $99 Public
81 QLD Bridge & Civil $55 Unknown Private
82 Engenco Limited $53 $138 Public
83 TRN Group $53 Unknown Private
84 Res Dev Group Ltd $51 $101 Public
85 Shaw Contracting $50 Unknown Private
86 Westforce Construction $38 $12 Private
87 AJ Lucas Group $32 $117 Public
88 Hindmarsh Construction $26 $129 Private
89 Oldfields Holdings $22 $15 Public
90 PPK Group Limited $2 $135 Public
         
  The Unrankables      
  Allroads Unknown Unknown Private
  Beilby Holdings Unknown Unknown Private
  Bolte Civil Unknown Unknown Private
  Doval Constructions Unknown Unknown Private
  Enviro Infrastructure Unknown Unknown Private
  Fairbrother Unknown Unknown Private
  Ford Civil Contracting Unknown Unknown Private
  Freyssinet Australia (Vinci Group) Unknown Unknown Public - Offshore
  Growth Built Pty Ltd Unknown Unknown Private
  Hatch Australia Unknown Unknown Private-Offshore
  JF Hull Unknown Unknown Private
  JK Williams Contracting Unknown Unknown Private
  Keslake Group Unknown Unknown Private
  Knox Constructions Unknown Unknown Private
  Mainland Civil Unknown Unknown Private
  MFJ Constructions Unknown Unknown Private
  Monford Group Unknown Unknown Private
  Nace Civil Unknown Unknown Private
  Robson Civil Projects Unknown Unknown Private
  Silver Raven Unknown Unknown Private
  The Crema Group Unknown Unknown Private
  Vassalo Constructions Unknown Unknown Private

How Australian Construction Companies Are Valued

Australian contracting & construction companies are only valued if they are listed on the ASX or if they are valued in some other type of merger, acquisition or capital raise in the private market.  Currently, the average price-to-earnings ratio for construction services companies on the ASX is 32.2X. So, in order to value any construction company, you take the company's profit and multiple it by 32.2X and should get the company's market capitalisation or enterprise value. Values in private market sales or transactions are usually lower than in the public markets.

Another rule of thumb, used in some of the more modern industries (like tech) is the revenue multiple. The average revenue multiple of the list above is about 1.67X. Meaning - that the construction companies on the list above, where we know their company value or market capitalisation, have an enterprise valuLe of about 1.67 times their annual revenue. But this swings from 11X to 0.11X. So based on the fact we didn't tabulate earnings, let's look simply at the revenue multiples of the table above. The most highly valued company on the list is Decmil - which has a market cap of about 11.2X its revenue. Decmil is a Queensland based company so good for it!  The worst performer on the list, with a company value 0.11X its revenue is Mirvac.

Most Valuable Construction Companies in Australia

So here are the top 10 Australian construction companies ranked on Market Capitalisation or Enterprise Value (as known at their last trade sale or private valuation):
  1. Cimic Group $9 Billion
  2. Mirvac $8 Billion
  3. Multiplex $7.3 Billion
  4. Lend Lease $6.3 Billion
  5. Laing O'Rouke $6 Billion
  6. BESIX / Watpac $4.8 Billion
  7. Thiess $4.3 Billion
  8. Downer $3.1 Billion
  9. Reliance Worldwide $3.1 Billion
  10. Hutchinson Builders $2.6 Billion

Profitability of construction services companies swings wildly - between companies and years, based on the high levels of risk they sustain in undertaking major projects. It's a risky business - where margins are pretty slim and its easy to wipe out a year's profit with one bad job. Profitability of ASX listed construction services companies has declined by about 30% over the last year, and this is credited with the aformentioned supply chain issues and other general pressures on the industry. We're hoping we'll see that bounce back soon. Thanks for reading! We'll update this in two years in 2024.

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