Letter from the board

Dear shareholders, associates
and friends of STRABAG SE

This foreword is no ordinary one for us. The sudden and unexpected death of our CEO Klemens Haselsteiner in January 2025 profoundly affected us all. From the moment he came on board in 2011, he helped make STRABAG what it is today and played a decisive role in turning our company into a leading construction technology group.

With our “Work On Progress” initiative, he launched a far-reaching process of transformation that has made STRABAG more sustainable, more innovative and more resilient. His efforts to digitalise the construction sector and to drive forward an ecological transformation have had an impact far beyond the company itself.

We cannot predict the future, but
we can shape it.

† Klemens Haselsteiner

Klemens Haselsteiner’s vision was for STRABAG to become the strongest force for building a better future. Under his leadership, STRABAG set itself binding climate targets for the first time in company history. He didn’t just want to change things. He actually did. He left his mark on STRABAG. And he inspired our industry.

STRABAG today is structurally strong and financially stable, and it has a clear vision for the future. We are infinitely grateful to him for making this possible. Together with all of our 86,000 colleagues worldwide, we will continue to pursue the course he has set. As we believe he would have wanted.

Looking back at 2024

STRABAG had another opportunity last year to demonstrate its resilience, showing financial strength despite the real estate and construction crisis. We generated an output volume of € 19.2 billion, slightly above the previous year’s level. Our order backlog exceeded the € 25 billion mark for the first time in 2024 and increased further to € 25.4 billion by the end of the year. We recorded growth in all of the Group’s core markets, with particularly strong performance in Germany, Poland, Austria, Slovakia and Romania. The EBIT margin reached 6.1% in 2024, which is, as previously announced, significantly higher than expected. These developments can be attributed to positive earnings effects in the North + West segment as well as lower negative impacts on earnings in the volatile international project business compared to the previous year.

A strong balance sheet is a key component of our business model. It is the basic prerequisite for having our bid considered and gives us the flexibility we need to bid on projects and finance them up front. As a result, we continued to report a net cash position and an equity ratio of 34.1% at the end of the year. These factors were also among the reasons why Standard & Poor’s in September 2024 raised our investment grade rating by one notch to BBB+ with a stable outlook.

STRABAG made further progress in its sustainability strategy last year. In this context, the company signed up to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), committing itself to science-based climate targets and pledging to reduce its CO₂e emissions in line with the 1.5 °C goal.

Significant progress was also made last year in implementing our Strategy 2030: People. Planet. Progress. From further diversifying our country portfolio through the acquisition of Australia’s Georgiou Group to strengthening our commitment to sustainable building materials and the circular economy to reaching important milestones in the field of energy – STRABAG is on course. With Building Solutions, STRABAG Property & Facility Services is developing a complete package for the decarbonisation of existing buildings. Another new division, Energy Infrastructure, was established with a focus on energy and water infrastructure, pipelines and smart cities.

With regard to MKAO “Rasperia Trading Limited”, we are able to report that the capital measures taken in the previous year to reduce the stake held by the company in STRABAG have become legally effective and binding. Independently of this, the core Austrian shareholders of STRABAG SE filed a lawsuit against Rasperia regarding the exercise of the right of first refusal. STRABAG expects a ruling in 2026.

Looking ahead

We remain committed to a reliable dividend and will propose a dividend of € 2.50 per share at the Annual General Meeting on 13 June 2025. Based on the average share price for 2024, this translates to a dividend yield of 6.3%. As a result, STRABAG continues to rank among those companies in Austria with the highest dividend yield.

For the 2025 financial year, we expect significant growth of the output volume to around € 21 billion – an increase that is well supported by the strong order backlog and the expected contributions from acquisitions. Following the exceptionally high EBIT margin in 2024, we expect this figure to return to normal levels in the current year. Despite this, we are raising our EBIT margin target for 2025 to ≥ 4.5% due to the first noticeable effects of implementing our Strategy 2030.

Special thanks go to our 86,000 employees worldwide. Without them, last year’s achievements would not have been possible. Our thanks also go out to our customers, partners and shareholders.

I’m convinced that technological progress will enable us to achieve an even stronger market position in line with our financial objectives.

Stefan Kratochwill

CEO of STRABAG SE

Following the unexpected death of Klemens Haselsteiner, the Supervisory Board appointed Stefan Kratochwill as CEO of STRABAG SE with immediate effect on 19 February 2025. Stefan Kratochwill studied engineering management and mechanical engineering at Vienna’s technical university TU Wien. He then joined the STRABAG Group as a trainee in 2003. His first assignments took him to South-East Europe, where he built up the organisational structures of the Group’s construction equipment subsidiary, STRABAG BMTI GmbH, in Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro. He later managed the European track construction machinery business until he was appointed central division head and managing director of STRABAG BMTI GmbH in 2017 with responsibility for 3,000 employees internationally. With this strong and dynamic team, we will continue to push forward with the implementation of our strategy and the transformation of our company.

The Management Board of STRABAG SE