Construction company Bam, the lead contractor on the new national children’s hospital, paid a €53 million dividend to its Dutch parent firm following a surge in revenues last year.
New financial filings for Bam Contractors Limited, owned by Royal Bam Group in the Netherlands, show the firm recorded a 26 per cent rise in turnover to €535.3 million in the year ended December 2025.
Operating profits at the Irish subsidiary, which employed close to 800 staff in Ireland last year, also increased during the year from €23.5 million to €27.4 million.
In the previous financial year, Bam Contractors Limited paid a dividend of €11 million to its parent firm. Last year, payouts to Royal Bam Group rose significantly to €53.2 million.
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Bam Ireland, based in Kildare and led by executive director Alasdair Henderson, is one of the biggest construction contractors in the state.
Notable projects the firm has worked on in Ireland include One Molesworth Street, an office block in Dublin 2, Ceannt Station in Galway, and the redevelopment of Bolands Quay, now used by Google for its Irish head office.
The firm has also been the lead contractor on the new national children’s hospital. The facility, which was initially due for completion in 2020, has faced significant delays and the cost of the project has risen from the first estimated price of €650 million to more than €2 billion.
A note in the directors’ report said the company has been focused on “final system commissioning and snagging” with a view to completion of the project.
“Due to the hospital’s complexity and scale, it remains a significant project in our current portfolio,” the directors said.
“The project continues to present challenges from both an operational and financial perspective, and while the pace of design changes by the client slowed during 2025, they continued to be made and to adversely impact the project completion programme.”
A note in the accounts also said Bam was confident a time delay claim submitted by the company last year, which related to a reflected ceiling plans issue, “will generate further value to compensate for the significant extra costs caused by this issue”.
A decision on the claim has not been finalised.
Last year, staff levels at Bam Ireland rose from 701 to 781, which led to a rise in staff costs from €61.9 million to €70.1 million.
At year end, the Irish subsidiary booked net assets of €81.2 million, down from €120.4 million, while cash at bank also declined from €96.9 million to €89.3 million in the period.
Directors for Bam Ireland said the company’s financial position left it well-placed to “take advantage of new opportunities” both in Ireland and abroad.
They welcomed the publication of the National Development Plan and work of the State’s so-called accelerating infrastructure taskforce, which was set up to address delivery of large construction projects, but warned the domestic construction sector “continues to operate within a constrained environment.
“Lengthy procurement processes, capacity pressures within the supply chain, and ongoing challenges in the allocation of risk continue to influence the pace at which projects progress from announcement to delivery.”
Bam Ireland’s directors said they still required “greater certainty and visibility of future project pipelines”.
