6.12 Intangible assets

Intangible assets consist of goodwill and other intangible assets.

Cost

Impairment losses and amortisation

Carrying amount

The composition of the carrying amount for goodwill and other intangible assets at year-end 2024 was as follows:

Acquisition

Other goodwill is mainly related to the cash-generating unit (CGU) Infra (€ 13 million). Other intangible assets is mainly related to self-developed intangible assets, software licences and the fair value of the Van Gisbergen order book.

In 2024, the Group acquired Van Gisbergen, see note ‘6.2 Business combinations’. The goodwill resulting from this transaction is the difference between the acquisition price and the fair value of the acquired net identifiable assets and amounted to € 0.6 million. The goodwill is due to the fact that with this acquisition, the Group further strengthened its position in property development and construction. Due to the low value of the goodwill, it was decided to immediately write this down in full, resulting in an impairment of € 0.6 million. The fair value of Van Gisbergen’s order book on the acquisition date was € 0.3 million and is included under the item ‘Other intangible assets’. This will be amortised over a period of one year.

At the end of 2023, the Group presented the fair value of the acquired identifiable assets and liabilities resulting from the Van Wanrooij acquisition on a provisional basis. In the course of 2024, the Group finalised the accounting for this acquisition. This did not result in an adjustment to goodwill. The fair value of the order book of Van Wanrooij Bouw was fully amortised at the end of 2024.

In 2024, the client portfolio of Burgers Ergon, acquired in 2007, was fully amortised because the mix of the client portfolio had changed over time. The full amortisation of € 3.0 million was recognised in the item ‘Other intangible assets’ in 2024.

The amortisation of other intangible assets and any impairments of goodwill and other intangible fixed assets have been recognised in the statement of profit or loss under the item ‘Other operating expenses’.

Impairment tests

An impairment test is carried out annually for each relevant cash-generating unit (CGU). See the ‘accounting policies’ for a more detailed explanation of how the recoverable amount is calculated. The assumptions explained in the remainder of this section are identical for all CGUs.

The impairment tests are based on the valuation calculated using the discounted cash flow method, in which future cash flows are discounted using the WACC after taxes. In 2024, the WACC after taxes was 8.8% (2023: 9.6%). The WACC after taxes is calculated using various components on the basis of publicly available information. This includes both macro-economic indicators, as well as data from other listed companies used as a ‘peer group’.

The value in use of the CGUs is based on their expected future cash flows shown in the budgets for 2025 and 2026. Revenue and gross profit in the budget are based on the order book, past experience and the Group’s strategic ambitions. For the period from 2027 to 2031, the Group is assuming a growth rate of 1.2% (2023: 1,2%), which is based on estimates for economic growth in the Netherlands. For the period after 2031 (the so-called terminal value in the discounted cash flow method), the Group is also assuming a growth rate of 1.2% (2023: 0%) is assumed. The gross profit for the period after 2026 was assumed to be constant from a conservative point of view and based on an average of the budget and past margins.

The Group also performs a sensitivity analysis on the basis of the three most significant key parameters that have an impact on impairment tests: WACC, growth rate and gross profit. On the basis of this sensitivity analysis, changes that can reasonably be expected in key variables would not result in an impairment.