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.
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):- Cimic Group $9 Billion
- Mirvac $8 Billion
- Multiplex $7.3 Billion
- Lend Lease $6.3 Billion
- Laing O'Rouke $6 Billion
- BESIX / Watpac $4.8 Billion
- Thiess $4.3 Billion
- Downer $3.1 Billion
- Reliance Worldwide $3.1 Billion
- 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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