Renew’s FY25 results and M&A shift: infrastructure takeaways for engineers
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on The Construction Index
30 Second Briefing
Engineering services group Renew has reported FY25 revenue up 5.6% to £1,116m, while profit before tax slipped 6% to £56.7m, with a record £915m year-end order book driven by long-term highways, rail, water and utility frameworks. The company has exited its legacy Walter Lilly building business and acquired Full Circle to move into onshore wind services, both transactions completing in October 2024. Chief executive Paul Scott added that the post-period acquisition of Emerald Power further extends Renew’s position as a pureplay engineering services provider in regulated and renewable infrastructure.
Technical Brief
- Financial year to 30th September 2025 used as reporting period for Renew’s results.
- Profit before tax reduced by £3.5m year-on-year, indicating some margin compression despite revenue growth.
- Order book increased £26m year-on-year, giving extended visibility on highways, rail, water and utilities frameworks.
- Disposal of Walter Lilly in October 2024 removes exposure to traditional building contracts and associated delivery risk.
- Acquisition of Full Circle in October 2024 provides in-house capability for onshore wind asset services.
- Post-period acquisition of Emerald Power further deepens Renew’s self-delivery in regulated and renewable power infrastructure.
- Management emphasised “well-documented headwinds in specific areas”, implying localised market or framework pricing pressures.
- Strategy centres on diversification across regulated infrastructure and renewables to balance cyclical risk in individual sectors.
Our Take
Within the 45 Infrastructure stories in our database, few UK-listed contractors show a rising order book alongside a dip in profit before tax, which suggests Renew may be absorbing margin pressure to secure longer-term framework positions.
The presence of Walter Lilly, Full Circle and Emerald Power in the same narrative signals that Renew is leaning further into specialist and energy-transition work in the United Kingdom, which typically carries more complex risk profiles but can support higher-value repeat business.
An order book approaching £1bn places Renew towards the upper tier of UK infrastructure contractors in our coverage, giving it better visibility on workloads than many smaller peers that are more exposed to short-cycle project awards.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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