ACS Group, Eiffage, Acciona, and Ferrovial ranked in 9th, 13th, 18th and 42nd place respectively in last year’s International Construction 200 list of the world’s biggest construction companies and, taken together, the turnover they generated in 2024 totalled in excess of �90 billion (US$94.5 billion).

All four companies� construction arms are also sitting on record order books (see more on the headline figures for each company below).

What trends emerged from the firms� 2024 annual results presentations? Here are four things we learned:

1) North America has become a key market for some (but not all) European construction companies

All four companies have significant interests across Europe and other countries around the world. But it is in North America where two of those - ACS Group and Ferrovial - see some of the biggest opportunities and most significant growth, thanks to their subsidiaries there.

ACS Group CEO Juan Santamaría Cases (Image: Hochtief)

Ferrovial’s shares were listed on the Nasdaq exchange in the US last year, meaning that it now trades simultaneously on the Dutch, Spanish and US stock markets. But very nearly half (49%) of its �16.8 billion construction order backlog is now made up of US projects. Most of the growth in its US orders came from its Webber subsidiary, and in particular from road and highways projects in Texas and other states in the South East US, Ferrovial CEO Ignacio Madridjeos told investors.

ACS Group, which owns US-based construction company Turner, saw 61.6% of its total sales derive from the US in 2024, comfortably ahead of its next biggest market, Asia Pacific, which accounted for 24%. It was an 18.1% increase in sales in the United States specifically that drove that performance. Meanwhile, orders from North America made up more than half of ACS� backlog of �88.2 billion. Again, that was driven by a large increase in the US backlog, which increased by 23.3% during the year.

North America made up a much smaller share of revenue at Acciona’s infrastructure division, at just 6%, although it too has capitalised on a glut infrastructure spending in the US in recent years. One of the major new awards it cited in 2024 was the deal to design, build, operate and maintain the Calcasieu River Bridge in Louisiana, part of the I-10 interstate highway, for $1.3 billion (pictured above).

By contrast, countries outside Europe made up just 4% of Eiffage’s �19.5 billion in revenue from contracting. More than half of its contracting revenue came from France (60%), with another 36% from other countries in Europe outside France.

2) New markets present attractive opportunities

Eiffage has put its energy systems division at the heart of its growth plans, as it attempts to capitalise on the energy transition taking place across Europe. The company’s chairman and CEO Benoît de Ruffray highlighted how its energy business has grown from a 30% share of revenue in its contracting division in 2021, to 37% in 2024. Over the same period, energy services went from a 41% share of total operating profit in the division, to 50%.

Benoît de Ruffray (Image: Eiffage)

Last year, the company bought EQOS, a player in the energy infrastructure market that operates mainly in Germany and Austria. That followed its acquisition in 2023 of a 51% stake in German energy systems firm Salvia. Discussing Eiffage’s outlook for 2025, de Ruffray said (through a company interpreter), “The energy systems division should post revenue close to �8 billion, with an operating margin that could be as high as 6%.

Meanwhile, ACS Group appears most excited about digital infrastructure, biopharma and health projects. The company saw its overall sales in 2024 increase by 16.5% to �41.6 billion, but it enjoyed stronger growth of 21% in those “strategic high-growth markets�.

The performance once again underlined the importance of strengthening demand for projects like data centres and chip manufacturing facilities.

ACS� US-based subsidiary Turner took steps to bolster its position in these markets with the acquisition during the year of Dornan, in Ireland, which is a major MEP engineering company with a �1.1 billion backlog in data centres, biopharma, and biological and industrial sciences.

Similarly, ACS’s Hong Kong-based businesses Leighton Asia acquired engineering consultancy Maverick, which specialises in digital infrastructure, advanced technology and high-rise buildings. ACS as a whole has a total of 2.1GW of data centre projects under development, with a construction capex of $18.6 billion, including GW in the US, 900 MW in Spain, and 200 MW in Australia. Another 4GW of projects are in the pipeline, mostly in the US.

Ferrovial’s Madridejos suggested that in addition to its focus on North American toll roads, US airports, and energy, it would also look opportunistically at data centres. He noted that the company has been building data centres in Spain for the past 14 years and also has the capability to do so in Spain and Poland, and could look at developing it in the US, with the aim of building facilities and leasing them to hyperscalers.

But Eiffage’s de Ruffray struck a more cautious tone when asked about how the company viewed opportunities in the data centre market.

He said Eiffage had “no ambition� to take an equity stake in data centre developments, although it has built smaller projects and is also active on the operation and maintenance of data centre facilities, with their high demand for electrical power and their cooling requirements.

The business is also involved in a hyperscale project outside Paris. But it would increase its capability little by little, he said, pointing out that the highly complex projects involve significant commitments to testing and commissioning that require highly skilled teams. “It is hugely demanding. We are happy with what we are doing but we are careful…We have the ability because we have done it in the past and we continue to ramp up but we have to be convinced that we have the teams in place to be able to accept a project,� he said via an interpreter.

3) Companies are confident about future work, in spite of uncertainty

In general, the big European contractors remained bullish on the prospect of future work both inside and outside Europe.

Ferrovial says its work on infrastructure projects such as the 407ETR in Toronto (pictured) increase its scope 3 emissions count. Photo: Ferrovial

Asked about potential uncertainty around future public funding levels for major projects, Eiffage’s de Ruffray noted that local authorities in Europe, concerned about future subsidies from government, are adopting a “wait and see� approach on projects.

But he highlighted both support from private investment and European subsidies in projects like roads, and the fact that nation states still have a need for significant infrastructure investment. “If you look at the will to invest in Europe, driven by the energy transition, you have investment growing by a factor of two, all the way up to eight times. Quite frankly, we don’t have the human capacity to go as fast as that, so if it is rolled out a little more slowly, then that is quite good news. I don’t think that calls into question the will to invest.�

For its part, Acciona said that indebted public authorities would be able to call on public private partnership (PPP) deals to fund infrastructure. “Existing high levels of national debt mean that many infrastructure projects are now carried out under PPP arrangements. Acciona’s experience with projects of this kind ensure it is able to position itself as one of the few infrastructure developers worldwide with the capacity to undertake them, thanks to its integrated design, financing, construction and operational capabilities,� it said.

It’s a model that Ferrovial also specialises in, with an increasing network of toll roads across Europe and North America, as well as an airports business that is building and will operate the new Terminal One at JFK International Airport in New York, US, with a lease running through to 2060. Ferrovial’s Madridejos said the company saw “significant growth opportunities� in North American toll roads, as well as in airports and energy infrastructure.

ACS Group’s infrastructure division includes Iridium, which focuses on the development and operation of transport concessions, and a 50% stake in Spanish toll road operator Abertis. It said that most of its PPP business comes from Europe, Latin America, and North America. It said that following its involvement in the SR-400 Express Lane project in Atlanta, Georgia, which comprises 25km of managed lanes with a construction value of US$4.6 billion and an operation and maintenance term of 50 years, it sees a “significant pipeline of further opportunities in states including Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia�.

4) Tariffs and the ambitions for Ukraine’s reconstruction are still grey areas

Image: Ferrovial

Given the companies� presence in multiple different international markets, they have the potential to be exposed to the effects of a trade war between nations, not least as the US continues to suggest it will go through with its plans for further tariffs on China, as well as potentially on close trading partners Canada and Mexico.

Asked about what the scale of the impact could be, Ferrovial’s Ignacio Madridejos said it was too early to say. “Most of the things we buy in the US are local � 97%.� But he added, “We may be exposed in some specific cases to local producers increasing prices. Of course, if there is a very big tariff increase within Canada for any imports, it may affect GDP growth within Canada [where Ferrovial operates toll roads] and more specifically in the Ontario region and Toronto. Of course, lower GDP may have an impact on traffic because of that.�

Meanwhile, Ferrovial’s Poland-based business Budimex, which enjoyed a strong 2024, could be well positioned to play a role in the reconstruction of Ukraine. But with continued uncertainty around how or when deal to end the war in Ukraine could arise, Madridejos said he wasn’t in a position to say what it meant for the business.

“Hopefully we see an end the conflict as soon as possible and starting the reconstruction of Ukraine. I think Poland will play a role in the reconstruction and I think Budimex will have capabilities but it is too early to say what the impact will be,� he said.