Ramboll continues to deliver sustainable impact in a challenging market

In 2024, Ramboll’s Environment & Health and Energy markets continued to grow, backed by the global need for sustainable solutions. The company’s sustainable Transport offerings were also in high demand among clients, with major project wins in metro and light rail infrastructure.

Yet, Ramboll also faced delayed and cancelled client projects that impacted core markets and financial performance. Buildings and Henning Larsen saw contraction in revenue, impacted by high interest rates and high material costs.

These factors resulted in organic growth and EBITA margin for 2024 that were below expectations, and lower than in 2023, which was a year of high growth and highest-ever profit for the company.

Key financials:

• Gross revenue was DKK 17.6 billion (EUR 2,353 million), an increase from DKK 17 bn (EUR 2.3 bn) in 2023.
• Organic gross revenue growth was 1.9%, which is below expectations and lower compared to 8.8% in 2023.
• Operating profit (EBITA) was DKK 943 million (EUR 126 million), yielding an EBITA margin of 5.4% compared to 6.1% the previous year.
• The order book stood at 7.1 months of secured revenue, which is the same as at the end of 2023.

Ramboll CEO Jens-Peter Saul says: “2024 was a year of significant challenges in parts of our business but also progress in others, that again revealed the strength of our diversified portfolio of offerings. We felt the impact of delayed and cancelled client projects in our architecture and landscape entity Henning Larsen, and in Energy, which dampened full year organic growth and earnings. The Buildings market was also challenging in some of our core geographies. Yet, Ramboll continued to see demand for sustainable solutions that improve urban resilience, help decarbonise heavy industry, and meet ongoing global demand for renewables and low-carbon energy.”

Sustainable change, but at a realistic pace

Companies’ persistent efforts to accelerate the green energy transition, in combination with evolving regulatory drivers and a healthy market in the US, provided a strong platform for bringing Ramboll’s multidisciplinary services to clients in high-growth sectors, such as data centres.

“We experienced excellent growth in our data centre sector. The use and management of data is critical to today’s society and creating sustainable facilities is essential to reliability and resilience,” says Jens-Peter Saul. “We are bringing innovation and environmental expertise to global data centre operators, allowing them to efficiently plan and build out the required IT infrastructure.”

Ramboll’s Energy business, too, demonstrated good growth despite uncertainties in the market, backed by services to offshore and onshore wind, carbon capture, decarbonisation of industrial processes, and the build out of power grids.

“The green energy transition is here to stay but it will take new forms,” says Jens-Peter Saul. “For instance, the transition requires expanded and modernised electricity grids to carry increasing volumes of renewable energy. Ramboll is helping meet that need through large framework agreements for engineering and design with national transmission operators in the Nordics, among others.”

From a geographical perspective, the Americas returned the highest growth of Ramboll’s markets, thanks to the resilient US economy in 2024, supported by robust consumer and government spending. The UK achieved solid growth, while Finland showed modest growth, in spite of weak market conditions.

Advancing on climate leadership

Ramboll works hard to be a sustainability frontrunner in the architecture, engineering, and consultancy industry. In February 2025, Ramboll was awarded an “A-score” for disclosure from CDP. The score places Ramboll at “Leadership Level” for implementing best practice that helps advance environmental stewardship and mitigates climate change risks. That followed the Science Based Targets initiative’s approval, in 2024, of Ramboll’s science-based net zero targets, including the company’s 2030 carbon reduction targets and 2040 net zero target.

Outlook for 2025

Ramboll’s full-year organic growth rate is expected to be between 3-5% and the EBITA margin is expected to be between 6-7%. The outlook for 2025 is subject to substantial uncertainty as the macroeconomic environment remains highly volatile with a high level of geopolitical unrest.

The company is further progressing on its strategy, The Partner for Sustainable Change. As the underlying premise of the strategy largely remains, and as market conditions remain volatile, Ramboll has decided to extend the strategy period by one year until the end of 2026. This will enable the company to focus on improving performance and agility, while gaining clarity on the future of its markets.

Key project wins in 2024

Transforming urban development: A Henning Larsen-led team, including Ramboll, was awarded a project of national significance: to develop the masterplan to transform the surface streets along 21.5 kilometres of transport corridor in the heart of Singapore into a vibrant multi-functional urban space that combines social connectivity, public mobility, biodiversity, and cultural heritage.

Decarbonising heavy industry: In Norway, Ramboll is working closely with CELSA Nordic to support the production of low-emissions circular steel at CELSA’s plant in Mo i Rana. Replacing fossil fuels with hydrogen in the rolling mill is the final major step in the client’s journey to zero-emission steel.

Boosting the build-out of offshore wind: Ramboll is designing the offshore substation for the Shinan-Ui Offshore Wind Farm in South Korea, for client Hanwha Ocean. The windfarm is expected to produce more than three times the wind energy currently produced by all offshore wind farms in South Korea each year.

Enabling corporate biodiversity strategies: In the US, Ramboll is helping a global pharmaceutical company address biodiversity impacts across more than 40 sites worldwide. This has enabled the client to develop a corporate biodiversity strategy roadmap, set targets, implement actions, and measure impact in protecting and enhancing biodiversity.

Accelerating development of low-carbon mobility: Ramboll is working with public and private sector clients to expand metro and urban light rail projects in major European cities. In Stockholm, for example, Ramboll and TYPSA won two of three major contracts for the new Yellow Line metro. In Copenhagen, a joint venture consisting of Ramboll and SYSTRA will help Copenhagen Metro (Metroselskabet) to develop the upcoming M5 line.

Grid-independent energy for data centres: In Norton, Ohio, Ramboll is supporting client Quantum HPC with master planning and design for a +20,000 square metres data centre that will house 90MW of critical, medium, and high density loads. The project focuses on the design of grid-independent and energy efficient data centres. By securing grid-independent energy generation 365 days of the year, data centre operators can overcome the greatest threat to their facilities, which is lack of direct control over the energy supply chain.

Read about Ramboll’s financial and sustainability performance in the Annual Report 2024