Loxam hit by soft market, but meets expectations

Soft construction markets have led to a 6.5% decline in Loxam’s second quarter revenues to €620.9 million, with its largest market France seeing an 8.1% decline.

The result in France includes the impact of one-off revenues last year from the Paris Olympics. Stripping out the Olympic impact, sales in France were down by 2.7% in the quarter, and company-wide by 4.3%.

Revenues were down in each of its geographies, with a fall of 6.4% to €163.3 million for the Nordic region and a 4.4% decline in the ‘rest of the world’, which includes the rest of Europe, Middle East, Brazil and Morocco.

Loxam’s Q2 2025 revenues were weighed down by the comparison with Olympic-related revenues in Q2 2024. (Photo: Loxam)

EBITDA profit for the quarter was down 10.2% to €414 million, representing an EBITDA margin of 34.4%, compared to 35.9% in the same quarter in 2024.

Loxam said current economic conditions were expected to delay the recovery of European construction markets in late 2025 and 2026. It added that it will pursue a strategy of “targeted diversification in growing sectors and will benefit from its unique offering to capture market share in the infrastructure project segment.”

Over the first six months of 2025 the company has closed or merged 19 branches. It operates 1120 branches in total.

Gérard Déprez, chairman and CEO of Loxam, said he was proud to have delivered revenues in line with expectations in the face of soft construction markets; “In detail, the French construction market has yet to recover, and our performance was impacted by the unfavourable basis of comparison related to the Paris Olympic Games in 2024.

“In the Nordics, the market continued to decline, albeit at a slower pace, showing sequential improvement between the first and second quarters of 2025. The Rest of the World division demonstrated resilience in this adverse environment, particularly in Iberia.

“In this context, we have remained focused on cost reductions and disciplined capex, enabling us to deliver a positive free cash flow for the eighth consecutive quarter.

“Looking ahead, we expect the second half of the year to be supported by municipal elections and major infrastructure projects in France, a solid construction backlog among key industry players, and a normalisation of Nordic markets.

“We also remain confident in our ability to sustain resilient profitability, and to benefit from the expected rebound in the construction market mainly driven by the gradual recovery in residential.”