The ambitious plans of Unibep
“Money, money, money, and profitability – this is the slogan for the coming years,” emphasized Dariusz Blocher, president of Unibep SA during the conference summarising the results of Unibep Group in 2022, where the plans for the coming years were also discussed. “This year will be difficult for us, even more difficult than 2022. Then, there was a war, now — we will face its consequences. Probably, the coming years will bring more positive information,” he added.
The meeting was held in a hybrid format. Part of the participants were present at the Unibep company headquarters, while the others joined online, with a record-breaking number of journalists and financial analysts – almost 40 people in total. The results and plans were discussed by the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Unibep SA, Jan Mikołuszko, the current President of Unibep SA, Dariusz Blocher, and the former President of Unibep SA (until 8 May 2023, currently Vice-President), Leszek Gołąbiecki, and the Vice-President of Unibep SA, Sławomir Kiszycki.
Organising the business
“Unibep has a well-organized business, but it can be arranged even better.
If patience has a place in business, we kindly request investors to have some patience,” stated Dariusz Blocher. “It will take us six or seven quarters to organise the business so that we can start competing with the largest construction companies. But, for the sake of clarity, we may not match Budimex in terms of scale, but we can strive for similarity in terms of parameters,” he emphasized. He also added that Unibep's goal in the 4- or 5-year perspective is to reach the highest rankings of construction companies in Poland.
“A construction company is a service provider; It should follow the money. Today, they are on the infrastructure market. We will be focusing on roads more strongly. As for roads, we will develop geographically, but also in broadly understood water and industry,” said the president of Unibep.
In the perspective of 3 or 4 years, Unibep aims to achieve double-digit growth in orders and EBIT profitability to above 3% (currently approx. 1%). The reconstruction of Ukraine presents significant opportunities, especially considering the extensive experience of Unibep in managing projects on that market.
In terms of development, the group will focus on small projects, but it also wants to launch two or three major projects in large cities. Dariusz Blocher considers it crucial to obtain financing for the development of a land bank for new housing investments.
Restoring the modular segment
The president stated that in the short term, the management’s efforts will be directed towards the modular business, specifically Unihouse. “Unihouse offers a highly promising product that aligns with the modern trends of ecological construction. I believe that we will manage to recover this business,” stressed Blocher.
Unihouse is already implementing more contracts in Germany, and the company intends to build in Poland. It focuses on constructing public utility structures but remains open for the possibility of expanding into residential housing, thanks to the growing momentum of social residential initiatives (in cooperation with self-governments, financed by BGK). “We want it to be a self-financing business and to achieve in next 2 or 3 years and aim to achieve an EBIT margin of 2% in the next 2 or 3 years,” said Blocher.
A new stage of the Unibep Group’s development
In his opinion, the result of the Unibep Group in 2023 may be worse than in 2022. “We will fight to prevent this from happening. It is not like we are past everything bad, and this year is going to be fantastic,” he added.
“We can be absolutely confident about a new, fantastic stage of development of the Group. There will be no changes overnight. I am glad that Dariusz Blocher agreed to become the president of Unibep, and that Leszek Gołąbiecki remains on the Board serving us with his knowledge of the company, contacts, etc.,” said Jan Mikołuszko. “We aim for positive outcomes to emerge during the term of the management board and supervisory board, which starts in June. The terms of office are three years.”
Darius Blocher has been the president of Unibep SA since 9 May 2023.
In the picture (from left): Vice President of the Management Board and Financial Director Sławomir Kiszycki, President of the Management Board Dariusz Blocher, Vice-President of the Supervisory Board of Unibep SA Jan Mikołuszko, and Vice-President of the Management Board and Executive Director of Unibep SA Leszek Gołąbiecki.