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Civil engineering

NACE 42
Current registrations 5,866
Starters, 12 months 4407.5 per 100 · Belgium 8.9
Bankruptcies, 12 months 8614.7 per 1,000 registrations · Belgium 6.2
Employment (FTE) 33,826623 employers · latest accounts
Median age 6.8 yearsBelgium 8.1 years
E-invoicing via Peppol 90.0%5,280 of 5,866 companies in the Peppol Directory · Belgium 85.0%

14 companies file their annual accounts outside the standard format, for example in a sector format. Their figures and staff are missing from the employment, the medians and the largest employers.

Show the 14 companies

Activities

NACE division 42 · 10 activities
Activity Registrations Starters, 12 months Bankruptcies, 12 months FTE
Construction of roads and motorways42110 2,295 133 35 12,768
Construction of utility projects for electricity and telecommunications42220 1,787 137 36 12,963
Civil engineering42990 392 48 3 1,414
Civil engineering42219 330 18 5 257
Civil engineering42211 287 28 5 195
Civil engineering42212 262 29 0 345
Civil engineering42919 188 9 0 1,560
Civil engineering42120 166 18 1 392
Civil engineering42911 148 6 1 3,712
Civil engineering42130 140 16 1 220

Filed accounts

NACE division 42 · financial year 2025 · 2,565 filed annual accounts
Median solvency
42.5%
Belgium 46.1%
Median net result
€21,767
Belgium €16,520
Median equity
€128,358
Belgium €98,421
Loss-making
22.6%
Belgium 26.7%
Negative equity
7.7%
Belgium 12.4%
Median return on equity
17.0%
Belgium 15.9%
Median liquidity
1.60
Belgium 1.66
Filed late
40.6%
financial year 2024, 2,164 filings · Belgium 38.4%
Missing or 90 days late
5.8%
of 2,873 companies with annual accounts · Belgium 5.4%
Per financial year20182019202020212022202320242025
Median solvency --39.1%40.7%41.3%41.5%42.6%42.7%
Median net result --€19,580€23,235€22,078€20,817€20,594€19,568
Filed late 35.3%42.7%41.1%41.0%39.4%39.0%40.6%-

Hold your customer's or competitor's figures against them in the Sector benchmark

Staff cost per FTE in NACE division 42

569 employers
Median
€63,800
Belgium €61,400
Middle half
€55,300 to €73,100
half of the employers lie between
Place among sectors
48 of 78
sectors with a median staff cost per FTE, highest first
By size class
SizeMedianMiddle halfEmployers
fewer than 10 FTE €59,300 €50,500 to €70,500 225
10 to 49 FTE €64,200 €57,900 to €72,400 231
50 to 249 FTE €66,300 €60,000 to €74,800 89
250 FTE or more €77,600 €68,500 to €81,300 24

Employers with the highest staff cost per FTE in this division All sectors by staff cost In the Analysis workbench

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies, 5 years, still registered
203
3.46% of the registrations · Belgium 1.68%

Bankruptcies per year in division 42

Per year201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026
Bankruptcies645957426025374458648866
Jobs lost28336036218410335106129138174196203

2026 through September. Every bankruptcy, also of companies that have since left the register. Source: Statbel (Directorate-General Statistics), NACE classification of 2008.

Recent bankruptcies

Date Company
05-11-2026 Dünver, Kerem
BE 0538.983.171 · sole trader · Kortrijk
30-10-2026 LKW-TECH
BE 0783.777.915
26-10-2026 KÖSE CONSTRUCTION
BE 0680.566.846
21-10-2026 DATELEC
BE 0450.732.175
20-10-2026 KURSEK INFRA
BE 1018.545.926
19-10-2026 Eren, Murat
BE 0782.616.190 · sole trader · Hamme (Vl.)
19-10-2026 CORAL ENTERPRISES
BE 1018.865.828
16-10-2026 BRAHMI
BE 0691.637.021

Every bankruptcy in division 42, last 90 days

Running bankruptcies in the sector

NACE division 42
Number
173
Half have run longer than
16 months
Belgium: 20 months
Longer than three years
24%
Belgium: 31%

Measured nationally: Of 108,562 bankruptcies of legal entities across Belgium, 49% were closed within five years for insufficient assets and 28% after liquidation, 3% were withdrawn. After five years, 20% were still open. Half had ended after 26 months (a quarter after 15, three quarters after 51 months).

This counts companies with this main activity in the register on 6 November 2026. The outcome itself is not measured by sector. The activity of a company that leaves the register after its bankruptcy is too often not kept to compare closed cases fairly.

Outcome by court and division

Spread across the country

by region and province · 4,447 of 5,866 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat
  • Flanders 3,268 · 73.5%
  • Wallonia 816 · 18.3%
  • Brussels 258 · 5.8%
  • Abroad 105 · 2.4%
fewer moremax 1,165

This sector's balance sheets on the map, by municipality and down to the address

Largest employers

NACE division 42 · staff from the latest accounts
  1. 1 EQUANSSaint-Josse-ten-Noode 4,824 FTEfinancial year 2025
  2. 2 Jan De NulAalst 1,841 FTEfinancial year 2025
  3. 3 DEME DredgingBeveren-Kruibeke-Zwijndrecht 1,374 FTEfinancial year 2025
  4. 4 WILLEMEN INFRAGhent 862 FTEfinancial year 2025
  5. 5 Etablissements Maurice WantyBinche 773 FTEfinancial year 2025

Joint committees

from the latest accounts of 1,014 companies
  • 124 Construction 739
  • 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 618
  • 149.01 Electricians: installation and distribution 123
  • 209 White-collar workers in metal manufacturing 43
  • 111 Metal, mechanical and electrical engineering 36
  • 145 Horticulture 35
  • 140.03 Road transport and logistics for third parties 15
  • 201 Independent retail 14
Show the 12 others
  • 100 Auxiliary committee for blue-collar workers 11
  • 121 Cleaning 10
  • 149 Sectors related to metal, mechanical and electrical engineering 8
  • 140 Transport and logistics 7
  • 149.04 Metal trade 7
  • 116 Chemical industry 6
  • 207 White-collar workers in the chemical industry 4
  • 302 Hotels and catering 4
  • 316 Merchant navy 4
  • 226 White-collar workers in international trade, transport and logistics 3
  • 106.02 Concrete industry 2
  • 112 Garages 2

Source: the annual accounts at the National Bank. One filing can name more than one committee.

16 of the 3,961 companies in NACE division 42 have a parent company abroad. Main parent countries: Switzerland (10), France (4) and Germany (1). Together they employ 1,242 of the division's 33,825 FTE: 3.7%, against 14% for Belgium as a whole.

Subsidies in this sector

per register · legal entities with an enterprise number
  • Flemish subsidies €29.7m awarded 689 recipients · 2022 to 2025 · largest: Schadevergoeding van de overheid
  • Federal transfers 40.4m amount as published 10 recipients · 2023 to 2025 · largest: Samenwerkingsakkoord Beliris - Kapitaalover- drachten Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest
  • Wallonia-Brussels Federation €2.4m paid 1 recipient · 2024 · largest: Infrastructures sportives et IPPJ
  • EU budget €12.2m attributed share 9 recipients · 2021 to 2025 · largest: Security
  • EU research €10.5m EU contribution 7 recipients · 2013 to 2025 · largest: Horizon 2020

Explore every recipient in this sector

Insights on Civil engineering

Balance sheet and result. 7.7% of the annual accounts show negative equity, against 12.4% in Belgium. The median net result of €21,767 is above Belgium's €16,520. 22.6% of the annual accounts close with a loss, against 26.7% in Belgium.

Bankruptcies. In 12 months, 14.7 of 1,000 companies went bankrupt, against 6.2 in Belgium. That is more than in 94% of the 87 other NACE divisions. The median bankruptcy probability of 0.7% is above Belgium's 0.2%. By size, the median bankruptcy probability is 0.8% at under 10 FTE, 0.2% at 10 to 49 FTE, 0.2% at 50 to 249 FTE and 0.3% at 250 FTE or more.

Inflow and structure. 24.2% of the companies are sole traders, against 41.6% in Belgium. Flanders holds 75.3% of the seats, against 64.7% in Belgium. Half of the companies are younger than 6.8 years, against 8.1 years in Belgium.

Staff and filing. The 5 largest employers hold 9,673 of the 33,826 FTE: 28.6%.

Direction. Median solvency rose from 39.1% in financial year 2020 to 42.7% in financial year 2025. In 2025, Statbel counted 88 bankruptcies and 196 jobs lost, against 25 bankruptcies in 2020.

The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other divisions is as of 06-11-2026 05:30.

Method and sources

Every company registered today counts under its main activities in the KBO. Establishment units do not count. Staff counts once, under the employer's first main activity, from its latest accounts and only where it fits the staff costs. The count follows the NACE 2025 classification, the version in which code 42 exists.

The bankruptcies over five years count only companies still registered today, because the activity of a company that left the register is not kept. So they are fewer than the bankruptcies of those years, and the figure is not a probability for the future. Over twelve months the count is nearly complete, because a bankrupt company stays registered while its bankruptcy runs. A company with more than one main activity counts in each of those sectors.

The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other NACE divisions rests on an overview of every division, counted again each night. Each division is counted in the version of the NACE classification in which it exists. A standing such as "more than in 80%" compares with the other divisions that have the figure. A division's bankruptcy probability is the median over its companies with a score. Belgium here counts the 1,276,581 companies with a main activity, because only those belong to a division. The other 698,987 registrations publish no activity.

Each median is the value of the middle company, computed over the annual accounts of financial year 2025, and is shown only from 30 accounts. A share (loss-making, negative equity) counts that year's accounts with that trait. Accounts are late when they are filed after the statutory deadline. Missing or 90 days late counts the companies with accounts missing today, or whose latest were filed more than 90 days after the deadline. The dossier follows the same rule.

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