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Civil engineering

Current registrations 140division 42: 5,865
Starters, 12 months 1611.4 per 100 · Belgium 8.9
Bankruptcies, 12 months 17.1 per 1,000 registrations · Belgium 6.2
Employment (FTE) 2206 employers · latest accounts
Median age 5.9 yearsBelgium 8.1 years
E-invoicing via Peppol 91.4%128 of 140 companies in the Peppol Directory · Belgium 85.0%

Bankruptcies

Bankruptcies, 5 years, still registered
1
0.71% of the registrations · Belgium 1.68%
Running bankruptcies
2
14.3 per 1,000 registrations

Recent bankruptcies

Date Company
15-04-2026 LIMA INDUSTRIE
BE 0462.835.302

Every bankruptcy in division 42, last 90 days

Spread across the country

by region and province · 128 of 140 enterprises with a registered office on file · a sole trader has no published seat
  • Flanders 84 · 65.6%
  • Wallonia 22 · 17.2%
  • Brussels 17 · 13.3%
  • Abroad 5 · 3.9%
fewer moremax 37

Largest employers

NACE 42130 as first main activity · staff from the latest accounts
  1. 1 NUTONSGembloux 86.8 FTEfinancial year 2025
  2. 2 SMET - TUNNELLINGDessel 72.7 FTEfinancial year 2025
  3. 3 KumpenHasselt 40.2 FTEfinancial year 2025
  4. 4 DUHAUT - DEVROUXLeuze-en-Hainaut 8.2 FTEfinancial year 2025
  5. 5 C.M.G.Grâce-Hollogne 7.8 FTEfinancial year 2025

Joint committees

from the latest accounts of 13 companies
  • 200 Auxiliary committee for white-collar workers 11
  • 124 Construction 10
  • 111 Metal, mechanical and electrical engineering 2
  • 121 Cleaning 1
  • 209 White-collar workers in metal manufacturing 1

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

Division 42: Civil engineering

Related activities

2 other activities
Activity Registrations Starters, 12 months Bankruptcies, 12 months FTE
Construction of roads and motorways42110 2,295 133 35 12,768
Civil engineering42120 166 18 1 392

Filed accounts of the division

NACE division 42 · financial year 2025 · 2,574 filed annual accounts
Median solvency
42.5%
Belgium 46.1%
Median net result
€21,766
Belgium €16,497
Median equity
€128,229
Belgium €98,338
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 2,874 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€20,831€20,594€19,532
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

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.

Staff cost per FTE in NACE division 42

568 employers
Median
€63,800
Belgium €61,400
Middle half
€55,400 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 €50,600 to €70,500 225
10 to 49 FTE €64,300 €57,900 to €72,400 230
50 to 249 FTE €66,300 €60,000 to €74,800 89
250 FTE or more €77,600 €68,500 to €81,300 24

Running bankruptcies in the sector

NACE division 42
Number
174
Half have run longer than
16 months
Belgium: 20 months
Longer than three years
24%
Belgium: 31%

Measured nationally: Of 108,621 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 9 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

16 of the 3,963 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 33,791 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
  • Wallonia-Brussels Federation €2.4m paid 1 recipient · 2024 · largest: Infrastructures sportives et IPPJ
  • Federal transfers 40.4m amount as published 10 recipients · 2023 to 2025 · largest: Samenwerkingsakkoord Beliris - Kapitaalover- drachten Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest
  • 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

Bankruptcies. The median bankruptcy probability of 0.4% is above Belgium's 0.2%.

Inflow and structure. 8.6% of the companies are sole traders, against 41.6% in Belgium. In 12 months, 11.4 of 100 companies started, against 8.9 in Belgium. That is more than in 86% of the 87 NACE divisions. Half of the companies are younger than 5.9 years, against 8.1 years in Belgium.

Staff and filing. 51.6% of the financial year 2024 accounts were filed late, against 38.4% in Belgium. The 5 largest employers hold 216 of the 220 FTE: 98.2%.

The comparison with Belgium as a whole and with the other divisions is as of 09-11-2026 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 42130 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 1,276,461 companies with a main activity, because only those belong to a division. The other 699,442 registrations publish no activity.

For NACE 42130, 28 annual accounts of financial year 2025 were filed. That is too few for a median, which needs at least 30.