6.5 Staff costs, depreciation, and research and development expenses

6.5a Staff costs

Staff costs are included in cost of sales, administrative expenses and selling expenses in the statement of profit or loss and are composed as follows:

An amount of approximately € 2 million (2024: € 1 million) relating to recognised restructuring provisions is included in the statement of profit or loss.

An amount of € 8 million (2024: € 4 million) for additions to the SARs provision is included in wages and salaries. The fair value of this commitment is periodically revised up to and including the settlement date on 1 May 2028. The increase in costs compared to the previous year is mainly attributable to the higher share price of Royal Heijmans N.V.

6.5b Number of employees

At the end of 2025, the total number of employees in full-time equivalents (FTE) amounted to 6,158 (2024: 5,650), of which 172 FTEs are employed by Hegeman, acquired in December. Of these, 1,246 FTEs are employed in Living (2024: 1,181), 1,974 FTEs in Working (2024: 1,698) and 2,527 FTEs in Connecting (2024: 2,413). The remaining 411 FTEs are employed by the Holding (2024: 360). The (annual) average number of employees in FTEs amounts to 5,905 compared to 5,381 in 2024. No employees work outside the Netherlands.

6.5c Depreciation

Depreciation is included in the cost of sales and administrative expenses in the statement of profit or loss.

6.5d Research & development costs

Research and development costs relate primarily to digitalisation and industrialisation and amount to:

Research and development activities are also carried out in projects in progress and are recognised in cost of sales; these costs are not included in the amounts above.