Shares in insulation and building materials maker Kingspan Group jumped today in Dublin trade after it reported record annual revenue and profits on the back of "extraordinary demand' in its data centre-focused unit Advansys.
Co Cavan-based Kingspan said its revenues for the 12 months to the end of December rose by 7% to €9.199 billion from €8.608 billion in 2024
Profits after tax were up 4% to €716m from €691m, while trading profits increased by 5% to €955m from €907m
The company said that acquisitions contributed 8% to sales growth and 6% to trading profit growth during the year.
It has proposed a final dividend per share of 29.2 cent, up from 28.5 cent in 2024 and giving a total dividend for the year of 55.5 cent, up from 54.8 cent the previous year.
Kingspan said it exited 2025 with momentum across several strands of the business and entered the current year with healthy backlogs generally.
But it said the start to 2026 has been sluggish, impacted by tough winter conditions in many of its end markets, albeit at a seasonally low point in the year.
"We expect our activity to pick up considerably through the months ahead. Whilst it is still early days in the current year we see a firm path to delivering trading profit in the region of €1.05 billion for 2026 which would represent an acceleration of the growth seen in recent years," it said.
"Beyond that, given the group's relentless focus on innovation, our diverse range of low carbon solutions and end markets, as well as the emerging platforms we have entered in recent years all bearing fruit, we expect trading profit growth between now and the end of the decade to exceed that achieved in recent years," it added.
Kingspan said sales in its Advansys business, which specialises in data centres, grew by 12% in the period. Last month Kingspan abandoned plans to float Advansys as a stand alone company.
Gene Murtagh, the chief executive of Kingspan, said the company has delivered record revenue and profitability in 2025 alongside continued investment to power its next phase of growth, including over €750m in organic and M&A activity.
"Despite having doubled revenues since 2020 we have reduced our own Green House Gas emissions by 70% in the same period and we continue to increase our use of lower embodied carbon (LEC) solutions across our product portfolios," Mr Murtagh noted.
During 2025, he said that Kingspan invested over half a billion euro in its Insulated Building Envelopes business, including substantial new plants to support continued expansion globally and to support its entry to the US roofing market which he said he believes has a tremendously positive growth outlook.
"The performance of our Advnsys business has been exceptionally strong, with order intake in 2026 to date double that of the same period last year. To meet extraordinary demand we are rapidly ramping up manufacturing capacity in the US, Middle East and Asia," he said.
"Similar to recent years, the general trading environment in global construction markets varies widely, with the Tech sector performing strongly worldwide and general construction activity in Continental Europe low but steady," the CEO noted.
"Strong Tech and Data activity is helping offset the impact of softer industrial and residential markets for a robust overall performance. We anticipate our foreseeable future growth to exceed that of recent years," he added.
Breaking down its divisions, Kingspan said that turnover at its Insulated Building Envelopes unit rose by 6% to €7.544 billion from €7.130 billion and trading profits were up 3% to €770.6m from €749.1m
It said that France, its largest market in the Insulated Building Envelopes segment, was challenging, but notwithstanding this, the business performed relatively well there.
Kingspan said that Southern Europe was somewhat better year-on-year, and Central and Eastern Europe delivered an improved performance.
"The market in Britain is struggling, as has been the case in Scandinavia. In the Middle East our business performed encouragingly, and similar to APAC, we expect this to advance further in the year ahead," the company said.
"North America and LATAM, key regions for the Group, performed solidly overall in the circumstances, with LATAM recording impressive momentum. Notwithstanding the clear challenges in some markets, Kingspan's insulated panel volumes continue to structurally outperform," it added.
Revenues at its Advnsys division jumped by 12% to €1.655 billion from €1,477 billion, while trading profits surged by 17% to €184.5m from €157.6m.
Exiting the year, the order backlog at the division was ahead by 24% and it continues to build from month to month, it added.
It said that activity in North America is accelerating rapidly as it responds to demand from hyperscalers and other players to meet their burgeoning requirement for infrastructure to support their data centre roll-outs.
"This acceleration is also evident across other regions worldwide, in particular in regions where our ability to respond is strong in Europe and APAC," it said.
"Demand is also increasing in the Middle East. In the non-data product groups, the performance has been more subdued although we continue to build our presence for the longer term," he added.
Shares in the company moved higher in Dublin trade today.
