Heidelberg Materials

The company's own country page, live at the date of this refresh, listing Israel among its countries of operation within the Africa-Mediterranean-Western Asia group area. It records that Hanson Israel has been part of the group since the acquisition of August 2007 and produces aggregates, asphalt and ready-mixed concrete, and names the Electra Tower in Tel Aviv, the Israeli Supreme Court building and Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem among its reference projects. There is no reference to the occupied West Bank, to Nahal Raba or to any divestment.

First-half 2026 results, with the RCOBD margin at 23.4% against 24.2% a year earlier and full-year guidance for the result from current operations narrowed to EUR 3.40-3.65 billion, from EUR 3.40-3.75 billion. Chairman Dominik von Achten: 'In an environment that remains geopolitically and economically very challenging, we generated strong momentum in the second quarter.' The most recent financial statement on record at the date of this refresh.

The decisive source on the disposal question. Yesh Din records that criticism of the quarry 'led the corporation to try and sell the quarry in 2018, and that very same year the plan to expand the quarry was submitted to planning authorities in the West Bank', and that 'according to data obtained by Human Rights Watch, the sale agreement signed in 2020 is contingent on approval of the plan and a permit to renew quarrying operations'. The plan, approved by the Civil Administration Supreme Planning Council's subcommittee for mining and quarrying in June 2025, enables resumption of quarrying near the Palestinian villages a-Zawiya and Deir Ballut. The petition, filed 15 July 2025 with the Court for Administrative Affairs, argued that the Hague Convention and the Fourth Geneva Convention bar an occupying power from exploiting limited natural resources of occupied territory for its own industries. In May 2026 the court dismissed it, holding the planning authorities competent and their process thorough, and holding that it was reasonable for the planning institutions to address the quarry's sale at the later licensing stage rather than at the planning stage. An appeal was filed with the Supreme Court in July 2026.

The Network of Critical Shareholders' statement for the annual general meeting held on 13 May 2026, alongside counter-motions filed in April 2026 rejecting the proposed appropriation of the 2025 balance sheet profit. The statement covers a supply chain law complaint over a planned cement plant and limestone quarry in the Kendeng mountains of Central Java, climate reparations and a Pakistani farmers' compensation claim, operations in occupied Western Sahara through the subsidiary Ciments du Maroc, and expansion in Turkey. Palestine does not appear among the issues raised in this statement, which is itself a measure of how thin the shareholder-side campaigning on Nahal Raba currently is. Establishes that an organised annual channel into this company's general meeting exists.

The company's own annual results announcement. Revenue of EUR 21.5 billion, up 1%; result from current operations of EUR 3.4 billion, up 6%, a record; RCOBD margin 21.8%; adjusted earnings per share EUR 12.41, up 4%; return on invested capital 10.4%; free cash flow EUR 2.1 billion. The second tranche of the three-year, EUR 1.2 billion share buyback was completed on 1 December 2025 with about 2.1 million shares acquired for around EUR 400 million, cancelled on 29 January 2026, with a third tranche to start after the annual general meeting. Chairman Dominik von Achten: 'We once again demonstrated that we can successfully maintain our growth trajectory even in a persistently challenging environment.' Establishes that neither the UN listing nor the litigation has produced measurable financial pressure.

German investigative report setting the company's public statements against its subsidiary's court filings. Records that expansion approval for roughly 97 dunams was granted on 4 July 2025; that on 15 August 2025 Hanson Israel told the Jerusalem District Court that extraction had stopped because reserves were exhausted, and that further delay would cause the company millions in damages and lead to supply shortages in construction. Heidelberg Materials told taz that no resumption of activities was planned and that the Nahal Raba complex remains closed. The report also raises deliveries to Israeli settlements in the occupied Syrian Golan, citing concrete supplied to the Ulpana Katzrin school project as documented on the subsidiary's own Instagram account in February 2025.

The Resource Centre's entry on the taz investigation, recording the allegation and the company's response. It notes that Heidelberg Materials publicly stated in September 2025 that operations had ceased while simultaneously pursuing expansion approval for the quarry in occupied territory, and that in response to reporting the company said it had implemented management processes to ensure respect for human rights throughout its supply chain.

Al-Haq commends the inclusion of Heidelberg Materials AG, stating that the company 'actively pillages Palestinian quarries on appropriated Palestinian lands, providing material which is used to build and expand illegal Israeli settlements'. It notes that OHCHR reviewed only 215 of 596 businesses submitted, that delays in updating the database 'serve to shield Israel', and calls on states to divest from the settlement enterprise and on home States to sanction listed companies. Heidelberg Materials' home State is Germany.

Annex I lists 158 business enterprises. Hanson Israel Ltd. appears at entry 76 with home State Israel, and Heidelberg Materials AG at entry 78 with home State Germany, both for listed activity (g): the use of natural resources, in particular water and land, for business purposes, as defined in paragraph 96 of A/HRC/22/63. Neither had been listed in the two earlier editions. Annex II, headed 'Business enterprises no longer involved in listed activities', names seven companies removed in this update: Alstom, Ariel Properties Group, eDreams ODIGEO, Hadiklaim Israel Date Growers Cooperative, Kardan N.V., Opodo and Tahal Group International. Heidelberg Materials is not among them. The database is confined to the ten listed settlement-related activities; non-listing has never meant cleared.

The public statement on the company's own website, issued the day the database was published. It repeats that Hanson Israel ceased all activities at the Nahal Raba quarry and the associated asphalt and ready-mix concrete plants in 2023, that the entire complex remains closed, and that 'Hanson Israel does not operate any facilities in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem'. It states that the listing 'does not reflect the current situation and, in our view, is not justified'. This is the position against which the company's own court filings should be read.

The company's own letter to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, on Heidelberg Materials letterhead, submitted by the 24 September 2025 deadline and published by OHCHR alongside the database. It states that 'Hanson Israel ceased all operations at the Nahal Raba quarry, asphalt plant, and ready-mix concrete plant in 2023', that 'the entire Nahal Raba complex remains closed', and that 'as of today, Hanson Israel does not operate any active facilities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem'. It notes that neither Heidelberg Materials AG nor Hanson Israel had previously been listed and argues the inclusion 'does not reflect the present situation'. It invokes the company's UN Global Compact commitments. It says nothing about a sale of Hanson Israel or of the quarry.

The primary field record. Documents that the Nahal Raba quarry, operated by Hanson since 1989 and held through Hanson (Israel) Ltd at 99.98%, covers around 515,000 square metres of private and public land belonging to the Palestinian villages of al-Zawiya and Rafat, confiscated and allocated for the quarry; that the quarry area includes an asphalt plant and a concrete plant for which Hanson Israel holds a licence for the production and sale of ready-mix concrete and asphalt mixture valid until November 2026; and that in 2025 the Israeli Civil Administration approved an expansion adding roughly 100,000 square metres of quarrying on adjacent village land. Records the largest disclosed shareholders as Ludwig Merckle (28.4%), Capital International Ltd (5.03%) and Artisan Partners Asset Management (4.85%). The page footer states the information is valid until 16/09/2025.

Letter from Christoph Beumelburg, Director Group Communication & Investor Relations, to the Who Profits research team. The most useful primary document on this page, because the company concedes three things. On the quarry: the Nahal Raba complex is 'closed since November 2023', but 'Hanson Israel applied for an extension of the quarry license several years ago' and 'in principle, the expansion was recently granted by the authorities, upon fulfillment of certain conditions'. On settlements: asked about deliveries to Israeli settlements before 2020 by trucks bearing the Hanson Israel logo, it says an internal review 'identified only a limited number of instances in which trucks transporting our materials were observed', and that none have been identified since 2020. On ownership: it notes Hanson Israel became a subsidiary in 2007 following the acquisition of Hanson PLC, and that operations continued after that acquisition under a pre-existing lease.

Campaign page maintained by activists in Heidelberg, drawing on the Al-Haq and SOMO research. Records that the quarry sits in occupied Palestinian territory just beyond the Green Line, that extracted material benefits Israeli construction and settlements while Palestinians face land access restrictions and pollution, that in 2019 the group announced under public pressure that it would sell the Nahal Raba quarry 'but without mitigating the damage caused or seeking effective redress', and that in a letter dated August 2020 the group said a buyer had already been found. It also records that the Israeli-Palestinian activist group One Climate blocked access to the quarry in November 2020, and that management rejected a demand for a EUR 50 million compensation fund for affected communities at the May 2024 annual general meeting. A campaign source, cited here for the sale chronology it sets out.

Places Heidelberg Materials on the BDS Divestment Shortlist, recording that Hanson Israel, acquired in 2007, operates facilities in the occupied West Bank including an aggregates quarry south of Elkana that exploits occupied Palestinian natural resources, and that materials were supplied to settlement construction including the Barkan settlement expansion. Its Economic Activism Highlights record four institutional decisions and no more: KLP in June 2015, PFA Pension in December 2015, SEB's no-buy list on 12 June 2017, and Sampension in October 2017. No published exclusion since 2017 appears on the record, including after the September 2025 UN listing.

The International Court of Justice found Israel's continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful, held settlements and their associated economic activity contrary to international law, and set out obligations on states in relation to trade and dealings with settlements. The governing ruling for resource extraction on occupied land, and the framework on which institutional exclusion and procurement decisions rest.

The origin of the disposal record. HRW recalls that in a 2016 meeting senior company staff said Hanson was actively seeking to sell the quarry and considering a joint venture with the Palestinian Authority, and that media reports months later indicated chief executive Bernd Scheifele had told the annual meeting that Hanson intended to sell it. HRW then records its surprise at the Al-Haq and SOMO finding that Hanson had sought and received permission to expand quarrying by 98 dunams. Against the company's October 2017 statement that 'Hanson Israel does not sell building materials to Israeli settlements in the West Bank or the construction of border protection systems', HRW says it 'has seen new evidence indicating that Hanson continues to deliver building materials to settlements from Nahal Raba quarry, as recently as this year'.

The foundational documentation of the Nahal Raba quarry, published jointly by the Palestinian human rights organisation Al-Haq and the Dutch Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations. Sets out the land confiscation, the extraction of non-renewable Palestinian natural resources for the Israeli market, the environmental effects on neighbouring communities, and the legal argument that the conduct amounts to pillage. Submitted to OHCHR in support of the database listing that followed five years later.

SOMO's summary of the joint research with Al-Haq, documenting environmental and human rights harms including dust affecting neighbouring Palestinian communities, the exploitation of confiscated land, and the provision of materials used in Israeli settlements. Retained from the earlier version of this profile; we have not independently re-verified this page in the current refresh.

Denmark's largest pension fund excluded the company, citing violation of basic human rights in conflict with UN Global Compact principles 1 and 2, and illegal activities in relation to the occupation of the West Bank. Notable because the company itself invokes its UN Global Compact membership in its 24 September 2025 letter to OHCHR. Retained from the earlier version of this profile; we have not independently re-verified this page in the current refresh.

Norway's largest pension fund divested, stating that the operations are associated with violations of fundamental ethical norms and provide a strong incentive to prolong a conflict. The clearest published template for an institutional exclusion decision on this company. Retained from the earlier version of this profile; we have not independently re-verified this page in the current refresh.