Mining outpaced civil sales in Bentley Systems’ large Seequent software business for the first time in 18 months in the June quarter.
Bentley CEO Nicholas Cumins said resources was the company’s fastest-growing sector in the second quarter of 2025, “with Seequent delivering a particularly strong performance”.
Group revenues were up 10.2% year-on-year in the quarter to US$364.1 million and 10% higher yoy in the first half at $734.6 million.
“Notably, growth for Seequent was led by mining – outpacing civil for the first time in six quarters,” Cumins told analysts on a call. However, he said while the company was seeing early signs of improvement in mineral exploration activity it was “still too soon to call it a market recovery”.
Resources account for about 25% of Bentley’s $1379.2 million annual recurring revenues as of June 30, and mining about half of resources.
Bentley booked $1353.1 million of revenue in 2024 and has a full-year outlook for $1461-to-$1490 million in 2025.
Bentley executive chair Greg Bentley said “green shoots [in] new mining” were encouraging in light of US regulatory reform that could stimulate increased infrastructure investment.
He told a JP Morgan event in May this year geopolitical winds were starting to turn to favourable for companies such as Bentley, which had to endure a loss of ARR in China (down from 5% of ARR to 2.5%) due to the country’s deteriorating trade relationship with the US.
“Seequent is the leader in the world in 3D subsurface modelling and they got started in mining,” Bentley said.
“An expansion in domestic mining anywhere will benefit Seequent.
“The difficulty for mining in the US has been that the permitting process literally has taken decades for new mines and is hardly economically feasible, therefore, for that to be pursued in the US, and that is what is rather certain to change with emphasis on self-sufficiency in the US and other countries as well, that will benefit the Seequent business.
“Since our acquisition [of Seequent] in 2021 it has grown considerably faster than our company as a whole. It was growing twice as fast as our company as a whole before a curtailment in new mining exploration, which was interest rate sensitive and capital markets condition sensitive, a couple of years ago.
“We can go back to those levels and beyond ultimately, but what I believe is that everyone’s pretty confident that the need for scarce minerals and metals and especially self-sufficiency in those will be a long-term secular driver.”
