Full-year profit at Kier Group jumps 8%
Construction and services company Kier Group reported a rise in full-year pre-tax profit on Thursday as revenue grew and its business remained relatively unaffected by Brexit.
Construction & Materials
9,923.42
16:59 23/04/24
FTSE 250
19,799.72
16:59 23/04/24
FTSE 350
4,424.29
16:59 23/04/24
FTSE All-Share
4,378.75
17:14 23/04/24
Kier Group
128.40p
16:40 23/04/24
In the year to the end of June, underlying pre-tax profit was up 8% to £126m on revenue of £4.27bn, up 5% from the year before. Kier proposed a full-year dividend of 67.5p per share, up 5% from 2016.
It said the acquisition of engineering services provider McNicholas in July boosted the order book to £9.5bn from £8.9bn and made it a top three player in the utilities sector.
As far as the outlook is concerned, the company said it is confident of achieving double-digit profit growth in FY18 and its Vision 2020 strategic targets.
Chief executive Haydn Mursell said: "Our underlying performance for the year was good. Having simplified our portfolio, the group is more focused and able to pursue its growth ambitions in our three core markets; building, infrastructure and housing, which now represent 90% of the group's revenue and profit. We continue to invest in the business to improve our operational efficiency, providing a robust platform on which to take advantage of the strong long-term fundamentals in these core markets.
"Our Construction and Services order books of £9.5bn, together with our circa £2bn property development and residential pipelines, provide good long-term visibility of our future work. This visibility, coupled with our healthy balance sheet, provides us with confidence of achieving our Vision 2020 strategic targets."
Kier added that to date, the building, infrastructure and housing sectors in which it operates have remained "relatively unaffected" by Brexit.
At 0820 BST, the shares were up 6.4% to 1,165p.