Kier Group trading in line due to recovery in UK construction
CONSTRUCTION and services firm Kier yesterday said its performance remains on course, thanks to a stream of new contract awards and a recovery in the UK market.
The FTSE 250-listed firm said its construction division secured more than £500m of new contracts this year to date and has secured a forward order book of £2.6bn.
The figure represents all its forecast revenue for the year to 30 June and more than 80 per cent of the forecast revenue for the year to 30 June 2015. “The pick-up in the construction market is across both the public and private sectors and it is UK-wide, not just London-centric any more,” finance director Haydn Mursell told Morning Wire “This gives the recovery more stability.”
Kier also announced that it has achieved preferred bidder status on two contracts worth £130m with Anglian Water, which it accredited to its acquisition of services firm May Gurney last year. “It was a relationship that May Gurney had, now with Kier’s scale behind it,” said Mursell.
Shares closed up 1.8 per cent.