Australia picks up the slack for Keller

28th Feb 2011 07:24

Depressed construction markets in the US and much of western Europe slowed growth at ground engineering specialist Keller last year, but revenue still beat market expectations.Revenue in 2010 rose to £1,070m from £1,038m in 2009, beating forecasts of £1,037m."Overall, £404m (38%) of our 2010 revenue came from Australia and our developing markets, up from £90m (13%) five years ago," noted company chairman, Roy Franklin.Adjusted profit before tax of £39.6m, down from £74.7m the year before, was less than the market had been expecting, however; the median figure from a range of forecasts was £40.97m.The pre-tax profit included redundancy and reorganisation charges of £3.8m but was struck before taking into account a £21.8m goodwill impairment charge, most of which related to the group's investments in Suncoast in the US and Keller-Terra in Spain.Cash generated from operations was £70.3m, down from £123.2m in 2009. Cash generated represented 83% of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA), down from 109% in 2009. After net capital expenditure of £28.6m (2009: £35.5m) and expenditure on acquisitions of £23.4m (2009: £34.7m), net debt at the end of the year stood at £94.0m (2009: £78.8m), which represents 1.1 times EBITDA. The final dividend has been raised to 15.2p, up from 14.5p in 2009. The total dividend for the year is 22.8p, marginally ahead of market expectations of 22.6p, and a 5% increase on 2009's dividend of 21.75p."For the group as a whole, contract awards in the second half of 2010 continued to be ahead of the same period in 2009. As a result, at the end of January 2011 our order book was 13% ahead of the previous year," Franklin revealed.Having endured a rough 2010 the company's markets in the US and western Europe have stabilised, and the group is even seeing some signs of moderate growth. "However, the medium term looks set to remain challenging, as the full impact of government austerity programmes is felt," Franklin warned, while the current unrest in the Middle East is also likely to have an impact on Keller's business in that region.