Kier confident after private sector shift

15th Sep 2011 07:28

Construction group Kier said it has been helped by a shift from public sector work to non- private sector projects and an emphasis on non-discretionary areas such as waste and power as it posted a rise in profits for the year to 30 June. Underlying profits rose to £68.9m from £55.5m the previous year, on revenues up to £2.179bn from £2.099bn. The company's biggest division, construction, saw revenues climb by 2% to £1.445bn, with 56% of awards from public sector projects, down from 74% the previous year. The company said commercial, power and waste sectors are providing the most significant opportunities, particularly in London and the southeast in the case of the commercial sector.The services division, which provides maintenance, facilities management and other services, said revenues increased by 3% to £484m. The property development and investment business saw revenues jump to £97m from £53m, due largely to the acquisition of a property portfolio from Lloyds. Kier Homes revenues fell to £153m from £158m.The full year dividend rises to 64p from 58p.Kier said its order book has increased to £4.3bn, from £4.2bn at the end of the previous year."Although we expect the next 12 months to be challenging, we remain confident that our positioning across a wide spectrum of service areas, coupled with our committed and professional staff, will enable us to deliver a good performance in the new financial year," the company said.In a separate announcement, Kier said it has been named as the sole contractor for a range of projects with Scape, a local authority-controlled company that manages building projects. The projects are expected to run for four years and are valued between £750bn and £1bn. ---RG