Kier trading in line as it completes May Gurney deal

8th Jul 2013 08:29

Kier said its order books were robust and trading was in line with expectations as it announced the completion of its 221m pound takeover of road maintenance provider May Gurney. The deal has enabled the company to double the size of its services business and it now has contracts with 65 councils.Kier said its services arm had won £400m of new contracts this financial year and had an order book of £2.1bn. The enlarged group said it had bagged more than £1.4bn of new contracts in the construction industry this year and its construction order book of secured and probable work was currently matching its forecast for construction revenues for the 2014 financial year. Operating margin remained at 2.0% in this division. In property it said its mixed-tenure housing business was expected to deliver nearly 400 units this financial year and its forward order book stood at £400m, equating to 2,600 new homes. It expected its private housing business to achieve about 550 completions this year.Shares in Kier were down 0.87% at 1257p.TB