28th Jan 2016 08:20
LONDON (Alliance News) - Property, residential, construction and services company Kier Group PLC on Thursday said its trading was in line with its expectations after good growth across its divisions since November.
The company said it had experienced good underlying organic growth and an improving pipeline of opportunities in the period, with its net debt position GBP175 million ahead of expectations on December 31, putting it in line to deliver a net debt position at the lower end of guidance at June 30.
The figures mean it is on course to achieve its Vision 2020 goal of net-debt-to-earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation of 1:1 by June 2017, Kier added.
The company said its property division had benefited from a strong development market in its core sectors in the period, while its residential division was on track to generate revenue more than 30% higher than last year. It added it was also on track to achieve its forecast of an operating margin of around 2.0% for its construction sector, with its order book representing 100% of targeted revenue for its 2016 financial year.
The company said it was welcoming the government's announcement that it would be introducing a Starter Home Fund, enabling house-building on brown-field sites, and the direct commission of housebuilding on publicly-owned land. It said this would mitigate the impact from recent announcements relating to "right-to-buy" and affordable housing rent reductions.
The company will announce its interim results on March 17.
Kier shares were up 0.9% to 1,228.30 pence on Thursday morning.
By Hannah Boland; [email protected]; @Hannaheboland
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