26th Nov 2007 07:01
Kier Group PLC26 November 2007 26 November 2007 KIER GROUP plc AGM STATEMENT Kier Group plc, the major construction, support services, housebuilding andproperty development group, held its Annual General Meeting at the Group's headoffice at Sandy, Bedfordshire on Saturday, 24 November 2007 at 11.00am. Commenting to shareholders on the excellent performance achieved by Kier Groupplc in its financial year to 30 June 2007, John Dodds, Chief Executive went onto say that the Group has made a strong start to the new financial year. He madereference to the recent Interim Management Statement issued on 29 October 2007to which there is no material change and stated that the Group is well on trackto achieve further growth this year. Chairman, Peter Warry, announced his intention to step down as non-executiveChairman and a director of the Company with effect from 31 December 2007. Hewill be succeeded by Phil White, the Senior Independent Director. Trading update During the meeting, John Dodds, made the following comments: "The Group has made a strong start to the new financial year with first quartertrading in-line with our expectations putting us on track to achieve our fullyear target. Our cash balances have remained strong throughout the period withSeptember month end balances higher than those at 30 June 2007 driven largely byan excellent cash performance in the Construction division. "Our integrated business model is providing insulation against the weaker demandwe are currently experiencing in the housing market as we continue to benefitfrom strong markets particularly in our largest division, Construction, and inour fastest growing division, Support Services. "Our Construction businesses have had a very promising start to the newfinancial year with a record level of revenue achieved by Kier Regional in thefirst quarter. Order books are at healthy levels, supported by a strong pipelineof opportunities, forming a sound foundation for further profitable growth inthis year. "In Support Services we have good visibility of revenues over the next five toten years through our Building Maintenance division where we operate a number oflarge, long-term local authority outsourcing contracts. We continue to pursueopportunities for Building Maintenance contracts and there is a healthy bid listof projects. We recently achieved preferred bidder status on the repairs andmaintenance contract in Stoke which is expected to commence operations early inthe New Year and will provide annual revenues of £40m for 10 to 15 years. "The Homes division has made a satisfactory start to the year despite negativebuyer sentiment and uncertainties in the mortgage lending market. Our order bookis broadly the same level as this time last year and around 60% of our full yeartargeted unit sales are secured by way of completions, exchanged contracts andreservations. Our housing businesses are achieving rates of reservations thatshould enable us to show a modest increase over the number of last year's unitsales. "In Property the occupier market has remained sound in the first quarter of theyear despite investment uncertainties and we have already secured the majorityof the transactions required to achieve the full year targeted profit. We arecontinuing to explore opportunities to acquire further stock in order to expandthe business. "As set out in our statement of 29 October 2007 the Group's financialperformance to date is in line with our expectations; cash is very strong; andwe have healthy order books, particularly in Construction and Support Services.All of this puts us firmly on track to achieve good growth this year. Board changes During the meeting, Peter Warry announced his intention to step down asnon-executive Chairman and a director of the Company with effect from 31December 2007. The Board has elected Phil White to succeed Peter as non-executive Chairman.Phil joined Kier as a non-executive director in July 2006 and has been SeniorIndependent Director since 1 July 2007. He served as Chief Executive of NationalExpress for nearly 10 years transforming it into one of the UK's leadingtransportation groups. He is currently Chairman of Lookers Plc and ACIS Limited. Chief Executive, John Dodds, commented "I should like to thank Peter, on behalf of the board and the Group, for hiscontribution during his 10 years with the business and particularly the lastthree years during which he served as Chairman. He has guided us through aperiod of significant growth and change during that time and he has our verybest wishes for the future. "I am very pleased to welcome Phil White as our new Chairman. Phil has extensiveexperience of both listed and private companies and will play a key role inguiding the Group through the next stages of its growth and development. - ENDS - For further information, please contact: Kier Group plc Tel: 01767 640111John Dodds, Chief ExecutiveDeena Mattar, Finance Director Madano Partnership Tel: 020 7593 4000Caroline Sturdy/Matthew Moth This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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