17th Nov 2006 07:01
Keller Group PLC17 November 2006 17 November 2006 Keller Group plc Trading Update Keller Group plc ("Keller" or "the Group"), the international ground engineeringspecialist, today announces a trading update for its current financial year todate. Trading since the half year has been extremely good, culminating in anoutstanding performance in October. This reflects a continuation of the stronggrowth in both sales and margins seen in the first half of the year. Order intake has kept pace with sales and, as a result of the acquisitions ofPiling Contractors (August) and Anderson (October), the Group order book hasincreased by around 15% since the end of June. This strong performance is due to consistently high levels of activity and goodprofitability across all our geographic segments. In the US, our foundationsbusinesses have continued to perform exceptionally well, with strong demand intheir commercial and public infrastructure markets. As expected, Suncoast'ssales are suffering because of the slowdown in the residential market, but ithas nonetheless reported excellent results for the year to date. Elsewhere, the Group is taking full advantage of strong market conditions inmost European markets, Australia and the Middle East and is benefiting fromstrengthening demand in Germany. It is still too early to predict the impact of seasonal factors in November andDecember. Nonetheless, given the strength of trading in the year to date, theBoard believes that Keller's results for the year ending 31 December 2006 willbe significantly above current market expectations. Justin Atkinson, Chief Executive, commenting, said: "We are currently enjoying good demand for our ground engineering solutions inmost parts of the Group and our strong sales growth continues to outstrip marketgrowth rates. "Whilst we remain cautious about the sustainability of the extremely buoyanttrading in the US, we are confident of delivering further improvement in ourother geographic segments." For further information, please contact: Keller Group plcJustin Atkinson, Chief Executive 020 7616 7575James Hind, Finance Director SmithfieldReg Hoare/Rupert Trefgarne 020 7360 4900 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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