11th Jul 2007 07:00
Kier Group PLC11 July 2007 11 July 2007 KIER GROUP PLC TRADING UPDATE YEAR ENDED 30 JUNE 2007 Kier Group plc, the contracting, services, housebuilding and property group ispleased to provide the following update to current trading in advance of meetingwith analysts today. Kier Group plc expects to report full year profits ahead of current marketexpectations and substantially more than last year's result. Cash balancesduring the year have been strong ending the financial year at over £145m (30June 2006: £111m) net of borrowings. In Construction the level of awards has been high during the year resulting in ahealthy order book reflecting a strong market and plenty of good qualitycontract awards for both the public and private sectors. Cash generation fromour construction activities has been excellent throughout the year with thedivision achieving record cash balances at 30 June 2007. Support Services continues to grow, particularly in the Building Maintenancedivision where we now maintain around 185,000 public sector homes throughout thecountry. Six new contracts have been awarded this year with combined annualrevenues of around £95m including Harrow on which we achieved financial close on29 June 2007. A strong pipeline of other good opportunities remains. In Housing we achieved 1,767 completions for the year including 162 units fromKier Homes Northern (formerly Hugh Bourn Developments (Wragby) Limited) whichwas acquired in July 2006. This represents a 16% increase over last year.Despite a modest reduction in visitors to our sites in the last quarter of theyear our reservation levels remained healthy and by the end of the first week ofJuly 2007 we had secured 30% of projected unit sales for the new financial yearby way of completions, exchanged contracts and reservations. The Property Development division continues to take advantage of the strongdevelopment opportunities across all sectors. Our reputation for tacklingcomplex development sites continues to grow and we were pleased to win thecontract to renovate the new United Kingdom Supreme Court in June 2007 withWallis, our historic buildings refurbishment specialist, acting as principalcontractor. Kier Group Chief Executive, John Dodds said: "Kier Group is in excellent shape;our businesses are well placed to take advantage of their strong markets and ourhealthy cash balances put us in a good position to respond quickly toopportunities as they arise. All of this gives us a great deal of confidence forthe future." Kier Group expects to announce its preliminary results for the year to 30 June2007 on 13 September 2007. - ENDS - For further information, please contact: John Dodds, Chief ExecutiveKier Group plc Tel: 01767 640111 Deena Mattar, Finance DirectorKier Group plc Tel: 01767 640111 Caroline Sturdy/Matthew MothMadano Partnership Tel: 020 7593 4000 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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