Kier makes 2.4% margin

Kier’s construction division enjoyed a 2.4% margin on its workload of £1.1bn last year.

The pre-tax profit of £26m that Kier made in its construction businesses was £1m higher than the figure achieved by the group’s housing operation.

Latest annual results (12 months to 30 June 2005) show group turnover higher at £1.6bn – it was £1.5bn in the previous year.

The group’s pre-tax profit was up by more than a third at £58m, although the latest figure was enhanced by exceptional items running to a total of £6.7m, part of which was the £2.1m exceptional profit when Kier’s 25.5% investment in the Neath Port Talbot Hospital concession was sold to Secondary Market Infrastructure Fund UK for £5m.

Kier Regional, part of the construction division, had a record year-end cash balance of £205m, ahead of the figure 12 months earlier by some £36m, and contract awards were 15% higher at £1bn. Existing contracts are mostly shorter-term, with an average value of £2.6m