Water and Effluent Treatment Magazine
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/1105798
18 LEADERS 2019 THE LEADERS 2019 KIER GROUP Tempsford Hall Sandy Bedfordshire SG19 2BD Tel: 01767 355 000 www.kier.co.uk Kier looks forward under new CEO Now under the leadership of chief executive Andrew Davies, Kier Group announced in April that it was launching a strategic review to consider ways of further simplifying the firm to "create a more focused group, the allocation of capital resources across the group and additional steps to improve cash generation and reduce leverage". Kier Group – divided across infrastructure services, buildings, and developments and housing – purchased May Gurney in 2013, Mouchel in 2015 and McNicholas in 2017 and, while the acquisitions have brought significant growth in revenue, debts reached more than £400 million last year. The company completed a £250 million rights issue in December, which brought the net debt position at the end of 2018 down to £180.5 million, but only 38 per cent of shareholders took up their option to buy the discounted shares and Haydn Mursell departed as CEO shortly aŒerwards. Kier Group was able to draw positives from its results for the year ending 30 June 2018, with revenue up 5 per cent to £4.5 billion and underlying operating profit increasing 10 per cent to £160 million. Chairman Philip Cox said that represented "a good performance", and its operating profit was the best in the Leaders 2019 database. Kier's services division, which includes highways, utilities, housing, facilities management and environmental services, saw revenue grow by 10 per cent to £1.9 billion and underlying profit up 7 per cent to £93 million. Kier has secured numerous water contracts ahead of AMP7, with a place on Severn Trent's capital delivery build-only framework as well as being named as one of four framework partners for South West Water's £45 million MEICA services programme. It is also part of three Anglian Water alliances, each scheduled to run for 15 years to 2030, and its work on the IMR Alliance with Clancy Docwra was recently expanded to cover leakage detection. THE NUMBERS 13/14 14/15 15/16 16/17 17/18 % change Sales £m 2,906.9 3,275.9 3,991.4 4,128.8 4,239.6 3 Gross profit £m 250.4 282.9 356.3 288.7 401.9 39 Operating profit £m 34.3 60.9 -7.4 8.2 134.4 1,539 Pre-tax profit £m 15.4 39.5 -34.9 -14.2 106.2 n/a Staff 15,335 17,931 18,447 17,940 20,064 12 Net assets £m 306.7 583.6 573.9 511.4 601.1 18 THE RATIOS 13/14 14/15 15/16 16/17 17/18 % change Return on capital % 5.0 6.8 -6.1 -2.8 17.7 n/a Gross margin % 8.6 8.6 8.9 7.0 9.5 36 Operating margin % 1.2 1.9 -0.2 0.2 3.2 1,496 Net margin % 0.5 1.2 -0.9 -0.3 2.5 n/a Sales/employee £k 189.6 182.7 216.4 230.1 211.3 -8 PREVENT LEAKAGES; SAVE WATER! TEL: +44 (0) 208 670 7511 FAX: +44 (0) 208 761 2456 EMAIL: mail@denso.net www.denso.net WINN & COALES (DENSO) LTD A MEMBER OF WINN & COALES INTERNATIONAL INCREASE THE SERVICE LIFE OF YOUR WATER PIPELINES AND FITTINGS WITH DENSO ® • OUR CORROSION PREVENTION SYSTEMS HELP TO REDUCE THE RISK OF COSTLY REPAIRS AND WATER LOSS • FULLY COMPLIANT WITH P1 & P2 CIVIL ENGINEERING SPECIFICATIONS FOR THE WATER INDUSTRY • FREE APPLICATION TRAINING AVAILABLE • CONTACT US FOR MORE INFORMATION BS EN ISO 9001:2015 & 14001:2015