Firm says operating figures will beat expectations

Keller is increasing its interim dividend as the firm said operating profit this year will beat forecast with cash better than expected.

In a trading update, the firm, which is working on parts of the HS2 scheme in the Midlands, said “we expect full year underlying operating profit to be materially ahead of previous market expectations, with the increase in earnings moderated by the impact of recent interest rate increases”.

Turnover last year was £3bn with pre-tax profit coming in at £56m.

keller

Keller said profit this year will be up thanks to a recovery in work at its North America business

It said profit has recovered in North America and that it was in talks about a contract twice the size of its first £40m deal at the NEOM mixed-use scheme in Saudi Arabia.

But it said parts of Europe had seen some jobs stalled and margins hit, adding: “Several large projects in the prior period, including HS2 in the UK, provide a challenging comparator for H1 2023.”

The firm said it had “substantially addressed” the issues at its Austral civils and marine division in which operating profit was exaggerated by around £18m over several years and saw two senior figures fired as a result.

Interim dividends have been upgraded 5% to 13.9p for the six months to June. It will release interim results on 1 August.

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