Debt down to less than £50m after being close to £550m at one stage
Kier has continued to make inroads into its debt pile with the firm saying average monthly debt fell below the £50m barrier in the first half of its new financial year.
The firm’s average month-end net debt at one stage stood at close to £550m but in a trading update this morning Kier said this had been hacked down to £38m from £137m for the same period last year.
Analysts have been expecting the contractor, which returned to the FTSE 250 list of the UK’s biggest quoted companies last year, to return to a net cash position by early 2026 at the latest.
Kier said that its strengthening balance sheet, which allowed it to make an annual dividend payment for the first time in six years last September, meant it has launched a £20m share buyback which chief executive Andrew Davies said was part of a policy to “maximise shareholder returns”.
>> See also: ‘This industry is absolutely fine…’ Andrew Davies on the naysayers, rescuing Kier and what the firm plans to do next
The firm said its order book at the end of December was £11bn, a 2% increase on the year-end position at the end of June last year.
Davies added: “The strength of our cash generation combined with the multi-year revenue visibility afforded by our growing quality order book and underpinned by our strong balance sheet, gives us the confidence that this momentum will continue.”
The firm is due to release its interim results on 11 March.
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