Keller Group PLC Annual General Meeting and trading update (7929E)

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RNS Number : 7929E

Keller Group PLC

11 May 2017

For immediate release Thursday 11 May, 2017

Keller Group plc

Annual General Meeting and trading update

Keller Group plc ("Keller" or "the Group"), the world's largest geotechnical contractor, issues a trading update ahead of its Annual General Meeting to be held at 11.00am today.

Trading

There has been no significant change in market trends since we reported the Group's 2016 results on 27 February. For the Group as a whole, both revenue and profit in the four months to the end of April are ahead of last year.

Our North American division has had a solid start to the year, albeit behind the very strong first four months in 2016. EMEA has continued its growth trend of recent years, helped by ongoing good contract execution on large projects. APAC's results show a significant year on year improvement with encouraging growth in revenue although, as expected, the division still recorded a loss in the period.

Tendering activity and contract awards remain generally healthy. The order book has increased during the year and, at the end of April, the Group order book of work to be undertaken over the next 12 months was 15% higher than at the same time last year.

As a result, the Group remains on course to meet the Board's expectations for the full year.

Financial Position

Keller announced a property disposal today for a cash consideration of GBP62m, which reduces the Group's net debt to EBITDA ratio by 0.3x. Apart from this, there has been no material change in the financial position of the Group since the announcement on 27 February 2017 of the results for the year ended 31 December 2016.

Keller will announce its interim results on 1 August 2017.

For further information, please contact:

 
 Keller Group plc                   www.keller.com 
 James Hind, Finance Director       020 7616 7575 
 
   Finsbury 
 Gordon Simpson, Theo Hildebrand    020 7251 3801 
 

Cautionary Statement

This announcement contains forward looking statements which are made in good faith based on the information available at the time of its approval. It is believed that the expectations reflected in these statements are reasonable but they may be affected by a number of risks and uncertainties that are inherent in any forward looking statement which could cause actual results to differ materially from those currently anticipated. Nothing in this document should be regarded as a profits forecast.

Notes to Editors

Keller is the world's largest independent ground engineering specialist, providing technically advanced and cost-effective foundation solutions to the construction industry. With annual revenue of around GBP1.8bn, Keller has approximately 10,000 staff world-wide.

Keller is the clear market leader in the US, Canada, Australia and South Africa; it has prime positions in most established European markets; and a strong profile in many developing markets.

LEI: 549300QO4MBL43UHSN10

This information is provided by RNS

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May 11, 2017 02:01 ET (06:01 GMT)