Keller turns in record first-half revenues

(Sharecast News) - Keller Group turned in a personal best first-half revenue on Monday, thanks to a return to strong organic growth over in North America and a renewed surge in Asia-Pacific.Keller lifted revenues 8% to a record £1.07bn in the six months to 30 June, with EBITDA increased 7% to £83.5m and pre-tax profits up 7% to £42.2m. Profits were boosted by a near-£6m one-off benefit following the resolution of open commercial items at the completion of two large projects.At the statutory level the FTSE 250 group's operating profits dropped 29% to £42.8m, as £5.8m of amortisation of acquired intangible assets and a £500,000 hit stemming from other non-underlying items dragged it down.In North America, Keller's revenue and profits rose 23% and 21%, respectively, despite poor weather throughout the period, while in the Asia-Pacific market, revenue increased 34% due to strong showings in Asia and Australia.Elsewhere, revenue fell 4% in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, but profits jumped 5%.Keller posted an interim dividend per share of 12p, up 24%, following the upward rebasing of its 2017 full year dividend, and underlying earnings per share increased 17% to 41p.Alain Michaelis, Keller's chief executive, said, "Despite a harsh northern hemisphere winter, we are reporting a strong financial performance for the first half of the year.""We remain well positioned to benefit from the global trends of urbanisation and infrastructure growth and we continue to advance our strategic objectives. We are confident of making further progress in the second half."In other news, the geotechnical contractor revealed that, as well as the recently flagged move of finance director James Hind was moving to take over as president of the North America division with Michael Speakman taking over as chief financial officer, but that Chris Girling, an independent non-executive director and chairman of the firm's audit committee, will retire from Keller's board following its annual general meeting in May 2019.Girling, who served on Keller's board for eight years will be replaced on the audit committee by Paula Bell, currently the chief financial officer of Spirent Communications, while Kate Rock will join the board on 1 September to fill the empty independent non-executive director's spot.As of 0845 BST, Keller shares had collected 3.15% to 1,114.00p.Broker Numis said that, based on a first half PBT that is ahead of its forecast, management's confidence of making further progress in the second half and recent dollar strength, it was increasing its 2018 and 2019 EPS forecasts by 3% to 99.7p and 108p.