Keller Regulatory News (KLR)

13 May 2008 06:00



For immediate release Tuesday, 13 May 2008 

Keller Group plc

Interim Management Statement

AGM Statement

Ahead of its Annual General Meeting to be held at 11.00 a.m. today, Keller Group plc ("Keller" or "the Group"), the international ground engineering specialist, announces its first Interim Management Statement, as required by the UK Listing Authority's Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

Overview

Trading in the first four months of 2008 has remained strong, with revenue, operating profit and orders all ahead of the comparable period last year and in line with the Board's expectations.

Divisional Review

US

With the private non-residential and public infrastructure sectors of the US construction market, which generate the majority of our US business, holding up well, our US foundation contracting businesses have continued to be busy. Revenue and orders in the period have been good and profit is in line with last year.  The integration of HJ, the Florida-based continuous flight auger piling specialist acquired in October 2007, is progressing well.

Suncoast, with its exposure to the residential sector, is having a difficult first half, albeit no worse than expected.  However, while revenue and particularly profit are significantly down against the same period last year, the business remains profitable.

Continental Europe, Middle East & Asia (CEMEA)

CEMEA continues to show good growth, with revenue and operating margin both well ahead of this time last year. In particular, the Middle East and Eastern Europe businesses have performed exceptionally, as they continue to add capacity and extend their product offering to meet high levels of demand.  The other regions in this division have also made a positive start to the year.

Australia

Last year's very strong performance from Australia has continued into 2008. All four of our businesses are reporting record sales with good margins, in strong market conditions which are showing no signs of abating.

UK

The UK result has been impacted by the weakening housing market. However, the order book is good, helped by the award in March of the contract for the foundations for the Olympic Main Stadium, where our work began at the end of April.

Financial Position

The Group's financial position remains strong, there having been no significant changes to this position since the publication of the Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 December 2007. Since the preliminary results, we have initiated our share buyback programme and have so far purchased 250,000 shares at a cost of £1.7 million. All of these shares are held in treasury.

Outlook 

The robustness of Keller's business model underpins the Board's confidence in the Group's prospects. Our broad client base and exposure to diverse geographic markets protect against cycles in individual markets and will help to mitigate the impact of the widely-expected downturn in the US commercial sector.

In the shorter term, demand for our products in most of our markets remains good, our operations are performing well and all four of our geographic regions currently have higher order books than at this time last year.  This strong start to the year supports a favourable outlook for the Group for the half year to 30 June 2008.

Notice of Interim Results

Keller intends to announce its interim results on Monday, 28 July 2008.

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