Kier has reported a pre-tax loss of £15 million as integration and restructuring costs hit the groups preliminary results for 2016.

While the contractor reported revenue had risen 26% to £4.2 billion (2015: £3.4bn), transaction, integration and restructuring costs following the purchase of Mouchel Group amounted to £49.9m.

In addition, Kier revealed it paid £4.5m to blacklisted workers through the Construction Workers Compensation Scheme.

However, pre-tax profit was up 45% to £125m while net debt was reduced to £99m from £141m.

Haydn Mursell, Chief Executive, said the results reflect "the evolution of the Group during the year" following the integration of Mouchel.


"This year, we have successfully focused on our commercial and capital disciplines and are pleased to report a significant improvement in our net debt, further strengthening our balance sheet and the delivery of a key Vision 2020 target: net debt: EBITDA of less than 1x, a year ahead of our expectations," he said.

"The Group continues to perform well in growing market sectors including infrastructure, housing and regional building, providing a breadth of capabilities to our clients.  For the first time, 50% of Group profit now comes from our Services division where essential day-to-day services are provided to clients and we have long-term visibility of our future pipeline of work.

"Having completed the integration of Mouchel, we are well progressed with the simplification of our portfolio of businesses and are focused on capitalising on the growth opportunities available to the Group. We remain confident of achieving our goal of double-digit profit growth on average each year to 2020."

(LM/CD)