Kier Group

The company was founded by Jorgen Lotz and Olaf Kier, Danish engineers, under the name Lotz & Kier in 1928, and it was based in Stoke-on-Trent.[6]

A few years later Lotz withdrew from the company, but Olaf Kier retained a semblance of his identity by including Lotz's initials in the organisation's new name, J.L. Kier & Co Ltd, which remained the company's principal title for over four decades.[7]

By the late 1930s Kier had moved its head office to Belgravia in Westminster, and thereby became neighbours to many of Britain's leading construction engineering consultants and contractors, who had formed a substantial coterie in Westminster for professionals and businessmen engaged in civil engineering. Immediate neighbours included Marples Ridgeway (builders of Hammersmith Flyover) and Edmund Nuttall (builders of both Mersey road tunnels).[8]

During its first 35 years, Kier became identified with certain civil engineering specialisms, such as contiguous cylindrical reinforced concrete grain silos and cement silos, using continuously sliding formwork; commencing with those at Barking in 1929, followed by grain silos at Northampton, Peterborough, Melksham, Gloucester and Witham; and cement silos at Norwich, Cambridge, Trinidad, and in India.[9]

Such specialist work was part of a pattern that quickly developed in the company's operations during that period, namely the undertaking of innovative, state-of-the-art civil engineering techniques at the forefront of modern technology. Other elements within this pattern were hyperbolic natural draft cooling towers (mostly around 300 ft high),[10] monolithic concrete chimneys (sometimes over 400 ft high),[11] complete power station structures,[12] and coastal works such as tanker berths, docks and harbours.[13]

Corner detail of Highpoint I, showing balcony profiles.

In the same period, only this time in the building sector, Kier were in the vanguard of new reinforced concrete systems for use as framework for tall buildings. Their most famous contribution in this field was an eight-storey avant-garde development of apartment blocks named Highpoint, located in Highgate Village, north London. They were responsible for the reinforced concrete and general building.[14]

When this project was completed in 1935 it became widely renowned as the finest example of this form of construction for residential purposes. When Le Corbusier himself visited Highpoint in 1935 he said, "This beautiful building .... at Highgate is an achievement of the first rank."[15] And American critic Henry Russell Hitchcock called it, "One of the finest, if not absolutely the finest, middle-class housing projects in the world"[15] (in 1970 both Highpoint blocks were classified Grade I listed buildings).[16]

Olaf Kier sought to retain family leaders at the head of the organisation. However, his son by his first marriage was killed in a riding accident in 1945. Then, during the 1950s, Olaf's nephew, Mogens Kier, joined the firm's management structure, but did not progress to a leading position in the company. Olaf died in an accident in 1986, aged 87; and Mogens died in 2003.[17]

J.L. Kier & Co Ltd remained a private company until 1963 when it obtained a listing on the London Stock Exchange and became a public company. Its offer for shares was many times oversubscribed. The Kier family retained a significant majority of the holding. In 1973 Kier merged with W. & C. French to form French Kier but within the French division there were heavy losses on fixed-price motorway contracts and land development. A long-serving Kier engineer, John Mott, was appointed chief executive in order to revive the group's fortunes. Following an abortive bid for Abbey in 1985, French Kier itself was the subject of a hotly contested bid by Beazer, which eventually succeeded in January 1986.[18]

Five years later (1991) Hanson plc bought Beazer plc[19] and made an early decision to dispose of the contracting arm, now known simply as Kier. This was the subject of a management buyout in July 1992,[20] with Hanson retaining a 10 per cent stake.[21]

In 1993 Kier decided to re-enter the housing market with the £30m acquisition of Twigden Homes. This was followed by acquisitions of the southern division of Miller Homes in 1996, Bellwinch in 1998, and Allison Homes in 2001. By 2004, Kier housing sales were over 1,000 units a year.[18] Kier was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1996.[22]

In 2009, Mivan Kier, Kier's Romanian joint venture with the Northern Irish group Mivan, which invested in real estate projects in Bucharest, requested bankruptcy protection due to debts of €20 million.[23][24]

In 2013, Kier acquired the services firm May Gurney for £221 million,[25] becoming the then fourth largest contracting firm in the UK (behind Balfour Beatty, Carillion and Laing O'Rourke).[26] In June 2015 Kier completed the acquisition of Mouchel, a business which included infrastructure services and business services divisions, for £265 million;[27] Mouchel Infrastructure Services was rebranded as Mouchel Consulting, and sold to WSP Global in October 2016. In July 2017 Kier acquired McNicholas Construction, another UK infrastructure services provider.[28]

After the liquidation of rival contracting and services provider Carillion in January 2018, Kier took on some Carillion staff and contracts: 150 Carillion workers employed on smart motorway joint ventures with Kier became Kier employees; 51 Carillion employees working on seven HS2 civil engineering packages awarded to the CEK joint venture were allowed to join Kier/Eiffage.[29][30][31] However, because Kier shared characteristics that contributed to Carillion's collapse - problem contracts, rising debts, and use of reverse factoring supply chain finance - City hedge funds began to 'short' Kier's shares; 10.9% were shorted by 30 August 2018,[32] later rising to 18%,[33] though Kier's position was not seen to be as risky as Carillion's.[34] The 2018 results were in line with City expectations - showing a pre-tax profit of £137m from stable revenue of £4.5 billion - with Kier outlining clear debt reduction plans.[35][36] On 15 November 2018, Kier announced the £24m sale of its Australian road assets business KHSA to joint venture partner Downer, saying sale proceeds would help reduce net debt[37] - £624m at 31 October 2018.[38]

However, on 30 November, Kier announced a £264m rights issue, priced at 409p, to pay down net debts;[38] the announcement led to Kier shares dropping almost 33%,[39] cutting Kier's stock market value by £329m to £492m.[40] The slide continued;[41] on 3 December shares were trading around 40% lower than before the rights issue announcement.[42] On 5 December, Kier was demoted from the FTSE 250 Index,[43] and its share price dropped below the rights issue price,[44][45] making it cheaper for investors to buy shares in the open market than in the rights issue, and leaving underwriters (Numis, Peel Hunt, Citigroup, HSBC and Santander) facing losses. Shares were also subject to renewed 'shorting'.[46] On 10 December, shares closed at 376.4p, a 15-year low.[47] Only 38% of the rights issue was taken up, with shares still trading below the rights issue price, at 385p, on 19 December.[48]

Following the rights issue result on 20 December 2018, shares fell by 13% to a 15-year low of 335p, but later recovered.[49][50] They were trading at 529p on 11 January 2019, when some shareholders sought changes in Kier's leadership team.[51] CEO Haydn Mursell subsequently resigned with immediate effect on 22 January (former Wates Group CEO Andrew Davies was announced as his successor on 19 March,[52] taking up the post on 15 April 2019).[53] In a trading statement Kier said the rights issue had helped reduce year-end net debt to £130m compared with £239m at the end of the previous year; average month-end net debt for the six months to 31 December 2018 was £370m, as compared with £410m for the previous six months.[54] On 28 January 2019, Kier shares dropped 4% after reports it would sell its housing maintenance arm to cut debt,[55] and the company was also reducing its waste management activities.[56]

On 11 March 2019, Kier revised its average net debt for the six months to December 2018 by over £50m from £130m to £180.5m, raising average month-end net debt over the period from £370m to £430m. These revisions followed £10.3m in adjustments to the group's hedging activities, and £40.2m in relation to development assets held for resale. It also warned of £25m of additional costs on its Broadmoor Hospital redevelopment. Shares fell by 12% to 437p.[57][58]

On 20 March 2019, Kier's half-year results showed a pre-tax loss of £35.5m in the second half of 2018 with revenues flat at £2,064m. As well as the Broadmoor provision, Kier lost £26m on a disputed waste collection contract which has been cut short, while integrating the McNicholas business and Kier restructuring added a further £15.4m to costs. Kier also highlighted "volume pressures" in its highways, utilities and housing maintenance markets.[59] In a 3 June 2019 profit warning, Kier said operating profits would be £25m lower than previously expected,[60] causing its share price to fall over 40%[61] - trading at about 150p, less than half the rights issue price, on 6 June.[62] Shares fell by over a third on 14 June, closing at 130.8p, after reports that Kier was looking to sell its housebuilding division.[63] On 17 June, Kier confirmed the housing division sale, and said it would wind down its property business and planned to exit the facilities management and environmental services markets "in due course". CEO Andrew Davies's business review included 1,200 job cuts.[64] Kier's share price fell 17% to 108p, a level not seen since the company's 1996 flotation,[65] and its shares were subject to renewed 'shorting' with one analyst saying "the consensus in the market is that Kier will go bust";[66][67] on 15 July 2019, Kier shares were the most 'shorted' on the London Stock Exchange, with shares falling 12.7% to 72.95p.[68] Amid concerns about Kier's future, the company was dropped from two major development schemes, in Leeds and London.[69]

In a trading update on 1 August 2019, Kier said average month-end net debt for the 2019 financial year was £422 million, with revenues £100m lower, and, after significant interest in its housing division, said it had started the sale process[70] (Guy Hands' Terra Firma Capital Partners was later reported to be among the bidders to acquire Kier Living).[71] It also announced the appointment of a new CFO, Simon Kesterton (adept at "the disposal of non-core assets, the reduction of overheads and cost control"), with effect from 19 September 2019.[70][72]

On 19 September 2019, Kier announced a £245m pre-tax loss on revenues of £4.5bn for the year to 30 June 2019, resulting from £341m in impairment costs and write-downs related to preparing businesses for sale, restructuring and loss-making contracts. The continuing restructuring had resulted in over 751 lay-offs, with a further 450 roles set to be axed.[73] The group also confirmed chairman Philip Cox would step down once a successor had been appointed[74] (in December 2019, it was confirmed former Royal Mail FD Matthew Lester would succeed Cox with effect from 1 January 2020).[75] In October 2019, Kier announced it was selling its Tempsford Hall headquarters in Bedfordshire to raise cash from its property assets.[76] At the group's AGM in November 2019, shareholders objected to CEO Andrew Davies's £2.6m annual remuneration package and an associated long-term incentive scheme.[77]

Half-year results announced on 5 March 2020 showed Kier made a pre-tax loss of £41.2m in the final six months of 2019 (marginally better than 2018's restated £45.3m loss); revenues were down 9% to £1,866m (2018: £2,053m). The cost-cutting process begun in 2018 had cut 1,200 jobs with another 50 set to leave by 30 June 2020. The sale of Kier Living was in progress, as was the process of closing Kier's Tempsford Hall head office,[78] set to complete in June 2020.[79] On 24 March 2020, as the financial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic became clear, Kier's board of directors took a three-month 20% pay cut to mitigate the financial impact of the crisis, and warned employees' salaries might also be cut.[80] On 30 March, Kier announced all 6,500 Kier employees would have their base salary reduced by between 7.5% and 25% for three months from 1 April; it stepped up its cost reduction programme, bringing forward the closure of Tempsford Hall to 30 April[81] (head office functions were transferred to Manchester in mid April),[1] and paused the sale of its housebuilding business, Kier Living[82] (though Terra Firma revived talks about buying Kier Living in December 2020).[83] Kier also closed its Reading office with the loss of up to 40 jobs.[84]

On 1 July 2020, Kier announced it was considering a further rights issue to raise cash as average net debt had risen due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic; average month-end net debt was up from £395m in December 2019 to £440m, and could rise to £485m.[85] Further job cuts were also likely.[86]

On 17 September 2020, Kier announced a £225.5m loss on the year to 30 June 2020, on revenues down 15% to £3,476m. The fall was partly due to COVID-19 impacts as well as 'challenging' market conditions throughout the year. Group headcount had been reduced by 1,700.[87] In a January 2021 trading update, Kier said average monthly net debt remained around £436m level; progress with the sale of Kier Living (which had suffered a pre-tax loss of over £89m in 2020) continued, with Kier hoping to receive around £100m for the business to help reduce debt; and Kier was aiming to make at least £105m in cost savings by the end of the financial year.[88]