Keller Group plc (‘Keller’ or ‘the Group’), the world’s largest geotechnical specialist contractor, announces its results for the year ended 31 December 2025.
Record financial performance ahead of expectations; significantly increased dividend and intention to launch further £100m share buyback.
1 Underlying operating profit, underlying profit before tax and underlying diluted earnings per share are non-statutory measures which provide readers of this announcement with a balanced and comparable view of the Group’s performance by excluding the impact of non-underlying items, as disclosed in note 9 of the consolidated financial statements.
2 Net debt is presented on a lender covenant basis excluding the impact of IFRS 16 as disclosed within the adjusted performance measures in the consolidated financial statements.
Highlights
- Record financial result, reflecting sustained improvement in operational and financial performance and the Group’s geographic diversity, sector agility and resilience
- NA: revenue growth outperformed the wider US construction market driven by infrastructure spend. Resilient profit performance reflected exceptional prior period and softer US residential market as anticipated
- EME: strong recovery driven by non-recurrence of ME project loss and operational improvements across Europe
- APAC: Strong growth in Austral and Keller Asia
- Group revenue growth at CER of 5.9% to £3.1bn, despite mixed market backdrop
- Underlying operating profit increased by 2.6% to £218.2m after a translational FX headwind of £7.8m
- Underlying operating margin maintained at 7.1% against a strong comparative period, reflecting embedded commercial and operational improvements
- Underlying diluted EPS of 211.3p, up 5.7%, driven by higher profitability, lower finance costs and share buyback
- Underlying ROCE increased to 30.7% (2024: 28.2%), the highest for 17 years
- Net cash position of £59.7m, the first time in more than 25 years, following free cash generation of £175.9m
- Strong year-end order book maintained at £1.5bn CER; high tendering levels and good visibility into 2026
- Accident Frequency Rate reduced to 0.04 with 11 lost time injuries (2024: 0.05; 14 lost time injuries)
- Enhanced strategic focus on accelerating growth by increasing relative market share in our existing markets
- Capital allocation review reflecting structural improvement in cash generation, including:
- Enhanced dividend policy with a target cover range of 2.5x – 3.5x, resulting in a final dividend of 52.1p, bringing total for the year to 70.4p (2024: 49.7p) an increase of 41.6%
- Intention to launch a further £100m to be returned through the share buyback programme
Keller’s outstanding financial performance, strong balance sheet and cash generation were a key attraction for me in joining. The Group has a compelling proposition for all our stakeholders and I am optimistic about the scale of opportunity ahead on which Keller is uniquely positioned to capitalise. We have a focused business model with market-leading positions in key geographies and highly-experienced people with deep engineering expertise to deliver solutions for our customers.
Having reviewed the strategic work undertaken prior to my appointment, the central conclusion is the importance of local market share as the key driver of earnings. Our growth strategy will therefore be to enhance our position in our chosen markets by continuing to offer solutions backed by our product and engineering capability and by targeting higher growth customer segments whilst maintaining our margin discipline. This will be enabled by further investing in our people and maintaining our focus on safety and sustainability.
Looking ahead, while we remain mindful of macroeconomic uncertainty, the Group enters the new financial year with a high quality order book, healthy tendering activity, strong balance sheet and a clear strategic direction. The management actions that underpin Keller’s improved operational and financial performance in recent years have now been embedded across the Group, giving me confidence that our operational performance is sustainable. This confidence underpins the enhanced dividend policy and ongoing commitment to shareholder value creation, reflected in the significant increase in the final dividend and our intention to launch a further £100m of share buybacks in 2026.
With the demand for our services supported by favourable long-term structural growth drivers including infrastructure investment, population growth, energy transition, climate resilience and technology adoption, we remain confident that the Group is well placed to build on its momentum and deliver further progress in 2026 and in the years ahead.
For further information, please contact:
Keller Group plc
James Wroath, Chief Executive Officer
David Burke, Chief Financial Officer
Caroline Crampton, Group Head of Investor Relations
Nicola Rogers, Investor Relations
www.keller.com
020 7616 7575
FTI Consulting
Nick Hasell
Matthew O’Keeffe
020 3727 1340
A webcast for investors and analysts will be held at 08.30 GMT on 3 March 2026 and will also be available later the same day on demand
https://connectstudio-portal.world-television.com/en/6968c7b33a338c5dd88f5dd7
Conference call:
Participants joining by telephone:
UK (Toll-Free): 0808 189 0158
UK(Local): +44 (0)20 3936 2999
Global Dial-In Numbers
Participant access code: 822366
Accessing the telephone replay:
A replay will be available until 17 March 2026
UK (Toll-Free): 0808 304 5227
UK: +44 (0)20 3936 3001
Access Code: 106870
Notes to editors:
Keller is the world's largest geotechnical specialist contractor providing a wide portfolio of advanced foundation and ground improvement techniques used across the entire construction sector. With around 10,000 staff and operations across five continents, Keller tackles an unrivalled 5,500 projects every year, generating annual revenue of c£3bn.
Cautionary statements:
This document contains certain 'forward-looking statements' with respect to Keller's financial condition, results of operations and business and certain of Keller's plans and objectives with respect to these items. Forward-looking statements are sometimes, but not always, identified by their use of a date in the future or such words as 'anticipates', 'aims', 'due', 'could', 'may', 'should', 'expects', 'believes', 'intends', 'plans', 'potential', 'reasonably possible', 'targets', 'goal' or 'estimates'. By their very nature forward looking statements are inherently unpredictable, speculative and involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future. There are a number of factors that could cause actual results and developments to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, changes in the economies and markets in which the Group operates; changes in the regulatory and competition frameworks in which the Group operates; the impact of legal or other proceedings against or which affect the Group; and changes in interest and exchange rates. For a more detailed description of these risks, uncertainties and other factors, please see the Principal risks and uncertainties section of the Strategic report in the Annual Report and Accounts. All written or verbal forward looking-statements, made in this document or made subsequently, which are attributable to Keller or any other member of the Group or persons acting on their behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the factors referred to above. Keller does not intend to update these forward-looking statements. Nothing in this document should be regarded as a profits forecast. This document is not an offer to sell, exchange or transfer any securities of Keller Group plc or any of its subsidiaries and is not soliciting an offer to purchase, exchange or transfer such securities in any jurisdiction. Securities may not be offered, sold or transferred in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the US Securities Act.
LEI number: 549300QO4MBL43UHSN10. Classification: 1.1 (Annual financial and audit reports)
Adjusted performance measures
In addition to statutory measures, a number of adjusted performance measures (APMs) are included in this Preliminary Announcement to assist investors in gaining a clearer understanding and balanced view of the Group's underlying results and in comparing performance. These measures are consistent with how business performance is measured internally.
The APMs used include underlying operating profit, underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation, underlying net finance costs and underlying earnings per share, each of which are the equivalent statutory measure adjusted to eliminate the amortisation of acquired intangibles and other significant one-off items not linked to the underlying performance of the business. Net debt (bank covenant IAS 17 basis) is provided as a key measure for measuring bank covenant compliance and is calculated as the equivalent statutory measure adjusted to exclude the additional lease liabilities relating to the adoption of IFRS 16. Further underlying constant exchange rate measures are given which eliminate the impact of currency movements by comparing the current measure against the comparative restated at this year's actual average exchange rates. Free cash flow and free cash flow before interest and tax to underlying operating profit (operating cash conversion) are measures used to assess the cash generation of the business. Where APMs are given, these are compared to the equivalent measures in the prior year.
APMs are reconciled to the statutory equivalent, where applicable, in the adjusted performance measures section in this Announcement.