Kier eats into debt pile

Kier said it made big inroads into cutting its debt last year, taking it down by nearly half to less than £220m.

In a trading update yesterday, the firm said average month-end net debt for the year to June had gone from £432m to below £220m following last year’s sale of housing business Kier Living and an equity raise.

It added that it has paid the remaining money it owed to HMRC in VAT payments deferred because of the pandemic.

The firm, which is due to unveil its annual results on 15 September, said its order book was in excess of £9.7bn at the year end – a rise of a quarter.

Kier, which has recently been appointed by defence contractor Babcock to refurbish Devonport docks over the next decade along with Bam Nuttall, said the average time it takes to settle its bills had improved by one day to 33 days.