Kier Group
The Kier Group has increased profits each year since joining the stock market in 1996. In the financial year to June 2002, pre-tax profits were £27.3m, with earnings per share of 58.3p. Kier's main business is its construction division, whose projects include working on the Channel Tunnel rail link, which generates most of its £1.4bn turnover.87
Other divisions include its construction services business, which manages and maintains buildings for large commercial clients and local authorities and is involved in PFI projects, and its homes and property division.
As part of the Highlands Water Venture Consortium, Kier is alleged to have paid a bribe of $733,404 to gain the contract to build the Katse dam in South Africa. So far, none of the multinationals involved in the Highlands Water Project have been prosecuted for paying bribes. The South African minister even allowed the companies to keep their contracts.88
In 1998, Kier won a £1,166,000 contract for the main civil engineering works on the new Damhead Creek power station in Kent. This was despite government attempts to block new gas stations in order protect the coal industry89. It also won contracts for Saltend and Shoreham Power Stations and the contract to build and run the first Scottish hospital under the private finance initiative.
Kier is the main civil contractor involved in the UK's main nuclear dockyard in Devonport, Plymouth. It most recently managed the seismic upgrading works of dry dock to enable the acceptance of nuclear submarines.90
Notes
87'Prudence helps Kier build solid growth,' Mail On Sunday, 23.02.03. See: http://financialmail.co.uk/20030223/nm59533.html. Viewed: 28.01.04 88'Multinationals free to give bribes – end this scandal.' See: www.labournet.de/internationales/bribes.html. Viewed: 27.01.04 89UK Business Park Construction. See: www.ukbusinesspark.co.uk/bpcons98.htm Viewed: 28.01.04 90Kier Construction. See: www.kier.co.uk/KierConstruction/project_details.asp %3Fid%3D151+kier+construction+nuclear&hl=en&ie=UTF-8. Viewed: 28.01.04
