With its US work less hampered by dramatic material price inflation and delivery delays, Keller Group reported much higher profits there in 2023 and in other global sectors of the UK-based geotechnical contracting giant, the company reported.
For the year, the company (LON:KLR) reported net income of $114 million in2.97 billion in revenue, compared to $58.7 billion and $3.76 billion in the prior year.
The 2023 results represented a profit margin of 6.1%, a big improvement over 2022’s margin of 3.7%.
The company’s North American work stood out, with Keller posting an operating profit of 9.6%, up from 4.3% in 2022.
Last year “was a good year,” but the company has “a lot of other ideas about how to make it even better,” CEO Michael Speakman told investment analysts on March 5.
“I expect our margin in North America to be between seven and eight [percent] range forward,” Speakman added during a question-and-answer session. “Given what we do with the strong US market relative to the rest of the world, it’s eminently possible.”
From 2019 to 2023, Keller Group’s revenue has varied annually between $2.9 billion and $3.8 billion, and its profits in those years have ranged between $26.7 million and $115 million.
Another positive outcome for 2023 concerns a new development related to fraud committed by two company executives in Australia.
Keller Group’s profits from its business unit in that country swelled to the US equivalent of up to $20 million in 2023 dollars from 2019, the company disclosed in January 2023. The firm also said it had fired managers after discovering the financial reporting fraud. .
But this year it reported finding that the alleged fraud did not involve any “cash leakage” from the company.
