Kier Group plc

Okay, we'll start then. So good morning, everyone. And thank you for joining our full year 2025 results presentation. For those of you who are here in person, and a welcome to those joining us today by webcast and by audio as well. I'm Andrew Davies. I'm Chief Executive of Care Group. And somewhat poignantly for me, this marks my last care results presentation. I'm joined today by Simon Kesterton. our Chief Financial Officer, and also by Stuart Togwell, currently our GMD for construction, who will become the Chief Executive on the 1st of November this year. So just quickly, before we go through the results, Stuart, if I can invite you to introduce yourself to those who you may not have yet met. Stuart.

Stuart Togwell, I'm delighted to see you all this morning and I'm really proud and excited to become the next Chief Exec of the Kier Group. I've worked in this industry that I love for over 39 years now, the last six years of which has been working closely with Andrew and Simon in Kier. Initially I came in as a Group Commercial Director where I introduced the risk management and the operational discipline that we still use today. The last two years I've been the GMD for the construction business and I've also been a member of the main board. I'm looking forward to talking to some of you here in person after the presentation but in the meantime back to you Andrew.

Okay thank you Stuart and let's move on now to our FY25 results. So firstly I'll walk you through the highlights from the last financial year and then hand you over to Simon to talk through the groups. financial performance. And this will be followed by an operational review, an update on ESG, and we'll finish off with our outlook and recap of the long-term sustainable growth plan. And then, of course, there will be an opportunity for questions and answers at the end. So, working through the disclaimer, and we move on to the results summary and highlights. So starting with the highlights for FY25, which is the first year of the long-term sustainable growth plan that we launched last September. In the year, the group's order book grew to a record £11 billion, reflecting contract wins across our business and providing us with multi-year revenue visibility. Specifically, the order book currently covers 91% of our targeted FY26 revenue and around 70% of FY27s. Group saw continued overall revenue growth of 3%, which delivered an adjusted operating profit of £159 million. And this result represents a margin of 3.9%, which is above our own initial expectations and also progressing well towards our long-term target level of between 4% to 4.5%. This higher level of profitability continues to convert strongly into cash at a rate above our long-term target. leaving us with a net cash position of £204 million at June 2025. We also saw significant improvement in average month-end net debt for the year to £49 million. So given the continued progress that our group has made, I'm pleased to say we've significantly increased our returns to shareholders in the year. We're proposing to pay a final dividend of 5.2 pence per share, representing a full year dividend of 7.2 pence, 38% higher than last year. We also launched a £20 million share buyback during the year, which, as we speak, is roughly 50% complete. Additionally, we increased the capital deployed in our property business, where we're on track to deliver our long-term target of 15% ROKI, thus further enhancing shareholder returns. So overall, I'm pleased to say, as leadership of Keir now transitions to Stuart, that we're a business in very good shape. Our strategy is progressing well, driven by our great people, and now underpinned by our high-quality order book and strengthened balance sheet. We're progressing well to deliver against our long-term sustainable growth plan. So what is now my last set of results thought it's worth reflecting on Kier's track record of consistent delivery in the past few years and how that performance underpins our conviction in our ability to deliver our long term plans. In recent years, we've proved that we can deliver for our customers and shareholders alike. As you can see from these figures, we've seen significant growth in revenue, profits and earnings since 2021. This has been achieved with growing levels of cash flow and as a result significant improvement in the levels of debt, whereby we are now in touching distance of reporting average net cash. At this point I'll hand over to Simon who will take you through the detailed financial results. Simon.