Neil Woodford increases stake in construction giant Kier after chief executive’s departure January 23, 2019 Neil Woodford has upped his stake in troubled construction outsourcer Kier Group by millions of pounds in the wake of the firm’s chief executive resigning yesterday. The veteran investor, a leading stakeholder in the firm, had been pressing for changes at executive level in the company after a botched rights issue drove its value to [...]
Kier Group boss leaves struggling outsourcer ‘with immediate effect’ January 22, 2019 Kier Group’s boss has left the business with immediate effect, the struggling construction company said today. Chief executive Haydn Mursell will also stand down from the board of directors as it searches for his successor. Read more: Kier operations director leaves firm for Grenfell cladding company Chairman Philip Cox will act as executive chairman and work [...]
Kier Group director leaves to join Grenfell Tower cladding building firm Rydon Construction January 17, 2019 Kier Group operations director Mark Norris is to leave the beleaguered contractor to join Rydon Construction as a director. Norris leaves Kier as it continues struggling with its finances after a botched issue late last year caused the company’s shares to plummet. Read more: Outsourcer Kier Group's lenders face underwriting headache after rights issue flounders He [...]
A year on from Carillion: 12 months that brought outsourcing to its knees January 15, 2019 On the anniversary of Carillion’s dramatic collapse, two more public sector outsourcing giants, Interserve and Kier Group, are up against the ropes. In the intervening 12 months, outsourcers have lurched from one crisis to another, with profit warnings, massive project failures and revelations of systemic late payment of suppliers. City A.M. charts a year which [...]
Carillion one year on: Government outsourcers are still struggling with growing debt piles January 15, 2019 On the anniversary of Carillion’s collapse, government outsourcers are still reporting ballooning debt levels as they try to balance the books. Kier Group, Interserve, Serco, Sodexo and Sopra Steria, who are all on the government’s list of strategic suppliers for 2019, have taken on hundreds of millions of pounds worth of debt in the last [...]
Fund manager Neil Woodford leads push to oust top Kier Group executives January 13, 2019 Leading fund manager Neil Woodford is leading a push to unseat construction group Kier’s top executive team after its botched rights issue, according to reports. Woodford Investment Management, which owns a 16 per cent stake in Kier, is leading a push to replace chief executive Haydn Mursell and finance director Bev Dew, Sky News reported [...]
Short sellers release pressure on construction outsourcing giant Kier Group January 9, 2019 A period of sustained pressure from short sellers on contractor Kier Group has come to an end, with hedge funds cashing out on the company's stock market woes throughout December. At the end of November, 13.98 per cent of Kier’s shares – worth £102m – were held by short sellers betting against the company. That [...]
Interserve agrees key terms of rescue deal with lenders and is considering handing off building materials unit to lenders December 21, 2018 Interserve has agreed on the key terms of a rescue deal with its lenders and is still considering a debt-for-equity swap by handing off subsidiary RMD Kwikform to the holders of its debt. The British business support services provider said on Friday that its rescue plan will see a big part of the company’s £500m debt converted into [...]
Outsourcer Kier Group’s lenders face underwriting headache after rights issue flounders December 20, 2018 Kier Group’s shares were down 6.49 per cent today after it admitted investors only bought 38 per cent of the new shares it had issued as part of a fundraising effort. The beleaguered outsourcer's banks will now be forced to fork out millions to buy shares in Kier, after some of its biggest investors opted [...]
Plenty for Just Eat to chew on as it falls out of FTSE 100 to be replaced by engineering firm Spirax-Sarco December 6, 2018 Just Eat shares were down five per cent this morning as the company took stock from being demoted from the FTSE 100 yesterday. The food delivery company, which has come under siege in recent years from competitors Deliveroo and Uber Eats, dropped out of the top tier index as FTSE Russell announced the winners and [...]