Kier CEO: Mouchel deal 'not about cutting cost'

摘要

Kier's takeover of infrastructure group Mouchel has not been done to reduce the group's overheads, its CEO Haydn Mursell has said. The £265m deal, financed by a £340m fully underwritten rights issue, was finalised this week and is expected to complete in the summer. Mr Mursell (pictured, top right) said the acquisition would enable the enlarged group to capitalise on £17bn of committed roads spending, largely from Highways England, the government-owned company that replaced the Highways Agency at the start of the month. He told Construction News: "Highways England has been established and their budget has been set in statute, which has highlighted five years of increasing spend on maintenance and capital works. It's a chunky market and one we have been looking at for a long time."