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Kier finance director to step down
Kier Group has announced that its finance director will stand down later this year, weeks after the company’s new chief executive launched a review to cut debt and simplify its structure.
Bev Dew will leave the company at the end of September, once Kier has released its annual report for the current year. A search for a successor to Mr Dew has begun, the company said.
Philip Cox, chair of Kier, said: “Bev has been our finance director for over four years and I would like to thank him for his contribution over this time. Bev remains firmly committed to the company and will be working with the board to deliver the 2019 results.”
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Kier, which provides contracting services across the social housing sector, has, like many of its outsourcing and contracting peers, found itself battling against financial difficulties in recent times.
Mr Dew’s departure comes less than two months after Kier appointed new boss Andrew Davies, whose first move in his new role was to announce a strategic review of the group. According to the firm this “will consider ways of further simplifying Kier to create a more focused group, the allocation of capital resources across the group and additional steps to improve cash generation and reduce leverage”.
Last year Kier failed to drum up sufficient interest in a new issue of stock amid growing pessimism among bankers, who were cutting exposure to the industry after the collapse of Carillion.
Mr Davies had been previously appointed to lead Carillion but the group went into liquidation before he began in the role. He took over at Kier from Haydn Mursell, who left in January.
The company said that the board had already been working on how to make Kier more sustainable in recent months and has been continuing its Future Proofing Kier programme, which will be additional to Mr Davies’ new review.
