Kier Group reported full year results this week showing revenue up 7.5% to £4.4bn and pre-tax profit up 8.8% to £136.4m for the year to 30 June 2026. The order book grew to a record £11.9bn, an 8.2% rise on the year before, giving the group visibility over more than 90% of its expected 2027 revenue.

Alongside the results, chief executive Stuart Togwell confirmed Kier is stepping back from property investment. From 2027 there will be no new capital committed to property development schemes, with existing sites wound down over time rather than sold off in a fire sale. The property arm brought in £63m last year, but operating profit there fell by a quarter, hit by the timing of deals in a difficult market. Togwell's argument is straightforward: that capital works harder inside construction and infrastructure, where Kier's order book is already full.

Why it matters

The growth sitting behind that order book is concentrated in water, highways and rail. Kier picked up roughly £1.5bn of new infrastructure business in the second half alone, including work on Sizewell C's North Plaza, an early tranche of the £10bn STEP fusion programme, a £140m South West Water framework extension and a £100m Bridgwater tidal barrier contract. That is a company betting its capital, not just its headlines, on regulated infrastructure spending holding up even while housebuilding and general contracting stay patchy.

Pulling out of property is also a signal about risk appetite. After the balance sheet strain that dogged Kier for the best part of a decade, a record net cash position and a retreat from speculative development say the group would rather grow where the client is a water company or a nuclear programme than where it is exposed to the property cycle.

What it means for your career

A record infrastructure order book with over 90% of next year's revenue already secured is about as clear a hiring signal as this market gives you. Expect Kier to keep recruiting into its Infrastructure division through into 2027: project managers and commercial staff on the AMP8 water frameworks, planners and engineers on highways maintenance, and civils talent feeding into Sizewell C and STEP.

The property retreat cuts the other way. If you sit in Kier's development or property investment functions, or in a comparable team at a peer contractor watching this move, it is worth reading the direction of travel now rather than later. Commercial and QS skills transfer cleanly from property into infrastructure delivery, but the sooner you make that case internally, or start building relationships in the water and nuclear supply chains, the more options you keep open.