Pre-tax profits had previously been expected to reach £29m.
It has also announced the closure of a UK office - the third regional office to be closed in the last two years. “The underlying UK construction market remains extremely difficult and we continue to take action accordingly,” the company said in an interim management statement this morning.
Although the company has started work on Crossrail projects, this will not make a significant contribution to the UK results until 2012.
Keller said that conditions across Europe and North America remained difficult, “with an increasingly uncertain macro-economic outlook threatening any significant recovery”.
And in India, delays to the start of two large projects have also had an impact.
The board said: “Looking further ahead, the group's order book at the end of October was around 20% up on the same time last year, underpinned by some very large projects in the UK and Australia. However, the current macro-economic conditions mean that the outlook for construction markets, particularly in Europe, remains uncertain. In this environment, we will continue to exercise caution in our management of costs and to focus on risk management, the most efficient use of our resources and maximizing cash generation.”
On the more positive side, Keller UK has also today announed that Marshalls Construction of Elland had awared it a major subcontract worth more than £1m to install CFA piles on a site immediately next to the London to Holyhead Rail line at Prestatyn.
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