Keller profit rises on recovery in U.S. construction

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March 2 (Reuters) - Keller Group Plc (LSE: KLR.L - news) , a British ground engineering contractor, posted a 15 percent rise in full-year pretax profit, helped by a recovery in the U.S. construction industry.

The company, which lays foundations for infrastructure and industrial projects, said on Monday that its pretax profit before exceptional items rose to 85.1 million pounds ($131.1 million) in 2014 from 74.1 million pounds a year earlier.

Revenue increased 11 percent to 1.599 billion pounds.

Keller, which laid the foundation for London's Olympic stadium, said recovery in the United States, its largest market, as well as an improvement in operating performance had set the company on course for another year of good progress.

Revenue in North America rose 11 percent to 775.6 million pounds, accounting for almost half of the total.

North American operating profit rose to 59.9 million pounds from 51.6 million pounds, as the company's U.S. foundation contracting business benefited from an improvement in the private non-residential construction sector.

"Perhaps most encouragingly, 2014 saw a return to growth in public expenditure on construction (in the United States), with year-on-year spend up 2 percent after four years of decline," Keller said in a statement.

Keller announced a final dividend of 16.8 pence per share, taking the total dividend to 25.2 pence.

The company's shares were up about 1.3 percent 1,026 pence in early trading on the London Stock Exchange (Other OTC: LDNXF - news) .

($1 = 0.6494 pounds) (Reporting by Esha Vaish and Roshni Menon in Bengaluru; Editing by Anupama Dwivedi)